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British bulldog (game)

British Bulldog is a tag-based playground and sporting game, commonly played in schoolyards and on athletic fields in the UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and related Commonwealth countries, as well as in the U.S. and Ireland. The object of the game is for one player to attempt to intercept other players who are obliged to run from one designated area to another. British Bulldog is characterised by its physicality (i.e. the captor inevitably has to use force to stop a player from crossing ) and is often regarded as violent, leading it to be banned from many schools due to injuries to the participants.

The game is a descendant of traditional chasing games recorded from the 18th and 19th centuries, which partially evolved into collision-sport-related games during the early 20th century by the inclusion of lifting and drifting tackling techniques. In a sport's historical context, like its predecessors, British Bulldog has been used as a skill-and-drill device to reinforce and further develop locomotion skills fundamentally vital to American football, rugby, football, hockey and related team sports.

Name and regular use
While the game of British Bulldog is a conglomerate of different sources and pre-existing rules, the origin of the name is not entirely clear. In his book The Nation's Favourite, Guardian author Mathew Clayton (Free University of Glastonbury) clarified that, unlike other games, British Bulldog did not emerge until the 1930s. According to Cambridge District Scouts the game has been practiced under that name since then at several British Scout meetings.

Around that time, the game is mentioned in various newspapers, e. g. in February 1933 in The Kingston Whig-Standard, Ontario, Canada, and in April 1934 in the Londonderry Sentinel, Derry, Northern Ireland.

One of these early sources dates back to 1 March 1934. In an article from the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, it is described how Cub Scouts managed to lift a player off the ground as they shouted "British Bulldog!" In the Buckinghamshire Examiner from June 15, 1934, British Bulldog has been called "the most popular of all games" among the Scouts. Sources appear throughout England, always in connection with the Boy Scout movement, especially from the area of Great Yarmouth (Norfolk).

After spreading northward, British Bulldog has been recorded in Roxburghshire and Stirlingshire, Scotland, several years later. Falkirk Herald stated that the game "was successfully tried out in the dark" by the Scouts, which soon became a variation of the game ("British Bulldog in the dark").

In December 1942, Burnley Express in Lancashire reported a modified form of the game, incorporating rules of rugby football. More details appeared in 1949, when the rule of lifting a person was gradually displaced in favour of football tackling.

Although the game has already been known in the United States under different names, and possibly originated there from earlier decades, the name 'British Bulldog' was adopted by the Boy Scouts of America, likely during the turmoil of World War II. At the time, the national emblem of British Bulldog not only represented the economic and political strength of the British Empire but has also been applied to Winston Churchill, characterizing a person of sheer will and fortitude and a staunch antagonist against the Nazi regime.

"British Bulldog can be seen as a sort of elementary version of rugby, that 'thug's game played by gentlemen' as it was once memorably described. Its patriotic title suggests the ultimate playground test of true pluck and grit, of the kind that once built the Empire and inspired victory over Nazi Germany."

Apart from that, extensive game descriptions in connection with the name 'British Bulldog' did not appear in scientific treatises and periodical literature until the 1940s (e.g. in January 1941 in a dissertation by athlete Winston Alexander McCatty in the Canadian journal The School, Secondary Edition, published by the Ontario College of Education, University of Toronto, and in June 1944 in Boys' Life magazine in an article by William "Bill" Hillcourt, Boy Scouts of America ).

In the U.S., the game spread slowly. While Scout troops in Tulsa, Oklahoma or Bluffton, Ohio were still playing their own school ground game of 'Black Man', Boy Scouts in Paterson, New Jersey had been practicing British Bulldog since the second half of the 1940s. The Daily Republican newspaper (Monongahela, Pennsylvania), published on May 13, 1949, proclaims that "a new game entitled British Bulldog was introduced to the Scouts".

Basic description
Most commonly one or two players – though this number may be higher in large spaces – are selected to be the "bulldogs". The bulldogs stand in the middle of the playing field. All remaining players stand at one end of the area (home). The aim of the game is to run from one end of the playing field to the other, without being caught by the bulldogs. When the players are caught, they become bulldogs themselves. The last player is the winner and starts the next game as bulldog.

Location
The playing area is flexible—it can be played on a street, a playground, between cloisters, in a large sports hall or on an area of a playing field—though there is no set size of the pitch nor set number of players as long as there is enough space for the participants. The selected location consists of one main playing area, with two 'home' areas on opposing sides (similar to the try-zone areas used in rugby or American football). The home areas are usually marked by a line or some other marker.

Rounds
Each game of British Bulldog consists of a sequence of rounds, and it is usual to play a number of games one after another with different players as bulldogs each time. The game is initiated with a single player (or sometimes two) chosen as bulldog, standing between the home areas. The rush (also known as 'open gates' or 'stampede') is started by the bulldog shouting the phrase "British Bulldog!". The other players run across the field simultaneously, and once they left their home area the bulldog(s) must attempt to catch them. The players caught become bulldogs as well. The round is then repeated in the opposite direction until all players have become bulldogs.

In the later stages of the game the bulldogs will outnumber the remaining players, which can make captures especially rough as many bulldogs attempt to capture individual players.

Capture
Commonly, a player is caught by either being lifted off the ground by the bulldog or being tackled and held stationary, while the bulldog exclaims a phrase (e.g. "British Bulldog!" or "British Bulldog; one, two, three!"). If the runner can escape before the phrase is complete, or if they are able to continue moving (if being held stationary is required), then they are not considered to be caught.

Since the early 20th century, capture by tackling or lifting was a well-known feature of chasing and "running across" games such as Black Man and Pom-Pom-Pull-Away, although tackling has become more common than lifting. The tackle variant is sometimes referred to as 'Take-down Bulldog'.

"The name 'British Bulldog', and the rougher elements of lifting or throwing down, seem to have become the norm during the twentieth century. Earlier references appear under different titles ..."

One of the predecessors of 'Take-down Bulldog' was described in 1935 by Elmer Dayton Mitchell and Bernard Sterling Mason in the widely received publication Active Games and Contests under the name 'Tackling Pom-Pom-Pull-Away'. The book is primarily concerned with tag, running and combat games and provides further instructions of exercises solely connected to sports such as soccer and rugby football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. In this context, 'Take-down Bulldog' can be considered a football version of traditional chasing games.

"Tagging is a characteristic feature of many games—even games of high organization such as baseball or football. Tagging and escape from being tagged is either the sole or at least the primary object of the game."

Alternatively, the runners also become bulldogs if they cross a boundary equivalent to a touch-line. It can be a valid method of capture for a bulldog to force a runner over the boundary.

If the runners successfully enter the opposing home area without being captured, they are considered 'safe'. The bulldog(s) may usually catch any number of players in a single rush, all of whom become bulldogs.

Winning
The aim of the game for the bulldogs is to catch all the players as quickly as possible, whilst the aim for the other players is to stay uncaught for as long as possible. The last player to be caught is usually considered the winner.

Traditional predecessors (18th and 19th centuries)
British Bulldog is a descendant of a range of games from the 18th and 19th centuries, which were widespread in Western and Central Europe (UK and Germany in particular) and later – in the course of emigration – in North America and Australia.

In contrast to British Bulldog, many of these ancient games were strongly connected to mythical and superstitious subjects.

"'Ghosts and evil spirits still play their roles in the games of children though the adult members of society may no longer believe in them... Many of the games played by children contain traces of very ancient and even primitive beliefs and practices: water worship, the foundation sacrifice, the symbolism of colours, the efficiency of spittle as a fuga daemonum, the witch, the Black Man, crossing fingers to avoid being taken prisoner, and many many others, all of them of interest to the ethnologist and the folklorist.'"

Before British Bulldog became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, Black Man, Black Tom, Pom-Pom-Pull-Away, Chinese Wall, and Crows and Cranes were the favorite schoolyard and sporting games. Those games also used to be part of the physical education programs for boy scouts, football players and in public schools across the United States. Some of the games, especially Black Man and Pom-Pom-Pull-Away, had been systematically enhanced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the inclusion of tackling and lifting techniques and thus became progenitors of British Bulldog.

Black Man

Black Man (Der schwarze Mann), sometimes called Bogey Man, is a traditional German game and one of the oldest games in the line of Western European chasing games. It was described in 1796 by Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths. It draws on ancient "plague games" in which the catcher epitomizes the Black Death. Everyone he touches becomes a bearer of the plague. In a broader sense, the character in the game represents death itself. The game ends in the triumph of the Black Man, whose power goes on increasing with each new capture.

"'In Europe in the Middle Ages the game is reputed to have been connected with the Dances of Death, the idea being that the 'blackman' in the middle represented [the God of] Death and would catch his victims... In the same vein, the game has been associated with the old demonic cult figures of a lower European mythology.'"

The game of Black Man spread across the globe by the rise of the German Turner movement with Friedrich Ludwig Jahn as its iconic figure. An early translation of the game by Karl Ludwig Beck was published in 1828 in Northampton, Massachusetts in the book A Treatise on Gymnastics. The game was brought to Australia by German settlers, and has been mentioned by Gustav Adolph Techow in the Manual of Gymnastic Exercises, published in 1866 in Melbourne.

In the UK and Canada, Black Man was partially known as Black Peter (not to be confused with the card game) and has been regarded as a "primary rugby game". According to figureheads such as Steve Owen and Chet Grant, Black Man was an integral component of American football exercises. Other prominent players include Bernard Darwin, Dwight D. and Edgar N. Eisenhower, Daniel Carter Beard, Annette Kellerman and Luther Halsey Gulick Jr. who have mentioned the game of Black Man in their literary works and (auto-)biographies. It also appears in several books by Dorothea Frances Canfield.

