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 (Jos oseros de Espana], 

 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. 

 A 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 

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

 lowers his head for a moment oeneath the pain of the blow, 



II. N 



