CHAPTER XXXVIl 

 A SPANISH SYSTEM OF FOWLING 



THE " CABRESTO " OR STALKING-HORSE 



Spain is a land of flocks and herds, of breeders and graziers. At 

 the head of the scale stands the fiofhtin2;-bull, monarch of the 

 richest vegas ; at the opposite extreme come the shaggy little 

 ponies and brood-mares that eke out a feral and precarious 

 subsistence in the wildest regions. Throughout the marismas 

 hardy beasts with wild-bred progeny on which no human hand 

 has ever laid, abound, grazing knee-deep in watery wildernesses 

 where tasteless reed or wiry spear-grass afford a bare subsistence. 



There they live, splashing in the shadows, heads half-immersed 

 as they pull up subaquatic herbage ; on the back of one rides 

 perched a snow-white egret, on another a couple of magpies, 

 preying on ticks or warbles, while all around swim wildfowl that 

 scarce deign to move aside. 



No fowler could view such a scene without perceiving that 

 approach to the wildfowl might be effected under cover of these 

 unsuspected ponies. The earliest aucipial mind probably realised 

 the advantage offered, and the system has been practised in Spain 

 from time immemorial. 



The method is simple. The ponies (termed, when trained, 

 cahrestos, or "decoys") seem by intuition to realise what is 

 required. By a cord attached to the headstall, the fowler, 

 crouching behind the shoulder, directs his pony's course towards 

 the unconscious fowl. At intervals, still further to disarm 

 suspicion, feigned halts are made as though to simulate grazing. 

 Before closing in, the nose-cord is made fast to the near fore- 

 knee, thus holding the pony's head well down. Presently the 

 ducks are within half gunshot, and we amateurs (whose doubled 

 backs ache excruciatingly fron] a constrained position maintained 



371 