Description

The playground is divided into three fields: two small opposite goals and one long middle field required for the chasing process. The distance between the goals can be increased according to the ability and the number of players. The players choose their goals, one of which the Black Man takes (Field A), while all the other players line up on the opposite goal (Field B). The Black Man calls out: "Who is afraid of the Black Man?", whereupon the other players yell: "No one!" and start for the opposite goal without being caught by the Black Man, who simultaneously leaves his goal to chase the players. With three slaps on the shoulder or back, and the call "One, two, three!", the Black Man must try to catch as many of the players as possible while on their way to the opposite goal. Every player tagged joins the Black Man and helps him tag the others. The Black Man and his helpers may join hands to catch the remaining players (a rule repeatedly described as Bound Hands ). Anyone who runs beyond the boundaries of the playing field to evade the approaching Black Man is considered caught. The game continues until all have been caught. The last (sometimes the first) one caught becomes the Black Man in the new game. Alternatively, if the last remaining player runs through three rounds undefeated, he is allowed to choose a player to be Black Man for the next game.

Only the Black Man asks the questions. The advanced dialogues are:

Due to the risk of significant injuries (e. g. if the children crowd too close to one another, accidents occur as they turn and run), Black Man was originally intended to be played by boys only. In the late 19th century the game also became a part of the physical education of girls in public schools, although it became more and more highly controversial.

"'At the beginning of the school the only outdoor game that the children played was 'black man,' a game that stimulated vulgarity, called out roughness and brutality, and allowed too much mauling of one another.'"

Comparable games and derivatives from the 19th century were Black Tom, Blackthorn, Pom-Pom-Pull-Away, Rushing Bases (also known as King Cæsar) and Hill Dill, mostly with different dialogues and with the catcher placed in the middle of the field.

Black Tom
Black Tom is a street game from the New York area. It was described in 1891 in Stewart Culin's publication Street Games of Boys in Brooklyn, New York. The game has also been mentioned in 1899 in Kate Upson Clark's book ''Bringing up Boys. A Study''.

In the game the player chosen as "Black Tom" takes his place in the middle of the street, all the others on the pavement on one side. When the catcher calls "Black Tom" three times, the other players must run across to the opposite curb, and may be caught, in which case they must join Black Tom in capturing the rest.

Unlike the other chasing games the catcher may attempt to confuse and trick the players by shouting a false signal, such as "Blue Tom" or "Red Tom". Any players who attempt to run on such a signal are automatically caught and join the catcher. A player is also considered caught if another catcher gives the correct signal. Only Black Tom is authorized to call out the phrase. The first one caught is Black Tom for the next game.

The method of confusion later became the basic element in the team game of Crows and Cranes.

In Daniel Carter Beard's work The American Boy’s Book of Sport from 1896 the main character Black Tom is described as a malicious fiend, an "ogre", possibly related to the game of Black Man. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in the context of the Dance of Death, Schwarzer Knabe (black 'tom' or black 'fellow') was a synonym for the Grim Reaper. In several game and education manuals of the late 1920s, both Black Man and Black Tom appeared temporarily in the form of hybridized game descriptions.

Blackthorn
Blackthorn, a game from the region of Lancashire, Derbyshire and Sheffield similar to Fox and Dowdy and King Cæsar, was played in the 19th and 20th century. It is named in 1837 in the book An Historical and Descriptive Account of Blackpool and its Neighbourhood by William Thornber.

A base is marked off at either end of the playground, leaving a wide space in the middle. One of the children volunteers for, or is chosen, "it" and takes up his position in the middle between the two bases, one of which serves as a gathering point for the rest of the players. The following dialogue then takes place:

After finishing the rhyme, the players start running across from base to base. "It" endeavors to catch and hold one or two of them temporarily while counting to ten. The captives made join "it" and become assistants in the capture. While the number of catchers increases, the remaining players reform at the opposite end of the playground and start again. The game continues until all have been caught. In Liverpool a similar game was known by the name Shepherds, in which the catcher and his assistants join hands to catch the rest of the players.

In another variant of Blackthorn one set of children takes its position behind a line, the other set stands opposite, facing them. The players then run all together toward each other's line. Anyone caught before reaching the goal must piggyback his catcher to the goal, where he takes his place as an additional catcher. In Suffolk this game was called Rakes and Roans.

The game of Blackthorn may be a possible predecessor of British Bulldog, as it was described in 1897 as a tackling variation after "carrying away became obsolete", but it only appears in a fictional school story by author Don Ralpho in The Boy's Own Paper. The actual existence of this variation remains unclear.

Chinese Wall
Chinese Wall is a 19th-century combat game from Germany invented by Karl Wassmannsdorff. It was first published in 1866 in the sport journal Deutsche Turnzeitung. An English translation appeared in 1897 in the U.S. in the Mind & Body gymnastics magazine. It is primarily a game of organized play and usually supervised by an instructor.

Two parallel lines are marked off from side to side straight across the center of the playground, leaving a narrow space between them of about ten feet in width, which represents the building ground for the wall. On each end of the playground, a line is drawn across parallel to the building ground at a distance of fifteen to thirty feet, which marks the goal for the runners. One of the players is chosen to create the wall on the building ground, and takes his place upon it, facing all the other players who line up in one of the goals. At an agreed signal (e. g. "Start!" or a similar call), the runners must cross the building ground to reach the opposite goal, the builder endeavoring to tag as many as possible during their rush without leaving the boundaries of the marked ground himself. All the runners caught that way become a "stanchion" of the wall and assist the builder in trying to capture the rest of the players. After crossing the ground several times, the remaining runners must attempt to break through the increasing wall, which gradually becomes denser due to the growing number of catchers. Anyone refusing to break the wall is automatically considered caught. The game ends when all of the runners have been caught, the last player taken being the "builder" for the next game.

Fox and Dowdy
A catch-and-hold game, related to King Cæsar and Blackthorn, was recorded in 19th century Lancashire and Warwickshire under the name of Fox and Dowdy (or Fox-a'-Dowdy ). It has been mentioned in 1875 in the Notes to The Sad Shepherd (The Works of Ben Jonson – Vol. VI) and is played across a lane or similar area. In this version, the person who is "It" catches the runners by holding them and reciting the phrase "Fox a' Dowdy—Catch a Candle!".

In King Edward's School, Birmingham the same game was known as Bacca (or Action!). In this version, the home areas were at both ends of the cloisters. The catcher in the middle must hold the players who run across and say the phrase "One, two, three, caught, tobacco!" to capture them. The phrase was the source of the game's name. In a similarly titled version called Baccare, the rush is triggered by the "leader" of the runners calling "Baccare!" or by any of the runners being tricked by one of the catchers into saying it. An example given is a catcher asking "What does your father smoke?", to which a player might answer "Bacca!" (as a short form of "tobacco"), thus triggering the rush.

Another local variant recorded in Marlborough, Wiltshire, was called Click. In this game, being the catcher was known as "going Click". The catcher(s) caught other players by holding them while saying the phrase "One, two, three, I catch thee; help me catch another!". If the last remaining player successfully made the run between the home areas three times without being caught, they could nominate a person to "go Click" in the next game; if they failed then they had to do it themselves.

Hopping Bases
A variant of the English game of King Cæsar (Rushing Bases) is Hopping Bases that has been described in 1844 in the book The Boy's Treasury of Sports, Pastimes, and Recreations.

In the game there is an area in the centre between the two home areas called the "castle". The catcher is known as the "king" and starts in the castle; anyone caught by the King becomes one of the king's "soldiers". The non-catcher players must hop between the home areas with their arms folded across their chests. The king and soldiers capture other players by barging into them or forcing them to put both feet down. If the king puts both feet down, they have to return to the castle before they can capture any more players.

There is also a team version of Hopping Bases, related to Prisoner's Base and Cops and Robbers, in which players split into teams and each own one of the home areas. Players who are forced to put both legs down are captured by the other side and become "prisoners". Prisoners are placed in home area of the capturing team and can be rescued by a teammate hopping across the playing area and touching them; after which both the rescuer and rescuee are allowed to walk or run back to their own home area. The team with the most prisoners wins.

King Cæsar
King Cæsar (also known as King Senio and Rushing Bases) dates back to the first half of the 19th century. It has been mentioned in 1831 in The Olio journal and was fully described in 1844 in the London book The Boy's Treasury of Sports, Pastimes, and Recreations.

Two bases are marked out, one at each end of the playground. The elected player (chosen by lot or counted out) is called "King" and places himself midway. All the other players take up position in one of the bases. At a signal, the players attempt to dash across the intervening ground and avoid being caught by the King who strives to hold one of them as they rush to the other base. The King accomplishes the task by patting his captive on the head while calling out the phrase "I crown thee, King Cæsar!" (alternatively "One, two, three, i crown thee. Now thou art in Senio's fee!" ). The players caught join the center and must assist King Caesar in endeavouring to crown the rest. When the kings outnumber the remainder they may enter the bases and try to drag out the players to crown them. The last child captured being King Cæsar for the next game.

In Inverness-shire, the game was called Rax (Latin rex = king) and King of Scotland. In the game, the "King" triggers the rush with the phrase "Rexa-boxa-King", or simply "Rexa-boxa", and seeks to "caron" (crown) his captives.

