A guide to the history of physical education

The Germans as we meet them in the pages of Caesar and Tacitus⁠[4] are a race of sturdy, blue-eyed giants, who dwell in a land of forest and swamp. Their straggling villages consist of low, thatched, dirt-floored huts of rough timber, and in spite of the harsh climate they go about scantily clad in skin mantles or garments of coarse linen. Small fields of barley and perhaps other grains are tilled by the women, but flocks and herds form the chief support of the family, and these, with wild animals taken in the chase, supply the greater portion of their food. For drink there was a crude beer, made without hops. Next to warfare, hunting was the favorite occupation, and for this the surrounding forests yielded the aurochs or bison, the wild boar, elk, and bear, besides packs of predatory wolves and numerous lesser animals. Arms were a token of the freeman’s position and dignity, and were carried constantly. Only a few could equip themselves with breastplate and helmet, and iron for swords was scarce, but each man had a shield, and short, sharp spears for thrusting or throwing. Their cavalry rode without saddles. A public spectacle much in demand was a dance of naked youths in the midst of drawn swords and upturned spears. Swimming and horsemanship furnished other means of active exercise in time of peace.

With such a people the training of the young could not fail to be a hardy one. Since there was no written language, and the only records were those handed down in ancient songs, formal instruction was unknown. While the girls busied themselves with domestic duties, the boys early learned the arts of the chase and the use of weapons. Hunting and warfare were their chief school-masters. At maturity the youth was publicly equipped with shield and spear in the periodical assembly, as a sign of admission to the rights of citizenship. It was the custom of young men to attach themselves to favorite chiefs, who vied with each other in the number and quality of such followers. These promised loyalty in peace and war, and received in turn horses, arms, and food.

Among the Northmen of the viking age we find a somewhat more advanced type of civilization, but hunting, fighting, and vigorous sports in the open air are still the chief delight of men. Hawking was a favorite pastime, and the northern falcons were famous throughout Europe. Coats of chain mail, helmets, swords, and battle axes are added to the earlier shield and spear, at least in the case of chieftains, and we hear of bows and arrows, clubs, and slings. A variety of popular exercises were also practised, which survived throughout the Middle Ages. They included wrestling, foot races, broad and high jumping, putting the stone, hurling the spear, throwing with knives, racing on snowshoes or skees, and several games of ball.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to follow with certainty the particular changes wrought in portions of the Roman Empire which were occupied by the Teutonic invaders. In general, lines of communication were interrupted, the foundations of new and independent nationalities were laid, and city life became less dominant. There was also an admixture of sturdy barbarian stock with native populations, though the latter seem in most cases to have gradually absorbed the conquerors. Roman forces put an end to Vandal dominion in Africa in 533. Neither Vandals nor Suevi were numerous enough in Spain to exert a greater influence than that of bands of roving plunderers, and the Spanish kingdom of the Visigoths fell before the Mohammedan invasion of 711. In Italy, also, Gothic power was broken in 533, and the Lombard kingdom which followed came to an end with Charlemagne’s conquest in 774. West Goths and Burgundians in Gaul were overcome by the Franks, who seem themselves to have lost little by little their distinctive national traits and been merged in the earlier Gallo-Roman population. The Normans of the tenth century met a similar fate. In the case of England, where the Teutonic element gained the ascendant, one would like to trace the British fondness for fox hunting, shooting, horse racing, yachting, rowing, games like football and cricket, lawn tennis and golf, and the falconry and archery of an earlier period, to the surviving influence of Anglo-Saxon, Danish, and Norman ancestors; but actual demonstration of any such connection could hardly be expected.