It is pleasant to turn from the superstitions of the Middle Ages to the games, sports, and festivals which helped to make life agreeable alike for rich and poor, for nobles and peasants. Some indoor games are of eastern origin. Thus chess, with which European peoples seem to have become acquainted as early as the tenth century [33] arose in India as a war game. On each side a king and his general, with chariots, cavalry, elephants, and infantry, met in battle array. These survive in the rooks, knights, bishops, and pawns of the modern game. Checkers is a sort of simplified chess, in which the pieces are all pawns, till they get across the board and become kings. Playing cards are another Oriental invention. They were introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, either by the Arabs or the gypsies. Their first use seems to have been for telling fortunes.
[Illustration: CHESS PIECES OF CHARLEMAGNE
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The figures are carved in ivory.]
OUTDOOR GAMES
Many outdoor games are derived from those played in medieval times. How one kind of game may become the parent of many others is seen in the case of the ball-play. The ancients tossed and caught balls as children do now. They also had a game in which each side tried to secure the ball and throw it over the adversary's goal line. This game lasted on into the Middle Ages, and from it football has descended. The ancients seem never to have used a stick or bat in their ball-play. The Persians, however, began to play ball on horseback, using a long mallet for the purpose, and introduced their new sport throughout Asia. Under the Tibetan name of pulu ("ball") it found its way into Europe. When once the mallet had been invented for use on horseback, it could be easily used on foot, and so polo gave rise to the various games in which balls are hit with bats, including tennis, hockey, golf, cricket, and croquet.
BAITING
The difference between our ideas of what constitutes "sport" and those of our ancestors is shown by the popularity of baiting. In the twelfth century bulls, bears, and even horses were baited. Cock-fighting formed another common amusement. It was not till the nineteenth century that an English society for the prevention of cruelty to animals succeeded in getting a law passed which forbade these cruel sports. Most other European countries have now followed England's example.
FESTIVALS
No account of life in the Middle Ages can well omit some reference to the celebration of festivals. For the peasant and artisan they provided relief from physical exertion, and for all classes of society the pageants, processions, sports, feasts, and merry-makings which accompanied them furnished welcome diversion. Medieval festivals included not only those of the Christian Year, [34] but also others which had come down from pre- Christian times.
[Illustration: BEAR BAITING.
From the Luttrell Psalter.]