CHAPTER VI 

 ANDALUCIA AND ITS BIG GAME {Continued) 



WILD-BOAR 



From one's earliest days the wild-boar lias been invested with 

 a sort of halo of romance, identified in youthful mind with 

 grim courage and brute strength. Perhaps his grisly front, 

 the vicious bloodshot eyes, savage snorts, and generally malignant 

 demeanour, lend substance to such idea. But even among adults 

 there exists in the popular mind a strange mixture of mis- 

 conception as between big game and dangerous game — to 

 hundreds the terms are synonymous. Thus a lady, inspecting 



our trophies, exclaimed, "Oh, Mr. , aren't these beasts very 



treacherous?" w^hich almost provoked the reply, "You see, we 

 are even more treacherous ! " 



In sober truth, nevertheless, a big old boar when held up 

 at bay, or charging in headlong rushes upon the dogs, his 

 wdcked eyes flashing fire, and foam flying from his jaws as tushes 

 clash and champ, presents as pretty a picture of brute-fury and 

 pluck as even a world-hunter may wish to enjoy. 



Yet amono^ hundreds of boars that we have killed or seen 

 killed (though dogs are caught continually, and occasionally a 

 horse), there has never occurred a serious accident to the hunter, 

 and only a few narrow escapes. 



As an example of the latter : the kee23er, while " placing " the 

 writer among bush-clad dunes outside the Mancha of Majada 

 Keal, mentioned that a very big boar often frequented some 

 heavy rush-beds on my front. " Should the dogs give tongue 

 to pig at that point, your Excellency will at once run in to the 

 function." Such were his instructions. 



At the point indicated the dogs bayed unmistakably, and 

 seizing a light single carbine, '303 (as there was a stretch of heavy 



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