THE WILD BOAR. 103 



account of their scent rather than their strength, to far too 

 great a risk to employ them in this sort of sport. The boar, 

 he says, will kill a dog with a single blow from his tusks ; 

 and when he turns upon a pack, generally selects the 

 strongest, and will lay several of them dead in as many 

 instants. He speaks of one he saw, which, while pursued 

 by fifty dogs, suddenly turned upon them, and not only 

 slew six or seven of them, but wounded so many more, 

 that only ten of the whole number came home uninjured. 



Boar-hunting, it may be conceived from these facts, was 

 a sport by no means unattended with danger to the hunter 

 himself, as well as to his dogs. As practised during the 

 middle ages, the animal, 'when brought to a stand, was 

 attacked, sometimes on horseback and sometimes on foot ; 

 and either by swords which were struck into his flesh, or 

 by strong spears which were protruded against him till he 

 either rushed upon the point, or exposed himself to a thrust 

 from the person by whom the weapon was held. The 

 parts into which it was attempted to plunge the spear, with 

 the view of inflicting the most deadly wounds, were the 

 forehead, between the eyes, and the breast, immediately 

 under the shoulder-blade. Our engraving presents a spirited 

 sketch of this mode of attack. It sometimes happened, 

 however, that the boar would, by a sudden movement, con- 

 trive to seize the haft of the protruded spear between his 

 powerful jaws, in which case his assailant was exposed to 

 the most imminent danger of destruction. One crunch was 

 sufficient to grind the wood to fragments ; and the next 

 instant, unless some one was by to renew the attack, the 

 enraged beast had his unarmed enemy upon the ground 

 under his hoofs, and was ripping him up with his tusks. 

 When horses were employed, they were frequently wound- 

 ed in this way. 



Boar-hunting is still a favorite amusement in India; but 

 there the sport appears to be always followed on horse- 

 back, and the animal is attacked by long spears or javelins, 



