CHArTElt \' 

 ANDALUCIA AND ITS BIG GAME 



STILL-HUNTING (rED DEER) 



The line of least resistance represents twentieth-century ideals — 

 maximum results for the minimum of labour or technical skill. 

 In the field of sport, wherever available, universal " driving " super- 

 sedes the arts of earlier venery — the pride of past generations. 



In Spain, more leisurely while no less dignified, there survive 

 in sport, as in other matters, practices more consonant with the 

 dash and chivalry popularly ascribed to her national character. 

 Such, for example, is the attack, single-handed, on bear or boar 

 with cold steel — d anna hlanca, in Castilian phrase. Here we 

 purpose describing the system of " Still-hunting" (Hastreando) as 

 practised in Andalucia with a skill that equals the best of the 

 American " Red Indian," and is only surpassed, within our experi- 

 ence, by Somalis and Wandorobo savages in East Africa. 



Before day-dawn we are away with our two trackers. Maybe 

 it is a lucky morning, and as the first streaks of light illumine 

 the wastes, they reveal to our gaze a first-rate stag. In that case 

 the venture is vastly simplified. It is merely necessary to allow 

 time for the stag to reach his lie-up, and the spoor can be followed 

 at once. But barring such exceptional fortune, it is necessary to 

 find, or rather to select from amidst infinity of tracks crossing 

 and recrossing hither and thither in bewildering profusion the 

 trail of such a master-beast as clearly is worthy the labour of 

 a long day's pursuit. Twice and again we follow a spoor for 

 100 yards or more over difficult ground before finally deciding 

 that its owner is not up to our standard of quality, and the 

 interrupted search is resumed. Once found, there is rarely room 

 for mistake with a really big spoor. The breadth of heel, the 

 length and deep-cut prints of the cloven toes attest both weight 



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