40 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



doe i, nothing can save the huntsman, but another person attacking 

 him behind ; he will on this attack the second person, and the 

 first must then attack him again ; two people will thus have 

 enough to do with him ; and were it not for the forks of the boar- 

 spears that make it impossible to press forward upon them, the 

 huntsman who gives the creature his death's wound would seldom 

 escape falling a sacrifice to his revenge. 



The modern way of boar-hunting is generally to dispatch the 

 creature by all the huntsmen striking him at once ; but the 

 ancient Roman way was, for a person on foot, armed with a 

 spear, to keep the creature at bay ; and in this case the boat 

 would run of hmiself upon the spear to come at the huntsman, 

 and push forward till the spear pierced him through. 



The hinder claws of a boar are called guards. In the corn, 

 he is said to feed ; in the meadows or sallow-fields, to rout, worm, 

 or fern ; in u close, to graze. The boar is farrowed with as many 

 teeth as he will ever have ; his teeth increasing only in bigness, not 

 in number ; among these there are four called tushes, or tusks ; 

 the two biggest of which do not hurt when he strikes, but serve 

 only to whet the other two lowest, with which the beast defends 

 himself, and frequently kills, as being greater and longer than 

 the rest. These creatures in the West Indies are subject to the 

 stone ; few of them are absolutely free from it, yet scarce any ol 

 them have the stones of any considerable size. It is common to 

 find a great number in the same bladder. They are usually of 

 about a scruple weight, and are angular and regular, each having 

 five angles. Among the ancient Romans, boar's flesh was a deli 

 cacy ; a boar served up a whole dish of state. The boar vva 

 sometimes the military ensign of the Roman armies, in lieu o 

 the eagle. Among physicians, a boar's bladder has been repute\ 

 ft specific for the epilepsy. The tush of the wild boar still passe 

 with some as of great efficacy in quinzies and pleurisies 



