THE ARCHERS: GAMES PLAYED IN BELGIUM
Let us imagine we are taking a walk along some country road in
Flanders on a summer afternoon. There is a cinder-track for cyclists
on one side, and the lines of a district railway on the other. The
road between them is causeway, very hard, dusty, and hot to walk on.
But we can step on to the railway, and walk between the rails, or take
to the cycle-track. If a train comes up behind, the engine-driver will
whistle to give us warning, but we must keep a sharp lookout for
cyclists, who seldom ring their bells, but rush swiftly and silently
past, and perhaps shout something rude to us for being on their track.
There are no fences or hedges, but a straggling row of tall
poplar-trees on each side of the road, and beyond them square fields
of rye or pasturage divided by ditches of stagnant water.
It will not be long before we come to a village, a row of white
cottages with roofs of red tiles, and outside window-shutters painted
green. In front of each cottage there is a pathway of rough stones,
and a gutter full of dirty water. There are about fifty of these
cottages, of which half a dozen or so have signboards with _Herberg_,
which means public-house, over their doors. The railway passes close
in front of them. A little way back from the road there is a church,
with a clock-tower, and a snug-looking house, standing in a garden,
where the parish priest lives.
Just outside the village we notice a meadow, in which there is a
wooden shed open at one side, with benches in it, and reminding us of
the little pavilions we often see on village cricket-grounds in
England. The part of the meadow just in front of this shed is covered
with cinders or gravel, in the middle of which rises a very high pole,
tapering towards the top, and looking like a gigantic fishing-rod
stuck in the ground. It is crossed, a long way up, by slender spars,
like the yards of a ship, only they are no thicker than a
walking-stick. On these spars, and along the pole itself near the top,
a number of little wooden pegs, with tufts of yellow worsted attached
to them, are fixed. One bigger than the rest is perched on the very
summit of the pole, which bends over slightly to one side. They look
like toy canaries, but are called "pigeons," and they are put there as
marks to be shot at with bows and arrows.
Presently a number of men come from the village, each with a long-bow
and some arrows. It is a holiday, and the local Society of Archers is
going to spend the afternoon shooting for prizes. One of them takes
his stand close to the foot of the pole, fits an arrow on his
bowstring, aims steadily, and shoots straight up. It needs a good deal
of strength, as the bow is stiff to bend. The arrow flies whistling
among the "birds," touches one or two without bringing them down,
rises high above the top of the pole, turns in the air, and comes down
again to the ground with a thud. It is the duty of two or three boys
to pick up the arrows, and bring them back to the shooters. The arrows
are blunt, but to protect their heads these boys wear hats with thick
flat crowns and very broad brims, which make them look like big
mushrooms with legs as they run about to fetch the arrows.
When a bird is hit fair and square it comes down, and the shot is
cheered. Sometimes shot after shot is fired, and nothing falls,
especially if there is a wind. But the interest never flags, and the
shooting goes on for hours. There is a great deal of talking and
laughing, much beer is drunk in the pavilion, and the fun only ends
when the light fails.
This is the great national sport of Belgium. There is scarcely a town
or village which has not a Society of Archers, called generally after
St. Sebastian, the patron saint of archers. Many of them were founded
600 years ago, at the time when the famous archers of England were
showing how well they could hold their own with the bow against
knights clad in heavy armour. In 1303 a society called the
Confraternity of the Archers of St. Sebastian was founded at Ypres, a
town in Flanders, to celebrate a great battle, the Battle of the
Golden Spurs, in which the Flemings had been victorious over the
French the year before, and this society still exists. The chief
Society of Archers in Brabant in the old days was at Louvain, and it
was founded just three years before that Battle of Cressy of which you
have so often heard, when, as the old chronicler Froissart says, the
English arrows flew so thick that it seemed to snow.
Thus the history of this national sport goes back to the time when
arrows were used in battle, and men had to practise constantly with
their bows in order to be able to defend their country or attack their
enemies. But when the use of firearms became universal, and archers
were no longer employed in warfare, the societies still continued to
exist, and their meetings gradually became what they now are--social
gatherings for the practice of archery as a form of sport.
At Bruges there is a company of archers called the Society of St.
Sebastian, whose club-house was built with money given by Charles II.
of England, who lived in that town for some time when he was an exile;
and it may interest you to know that Queen Victoria, when on a visit
to Bruges, became a member of this society, and afterwards sent two
silver cups as prizes to be shot for.
