But there are so many rules that it is impossible fully to understand
it without seeing it played, or to explain it without a diagram
showing the positions of the players, who have all different names,
like men fielding at cricket. The _jeu de boule_, which you may hear
mentioned in Belgium, is quite different from the _jeu de balle_, and
is much the same as skittles.
[Illustration: PLAYING "JEU DE BOULE," AT A FLEMISH INN.]
Of the more important games football is the most popular in Belgium.
Great crowds assemble to watch the matches, which are always played
under "Association" rules. Rugby football would be impossible for
Belgians, because they would never keep their tempers when caught
and thrown down. There would be constant rows, and no match would ever
be finished. As it is, there is a great deal of quarrelling, and when
one town plays another the visitors, if they win, are hooted, and
sometimes attacked, when they are leaving the ground. Lately, after a
football match in Flanders, knives were drawn, and some of the players
had to escape in a motor-car.
Cricket has lately been tried, but it has not as yet spread much, and
is not likely to become very popular, as it requires too much patience
and steadiness for Belgian young men and boys.
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