BULL-FIGHT. A combat of men with bulls, for the entertainment of the public. They were common in Greece, particularly in Thessaly, and at one time in Rome under the emperors. They are still a favorite pastime in Spain and Mexico, and, in a modified and more merciful form, in Portugal. In Spain they were abolished by Charles IV.; but Joseph, Napoleon's brother. reestablished them out of policy, the mass of the Spanish population being passionately fond of the sport. The most magnificent bull-fights were at one time instituted by the monarchs them selves; at present, both in the capital and in the larger towns of Spain, they are held either as private speculations or for the benefit of piddle institutions. In Madrid. during the bull-fighting season, there is at least one afternoon in every week devoted to the sport. The lights take place in a kind of open-air circus. called the Plaza de Toros, round which the seats rise one above an other, with a tier of boxes over them. The Plaza is capable of containing from 10,000 to 1'L, 000 people. The best Andalusian bulls are bred at Utrera, the best. Castilian ones on the J a ra ma, near Aranjuez. The latter are the breed usually employed in Madrid. The bull-light has been described as a tragedy in three acts. The princi pal 1)m-formers in the first are the picadores or horsemen; in the second. the handrrifferos, or footmen, are the actors; the third art on the matador, or swordsman. The picadores, dressed in picturesque Spanish costume, and armed with a lance, take nap their position in the middle of the circus, opposite the 1)1111 stalls. The handerilirros, gay with ribbons and bright-colored cloaks. distribute themselves in the space between the barriers. The matador, vr chief combatant, is also on foot. Ire is, (lur ing the preliminary parade, handsomely dressed. but when he enters the ring for business he has doffed his expensive trappings, and holds in the right hand a naked sword, in the left the ma k•n, a small stick, with a scarlet-colored silk at taehed. On a sign given by the chief magistrate.
a bull is let out from the stalls: the picadores stand ready in the arena, lance in hand. await ing his charge. With a brave bull, they find all their skill requisite in acting on the defensive; with a cowardly one, they act on the offensive, and should their stabs be ineffectual in rousing the animal to the requisite fury, the poor beast is hooted by the crowd, and ultimately stabbed ingloriously in the spine. Whenever it horse is wounded, the rider betakes himself to flight; and when either the above casualty happens or a picador is thrown, the bunderilleros rush in. and attract the bull by their cloaks, saving them selves. if need be. by leaping over the palisade which Meioses the circus. When the bull begins to flag. the picadores are succeeded by the &m ac/W/1nm, who bring with them the bander/Has, i.e. barbed darts, about two feet long, ornamented with colored paper flags, which they stick into the neck of the animal. Sometimes these darts have firecrackers attached to them, the ex plosion of which makes the bull furious. The matador then enters alone to complete the tragic As s(1011 as the bull's eye catches the scarlet-colored silk by means of which the mata dor lures the bull, he generally rushes blindly at it; and then the matador, if he is well skilled, dexterously plunges the sword 'between the left shoulder and the blade; mid the animal drops dead at his feet. Sometimes the matador essays a bolder coup, and w ith his capo crossed over his breast, :Awaits the onslaught, or lie may leap over the charging bull and stab him with a Picador's lance; or lie deftly places two lances, one from each hand. between the shoulder-blades of the bull. The victorious matador is greeted with acclamations, and nut less so the bull, should he wound or even kill the matador, in which ease another matador steps forth into the arena ; but human life is rarely saerificed. Eight or ten bolls are often dispatched in a sin gle clay, twenty minutes being about the time usually taken to slay one.