None but one horseman appeared
in the ring at a time--no havoc was of course made among the horses;
bulls were introduced and baited without being killed, and the matador,
though he sometimes displays the same dexterity, never encounters the
same danger as in Spain. In Lisbon the most interesting part of the
sport consists in an operation which could not be practised in Spain,
and is conducted by performers who are unknown where bull-fighting is
more sanguinary. These performers are what they call here _homens de
furcado_, or men of the fork; so denominated from their bearing a
fork with which they push or strike the head of the bull, when he throws
down a man or a horse. After the bull, not destined to be killed, has
afforded amusement enough, these men go up before him, one of them
trying to get in between his horns, or to cling to his neck, till the
rest surround, master him, and lead him out of the area. The _man of
the fork_, who gets between the bull's horns, is sometimes tossed in
the air or dashed to the ground, and in this one of the chief dangers of
the fight consists. On Sunday one of them was dashed down so violently
as to be carried out of the ring in a state of insensibility. Only four
bulls were killed out of the twelve exhibited. The rest being reserved
for future sport, were either dragged out of the ring in the manner
above described, or, when supposed to be too strong to be mastered
by the men of the fork, were tamely driven out among a flock of oxen
introduced into the area as a decoy.
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