THE QUILLS OK A PORCUPINE 
31 
pain by rolling it between the thumb and 
finger as it is pulled. To use his ex- 
pression, the barbed point would "un- 
screw." A minute examination of a 
quill-point did not show any spiral ar- 
rangement of the barbs, but it did show 
•that the barbs are not rigid, but flexible, 
and I have no doubt that by twisting as 
described the barbs would be bent to one 
side and the quill be much more easily 
withdrawn. 
The dogs varied in the manner in 
which they took their punishment. The 
yellow pup and the young foxhound 
had only a few quills, and they howled 
when these were pulled. The old fox- 
hound was hard to hold and was inclined 
to be ugly. Jule complained, but allowed 
the pulling to proceed, although her jaws 
were reeking with blood and saliva. 
Drum, the brindle pup, showed his bull- 
dog stock by submitting to the long or- 
deal with barely a whimper. 
The two big dogs — Tige, the blood- 
hound, and Ranger, the staghound — 
were a problem. Either was strong 
enough, if he was so inclined, to break 
Carper's hold, and the staghound, fur- 
thermore, had offered to bite his master. 
He was in by far the most serious con- 
dition of any of the dogs. He had more 
quills in his face than any other, and 
some were near, though fortunately not 
in, his eyes. They were liable at any 
time to work there, however, through his 
agonized pawing. We considered shoot- 
ing him to end his misery, but Carper 
hated to do it. We concluded to go back 
to camp, get something to eat, and decide 
the dog's fate afterward. 
On the way back I asked Carper 
whether the dogs would not learn to 
let a porcupine alone. He replied that 
they would not ; that the older dogs had 
been through the experience repeatedly, 
though he had never seen a pack quite 
so thoroughly done up, and that if they 
ran across a porcupine the next day they 
would undoubtedly tackle him. Evi- 
dently dogs of this fighting quality are 
no more deterred by such an experience 
than is a bulldog deterred from fighting 
a second time because he has once be- 
fore been bitten in a fight. 
After our meal we took the remaining 
quills out of Tige. Those on the outside 
of his head Carper pulled alone. The 
great bloodhound wagged his tail after 
each pull ; I could not tell whether out 
of gratitude to his master, or because he 
thought the two were engaged in some 
sort of game, rough and painful, but 
nevertheless to be treated good-naturedly. 
The quills within his mouth were taken 
out with a pair of steel pliers while two 
men held him, a stout stick of wood be- 
tween his jaws as a precaution against 
biting. 
The staghound we decided to give a 
chance for his life, though neither of us 
relished the prospect of lacerating his 
head to do it. His face was beginning 
to swell and he was dozy until we stirred 
him up. He was ready to fight us all. 
We tied him down under a log, and one 
man held his body, the other his head, 
while I pulled the quills with the steel 
pliers. 
By actual count we took 568 quills out 
of that staghound. Eighty-one of these 
were inside the line of his teeth, in his 
gums, the roof of his mouth, and his 
tongue. At least 30 had been pulled out 
at odd times before the count began, and 
during the following days over 20 more 
worked out of his misshapen head at 
various points. It was not a nice or a 
pleasant task, and the repulsive details 
of quill-pulling have already been suffi- 
ciently explicit. The staghound lived 
and fortunately lost neither eye. 
It was a curious and a fearful weapon 
that nature had given to this otherwise 
weak and peaceable porcupine, with 
which in defense of his liberty and his 
life he dealt a terrible retribution tO' 
seven powerful enemies, hr,if of whom 
he would have killed had not still greater- 
odds been matched against him. 
