40 TAMING HORSR^. 



handling of him. As a striking proof of this as- 

 sertion, I will relate what I performed in the state 

 of Neuvo Leon, upon a wild boar, taken two days 

 before in the woods, without being wounded. He 

 was shut up in a pen, or kind of cage, and was so 

 furious that he had eaten nothing for thirty hours. 

 When I came to the cage, which was standing in 

 a back yard, he gnashed his teeth, and became en- 

 raged, and foamed in a terrible manner. I stood 

 still before him for more than three quai'ters of an 

 hour. I held a staff in my hand, around the end 

 of which I wrapped a cloth pretty tight, and ad- 

 vanced it, by little and little^ towards the head of 

 the boar. He at first tried to catch it in his mouth ; 

 but, by continually repeating the trial, I succeeded 

 in touching the bristles of his head. He made 

 some resistance ; but, after I had slightly touched 

 his head a dozen times, he stood still, I contin- 

 ued this operation around his head, and then upon 

 his sides, for half an hour, and also upon his belly 

 and back. At the end of an hour, he appeared 

 half asleep, and I passed the staff over him with 

 great facility, till at last, seeing him so easy, I ven- 

 tured to pass my hand through the grates, and 

 touch him with it; which, so lar from irritating 

 him, he seemed to take an uncommon pleasure in 

 being rubbed and scratched. Here, it must be 

 observed, that, instead of giving light strokes or 



