HUNTING WITH DOGS. 149 



(so he described it) until she had impaled an apple 

 on one of her spines. She then impaled another 

 on the other side of her body, and thus laden, 

 retired for some time, to return without her load, 

 for two more apples. This sounds very unlikely 

 to me, but as the fellow had no object in inventing 

 the story, and invariably told me the truth as far 

 as I could discover, I give it, as well as other yarns 

 from the same source, for what it is worth. Of the 

 same beast the Cossacks and Stepan assert that he 

 kills snakes by seizing their tails in his jaws and 

 then rolling on them, turning a somersault over 

 them, in fact, so as to drive the spines into them. 



I heard too, to-day, a quaint superstition about 

 the common bracken, which abounds here, and on 

 the roots of which the swine feed when there are 

 no chestnuts or berries to be had. The Circassians 

 say there is one moment in one night of the year 

 (alas, my authority had forgotten which night), 

 at the very stroke of midnight, when this plant 

 blooms. The flower lasts but a few moments, in 

 the which if any one has the good fortune to gather 

 and preserve it, he obtains omniscience thenceforth. 

 Talking of such things as the foregoing, and making 

 fresh mocassins for the morrow, the day soon passed, 

 and we rolled ourselves up in our rugs and were 

 happy, though we went to bed almost dinnerless. 



The sea rose to-night, and raged as the Black 

 Sea sometimes docs, in so wild a way that one 



