184 THE WILD HOG. 



an h#iir, and each quarter to half a day, assistance 

 arrived. 



Marsh led the advance, with about tvr«-ddzen curs, 

 f®ll«wed by samie negrees, armed with cane-knives and 

 bludgeons ; and between them all they managed to kill, 

 cripple, or put to flight the peccaries. 



I got d^wn the tree by the aid of my hands^ my legs 

 being so stiff as to be useless ; nor could I reach hdme 

 without assistance. 



The man who had s© luckily heard my sh&uts was 

 the ceunty tax-c©llector ; and this was certainly the 

 first and the #nly time when the presence of a tax- 

 collector pr«ved welcome to me. 



The domestic h«g ( >S' its scr©/a), whether tame or wild, 

 is of great use in destroying the ven»m«us snakes. 

 They never find «ne without attempting t€> kill it, and 

 s^^metimes, in these encounters, a thin hbg will get 

 bitten, and die, but a fat h^g rarely suffers, as the fat 

 which receives the ven®m neutralises it, and it is ©nly 

 when some vein is reached that a snake-bite proves 

 mortal. The heg is am omnivorous feeder. The flesh, 

 from the carrion on which it has fed, is t©« rank and 

 high-scented t« be made use of. Indeed, the h»g 

 is quite as gaod a scavenger as the vulture; fer 

 should a horse die in the forest, or a weunded deer ©r 

 c@w escape from the hunter, ©nly to die, the heg puts 

 in an appearance at the feast as early as either the 

 buzzard or w«lf. 