Another local variation played in Nairn, that had been recorded in the late 19th century, is Cock. In this version, the catcher is known as "Cock" and attempts to capture (or "croon") his opponents by putting his hand upon a player's head.

Pom-Pom-Pull-Away
A game once played since the 1860s at the Northeastern Seaboard is Pom-Pom-Pull-Away (also known as Pom-Pom-Peel-Away ). It has been mentioned in 1862 in Diocletian Lewis' treatise The New Gymnastics, published in the American Journal of Education. Heavily inspired by the German system of gymnastics, Lewis developed a new system of exercises meant for people with physical impairment and reduced mobility.

Similar to the German game of Black Man, the runners in Pom-Pom-Pull-Away start in one of the home areas but with the catcher standing in the middle of the playground, as standard. There is no named player and the rush starts with the catcher calling out the phrase "Pom-Pom-Pull-Away; come away or I'll fetch you away!". The players then are usually caught by being touched on the back or shoulder while running across, although the rules may differ among regional variants. All of those caught in the run assist the catcher in tagging the others. The first player to be caught starts as the catcher in the next game.

A variant of this game called Hill Dill has also been recorded. In this version the only difference is the phrase which is "Hill Dill, come over the hill; or else I'll catch you standing still."

Red Rover
Red Rover, initially a New York chasing game like Black Tom, has been described in 1891 in Stewart Culin's publication Street Games of Boys in Brooklyn, New York.

One person, the "Red Rover", is chosen as catcher and stands in the middle of the street, while the other players form a line on the pavement on one side. He calls any boy he wants by name: "Red Rover, Red Rover, let [player's name] come over!", and that boy must then run to the opposite sidewalk. If he is caught as he runs across, he must help the Red Rover to catch the others. When the Red Rover catches a player, he must call "Red Rover!" three times or he cannot hold his captive. Only the Red Rover has authority to call out for the others by name, and if any of the boys start when one of the captives who is aiding the Red Rover calls him, that boy is considered caught. The game is continued until all are caught. The first one caught is Red Rover for the next game.

In the 20th century, the game changed into a team game, incorporating rules of Kettenreißen (literally chain breaking), a German game that has been described in 1862 in the education handbook Merkbüchlein für Turner, published by Eduard Angerstein. In 1949 Warren E. Roberts of the Indiana University Folklore Institute tried to delineate the particularities of the traditional Red Rover and the team game of the same name and phrase. In the latter, a group of players split into two even-numbered teams on both sides of the playing field. The teams face each other at about 15–20 yards apart. Then the players within each team join hands. One team picks out a player they want to come over. The selected player runs to the opposite team and tries to break through the human chain. If successful, he can choose one of the defeated team members and bring him into his own group. If he can't break the chain, he becomes a member of the opposite team.

Bullrush
Bullrush, in Auckland also called Kingasini, a cacography of King O'Seenie alias King Senio, is commonly played in New Zealand, combining rules similar to those in the games of Red Rover and British Bulldog. Initially, the name Bullrush was not applied to a game but to the rushing crowd within the game.

Two parallel goal lines are drawn about 20–30 metres apart. One chosen person, the catcher, stands between the goals; the other players line up behind one of the goal lines in front of the catcher. The latter calls a person by name who must run from one goal to another. The person who is touched or tackled has to call out the next runner. The person who safely reaches the other side has the choice to call out "Bullrush!" and everyone else starts running across the open space without being tagged (or tackled) by the catcher who must then try to tag as many players as possible. Everyone caught becomes a helper of the catcher and has to take place in the middle of the field. The first (or last) one caught is the catcher for the next game.

Both the catcher and the successful runner are authorized to call out "Bullrush!" for starting the run. The runners caught are tackled to the ground by the catcher who calls "1–2–3 – You’re in the middle with me!".

A tackle variant played in some suburbs of Wellington during the 1970s was called "Downhill Bullrush". Runners begin at the top of a steep, heavily forested hill and catchers are positioned about half-way down the hill.

Crows and Cranes
Crows and Cranes, also known as Black and Blue, is an early 20th century team game brought from England to the States by American soldiers. It was described in November 1918 in The Youth's Companion magazine. Its roots go back to a German combat game called Day and Night or Black and White, published in 1796 by J. C. F. GutsMuths, which in turn is based on the ancient Greek game of Ostracinda.

In the middle of the playground two groups of players of equal numbers are formed in parallel lines about one yard apart. A player, chosen as instructor, designates one line as the "Crows" and the other as the "Cranes". All players stand facing the instructor, who takes his place apart from the game (e. g. about two yards from one end of the lines). The goals are located thirty feet back of each line. The instructor starts the game by calling (and drawling) the consonants of each group's name: "K – r – r – r – r...", and then suddenly runs it off into either "Crows!" or "Cranes!". The aim of the game is to think ahead and react immediately to the possible situation of being the chaser or being chased. The players of one group, whose name the instructor calls, turn quickly and run toward their goal while the other players cross over the middle of the playground and chase them, tagging as many as possible. Those tagged must join the opposite group (in another variant they have to leave the game). The instructor can switch the call while the chasing process to reverse the action. If the Crows were chasing the Cranes and the instructor calls "Crows!", all the players must switch roles and directions. After the first round the players go back to the starting point and build new lines. The game continues until one group is successful by retaining a larger number of players at a given time.

Golden River
A children's game from the Edwardian era commonly played in the United Kingdom. The player who is "It" may variously be known as Mr. Crocodile, Farmer, Jack, Charlie, Old Witch or Mr. Jellyfish. A recurring feature in the game is a (golden) river which the players must cross.

One player chosen to be the catcher pretends to guard the river and takes his place in the middle of a designated area. All the others line up in front of the "guardian" 30 feet away and call out "Please, Mr. Crocodile, may we cross your golden river?". The guardian responds and lays down conditions, e. g. by choosing a colour or something else: "You may not cross my river unless you... [are wearing blue; have green eyes; have laced shoes etc.]." If the players have something that matches the criteria they are allowed free passage across the river without being caught. Those left behind must rush across the river trying to evade the guardian. Players caught must leave the game (or alternatively assist the guardian in capturing the others). When the players ask if they may cross the river from the opposing side, the guardian sets a new condition, e. g. another colour, including a colour that none of the players are wearing, and the rush across the river is repeated. The game continues with a specific condition each time (such as age, hair colour, owning a pet, having a certain letter in the name) until all the players have been caught.

Different rhymes have been documented across the United Kingdom, for example "Farmer, farmer, may we pass, over the hills and over the grass?", "Please, Mr. Crocodile, may we cross the water, in a cup and saucer?" and "Old mother witch, may we cross your ditch?", and even more macabre variants such as "Please, Jack, may we cross your golden water, to see the Queen's (or King's) daughter, who fell into the water, one hundred years ago?".

Octopus
A game related to freeze tag is called Octopus. It was described in 1957 in the book ''Children in Action. Physical Education Instruction Guide''.

In this version one (or two) player(s) are chosen as "octopus(es)" and stand in the middle while all the other players line up as "fishes" at one side of the playing area. The catcher calls out "Octopus!" and all the players must run across the field to the other side of the boundary without being caught. If they are caught, they are rooted to one spot and become seaweed. Within the next round they then try to tag the other players, using only one foot to pivot and waving their arms without leaving their tagging spot.

Any person who runs across the boundary of the playing field is considered caught and the catcher can decide where that person has to take place. The last person to be tagged is the winner.

Sharks and minnows
Another variant of pom-pom-pull-away (swimming pom-pom-pull-away) called sharks and minnows is played in swimming pools or across a marked playing area on land. In Annette Kellermann's book How to Swim referred to as water blackman.

One player is selected as the "shark" and starts at one side (or alternatively in the middle) of the pool while the "minnows" (i.e. runners) take place on the opposite area. In each round, the minnows must swim from one side of the pool to the other without being "eaten" (touched or tagged) by the shark(s). All the minnows who are tagged above the water's surface while crossing the pool then join the shark for the next round. The game finishes when only one, or zero depending on local variation, "minnow" is left. The minnow that was tagged first then becomes the shark in the subsequent game. In some versions, minnows can't be tagged if they are fully submerged under water. The shark can either wait for a minnow to surface for a breath, or can try to pull him or her to the surface for a tag.

In the traditional variant of swimming pom-pom-pull-away, already mentioned in the early 20th century, the catcher calls out Pom-Pom-Pull-Away! (Let the fishes swim away!) to start the game.

"'Water blackman or pom-pom-pull-away is played in a pool much as in a schoolhouse yard. One swimmer is the 'blackman' and all the others race across the pond. The first man caught is blackman for the next game – after all the swimmers are caught.'"

In Germany, the game is known as Der Seeräuber (buccaneer) and Der Weiße Hai (white shark).

Background
The game is normally played by children and offers an interesting means of letting off energy and involves rugged physical contact. It appeals to competitive spirits but at the same time produces ad-hoc team activity with all the "losers" endeavouring to bring the "non-losers" to the ground. The strongest, most athletic competitors will find it extremely difficult to win British Bulldog as the number of bulldogs grows. Parents tend to deplore the game since it results in muddied and even torn clothes, bruises, bloody noses, knees and elbows and sometimes tears (when played on tarmac) but both boys and girls participate in it.

As a game of physical contact that results in a mêlée of people attempting to drag others down to the ground, British Bulldog bears some similarity to rugby. The game when played in Australia tends to be particularly rough, with the version known as Pile-ons or Cockylora/Cocky laura being common.

