The Spanish Fighting-Bull 205 



supreme role — that of killing the bull as art demands — there is 

 no room for half-measures or deceptions. To valour, ability 

 must be united. When those two qualities are not both coupled 

 and balanced, then one of two things happens : Eitlier the scene 

 becomes a dull one, a mixture of funk and feebleness made patent 

 all round ; or disaster is at hand. This one hears forecast in the 

 strange cries of this meridional people — from all sides come the 

 shouts of ''Hide! Hide /" Now Hule is the name of the material 

 with which the stretchers for the killed and wounded are covered ! 



At this period (summer of 1908) a combination of the bull- 

 fighting craft attempted a boycott of the Miura herd, or at least 

 double pay for killing them. This was done secretly at first, 

 since neither would open confession redound to the credit of the 

 " pig-tail," nor did it promise favourable reception by the public. 



At this conjuncture a notable corrida occurred at Seville — 

 six Miurenos being listed for the fight. Ricardo Torres (Bombita 

 11.) despatched his first with all serenity and valour; with his 

 second, a magnificent animal worthy of a royal pageant, he would 

 doubtless have comported himself with equal skill but for an 

 extraneous incident. Upon rushing into the arena this bull had 

 at once impaled a foolhardy amateur named Pepin Eodriguez who 

 (quite against all recognised rule) had madly sprung into the ring. 

 The poor fellow was borne out only in time to receive the last 

 religious rite. 



At the precise moment when Ricardo stepped forth to meet 

 his foe, the murmur reached his ear — Pepin was dead, and his 

 superstitious soul sank down to zero at that whisper from without. 

 When the critical moment arrived — the popular matador stood 

 pale, nerveless, incapable. Then the scorn of the mighty crowd 

 burst forth in monstrous yells. Ricardo Torres had fallen from 

 the pinnacle of fame to the level of a clumsy beginner. In a 

 moment he was disgraced, his increasing reputation ruined for 

 ever under the eyes of all the world — and that by a Miureno bull. 

 From that moment the fallen star organised his colleagues in 

 open rebellion against the victorious breed. 



The line of action adopted was to abuse and libel the incrimin- 

 ated herd. It was urged that the bulls lacked the true qualities 

 of dash and valour and only scored by treachery ; and especially 

 insinuated that the young bulls were expressly taught at their 

 tentaderos, or trials on the open plains, to discriminate between 



