124 ENCOUNTER OF THE EAGLE AND VULTURE. 



out of the unfortunate rascal's mouth, and actually 

 dragged him along through the air, for a space of 

 twenty or thirty yards, much against the vulture's 

 will. Now, though the eagle pulled, and the vul- 

 ture resisted, still the yard of gut, which we must 

 suppose was in a putrid state, for reasons already 

 mentioned, remained fixed and firm in the vulture's 

 bill. With such a force, applied to each extremity, 

 the gut ought either to have given way in the mid- 

 dle, or to have been cut in two at those places 

 where the sharp bills of the birds held it fast. But 

 stop, reader, I pray you : speculation might be 

 allowed here, provided this uncommon encounter 

 had taken place on terra Jirma ; but, in order that 

 our astonishment may be wound up to the highest 

 pitch, we are positively informed that the conten- 

 tion took place, not on the ground, or in a tree, but 

 in the circumambient air ! 



Pray, how was it possible for the eagle to pro- 

 gress through the air, and to have dragged along a 

 resisting vulture, by means of a piece of gut acting 

 as a rope, about a yard in length ? Birds cannot 

 fly backwards ; and the very act of the eagle turn- 

 ing round to progress after it had seized the end of 

 the gut, would have shortened the connecting me- 

 dium so much, that the long wings of both birds 

 must have immediately come in contact ; their pro- 

 gress would have been prevented by the collision ; 

 and, in lieu of the eagle dragging the resisting 

 vulture through the air, for a space of twenty or 

 thirty yards, both birds would have come to the 

 ground, or the gut would have given way. 



