364 Unexplored Spain 



shooting- being- then limited, I reflected that if such were Spanish 

 marksmanship, I mioht be left behind ! ( )n assemblino: for lunch, 

 however, some vultures were wheeling high overhead, and it 

 occurred to me to try my luck. By precisely a similar fluke, one 

 huge griff'on collapsed to the shot, and swirling round and round 

 like a parachute, occupied (it seemed) five minutes in reaching 

 the ground — 1000 feet below us. 



Thai afternoon the antic^s of two strans^e beasties attracted 

 my attention and again my ball went straight. The victim was 

 a mongoose, and with some pride I had the specimen carefully 

 stowed in the mule-panniers — never to see it more ! The mongoose, 

 we now know, owing to its habit of eating snakes, has acquired 

 a personal aroma surpassing in pungency that of any other beast 

 of the field, and our men, so soon as my back was turned, had 

 discreetly thrown out the malodorous trophy. 



A boar-shooting trip to the Sierra de Jerez formed the first 

 sporting venture in which the authors were jointly engaged ; for 

 which reason (though the memory dates back to March 1872) 

 we may be forgiven for extracting a brief summary from Wild 

 Spain : — 



Our ([uarters were a little white rancho perched amid deep bush and 

 oak-woods on the slope of tlie Sierra del Valle. A mile farther up the 

 valley was closed by the dark transverse mass of the Sierra de las Cabras, 

 the two ranges being separated by an abrupt chasm called the Boca de la 

 Foz, which was to be the scene of this day's operations. 



A pitiable episode occurred. AVhile preparing to mount, there 

 resounded from behind a peal of strange iidiuman laughter, followed by 

 incoherent words ; and tlirough an iron-barred window we discerned the 

 emaciated figure of a man, wild and unkempt, whose eagle-like claws 

 grasped the barriers of his cell — a poor lunatic. Xo connected replies 

 could we get, nothing beyond vacuous laughter and gibbering chatter. 

 Now he was at the theatre and quoted magic jargon ; anon supplicating 

 the mercy of a judge ; then singing a stanza of some old song, to break 

 off abruptly into tierce denunciation of one of us as the cause of his 

 troubles. Poor wretch ! he had once been a successful advocate ; but 

 signs of madness having developed, which increased with years, the once 

 popular lawyer was reduced to the durance of this iron-girt cell, his only 

 share and view of God's earth just so much of sombre everlasting sierra 

 as the narrow opening allowed. We were warned that any effort to 

 ameliorate his lot was hopeless, his case being desperate. Wliat hidden 

 wrongs mnv exist in a land wliere no judicial intervention is oblisatorv 



