Sometimes an event occurs on the common.  It is the ascent of a pair of kites of a distingué air, and whose grand and determined manner shews that the combat is to be à l’outrance, and that a large stake of money depends upon the result.  The fliers are invisible.  They are probably on the flat roof of some neighbouring house; but the kites are not the less interesting on account of their origin being unknown.  What a host of anxious faces are turned up to the sky!  Some take a liking to the red at first sight, while others feel attracted by a mysterious sympathy to the green.  Bets are freely offered and accepted either in sweetmeats or money; and the crowd, condensing, move to and fro in a huge wave, from which their eager voices arise like the continuous roaring of the sea.  Higher and higher go the kites.  Well done, Red! he has shot above his antagonist, and seems meditating a swoop; but the Green, serenely scornful, continues to soar, and is soon uppermost.  And thus they go—­now up, now down, relatively to each other, but always ascending higher and higher, till the spectators almost fear that they will vanish out of sight.  But at length the Green, taking advantage of a loftier position he has gained, makes a sudden circuit, and by an adroit manoeuvre gets his silken string over the silken string of the other, Here a shout of triumph and a yell of terror break simultaneously from the crowd; for this is the crisis of the fight.  The victor gives a fierce cut upon his adversary’s line.  The backers of the latter fancy they hear it grate, and in an instant their forebodings are realised; far the unfortunate Red is seen to waver like a bird struck by a shot, and then, released from the severed string, he descends in forlorn gyrations to the earth.

Now rush in the smaller boys to play their part, Their object is that of the plunderers who traverse the field after a battle, to rob the dying and the slain.  Off run the little Hindoos, like a company of imps from the nether regions, tearing and fighting as they fly; and on reaching the fallen kite, the object of their contention is torn to pieces in the scuffle.  Presently the victorious Green is seen descending, and the gross excitement of the common pauses to watch his majestic flight.  He is of the largest size of Indian kites called ching, and of the spider shape.  Before being drawn in, he hangs for an instant high up over the crowd.  It is not, however, to sing Io Pæans for his victory, but apparently rather to mourn over the ruin he has made; for a wailing music breathes from his wings as he passes.  This is caused by the action of the wind upon some finely-split bamboo twigs arched over the kite without touching the paper, and which thus become a true Æolian harp.  Sometimes a kite of this kind is sent up at night, bearing a small lighted lantern of talc; and the sleepers awakened, called to their balconies by the unearthly music, gaze after the familiar apparition not without a poetical thrill.