Sierra Morena 159 



hounds ' will follow or recognise. The huntsmen (though not the 

 beaters) are mounted, and each carries a musket and a caracola, 

 or huntino-horn formed of a big sea-shell. The forelegs of the 

 horses, where necessary — especially in Estremadura — are enveloped 

 in leather sheaths [fundas de cuero) to protect them from the 

 terrible thorns and the spikes of burnt cistus which pierce and 

 cut like knives. The best dogs are j^odencos of the bigger breeds, 

 also crosses between podencos and mastiffs, and between mastiffs 

 and cdanos, the latter a race of rough-haired bull-dogs largely 

 used in Estremadura for " holding-up " the boar. 



The huntsmen with their packs, and the beaters, usually start 

 with the dawn, sometimes long before, dependent on the distance 

 to be traversed to their points, which may be ten or twelve miles. 

 Till reaching the cast-oft', hounds are coupled up in pairs : a collar 

 fitted with a bell {cencerro) is then substituted, and the align- 

 ment being completed — each pack at its appointed spot — at a 

 given hour the beat begins. 



On every occasion when a game-beast is raised a blank shot 

 is fired to encourage the hounds, and the who-hoops of the 

 huntsmen behind resound for miles around. Should the animal 

 hold a forward course (as desired), the hounds are shortly 

 recalled by the caracolas, or hunting-horns aforesaid, and the 

 beat is then reformed and resumed. 



Meanwhile — far away at remote posts prearranged — the 

 firing-line (armada) has already occupied its allotted positions ; 

 the guns most often disposed along the crests of some command- 

 ing ridge, sometimes defiled in a narrow pass of the valley far 

 below. 



Should the number of guns be insuflicient to command the 

 whole front, the expedient of placing a second firing-line (termed 

 the traversa), projected into the beat, and at a right angle from 

 the centre of the first line, is sometimes effective. 



It may occur to those accustomed to deal with mountain-game 

 on a large scale that the chance of moving animals with any sort 

 of accuracy towards a scant line of guns scattered over vast 

 areas must be remote. True, the number of guns — even ten or 

 twelve — is necessarily insufficient, but here local knowledge and 

 the skill of Spanish mountaineers (by nature among the best 



' Wi' Ir'I'c use the term hound or dog indiscriniiuatelj^ as, in the altering circuuistances, 

 each is equally applicable and correct. 



