Mr. Hardy on the Wolf in Scotland. 287 



the Hill of Bogney, they beheld the mangled and bloody 

 form of him whom they supposed dead, dragging itself to- 

 wards them. For a moment they were awed by a supersti- 

 tious fear, but they soon learned the history of his escape. 

 He had found little difficulty in killing the cubs, and he was 

 in the act of making his way out, when the mouth of the hole 

 was darkened, and the she-wolf was upon him. With one 

 lucky thrust of his dirk, he despatched her at once ; but his 

 contest with her grim companion was long and severe ; and 

 although he fought in that narrow place, and from behind 

 the body of the brute he had killed, he was nearly torn to 

 pieces before he succeeded in depriving his ferocious enemy 

 of life. The indignation of the people against the dastard 

 brother, on thus beholding his falsehood and cowardice made 

 manifest, knew no bounds. They dragged him before the 

 laird, who, on hearing the case, adjudged him to be forthwith 

 hanged on the summit of a conical hill, — called Thomas 

 Rhymer's hill, — a sentence that was immediately put in 

 execution."* 



The way-marks left by these atrocious animals in our 

 literature and speech are neither numerous nor particularly 

 original. The reproachful term of *^ Wolf," at the Reforma- 

 tion, was metaphorically appropriated to the Romish clergy. 



" Attend, and take gude keipe 

 To them that comes to thee 

 Into the habit of ane sheepe 

 With subtill sermons slie ; 

 For doubtles they were inwartlie 

 False wolfes under cote." 



Scottish Poems of the 16th Cent. ii. p. 140. 



" Sa sillie saulis that bin the Christis sheip 

 Ar gevin to hungrie gormand wolfis to keip." 



Sir David Lindsay's Papingo, 



" Quhat halines is thair within ? 

 Ane woulf cled in ane wedder's skin ? " 



Lindsay's Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis. 



The Greek proverb, ^^ jHb5 luJcos arna philei ;^^ Ut lupus 

 ovem amat, " You give the wolf the wedder to keep ; " (ovem 

 lupo commisti. Terence), has a characteristic Scotch ver- 

 sion : — "When the tod preaches, beware of the hens."f 

 Terence's phrase, Lupum auribus teneo, " I have a wolf by 

 the ears," re-appears in Ross's Helenore : — 



* Account of the Great Floods of August 1829, p. 67. 



t In a Norse fable the fox is chosen herdsman, and disposes summarily of 

 the flock. (Dasent's Norse Talcs, p. 59.) 



