290 CHAPTER XL. 



I saw a man, not long ago, who had a litter of young 

 wolves in a basket. He was taking them down the 

 valley to claim the reward that is paid for the 

 destruction of these animals. The hunter receives 

 twelve francs for a male wolf, fifteen to eighteen for a 

 female, and six for a young one. Formerly the male 

 wolf or lynx had a price of two pounds upon his 

 head, and the female three pounds. A couple of 

 huntsmen, brothers, living lately in the Tinee valley, 

 killed between them over one hundred and fifty 

 wolves, and not far from one hundred lynxes. 



In the old hard-fighting days those men were 

 fittest to survive who most resembled wolves. All 

 nations therefore honoured the wolf. He repre- 

 sented an ideal, and we always do honour to our 

 ideals. Lupa was the foster mother of Romulus. 

 Lycaon, the Wolf-King and impious cannibal of 

 Arcadia, was one of the most ancient Kings of 

 Greece, if not the very earliest ; for he is fabled as 

 the son of Pelasgus. Fierce as wolves were the 

 founders both of Greece and Rome. And was not 

 Alfred the Great a son of " The Noble Wolf " ? The 

 third Evangelist is " St. Wolf." I need not mention 

 the hero of Quebec or the unfortunate patriot of '98. 

 The greatest German poet is "Wolfgang" von 

 Goethe : Mozart is also " Wolfgang." Apollo, the 

 sun-god, was " Lyceus," swift and strong as a wolf, 

 that is : and from his temple was named the 

 " Lyceum," by the banks of the Ilissus, where Aristotle 

 taught. (The derivation from a root " luk "=light is 

 nevertheless more reasonable.) 



But it was not enough to be as prone to blood- 

 shed and as ruthless as a wolf. The man who could 