Controversy
The physicality of the game has caused it to gain some notoriety and to be banned in a number of school playgrounds.

In England and Wales, despite the Local Government Association's 2008 encouragement of traditional playground games such as British Bulldog, more than a quarter of teachers surveyed in 2011 said the game had been banned at their schools. Its rough-and-tumble nature resulted in numerous broken bones when it was popular in the 1970s and at least one spinal injury was reported in the June 1985 British Medical Journal, as well as the death of an eight-year-old child in Twickenham in 2013, who collided with a player of British Bulldog while playing a different game.

"'His neck was flexed forcibly while his head was against the floor, and immediately after the injury he had severe pain of the cervical spine ... [which] shows that games such as British Bulldog can be as dangerous as rugby football.'"

title: British bulldog (game)


text: User:Bank of Wikipedia Employee2

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Bank of Wikipedia Employee2


text:
James Warren (politician)

Major-General James Warren (September 28, 1726 – November 28, 1808) was an American merchant, politician and military officer who served as the speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1787 to 1788. An advocate of colonial resistance to British parliamentary acts in the American Revolution, Warren served as the Continental Army's Paymaster-General during the Revolutionary War before pursuing a political career.

Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts to an affluent New England family, Warren studied at Harvard College from 1745 to 1747 before settling down in his hometown to a career as a businessman and gentleman farmer. In 1754, Warren married Mercy Otis, who shared his republican beliefs and together they had five sons during their marriage. In 1766, Warren was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, continuing to sit in the house until 1778.

As tensions gradually increased between Great Britain and its American colonies, Warren soon became a prominent supporter of the Patriot cause, jointly forming a committee of correspondence in Massachusetts. Warren was a delegate to the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress in October 1774, and also served as president of the third Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1780 after his predecessor, Joseph Warren, was killed at Bunker Hill.

Warren served in a multitude of roles during the Revolutionary War; along with serving as Paymaster-General, he also sat on the naval board of the Continental Navy from 1776 to 1781, and served as a general officer in the Massachusetts Militia for a year until he resigned in 1777. After the war, Warren was elected as a speaker in the Massachusetts General Court in 1787. Retiring from politics in 1794, he died in Plymouth fourteen years later.

Early life
James Warren was born on September 28, 1726, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His father, James Warren, was a businessman and legal official who served as the high sheriff of Plymouth County; he was also a captain in the provincial militia. Warren's mother was Penelope Winslow, who married her husband in 1724. Warren was born into a prominent New England family which descended from a Mayflower passenger, Richard Warren.

The young Warren was raised on the family farm, which was located near the Eel River. Beginning in 1742, he attended Harvard College, graduating in 1745 with a BA degree. While studying at Harvard, Warren, who excelled at his studies, developed "strong feelings about how the colonies should be governed". Warren also befriended future Massachusetts Attorney General and soldier James Otis Sr., who was studying at Harvard as well.

Warren returned to Plymouth after graduating from Harvard, settling down there to a career as a merchant and gentleman farmer. On November 14, 1754, Warren married 26-year old Mercy Otis, the only daughter of James Otis Sr; the marriage was the culmination of a six-year long engagement between the two. After marrying at the Otis family residence, the two settled down on a homestead in Plymouth that Warren had bought in 1755.

American Revolution

In 1757, after his father died, Warren succeeded to his position as the high sheriff of Plymouth County. Warren and Mercy moved back to his family estate in the same year, where she gave birth to a son who they named James after his father. This took place amidst a backdrop of increasing tensions between Great Britain and its North American colonies, with colonists protesting several unpopular acts passed by the British Parliament.

A small group of American Patriots, including Warren, gathered at his family home in 1765 to discuss what the colonial response should be to the Stamp Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament to increase tax revenues from the Thirteen Colonies. The group agreed that selected representatives from each of the Thirteen Colonies should gather in New York City and write a petition to King George III requesting that he repeal the act.

While the colonists awaited a response from the King, Warren was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1766, continuing to sit in the house until 1778. During this period, he began to associate with prominent Patriots, such as James Otis Jr., John Adams, and Samuel Adams. In 1772, Warren, along with Mercy, Adams and Joseph Warren and others, formed a Massachusetts committee of correspondence in response to the Gaspee Affair.

Warren continued to involve himself in efforts to resist British parliamentary acts targeting the colonies, assuming prominent roles in political and mercantile demonstrations by Patriots (such as the Boston Tea Party), writing that "the People should strike some bold stroke and try the Issue." In a letter Warren wrote to John Adams in 1775, he stated, "I am content to move in a small sphere. I expect no distinction but that of an honest man who has exerted every nerve."

In October 1774, Warren served as a delegate to the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Open conflict broke out between British and Patriot forces in 1775 following the battles of Lexington and Concord. After Joseph Warren was killed in action fighting British Army forces at the battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, Warren succeeded him as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, continuing to hold that position until the congress was dissolved in 1780.

Revolutionary War and death
During the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Warren served as Paymaster-General of the Continental Army from July 27, 1775 to April 19, 1776 after being appointed to the position by the Continental Congress. For his services, Warren was paid a salary of 100 dollars a month. He also served as a military officer in the Continental Army while they were stationed at Cambridge and Boston in 1775 and 1776, during a campaign which saw Patriot troops successfully compel British forces to evacuate from Massachusetts.

From 1776 to 1781, Warren sat on the Eastern Department of the Continental Navy Board, overseeing the activities of the fledgling Continental Navy as they operated against Royal Navy warships stationed in North America. Warren was also appointed to the rank of major-general in the Massachusetts militia and was ordered to lead a Continental Army force into British-controlled regions in Rhode Island. However, unwilling to accept the command of an officer of a lesser rank, Warren officially resigned from the militia on August 1777, bringing an end to his nascent military career.

In 1783, the British Crown signed the Treaty of Paris, officially confirming the United States' independence. Four years later in 1787, Warren was elected "by the popular majority" to the seat of speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. During his one-year long tenure, Warren's popularity waned due to his stance on currency issues and criticism of the methods used by the federal authorities to suppress Shays' Rebellion. On October 22, 1786, Warren wrote in a letter to John Adams that "We are now in a State of Anarchy and Confusion bordering on a Civil War."

Rumors spread that the Warren family had supported the rebels in the aftermath of the rebellion's suppression, forcing them to issue claims both denying that rumor along with claims that their son Winslow had joined forces with rebel leader Daniel Shays. Relations between the federal government and the Warrens became strained during this period; when Winslow's application to serve as the American consul in Lisbon, Portugal was rejected, Warren co-authored a letter with Mercy to governor of Massachusetts James Bowdoin, attacking him for refusing to support Winslow.

In 1788, Warren emerged as a leading opponent of the Constitution of the United States' ratification due to the lack of any bill of rights contained within the document, authoring several pamphlets which were published in Boston publicizing the issue; he also wrote several articles for the Independent Chronicle and the Massachusetts Centinel during this period. Warren was chosen to serve on the governor's council from 1792 to 1794, but was defeated as a candidate for lieutenant governor and retired in 1794, retiring to his Plymouth estate where he died on November 27, 1808.

Personal life and family
Over the course of their lives, Warren and Mercy were prominent advocates of American republicanism. Historian Murney Gerlach noted that Warren remained a "firm exponent of republicanism both during and after the period of government under the articles of confederation", visualizing his ideal political structure as being founded on "equal liberty and the happiness of mankind". The couple promoted radical elements of U.S. republicanism, even as such views became increasingly unpopular among the American general public in the decades after the Revolutionary War.

Warren was a founding member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. However, Warren would eventually come under heavy attack from his fellow associates at the academy for his views on Shays' Rebellion; in contrast to most academy members, Warren held sympathetic views towards the rebels' grievances against the federal government, in line with his political beliefs of being "suspicious of incipient despotism". Mercy wrote that Warren bore "unprovoked abuse with the Dignity of conscious rectitude".

In the 1790s, Warren sided with the Jeffersonian democrats, which led to his relationship with John Adams to become strained. American statesman John Quincy Adams noted that Warren "was formerly a very popular man, but of late years he has thought himself neglected by the people. His mind has been soured, and he became discontented and querulous." In 1804, Warren was selected to be a presidential elector for Massachusetts for that year's presidential election, voting for Thomas Jefferson against his opponent, Southern politician Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

During their marriage, Warren maintained a strong relationship with his wife, encouraging her career as a playwright and treating Mercy as an intellectual equal and confidante. After Mercy gave birth to James in 1757, the couple had four more children over the next nine years: Winslow, Charles, Henry and George. After Warren's death, he was buried at Burial Hill, a burying ground in Plymouth; Mercy took the opportunity to try to repair her strained relationship with John Adams. After Mercy died on October 19, 1814, at the age of 86, she was buried at Burial Hill as well.

title: James Warren (politician)


text:
1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships

The 7th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held in the Green Dome Maebashi stadium in Maebashi, Japan from March 5 to March 7, 1999. It was the first time the Championships were staged outside Europe or North America. Primo Nebiolo, president of the IAAF, characterized the championships as "the greatest ever". There were a total number of 487 participating athletes from 115 countries.

Doping disqualifications
Four medalists were disqualified for doping; Rostislav Dimitrov of Bulgaria was stripped of the triple jump silver, Inger Miller of the USA was stripped of the 60 metre bronze, Vita Pavlysh of Ukraine was stripped of the shot put gold and Irina Korzhanenko of Russia was stripped of the shot put silver.

