64 NETHER LOCHABER. 



the little red-eyed wretch's motto being " Thorough ! " Once fairly 

 on the back of his victim, he anchored himself firmly by his teeth 

 right in the centre of the nape of the neck, just where the head is 

 articulated to the cervical vertebrae ; and as no exertion of the hare 

 could shake him off, he leisurely dug down, drinking the blood and 

 eating as he dug, until the poor hare, faint and exhausted, could 

 only stagger about in response to each cruel dig of the dental spurs 

 of its terrible rider. That a creature so diminutive weighing only 

 about as many ounces as a hare weighs pounds should be able 

 thus to mount and master an animal so much bigger than itself, 

 seems extraordinary, and is only to be accounted for by a lithe 

 agility in the assailant, to be met with in no other creature perhaps, 

 coupled with indomitable courage and instinctive blood-thirstiness. 

 We recollect some years ago that an old man, a James Cameron, 

 belonging to Achintore, near Fort-William, was savagely assaulted 

 by a colony of weasels, and very severely wounded before he could 

 get rid of his assailants. He was employed by a neighbour to 

 remove a cairn of small stones from a grass field, in which it had 

 long been an eyesore, from the centre of which cairn, when he had 

 wheeled away several barrows-full, six or seven weasels rushed out 

 and attacked him. So sudden and unexpected was the attack, that 

 before he could do anything to defend himself, his hands and chin 

 and cheeks for they instinctively flew at his throat, which was 

 luckily guarded by the thick folds of a homespun cravat were 

 severely bitten. One or two he killed by taking them in his hands, 

 dashing them to the ground, and trampling them under his feet ; 

 but the others stuck to him with the pertinacity and viciousness 

 of angry bees, and it was only by running into a house that was at 

 hand, for aid and protection, that they ceased their attack and left 

 him. Happening to be in Fort- William that day, we recollect 

 examining the man's wounds, and getting the story of the weasel 

 assault from his own lips. We remember remarking how astonish- 



