THE LARGE GAME OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 177 



soon as his first note proclaims a find, a dozen strong half-bred 

 mastiffs are despatched to his assistance. 



Then for a while the hound-music frightens the shadows 

 and shocks the silence of the sleeping woods ; there is a 

 crashing among the dry forest scrub, a breakneck scurry of 

 mounted men among the timber ; then the furious baying 

 of the hounds and the noisy rush of the hunters converge 

 towards one dark point among the shadows, and in the half 

 light a great grizzly tusker dies beneath the cold steel, but not 

 before he has written a lasting record of the hunt on the hide 

 of some luckless hound. Pig-sticking proper, as practised in 

 India, is not known in Spain, though possibly it might be 

 practicable on the plains of Andalusia. 



The bears of Spain are of two varieties — the large dark- 

 coloured beast known as 'carnicero,' and said to prey upon 

 goats, sheep, pigs, and even to pull down horned cattle upon 

 occasion, and a smaller, lighter-coloured bear called 'hormi- 

 guero ' or ant-eater, which is common in the Asturias, feeding 

 upon roots, ants, and such-like humble fare. 



Bear hunting in Spain is confined almost exclusively to the 

 north, to the Pyrenees and Cantabrian highlands. Among 

 the Asturias a kind of hunting brotherhood of peasants 

 still survives, whose members face the bear armed only 

 with pike and knife. These men {los oseros de [Espafia), 

 with the assistance of a couple of sturdy dogs, seek out 

 their quarry amid the recesses of the mountains, and slay 

 or are slain in single combat. Their equipment is simple. 



broad-bladed knife and a double dagger, each of whose 

 triangular, razor-edged blades fits into a central handle, 

 suffice them for weapons of offence. For defensive purposes 

 they wear a thick sleeve composed of many layers of coarse 

 cloth. 



When the bear is brought to bay by the dogs the hunter 



rushes in : as the bear rises to grip his new assailant the 



"ero plants his knife in Bruin's chest, and then, as the animal 



Avers his head for a moment beneath the pain of the blow, 



n. N 