Men
1 Rostislav Dimitrov of Bulgaria originally won the silver medal, but was disqualified for doping.

Women

 * American sprinter Inger Miller won the bronze but failed a post-race drug test (excessive caffeine) and was stripped of the medal.
 * Vita Pavlysh of Ukraine failed a drug test and was stripped of her shot put gold medal.
 * Irina Korzhanenko of Russia was stripped of the shot put silver.

Participating nations

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title: 1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships


text: User:BoW Bank Employee13

title: User:BoW Bank Employee13


text:
File:Bummer poster.jpg

Rationale of fair use for Bumer (film)

 * 1) The image is being used to illustrate the film in question.
 * 2) No free or public domain images have been located for this purpose.
 * 3) The image is of lower resolution than the original poster.
 * 4) The image does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute the film in any way.
 * 5) This image is used on various websites, so its use on Wikipedia does not make it significantly more accessible than it already is.
 * 6) The image is being used for informational purposes only.

Source

 * 1) Derived from a digital capture (photo/scan) of the Film Poster/ VHS or DVD Cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the film company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless.

title: File:Bummer poster.jpg


text:
Eastchester, Bronx

Eastchester is a working-class neighborhood in the northeast Bronx in New York City. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are the Bronx-Westchester County border to the north, the New England Thruway to the east, Baychester Avenue to the south, and the intersection of 233rd Street and Baychester Avenue to the west. Boston Road is the primary thoroughfare through Eastchester and Dyre Avenue is the main commercial street. Eastchester includes the sub-neighborhood of Edenwald.

Eastchester is part of Bronx Community Board 12, and its ZIP Codes include 10466 and 10475. The area is patrolled by the 47th Precinct of the New York City Police Department.

History
The neighborhood was historically heavily Ashkenazi-Jewish and Italian-American, It has the same name as a modern-day town located approximately 5 mi to the north, as the neighborhood was included in the Town of Eastchester until the late 19th century upon annexation by the City of New York, its boundaries roughly matching the former Village of Eastchester, which was incorporated on March 25, 1895. The modern-day city of Mount Vernon, located right across the city line and bordering the Eastchester neighborhood, was also once part of the town. While Mount Vernon has developed along similar lines as the neighborhood of Eastchester, the modern-day Town of Eastchester (i.e. north of Mount Vernon) is markedly more affluent.

233rd Street and Boston Road are the major thoroughfares in Eastchester. Intersecting both of these streets, Dyre Avenue is the neighborhood's main commercial strip. There is also a shopping center, Shopwell Plaza (named for the former Shopwell supermarket chain) located on Boston Road next to the Boston-Secor housing project. In 2007 the city's parks department rehabilitated Seton Falls Park.

Since the mid-20th century, the neighborhood's name began to decline in currency, meaning that in recent years residents have not really been cognizant about living in a neighborhood called "Eastchester". This is perhaps due to confusion with Eastchester Road, a thoroughfare which runs through other parts of the Bronx, or with the Town of Eastchester in Westchester County. It is more common to hear the Eastchester neighborhood described as "east of White Plains Road", "south of Mount Vernon", "near Pelham", "East 233rd Street", etc.

Land use and terrain
Eastchester is dominated by one- and two-family homes of various types, one large public housing project, and an industrial district. The total land area is roughly half a square mile. The area is low-lying and flat. The Hutchinson River runs through Eastchester, partly along the line of East 233rd Street. Bridges in Eastchester carry the New England Thruway and Boston Road over the river. A far northeastern portion of Eastchester, on the left bank of the Hutchinson River, is often confused with Pelham Manor since a nearby shopping center is located in that town.

The Boston Secor Houses, comprising four buildings that are 13, 14, 17 and 18 stories tall, is located in Eastchester.

Edenwald Houses is the largest New York City Housing Authority development in the Bronx, with forty buildings, 3 or 14 stories tall, on 48.88 acre. It has 2,036 apartments housing about 5,300 people. Completed on October 15, 1953, it is bordered by Grenada Place, East 225th Street, Baychester and Laconia Avenues. The Edenwald Projects is divided into two parts to the north and south, split by 229th Street. Bordering the south side is the Edenwald Community Center, which provides afterschool care and programs for the youth. During the summer, the center hosts a summer program for kids and jobs for pre-teens.

Demographics
Eastchester has a population over 5,000. The neighborhood is a mix of African Americans, West Indians, Asians, Hispanics and Whites. 47.8% of the population lives below the poverty line.

The entirety of Community District 12, which comprises Eastchester and Williamsbridge, had 156,542 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 81.0 years. This is about the same as the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are youth and middle-aged adults: 24% are between the ages of between 0–17, 27% between 25–44, and 26% between 45–64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 13% respectively.

As of 2017, the median household income in Community District 12 was $48,018. In 2018, an estimated 22% of Eastchester and Williamsbridge residents lived in poverty, compared to 25% in all of the Bronx and 20% in all of New York City. One in eight residents (13%) were unemployed, compared to 13% in the Bronx and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 57% in Eastchester and Williamsbridge, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 58% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation,, Eastchester and Williamsbridge are considered high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.

Police and crime
Eastchester and Williamsbridge are patrolled by the 47th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 4111 Laconia Avenue. The 47th Precinct ranked 35th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. , with a non-fatal assault rate of 82 per 100,000 people, Eastchester and Williamsbridge's rate of violent crimes per capita is more than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 577 per 100,000 people is higher than that of the city as a whole.

The 47th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 60.9% between 1990 and 2022. The precinct reported 16 murders, 45 rapes, 461 robberies, 732 felony assaults, 300 burglaries, 758 grand larcenies, and 461 grand larcenies auto in 2022.

Fire safety
Eastchester is served by the New York City Fire Department (FDNY)'s Engine Co. 38/Ladder Co. 51 fire station at 3446 Eastchester Road.

Health
, preterm births and births to teenage mothers are more common in Eastchester and Williamsbridge than in other places citywide. In Eastchester and Williamsbridge, there were 102 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 24 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). Eastchester and Williamsbridge has a low population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 8%, lower than the citywide rate of 12%.

The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Eastchester and Williamsbridge is 0.0075 mg/m3, the same as the city average. Eleven percent of Eastchester and Williamsbridge residents are smokers, which is lower than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In Eastchester and Williamsbridge, 30% of residents are obese, 14% are diabetic, and 39% have high blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively. In addition, 24% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.

Eighty-eight percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is about the same as the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 78% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", equal to the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in Eastchester and Williamsbridge, there are 8 bodegas.

The nearest large hospitals are Calvary Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center's Jack D. Weiler Hospital, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in Morris Park. The Albert Einstein College of Medicine campus is also located in Morris Park. In addition, Montefiore Medical Center's Wakefield Campus is located in Williamsbridge.

Post offices and ZIP Codes
Eastchester is located within multiple ZIP Codes. Most of the neighborhood, specifically the part north of Boston Road, is located in 10466. The area south of Boston Road is divided into two ZIP Codes: 10475 east of Baychester Avenue and 10469 west of Baychester Avenue. The United States Postal Service operates two post offices nearby: the Hillside Station at 3482 Boston Road and the Co-op City Station at 3300 Conner Street.

Education

Eastchester and Williamsbridge generally have a lower rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city. While 32% of residents age 25 and older have a college education or higher, 20% have less than a high school education and 48% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 26% of Bronx residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of Eastchester and Williamsbridge students excelling in math rose from 32% in 2000 to 48% in 2011, though reading achievement remained constant at 37% during the same time period.

Eastchester and Williamsbridge's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is slightly higher than the rest of New York City. In Eastchester and Williamsbridge, 29% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, more than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 70% of high school students in Eastchester and Williamsbridge graduate on time, about the same as the citywide average of 75%.

Schools
The former PS 15 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. There are three public elementary schools, PS 68, PS 111, and PS 112. Sixth grade to eighth grade students attend John Philip Sousa MS 142. The only public high school in the area is Albert Tuitt Educational Campus; however, many students attend Harry S. Truman High School in neighboring Co-op City. Those seeking a parochial education can attend Cardinal Spellman High School (co-ed) or either Mount Saint Michael Academy (all boys) in Wakefield or St. Barnabas High School (all girls) in Woodlawn.

Libraries
The New York Public Library (NYPL)'s Edenwald branch is located at 1255 East 233rd Street. The one-story branch opened in 1973. In addition, the NYPL's Baychester branch is located at 2049 Asch Loop North in Co-op City. The one-story branch building opened in 1973 and was renovated in 2003.

