GAME LAWS 255 GANGES spectacle. Originally these games were connected with the worship of Neptune. The Persian war gave an impulse to the Isthmian games, while the Peloponnesian war dimmed their glory. Under the Romans, these games did not lose their importance, but were exhibited with in- creased celebrity. They were then held every three years, and comprised three leading divisions — musical, gymnastic, and equestrian contests. The prize at the Olympic games was merely a chaplet of wild olive. At the Isthmian games, the prize was parsley during the mythic periods; in later times, however, the victor was generally crowned with a wreath of pine leaves. The amusements in the Roman circus did not differ materially from those which were celebrated in the games of ancient Greece. The theriomachia, or beast fight, was a favorite species of en- tertainment among them; and the men employed to fight with wild beasts, were called bestiarii. The combatants were divided into two classes — those who fought voluntarily for amusement or pay, and who were provided with weapons — and condemned persons, who were generally exposed to the fury of the animals naked, without arms, and sometimes bound. Under Pompey, no less than 600 lions were thus destroyed; and under Titus, 5,000 wild and 4,000 tame animals perished in a similar manner. GAME LAWS, laws relating to the killing of certain wild animals pursued for sport, and called game. Formerly in Great Britain certain qualifications of rank or property were needed to con- stitute the right to kill game ; but by the Game Act of William IV. the necessity for any qualification except the posses- sion of a game certificate was abolished. Night poaching is a graver offense; any person found guilty of trespassing in pursuit of game between the first hour after sunset and the last before sunrise, is for the first offense liable to imprison- ment with hard labor for three months and to find security for a year, a third offense involving liability to penal servi- tude. By an act of 1880 every occupier of land has a right, as inseparable from and incident to the occupation of the land, to kill and take ground game (hares and rabbits) thereon, concur- rently with any other duly authorized person, all agreements in contravention of this right being declared void. Game laws of greater or less strictness are in force in many other countries. In Can- ada and the United States the chief re- strictions are in regard to killing wild animals during the breeding season. GANDAK (gun-dak') (the Great Gandak; the Little Gandak being an un- important tributary of the Gogra) a river of India, rising in the Nepal Hima- layas, in lat. 30° 56' N. and Ion. 79° 7' E., flowing S. W. to British territory, and then S. E., forming for some dis- tance the boundary between the North- west provinces and Bengal, and entering the Ganges opposite Patna. GANDAMAK (gun-da-muk') , a vil- lage of Afghanistan, between Cabul and Peshawar, where, during the retreat from Kabul in 1842, the last remnant of the British force was massacred, only one man making his escape. Here also a treaty was signed with Yakub Khan in 1879. See Afghanistan. GANGES (gan'jez), a river of Hin- dustan, one of the greatest rivers of Asia, rising in the Himalaya Mountains, in Garhwal state, and formed by the junction of two head streams, the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, which unite at Deoprag, 10 miles below Srina- gar, 1,500 feet above sea-level. The Bhagirathi, as being a sacred stream, is usually considered the source of the Ganges, rising at the height of 13,800 feet, but the Alaknanda flows farther and brings a larger volume of water to the junction. At Hardwar, about 30 miles below Deoprag, the river fairly enters the great valley of Hindustan, and flows in a S. E. direction till it dis- charges itself by numerous mouths into the Bay of Bengal, after a course of about 1,500 miles. During its course it is joined by 11 large rivers, the chief being the Jumna, Son, Ramganga, Gumti, Gogra, Gandak and Kusi. In the rainy season the flat country of Bengal is overflowed to the extent of 100 miles in breadth, the water beginning to recede after the middle of August. The Ganges delta has the Hugli on the W., the Meghna on the E. and commences about 200 miles, or 300 by the course of the river, from the sea. Along the sea it forms an uninhabited swampy waste, called Sunderbunds, or Sundarbans, and the whole coast of the delta is a mass of shifting mud banks. The W. branch, the Hugli, is the only branch commonly navigated by ships. The Meghna, or main branch, on the E. is joined by a branch of the Brahmaputra. Some of the principal cities on the Ganges and its branches, ascending the stream, are Cal- cutta, Murshedabad, Bahar, Patna, Ben- ares, Allahabad, Cawnpur, and Farucka- bad. The Ganges is navigable for boats of a large size nearly 1,500 miles from its mouths, and it forms a great channel for traffic. It is an imperative duty of the Hindus