Another form of this sport is shooting with crossbows at a target. St.
George is the patron generally of those who use the crossbow. The
Society of St. George at Bruges has a curious festival, which is
observed in February. It is called the _Hammekensfeest_, or festival
of the ham. The shooting takes place in a hall, where a supper-table
is laid with various dishes of ham, salads, fish, and other eatables.
The target is divided into spaces marked with the names of the dishes.
If anyone hits a space marked, for example, ham, he may go and help
himself to ham; but if someone else, shooting after him, hits the same
place, he must then give up his seat. In the bull's-eye of the target
there is the figure of an ape, and if anyone hits that he can eat of
any dish he pleases. You may suppose what an amusing supper-party this
is, when all the guests are shooting and eating by turns, and no one
knows whether he may not have to rise suddenly and give up his place
to somebody else.
There are many other customs and festivals connected with the archer
societies, which are very flourishing in Belgium, chiefly among the
_petite bourgeoisie_.
There are athletic clubs in Belgium, and rowing is a favourite sport,
especially at Ghent. Two years on end the Ghent Rowing Club won the
Grand Challenge Shield at Henley, beating all the English crews which
rowed against them.
As in all countries, the children have many games. One, which they
call _balle dans la maison_ (ball in the house), is much the same as
rounders, and there is another game called _camp ruiné_, which girls
play at school. There are two sides. A ball is thrown up, and each
side tries to prevent the other catching it. Each player who is
prevented has to join the opposite side or camp, and so on till one
camp is "ruined" by losing all its occupants.
There is a very popular game among Belgian working-men called the _jeu
de balle_. There are five players on each side, who stand on two large
courts marked on the ground. The ball is served by hitting it with the
hand (as at fives) by a player on one side over the line which divides
the courts, and is returned in the same way by a player on the other
side. The ball must not touch the ground, and is taken full pitch. A
point is lost by the side which sends a ball outside the lines of the
court into which it ought to have been served or returned. The points
count fifteen, thirty, forty, and five for the last, which wins the
game.
This is the chief game played by working-men in Belgium. In some
places it seems to be quite unknown, but in others it is very popular.
But there are so many rules that it is impossible fully to understand
it without seeing it played, or to explain it without a diagram
showing the positions of the players, who have all different names,
like men fielding at cricket. The _jeu de boule_, which you may hear
mentioned in Belgium, is quite different from the _jeu de balle_, and
is much the same as skittles.
[Illustration: PLAYING "JEU DE BOULE," AT A FLEMISH INN.]
Of the more important games football is the most popular in Belgium.
Great crowds assemble to watch the matches, which are always played
under "Association" rules. Rugby football would be impossible for
Belgians, because they would never keep their tempers when caught
and thrown down. There would be constant rows, and no match would ever
be finished. As it is, there is a great deal of quarrelling, and when
one town plays another the visitors, if they win, are hooted, and
sometimes attacked, when they are leaving the ground. Lately, after a
football match in Flanders, knives were drawn, and some of the players
had to escape in a motor-car.
Cricket has lately been tried, but it has not as yet spread much, and
is not likely to become very popular, as it requires too much patience
and steadiness for Belgian young men and boys. Lawn-tennis and hockey,
however, are quite the fashion, especially lawn-tennis, which many
Belgians, ladies as well as men, play extremely well. Important tennis
tournaments are held every summer at Ostend and other places on the
coast.
In recent years several golf-courses have been made in Belgium. There
is one at a place called Le Coq, near Ostend, where Leopold II., the
present King of the Belgians, founded a club. It is very pretty, and
there is a fine club-house; but good English players do not like it,
because the course is too artificial, with flower-beds and ornamental
shrubs, whereas a golf-course ought to be as natural as possible. Golf
is played also at Brussels, Antwerp, Nieuport, and Ghent.
Another place for golf is Knocke, a seaside village near Bruges, where
the game was introduced by a few Englishmen some years ago. The
golf-course at this place is laid out among the dunes, and is
entirely natural, with "bunkers" of fine sand. A great many players go
there from England and Scotland, as well as from various parts of
Belgium, and the Flemish "caddies," who cheerfully carry the clubs for
5d. a round, speak English quite well, and know all about the "Royal
and Ancient Game."