Transportation
Subway service is provided by the New York City Subway via the following IRT Dyre Avenue Line stations, served by the :

 * Eastchester–Dyre Avenue
 * Baychester Avenue

Bus service is provided by the following New York City Bus and Bee-Line Bus System routes:

 * to Pelham or Norwood–205th Street (via Nereid Avenue)
 * to Co-op City or Pelham Parkway (via Boston Road)
 * BL52: to Eastchester, Bronx or Bronxville via Mt. Vernon, New York
 * BL55: to Eastchester, Bronx or Cross County Shopping Center (Yonkers)
 * BL60: to Fordham, Bronx or White Plains, NY (via US Route 1)
 * BL61: to Fordham, Bronx or Port Chester, NY (via US Route 1)
 * BL62x: to Fordham, Bronx or White Plains, NY (via US Route 1; Express from New Rochelle to East White Plains)

Notable people

 * 88-Keys (born 1976), record producer and rapper.
 * Emmanuel Andújar (born 1992), professional basketball player and member of the Puerto Rico national basketball team. Raised in the Edenwald Houses.
 * Jamaal Bowman (born 1976), U.S. Congressman; former school principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action located in Eastchester.
 * DreamDoll (born 1992 as Tabatha Robinson), rapper/reality television personality (VH1 series "Bad Girls Club" and "Love & Hip Hop: New York"). Raised in the Edenwald Houses.
 * Andy González (1951-2020), Latin jazz musician who was raised in the Edenwald Houses. Brother of Jerry González
 * Jerry González (1949-2018), Latin jazz musician who was raised in the Edenwald Houses.Brother of Andy González
 * Richard Hauptmann (1899-1936), German-born carpenter who was convicted of the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh; at the time of his arrest he resided at 1279 East 222nd Street.
 * Leo Isacson (1910-1996), attorney and politician notable for winning a seat in the United States House of Representatives from New York's 24th congressional district.
 * Sharissa (born 1975), R&B singer who was raised in the Edenwald Houses.
 * Scoochie Smith (born 1994), professional basketball player who was raised in the Edenwald Houses.
 * Christopher Williams (born 1967), R&B singer and actor. Grew up in Edenwald Houses and on De Reimer Avenue.

title: Eastchester, Bronx


text: Category:User az-2

title: Category:User az-2


text:
Leafhopper

Leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family Cicadellidae. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or trees. Their hind legs are modified for jumping, and are covered with hairs that facilitate the spreading of a secretion over their bodies that acts as a water repellent and carrier of pheromones. They undergo a partial metamorphosis, and have various host associations, varying from very generalized to very specific. Some species have a cosmopolitan distribution, or occur throughout the temperate and tropical regions. Some are pests or vectors of plant viruses and phytoplasmas. The family is distributed all over the world, and constitutes the second-largest hemipteran family, with at least 20,000 described species.

They belong to a lineage traditionally treated as infraorder Cicadomorpha in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. This has sometimes been placed in its own suborder (Clypeorrhyncha), but more recent research retains it within Auchenorrhyncha.

Members of the tribe Proconiini of the subfamily Cicadellinae are commonly known as sharpshooters.

Description and ecology
The Cicadellidae combine the following features:
 * The thickened part of the antennae is very short and ends with a bristle (arista).
 * Two ocelli (simple eyes) are present on the top or front of the head.
 * The tarsi are made of three segments.
 * The femora are at front with, at most, weak spines.
 * The hind tibiae have one or more distinct keels, with a row of movable spines on each, sometimes on enlarged bases.
 * The base of the middle legs is close together where they originate under the thorax.
 * The front wings not particularly thickened.

An additional and unique character of leafhoppers is the production of brochosomes, which are thought to protect the animals, and particularly their egg clutches, from predation as well as pathogens.

Like other Exopterygota, the leafhoppers undergo direct development from nymph to adult without a pupal stage. While many leafhoppers are drab little insects as is typical for the Membracoidea, the adults and nymphs of some species are quite colorful. Some – in particular Stegelytrinae – have largely translucent wings and resemble flies at a casual glance.

Leafhoppers have piercing-sucking mouthparts, enabling them to feed on plant sap. A leafhoppers' diet commonly consists of sap from a wide and diverse range of plants, but some are more host-specific. Leafhoppers mainly are herbivores, but some are known to eat smaller insects, such as aphids, on occasion. A few species are known to be mud-puddling, but as it seems, females rarely engage in such behavior. Many species are also known to opportunistically pierce the human skin and draw blood but the function of such behaviour is unclear.

Leafhoppers are micropredators that can act as vectors transmitting plant pathogens, such as viruses, phytoplasmas and bacteria. Cicadellidae species that are significant agricultural pests include the beet leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus), the maize leafhopper (Cicadulina mbila), potato leafhopper (Empoasca fabae), two-spotted leafhopper (Sophonia rufofascia), blue-green sharpshooter (Graphocephala atropunctata), glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca vitripennis), the common brown leafhopper (Orosius orientalis), rice green leafhoppers  (Nephotettix spp.), and the white apple leafhopper (Typhlocyba pomaria). The beet leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus) can transmit the beet curly top virus to various members of the nightshade family, including tobacco, tomato, or eggplant, and is a serious vector of the disease in chili pepper in the Southwestern United States.

In some cases, the plant pathogens distributed by leafhoppers are also pathogens of the insects themselves, and can replicate within the leafhoppers' salivary glands. Leafhoppers are also susceptible to various insect pathogens, including Dicistroviridae viruses, bacteria and fungi; numerous parasitoids attack the eggs and the adults provide food for small insectivores.

Some species such as the Australian Kahaono montana even build silk nests under the leaves of trees they live in, to protect them from predators.

Systematics
In the now-obsolete classification that was used throughout much of the 20th century, the leafhoppers were part of the Homoptera, a paraphyletic assemblage uniting the basal lineages of Hemiptera and ranked as suborder. The splitting of the Homoptera is likely to be repeated for the Auchenorrhyncha for similar reasons, as the Auchenorrhyncha simply seem to group the moderately advanced Hemiptera, regardless of the fact the highly apomorphic Coleorrhyncha and Heteroptera (typical bugs) evolved from auchenorrhynchans. Hence, a recent trend treats the most advanced hemipterans as three or four lineages, namely Archaeorrhyncha (Fulgoromorpha if included in Auchenorrhyncha), Coleorrhyncha and Heteroptera (sometimes united as Prosorrhyncha) and Clypeorrhyncha. Within the latter, the three traditional superfamilies – Cercopoidea (froghoppers and spittlebugs), Cicadoidea (cicadas) and Membracoidea – appear to be monophyletic. The leafhoppers are the most basal living lineage of Membracoidea, which otherwise include the families Aetalionidae (aetalionid treehoppers), Membracidae (typical treehoppers and thorn bugs), Melizoderidae, and Myerslopiidae.

Subfamilies

The leafhoppers are divided into 25 subfamilies, which are listed here alphabetically, as too little is known about the family's internal phylogeny.

 * Aphrodinae
 * Bathysmatophorinae
 * Cicadellinae
 * Coelidiinae
 * Deltocephalinae
 * Errhomeninae
 * Euacanthellinae
 * Eurymelinae
 * Evacanthinae
 * Hylicinae
 * Iassinae
 * Jascopinae
 * Ledrinae
 * Megophthalminae
 * Mileewinae
 * Nastlopiinae
 * Neobalinae
 * Neocoelidiinae
 * Nioniinae
 * Phereurhininae
 * Portaninae
 * Signoretiinae
 * Tartessinae
 * Typhlocybinae
 * Ulopinae

 * Further information: Agalliopsis, Utecha trivia

title: Leafhopper


text:
Billy Dean

William Harold Dean Jr. (born April 2, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter.

He first gained national attention after appearing on the television talent competition Star Search. Active as a recording artist since 1990, he has recorded a total of eight studio albums (of which the first three have been certified gold by the RIAA) and a greatest hits package which is also certified gold. His studio albums have accounted for more than 20 hit singles on the Billboard country charts, including 11 Top Ten hits.

In 2000, he had a Billboard Number one as a guest artist along with Alison Krauss on Kenny Rogers' "Buy Me a Rose", and had two Number Ones on the RPM country charts in Canada.

Biography
Dean was born in Quincy, Florida, on April 2, 1962. His father, also known as Billy Dean, maintained a band called The Country Rocks in his spare time. By the age of 8, Dean began playing in his father's band. Throughout high school, at Robert F. Munroe Day School, he continued to play music, both in his father's band and with other local musicians. He soon began touring in local clubs, and sang Frank Sinatra's "My Way" at his high school graduation.

Dean was also a basketball player in high school, and was offered a scholarship to East Central Community College in Decatur, Mississippi. He attended college for one year before dropping out in order to pursue his desired career in music. By the time he was 20, Dean made the finals on the Wrangler Country Star Search, followed by a Male Vocalist win on the television competition Star Search six years later. He also worked as a demo singer and took acting lessons, appearing in television commercials for McDonald's, Chevrolet and Valvoline. By the end of the decade, he had signed to a publishing contract with EMI Music, as well as a recording contract with SBK Records, a subsidiary of Liberty Records.

1990–1995
Dean's first single was "Lowdown Lonely", which did not enter the charts. It was followed by "Only Here for a Little While", the second release from his debut album Young Man. This song and its follow-up, "Somewhere in My Broken Heart" (previously recorded by Randy Travis on his 1989 album No Holdin' Back ) were both No. 3 hits on the Billboard country charts. The latter was also a minor hit on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts. Young Man was certified gold by the RIAA.

Dean's self-titled second album followed in 1991, and soon earned a gold certification as well. Four singles were released from it: "You Don't Count the Cost", "Only the Wind" and "Billy the Kid" each peaked at No. 4 on the country charts, while "If There Hadn't Been You" was a No. 3 on Billboard, and a No. 1 on both the former Radio & Records (now Mediabase) country charts in the U.S. and the RPM Country Tracks charts in Canada.

Dean toured with The Judds on their farewell tour in 1991, he also toured with Wynonna Judd and Clint Black. He wrote and recorded the theme song to the ABC animated television series Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, and hosted a Top 21 countdown on VH1. In 1992, he earned the Top New Male Vocalist award and the Song of the Year award for "Somewhere in My Broken Heart" from the Academy of Country Music.

