THE WILD HOO. 403 



an increase of the numbers of his race. The female, con- 

 scious of the danger, seeks to conceal herself for a time after 

 the young are born. 



There is something noble in the courage of this powerful 

 and solitary creature. All his strength seems to be given 

 him for self-defence. He injures no one, unless when dis- 

 turbed in his retreat, or in the search of the food which his 

 nature leads him to seek. He does not court a combat with 

 enemies that thirst for his blood, but for the most part seeks 

 to secure himself by betaking himself to the nearest covert. If 

 attacked by savage dogs, he sullenly retreats, turning often 

 upon them, and driving them back by his formidable tusks. 

 When wearied and tormented, and forced at length to fight 

 for his life, he turns on his persecutors, and aims at ven- 

 geance. If struck by the spear or ball of his pursuers, he 

 has been known to disregard all his other enemies, and single 

 out his destroyer. When pursued by dogs, he rushes fiercely 

 upon the foremost and strongest, maiming and killing num- 

 bers of the pack in an incredibly short time. In like manner, 

 he dashes upon the foremost horseman, overthrowing the 

 horse and rider in a moment. 



The hunting of the Wild Hog has been, from early times, 

 a sylvan sport familiar to the people of Asia and Europe. 

 The classic writers of Greece and Rome abound with allu- 

 sions to the chase of this dangerous creature. Homer, the 

 magic of whose genius carries us back through thirty cen- 

 turies to the homes and feelings of the rustic warriors of his 

 country, refers to the grisly tenant of the woods in a multitude 

 of passages that live in the memory of every scholar. Later 

 writers inform us, that the practice was to hunt him with 

 large dogs, to encounter him with spears or javelins, and 

 sometimes, it would seem, to drive him into nets or pallisades, 

 in the manner pursued in Europe until our own times. Dur- 

 ing the middle ages, we have numerous accounts of the hunt- 

 ing of the Wild Boar. In England, the rude Anglo-Saxons 

 brought to their new country the fondness for this sport 



