92 FOREST CREATUEES. 



It was doubtless something of the feeling I have here 

 attempted to describe, that gave rise to many accounts of 

 the nature of the stag, put forth as facts in old works on 

 venery. He was treated of not as an animal to whom, as 

 such, instinct merely was given, but as one whose nature 

 was endued with higher powers, and with faculties 

 bordering on those of humanity. There were other 

 causes also which I have alluded to elsewhere.* In a 

 volume of 1589 is to be found the following, gravely 

 stated as a contribution to the natural history of the 

 red deer. *' In the season of their rutting, when they 

 do fight together, and one of the twain doth succumb, 

 he that is conquered doth serve the other as his master, 

 and followeth him withersoever he goeth." And in the 

 same work it is with equal gravity recorded that, " When 

 he is wounded with a poisoned arrow, he straightway 

 doth eat the herb dictam, and hereupon the arrow 

 falleth out." 



I cannot but allude here to the picturesqueness and 

 great delicacy of the terms used in venery, when speak- 

 ing of the stag, the different parts of his body and their 

 functions, as well as when alluding to his instincts and 

 their fulfilment. There is a decency in such hunter's 

 language which does credit to the followers of the noble 

 art. These are always still used in Grermany; and in 



* Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria and the T}to1, Chap- 

 ter the Last. 



