18 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



kind of excuse had the bullets not gone true? A tree would 

 probably have been in the way, or something wrong with the 

 rifle, or " How that pig got away I am sure is perfectly 

 impossible to understand, for I certainly hit him ! " Comfort- 

 ably seated upon a big stone, the beat being in full swing, 

 throats, sticks, pistols, everything at work, I suddenly saw a 

 big pig galloping straight towards me. Letting him pass to 

 avoid firing towards the beaters, I rolled him over head over 

 heels with a bullet in the shoulder. During the next beat 

 another pig gave me a broadside chance, and never moved 

 after the bullet struck him. Several shots had been fired 

 further down the line, but I alone could produce a pig, or 

 rather two. I was the hero of the day and fear that my 

 companions were not thought much of by the beaters, who 

 always take a miss more to heart than the shooter himself. 

 The greatest rivalry exists between the various head-men, and 

 whoever can show the biggest bag at the end of the season is 

 the lion of the year. Too late for woodcock, everybody turned 

 his attention to " big game," by which high-sounding title this 

 somewhat poor sport was honoured. The grolloching of the 

 pig, always a disgusting performance, was here particularly 

 so ; the Albanians and their dogs quarrelling and fighting for 

 the smoking intestines, the latter swallowing what they could 

 on the spot, the former stowing away what remained either 

 in the many folds of their loose garments or the big square 

 bag they all carried, which bag would probably contain our 

 next day's luncheon. 



I will conclude with two recipes taken from a most amusing 

 little book published in 1822, entitled " Essays Moral, 

 Philosophical, and Stomachical on the Important Science of 

 Grood Living," by Launcelot Sturgeon, Esq. ; they refer to the 

 pig and the woodcock, the two chief attractions to the sports- 

 man in Albania : 



No 1. " Strongly recommended to the Society for the 

 Conversion of the Jews": Portuguese method of dressing a 

 loin of pork. " Steep it during an entire week in red wine 

 (claret in preference), with a strong infusion of garlick and 

 a little spice ; then sprinkle it with fine herbs, envelope it in 

 bay leaves, and bake it along with Seville oranges and 

 piquees de girofle." 



