HOGS. 245 



When the natives of Africa spear or entrap one, they 

 tie his fore-feet together, sling him on a pole, decorate 

 him and themselves with creeping plants, and return to 

 their huts with triumphant shouts and rejoicing. The 

 flesh of these is very close-grained, white, and hard. The 

 impossibility of keeping meat in that country till it be- 

 comes tender, makes wild boar flesh almost useless to 

 Europeans, unless their teeth vie with those of negroes. 

 Some idea of the sort of sport which attends the chase 

 of wild boars, may be formed from the following account 

 of one which took place in a forest in Luxembourg. At 

 a battue, several of these animals were driven together, 

 and they came rushing on like a squadron of heavy 

 dragoons, breaking through the underwood. Several 

 shots were fired, and they tried to disperse. One hunts- 

 man got out of the line, and a boar came rushing upon 

 him ; but a fresh shot broke one of his legs, which, 

 however, though it made him more savage, caused him 

 to turn into the forest. The well-trained dogs and the 

 huntsman pursued him, and when they came up with 

 him, found him terrifically savage. One of the hounds, 

 more daring than the rest, made a dart at the beast, 

 seized him by one ear, and bounded over him to the 

 opposite side. They ran off together, the boar's head 

 almost turned upside down ; but with a sudden jerk 

 the dog was shaken off, and the boar tearing him open, 

 tossed him several feet in the air. The pack then 

 gathered so thickly round that the boar's progress was 

 stayed, and the men came up and cut his throat. At 

 another point of the wood, a sow weighing three hundred 

 pounds, and followed by her young, was wounded, and 

 furiously pursued a hunter, whom she surprised in a 

 narrow pass between two rocks. He waited her ap- 



