United States or Cayman Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"I believe," thought Peter, "it's one of them that came to the sham-fight, and I could almost fancy it's the chap I had a ride on. But they are all alike, only one's bigger than another, and t'other's more small. If he had got his toggery on with gold fringes and the big bamboo clothes-basket full of cushions on his back, I should know him directly. But he's what they call disguised in mud.
They are kept quiet by the fight because it is a sham-fight; thus most of us know by this time that the Party System has been popular only in the same sense that a football match is popular.
"No; I think yes, it is the mahout who rode into camp at the review." "What! him, sir? That's Rajah's own mahout I mean, Rajah's his helephant. That's why he stopped. Phee ew!" whistled the lad. "Why, he's a friend of mine. I say, sir, we are not so bad off as I thought." "You've met him before, then, Pete?" "Course I did, sir day of the sham-fight. But I didn't know he was up yonder.
The arrangements for lighting the place, of which you may have complained, not without reason, are then in perfection, and the silence is broken with a vengeance. It is difficult to imagine the grandeurs of a sham-fight a battle without corpses but here you have them.
The gorgeous procession, charioted in the highest appliances of regal splendor, swept along through cities and villages, every where received with triumphal arches, the ringing of bells, the explosions of artillery, and the blaze of illuminations till the sea-port of Dunkirk was reached. Here there was a sham-fight between two frigates. It was a serene and lovely day.
The Negro youths are practising some of their wild sports and warrior tricks. Three on one side and three on the other set to work to bring off a sham-fight. The youths made arrows of the branches of the palm, and, holding up a portion of their clothes for a shield, they throw these palm-branch arrows with great force and precision, almost always hitting one another.
"Oh, I wouldn't do it shabbily, sir. I think, in honour of Her Majesty's birthday, Sir Charles ought to give a big banquet here, and invite both Rajah Suleiman and Rajah Hamet to come in force with their followers, and after the sham-fight have it all arranged that their people shall be well feasted." "But the expense the expense, sir!" cried Sir Charles.
"I remember," said the young man, "that when the prelate was alive he liked to talk of deeds of war, for which to his hurt he always showed too much bent; and he often used to say that one day in a sham-fight, just as he was, all in the way of sport, attacking a certain knight, the latter hit him with his lance, and wounded him under the neck, near the tracheal artery."
Can't you?" "No, sir; we come such a long way round. But as far as I can make out, we are somewhere at the back of them big trees where they fed the helephants on Sham-Fight Day." "Yes, I think that's right," whispered Archie, as they knelt together whispering. "But let's get on; we must hit the river somewhere." "Hope so, sir. It will be softer than hitting your head against trees.
I spent three days huntin' 'em in the snow, but they went off on our remounts about twenty mile that night." "Do you always do this sham-fight business?" I asked. "Once inside an Area you must look after yourself; but I tell you that a fight which means that every man-Jack of us may lose a week's pay isn't so damn-sham after all. It keeps the men nippy.