"From wood to wood redoubling thunders roll. 

 And bellow thro' the vales; the moving storm 

 Thickens amain, and loud triumphant shouts. 

 And horns shrill-warbling in each glade, prelude 

 To his approaching fate." 



Somervile. 



XXVI 



THE CHASE OF THE WILD BOAR 



LOCATING THE GAME — THE CO\TERT SIDE — THE START — THE 

 CHASE HALLALl! THE CEREMONY. 



XiriLD boars, like foxes, seek food during the night and 

 ^ ' sleep during the day. They kennel almost anywhere 

 that they happen to be when morning begins to break. 



Sometimes they go in small droves, that is, the younger 

 ones accompanied by some of the older females ; but the males, 

 except in the rutting season, seem to prefer to travel and kennel 

 alone. 



By daybreak the huntsman, with a well trained hound, goes 

 out into the forest to locate a boar; possibly, one of the Baron's 

 sons with another hound goes in another direction. We will, 

 for the sake of illustration, start with the huntsman and his 

 one mute hound, led by a line (rather the hound leads the 

 huntsman by the line), along the road, beginning at the south- 

 east corner of section No. 445 (see the preceding diagram). 

 When half way or more across the east side of the section the 

 hound, who is carefully hunting every yard of the way, halts 

 and begins to "feather" — that is, his hackles begin to stand on 

 end. Without giving tongue he makes a sharp turn to the left. 

 The huntsman now examines the road carefullv and finds the 



