WRESTLING, the most ancient form of athletic exercise, and at one time the favorite pastime of the Greeks. The Olympic Games (q.v.), the great festival of the Greeks, which were instituted for the exhibition of various trials of strength and skill, included races on foot and with horses and chariots, contests in leaping, throwing, boxing and wrestling. One of the great objects of the old classical wrest lers was to make every attack with elegance and grace tinder certain laws of a most intricate nature, and the game is described by Plutarch as the hardest working form of athletics. In Devon and Cornwall, England, wrestling on the catch-hold principle still finds favor. In Lan cashire they adopt a catch-as-catch-can style; while in Cumberland and Westmoreland the an cient back-hold system continues to hold its own. In the United States and Australia, in Germany, France and Japan, ground wrestling, which is the most objectionable of all known methods, is the most popular. This system has been dignified by the title of Graeco-Roman wrestling. The Graeco-Roman style is practi cally the same as the French method, and con sists of a struggle on the ground till one or the other of the competitors is compelled through sheer exhaustion to give in; indeed, such a con test is simply an exhibition of brute strength.
On beginning, the wrestlers take hold from the head and not lower than the waist, when both roll on the ground, and then the actual struggle begins. Tripping, which is the very essence of the game, is not allowed; therefore weight and strength are the only factors in the contest, which terminates when one of the com batants has been placed on both shoulders. Wrestling has recently become popular in Japan and India. The Japanese have adopted the Graco-Roman style and receive handsome re wards at the conclusion of their contests. The Jap wrestlers, who are a most formidable class of men, before entering the arena adorn them selves with a certain kind of paint, with a huge belt round the waist and their enormous calves encased in stout leggings. The Indians, on the other hand, wrestle in bathing costume, and in a match only contest one bout, and one shoulder on the ground is deemed a fall. Con sult Cann, W. E., 'Manual of Wrestling' (Battle Creek, Mich., 1912).