414 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



In those ancient books, in which the noble Art of 

 Venerie is bravely upheld, as inferior only to the science 

 of war, and the excitement of the chase deemed scarcely 

 less heart-thrilling than a battle, much weight is always 

 laid on the qualifications of a hunter. " And the hun- 

 ter " — so it is written in a quaint old volume of some 

 centuries ago — " shall be strong of body, bold, and of 

 gay disposition : in body not too stout, in order that he 

 may bear work, and in time of need follow well afoot. 

 Nor should he be too spare of habit or meagre, in order 

 that he may have strength in him, and so go to meet 

 the wild animals with greater safety. The manly hunter 

 followeth the praiseworthy pastime of the chase, nor 

 doth he let himself be withheld by snow, cold, rain, 

 water, mountain, valley, desert, hunger, thirst, heat, un- 

 rest, vigils, work, trouble, nor danger." 



Whether on the plain, in the forest, or on the moun- 

 tain, he who has tarried much with Nature, and made 

 her his companion, will, unless duller than a clod, have 

 at times experienced strange emotions in the solitude ; 

 familiar shapes will have assumed unwonted forms, and 

 awe will have seized on him, and great fear; he, will 

 have heard "low breathings coming after him," or 

 "steps almost as silent as the turf they trod;" and 

 things, even low sounds, have been to him as ti Pre- 

 sence, and he will have felt sorely troubled. And this 

 not merely in the darkness, but in the broad light of 

 noon ; when the stillness of midnight seemed hanging 

 in the air, yet the sun-rays were streaming silently down 

 the stems of the beeches, and there was no living crea- 



every superstitious belief to account, alludes to this bone as follows : — 

 " A pious and sensible woodman may derive a lesson from the animals 

 of the chase. The stag carries in the middle of his heart a little cross 

 of two small bones ; this may cause the woodman to remember that he 

 should never shut out the cross, nor Him crucified, from his heart." 