Fire in the Dark was the title of Dean's third album. Issued in 1993, it was his third straight gold-certified album, earning that certification from both the RIAA and CRIA.His lead-off single "Tryin' to Hide a Fire in the Dark" peaked at No. 6 in the United States and became his second No. 1 in Canada. Following it were "I Wanna Take Care of You", "I'm Not Built That Way", and a cover of Dave Mason's 1977 pop hit "We Just Disagree". Also in 1993, Dean had an opening slot on Alan Jackson's tour.

Following his first three studio albums was a greatest hits album in 1994. This album reprised his first nine singles, as well as a new song, "Once in a While", which Dean wrote and recorded for the soundtrack to the 1994 film 8 Seconds. This song peaked at No. 53 based on unsolicited airplay.

Men'll Be Boys, his final release for SBK/Liberty, came later in 1994. This album was not as successful in sales or chart performance, producing the No. 24 "Cowboy Band" and No. 60 title track. After this album, Dean placed his career on hiatus to raise his children.

1996–present
Dean returned to the recording studio in 1996 for his fifth album, It's What I Do, on Capitol Records Nashville. This album returned him to the Top Ten with its title track and "That Girl's Been Spyin' on Me", which reached numbers 5 and 4, respectively. The final single, a cover of Don Williams' 1988 single "I Wouldn't Be a Man", fell short of Top 40. He also worked with actress and singer Crystal Bernard on her 1996 debut album Girl Next Door, in addition to co-writing its debut single "Have We Forgotten What Love Is." Later that year, Dean released a non-charting single, "In the Name of Love", which never appeared on an album. In 1998, Victoria Shaw and several other artists, including Dean, collaborated on the charity single "One Heart at a Time".

Real Man, his sixth album, was issued in mid-1998. This album produced only one Top 40 hit in its title track, followed by "Innocent Bystander" which reached number 68. After this album, Dean exited Capitol's roster. He also took up acting once more, appearing in the minor TV specials A Face to Kill For and Blue Valley Songbird. In 2000, he and Alison Krauss made guest appearances on Kenny Rogers' single "Buy Me a Rose", which reached the top of the Billboard country charts in May of that year. This song was also a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and Rogers' first number 1 single in thirteen years.

A year later, Dean joined Suzy Bogguss and 12-year-old singer Jillian on "Please Keep Mom and Dad in Love," which was issued on Rogers's Dreamcatcher Records, and never included on an album. Although he continued touring, he did not chart again until 2003 with "I'm in Love With You", released on the independent View 2 label. His next release for View 2 was a cover of John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy". Curb Records took over promotion of this single shortly after its release, and by mid-2004 it reached number 27 on the country charts. Following it was the single "Let Them Be Little", co-written by Richie McDonald of Lonestar and recorded by the band on its 2004 album Let's Be Us Again. Dean's seventh studio album, also titled Let Them Be Little, was finally issued in late 2004 on Curb. Although "Let Them Be Little" reached a peak of number 8 on the country charts in early 2005, the album's other singles all failed to reach Top 40. A Christmas music album, The Christ (A Song for Joseph), followed in late 2005. Included on the album was a duet with his daughter.

In addition to recording and touring, Dean is branching into using music for corporate marketing. One of his ventures, Song Sessions, combines songwriting and corporate team building exercises.

Billy has taken over the lead role (formerly played by Kenny Rogers), playing Hank Longley, in "The Toy Shoppe" (a musical written by Kenny Rogers and Kelly Junkerman) at the Starlite Theater in Branson, Missouri, through the end of 2013.

Grammy Awards

 * 1992
 * "Somewhere in My Broken Heart"
 * Best Male Country Vocal Performance
 * Nominated
 * }
 * }

American Music Awards

 * 1992
 * Billy Dean
 * Favorite Country New Artist
 * Nominated
 * }
 * }

TNN/Music City News Country Awards

 * 1993
 * Billy Dean
 * Star of Tomorrow
 * Nominated
 * }
 * }

Academy of Country Music Awards

 * rowspan=2| 1992
 * Billy Dean
 * Top New Male Vocalist
 * Won
 * "Somewhere in My Broken Heart"
 * Song of the Year
 * Won
 * 1993
 * Billy Dean
 * Top Male Vocalist of the Year
 * Nominated
 * 2001
 * "Buy Me a Rose"
 * Top Vocal Event of the Year
 * Nominated
 * }
 * "Buy Me a Rose"
 * Top Vocal Event of the Year
 * Nominated
 * }

Country Music Association Awards

 * 1992
 * Billy Dean
 * Horizon Award
 * Nominated
 * 1994
 * Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles
 * Album of the Year
 * Won
 * }
 * Won
 * }

Nominated alongside Alison Krauss and Kenny Rogers

Politics
In January 2024, Dean released "Never Back Down," a single "inspired" by Ron DeSantis. The song's name is the same as one of DeSantis's super PAC.

title: Billy Dean


text:
File:MiguelanxoPrado.jpg

Summary
Miguelanxo Prado, Trait de Craie, Inside extract

Licensing

 * Comics is an inherently visual medium consisting of the combination of pictures and words, so encyclopedia articles on comics-related topics are especially enhanced by the presence of images.
 * This image is a low-resolution scan of a copyrighted work, and could not be mistaken for the original page of which it is a scan.
 * This image is being used for educational purposes only. It does not, in any way, inhibit the copyright-owner's ability to sell merchandise related to this image.
 * The copyright on this image is owned by Casterman, 1994.

title: File:MiguelanxoPrado.jpg


text:
Imogene Pass

Imogene Pass is a 13114 ft high mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains in the southwest part of the US state of Colorado.

It crosses a ridge connecting Ouray, Colorado with Telluride, Colorado, and is the highest mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains, and the second highest vehicular mountain crossing in Colorado. The road is accessible by four wheel drive vehicles, and is not for the novice driver.

From Ouray, the road turns off the road to Yankee Boy Basin above the Camp Bird Mine near the ghost town of Sneffels southwest of Ouray, and climbs through Imogene Basin to the summit.

From Telluride, the road takes off north of downtown and climbs past the ghost town of Tomboy through Savage Basin to the summit.

The first long distance alternating current power line was constructed over Imogene Pass to carry power from the Telluride area to the Camp Bird Mine.

"Fort Peabody" was constructed in 1904 by a local unit of the Colorado National Guard on top of the pass to prevent union miners from crossing during a labor strike.

An annual foot race is held over the pass between Ouray and Telluride on the first Saturday following Labor Day. The grueling 17 mi race starts at around 7800 ft before cresting the pass at its peak, an elevation gain of just over a mile.

title: Imogene Pass


text:
GThumb

gThumb is a free and open-source image viewer and image organizer with options to edit images. It is designed to have a clean and simple user interface and follows GNOME HIG, it integrates well with the GNOME desktop environment.

Features
gThumb allows the filesystem to be browsed for images. They can be organized into catalogs, or viewed as a slideshow. Folders and catalogs can be bookmarked, and comments can be added to images.

Via gPhoto it can also acquire data directly from digital cameras.

gThumb offers a certain range of image editing operations suited for digital photography, such as the change of image hue, saturation, lightness, contrast or the adjustment of colors and sharpness. It can also crop, scale and rotate images by 90° or custom angles, and it features a red-eye effect removal function. Manipulated images can be saved in the formats JPEG, PNG, TIFF, .tga, avif, heif and WebP.

gThumb can export web-based photograph albums with various theme templates. These albums can be uploaded to a website, providing a very simple mechanism for publishing collections of photos on the web.

gThumb also includes many basic features such as copying, moving, deleting or duplicating images, printing, zooming, format transcoding, and batch renaming.

Dependencies
gThumb only requires glib (>= 2.36.0), gtk (>= 3.16), gthread, gmodule and gio-unix. Libraries that are not mandatory but possible include exiv2, libjpeg, LibTIFF, LibRaw, and JPEG XL's libjxl.

History
The first public version was 0.2 in 2001.

It was originally based on GQView. Starting from version 2.12.0 gThumb allows users to export images to various websites. Version 3.0.0 is based on GTK version 3, and supports high quality SVG zoom.

title: GThumb


text:
Category:Private Eye

Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper. It is currently edited by Ian Hislop.

title: Category:Private Eye


text: User talk:84.163.220.151

title: User talk:84.163.220.151


text:
Imaginism

Imaginism was a Russian avant-garde poetic movement that began after the Revolution of 1917.

History
Imaginism was founded in 1918 in Moscow by a group of poets including Anatoly Marienhof, Vadim Shershenevich, and Sergei Yesenin, who wanted to distance themselves from the Futurists; the name may have been influenced by imagism.

Stylistically, they were heirs to Ego-Futurism. Imaginists created poetry based on sequences of arresting and uncommon images. They wrote many verbless poems.

Other members of the group were the poets Rurik Ivnev, Alexander Kusikov, Ivan Gruzinov, Matvey Royzman, and the prominent Russian dramatist Nikolay Erdman. In January 1919 they issued a manifesto, whose text was largely written by Shershenevich.

Most of the imaginists were freethinkers and atheists. Imaginism had its main centres in Moscow and St. Petersburg. There were also smaller centres of imaginism in Kazan, Saransk, and Ukraine. Imaginists organised four poetry publishing houses, one of which was called simply Imaginism, and published the poetry magazine Gostinitsa dlya puteshestvuyuschih v prekrasnom ("Guesthouse for travellers in the beautiful").

