Excerpts
Voices, in Order
From the ancient world to the modern pen, the primary sources speaking for themselves — in their own words, in their own century, on the matter of the fighting cock.
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The feeding of the Cock is a matter of much observation: for some will prosper with one kind of food, and some with another. But the general allowance is, in the morning a handful of Oats, and at night a little Barly or Wheat, with as much fresh water as he listeth to drink.
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Excerpts
8 entries
All voices, in order
Excerpts from Plutarch to Plutarch-to-Hemingway — primary sources speaking on the matter of the fighting cock. Grouped by era.
Early Modern · 1500 — 1800
The feeding of the Cock is a matter of much observation: for some will prosper with one kind of food, and some with another. But the general allowance is, in the morning a handful of Oats, and at night a little Barly or Wheat, with as much fresh water as he listeth to drink.
The Long 19th Century · 1800 — 1914
The Aseel cock is short in the leg, broad in the breast, upright in carriage, with a cruel, relentless eye. There is, in him, the look of a bird that has known combat since before the days of recorded history; and I will not scruple to say that he is, of all the poultry I have known, the most *game*.
The Modern Game is the most peculiar of all our poultry — half eagle, half serpent, and all game.
The passing of the pit was not, in the end, a question of cruelty. The pit passed because the men who kept it stopped being the kind of men who kept it. The bird remained; the culture around him did not.
The Modern Era · 1914 — present
Game is not courage. A cock may be courageous without being game, and game without being courageous. To be *game* is to fight when you cannot win, when your body is broken, when the only sensible thing is to quit. Game is the refusal of refusal.
The Shamo is, in its way, a kind of feathered samurai — every line of the body a study in controlled ferocity.
Early Modern · 1500 — 1800
They fought like a gamecock, and Sumter was the most obstinate man I ever saw.
The Old World · to 1500
The cock, when he first crows, recalls men to their work, and at the second crow puts them in mind of the things they have to do. He is a creature of much courage, and will fight with one of his own kind; and he is the most observant of all birds, for he knows his master, and runs to him when he is called.