The past was a place of different values and ethics and to a certain extent today you cannot judge the actions of people thousands of years ago against the moral standards of thousands of years ago. But on the other hand: God, why are you licking the anus of a horse? Let’s start from the beginning. Isles are a versatile animal with which we have had a mixed relationship over the years: basically, it’s our food or something we’ve removed from our own anus. That’s the way it was last week.
In addition to this, we have sometimes used them as a kind of ball which is clearly the worst game of all time. Palingtrekken – pull the el lo – take a rope involved and hang it over a canal, before attaching a live el lo in the center. After that, the human participants will board the boat and try to pull the slippery drag and down, whoever manages it will be declared the winner and there will be a real jolt centuries later.
While this may seem like a vague innovation that no one really played, you forget how small people were on the way to entertainment hundreds of years before Shrek. The people of Amsterdam, at least, took it very seriously and reacted badly when it was only banned as a Lex Luther level wickedness.
When Yale Young started an illegal game in Jordan on July 25, 1886, the police tried to break it. Rather try e.g. in chess, the mob jumps on the police, brutally beating one of them, while his colleague brings in reinforcements to escalate the completely insane situation. Instead of checking out badminton, the fights took place all evening and resumed the next day.
The military landed on the field, and 25 people died before the end of the day, defending their right to jump on an eel to tell their sport. Side point, but imagine how it would come down to people wailing about Olympic skateboarding. So you can see that despite spending our relationship on most occasions, we are not absolutely best friends with el.