The group broke up in 1925, and in 1927 it was liquidated officially. Its heritage, though, is still strong in Russia. Poems by Yesenin and Shershenevich, memoirs by Marienhof, and plays by Erdman are still in print and always in demand.

After the disappearance of the group, the "young imaginists" declared themselves followers of this trend in the early 1930s, and so did the "meloimaginists" of the 1990s.

Literature

 * Markov, V. Russian Imaginism 1919-1924. Gießen 1980.
 * Nilsson, N. The Russian imaginists. Ann Arbor: Almgvist and Wiksell, 1970.
 * Huttunen, T. Imazhinist Mariengof: Dendi. Montazh. Ciniki. Moscow: NLO, 2007.
 * Ponomareff, C. "The Image Seekers: Analysis of Imaginists Poetic Theory, 1919-1924." The Slavic and East European Journal 12 (1986).
 * Kudryavitsky, A. "Popytka zvuka." Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie 35 (1999).

title: Imaginism


text: Category:User az-1

title: Category:User az-1


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The Sins of Thy Beloved

The Sins of Thy Beloved was a death-doom/gothic metal band from Bryne, Norway, founded in 1996.

Biography
The band was formed in November 1996 by Glenn Morten Nordbø, Arild Christensen, and Stig Johansen. The band was initially called Purgatory, but they soon decided to change their name to something less common. Anita Auglend and Ola Aarrestad joined the band shortly thereafter, and they recorded their first demo All Alone in January–February 1997.

Anders Thue and Ingfrid Stensland then joined before they recorded their second demo Silent Pain in January 1998. Pete Johansen played the violin on that demo, although he did not officially join the band until the recording of their first full-length album Lake of Sorrow later in 1998.

They toured across Europe, before recording their second full-length album Perpetual Desolation in 2000. During the following tour, Anita Auglend, Anders Thue, and Ingfrid Stensland grew weary of traveling and left the band in 2001. A live performance was released on CD and VHS in 2001, but it was not distributed worldwide and is thus very hard to come by.

The band has been dormant since the departure of its three members. Pete Johansen has since left to play the violin on several Tristania and Sirenia albums. In 2007, it was rumored that Anita Auglend had returned to the band, although these rumors were never confirmed. It was eventually revealed in a blog interview conducted by Class of Sounds with Pete Johansen that the band actually had dissolved in 2002.

In 2013, band members Anders Thue and Stig Johansen formed the band Savn with Midnattsol singer Carmen Elise Espenæs. In 2016, guitarist, composer, and vocalist Arild Christensen formed the band Rainarea with Nelly Khosrovyan.

Style
The Sins of Thy Beloved are often compared to gothic metal bands such as Tristania and early Theatre of Tragedy, mainly because of the band's combination of a female soprano voice with male death grunt; this trait is common to gothic metal in general, and is known as "beauty and the beast" vocals. Their music features death-doom rhythmics enhanced by the prominent use of violins, especially on the Lake of Sorrow album, typical of many gothic doom bands. Their live recordings offer a sound closer to traditional death metal than their studio albums, which make heavy use of arrangements and effects.

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * Lake of Sorrow (1998)
 * Perpetual Desolation (2000)

 * Live albums
 * Live (2002)

 * Video albums
 * Perpetual Desolation Live (2001)

 * EPs
 * All Alone (1997)

 * Demo albums
 * The Sins of Thy Beloved (1997)

Last known line-up

 * Anita Auglend - vocals (1996–2001, 2007–2008)
 * Glenn Morten Nordbø - guitars, harsh vocals (1996–2008)
 * Arild Christensen - guitar, backing vocals (1996–2008)
 * Ola Aarrestad - bass (1996–2008)
 * Stig Johansen - drums (1996–2008)
 * Maiken Olaisen - keyboards (2005–2008)

Former members

 * Anders Thue - keyboards (1997–2001), (2005–2008 live)
 * Ingfrid Stensland - keyboards, piano (1997–2001)
 * Pete Johansen - violin (1998–2001)
 * Hege-Marie Aanby - vocals (2001)
 * Mona Wallin - vocals (2005)

title: The Sins of Thy Beloved


text:
User talk:Muthu swprof

Hi! welcome to Wikipedia!

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title: User talk:Muthu swprof


text:
Imbangala

The Imbangala or Mbangala were divided groups of warriors and marauders who worked as hired mercenaries in 17th-century Angola and later founded the Kasanje Kingdom.

Origins
The Imbangala were people, possibly from Central Africa, who appeared in Angola during the early 17th century. Their origins are still debated. There is general agreement that they were not the same Jagas that attacked the Kingdom of Kongo during the reign of Alvaro I.

In the 1960s, Jan Vansina and David Birmingham hypothesized that the oral traditions of the Lunda Empire suggested that both groups of Jaga marauders originated in the Lunda Empire (present-day Democratric Republic of Congo and Zambia) under leader Kinguri and had fled 1550 and 1612. Another theory is that the Imbangala were a local people of southern Angola originating from the Bie Plateau or the coastal regions west of the highlands.

The first witness account of the Imbangala, written by an English sailor named Andrew Battell, who lived with them for 16 months around 1600–1601, places them firmly in the coastal regions and highlands of modern Angola, just south of the Kwanza River. Their leaders told Battell that they had come from a place called Elembe and that they had originated from a "page" in its army. Battell's story was published by Samuel Purchas partially in 1614 and fully in 1625.

Initiation and customs
The Imbangala were a fully militarized society based entirely on initiation rites as opposed to the customary kinship rites of most African ethnic groups. To keep kinship from replacing initiation, all children born inside a kilombo (village) were killed. Women were allowed to leave the kilombo to have their children, but when they returned, the child was not considered an Imbangala until undergoing initiation. In almost Spartan-like program, children were trained daily in group and individual combat.

During training, they wore a collar that could not be removed, even after initiation, until they had killed a man in battle. Aside from infanticide rituals, the Imbangala covered themselves with ointment called maji a samba believed to confer invulnerability as long as the soldier followed strict set of yijila (codes), which required the infanticide, cannibalism and an absolute absence of cowardice.

Weapons and tactics
Imbangala fighting men were known as ngunza (singular: gonzo) and were divided into twelve squadrons, each led by a captain called a musungo. These twelve squadrons were part of a kilombo, a temporarily-fortified town surrounded by a wooden palisade. Each kilombo had twelve gates for the twelve squadrons that formed the total fighting force. The Imbangala army took the open field or any battlefield away from their fortifications in a three-prong formation similar to the famous Zulu "bull horn" formation. The Imbangala attacked with a right horn (mutanda), left horn (muya) and vanguard (muta ita) in the center. Unlike the Zulu, the Imbangala fought with the same weapons as their enemies, including bows, knives and swords. Their primary weapon was the war club or hatchet.

Relations with Portuguese
Battell went to the Imbangala's country with Portuguese merchants buying their war captives to sell as slaves. At this time the Imbangala were marauders whose primary interest seemed to be pillaging the country, especially to obtain large quantities of palm wine, which they produced by a wasteful method of chopping down trees and tapping their fermented contents over a few months.

The Imbangala did not permit female members to give birth in their kilombo (Portuguese quilombo), or armed camp. Instead, they replenished their numbers by capturing adolescents and forcing them to serve in their army. This social structure made the Imbangala warbands ideal slavers, as non-male prisoners had little use in their society and as such could be easily sold to the Portuguese.

Their military capacity and ruthlessness appealed to Portuguese colonists in Angola, who had been fought to a standstill in their war against the Angolan kingdom of Ndongo during the first period of colonial rule (1575–1599). Despite professing disgust at Imbangala customs, Portuguese governors of Luanda sometimes hired them for their campaigns, beginning with Bento Banha Cardoso in 1615 but most notably after Luis Mendes de Vasconcelos's 1618 assault on Ndongo.

Mendes de Vasconcelos operated with three bands of Imbangala but soon found that they were not disciplined enough to serve the Portuguese. Kasanje's band, in particular, broke free of Portuguese control and began a long campaign of pillage that eventually established them in the Baixa de Cassange region of modern Angola along the Kwango River. The band became the modern Angolan ethnicity that calls itself Imbangala (and ceased the militant customs of its predecessors in the late 17th century).

Another band, Kaza, joined Ndongo and opposed the Portuguese before betraying Ndongo's Queen Njinga Mbande in 1629, thus frustrating that queen's attempt to preserve Ndongo's independence from a base on islands in the Kwanza River. After Njinga's short-lived attempt to join with Kasanje in 1629–30, she went to Matamba and there formed her own (or joined with another) Imbangala band led by a man known as "Njinga Mona" (Njinga's son). Though reported to be an Imbangala herself (supposedly taking an initiation rite that involved pounding up a baby in a grain mortar), Njinga probably never really became one.

Later fate
Other bands were integrated into the Portuguese army serving as auxiliary soldiers, under their commanders and cantoned within the Portuguese territory. As the 17th century wore on, they and other bands were annihilated by one or another of the political states, such as the one formed by Njinga in Matamba. One rogue group of Imbangala set down roots and formed the Kasanje Kingdom.

South of the Kwanza, in the original homeland of the Imbangala, they continued operating much as before for a least another half a century, but even there, they gradually formed partnerships with existing political entities such as Bihe (Viye), Huambo (Wambu) or Bailundu (Mbailundu). In all these areas, their customs tended to moderate in the 18th century, cannibalism was restricted to ritual and sometimes only to symbolic occasions (for example, in the 19th century, Imbangala groups in the central highlands still practiced a ritual known as "eating the old man").

title: Imbangala