16 WILD SPAIN. 



there is the value of the cork-oak ; for, besides its bark, which 

 is stripped and sold every seven years, its crops of acorns 

 fatten droves of shapely black swine during autumn and 

 winter, and a substance is obtained beneath the bark 

 which is used in curing leather. Hence the forests of 

 noble alcornoques escape the ruthless hatchet of the car- 

 boner o. The other limit is the cost of transport which 

 restricts his operations to within a certain distance of the 

 towns which form his market. Beyond this radius the 

 forests retain their native pristine beauty : under their 

 shade are pastured herds of cattle, and a rude hut, built of 

 undressed stones and thatched with reeds, forms the lonely 

 casa of the herdsman. By day and night he guards his 

 cattle or goats, often having to sleep on the hill, or under 

 the scant shelter of a lentisco, for which he receives 

 about eightpence a day, with an allowance of bread, oil, 

 salt, and vinegar. His wife and children of course share 

 his lonely lot, their only touch with the outer world being 

 a chance visit, once or twice a year,' to their native village. 

 Our rough friend, clad in leather or woolly sheepskin, is 

 a sportsman by nature, and can "hold straight" on his 

 favourite quarry, the rabbit, whose habits he thoroughly 

 understands. The walls of his hut are seldom unadorned 

 with an ancient fowling-piece : generally a converted 

 " flinter," modernized with percussion lock, and having an 

 enormous exterior spring for its motive power. When the 

 long, honey-combed barrel has been duly fed with Spanish 

 powder from his cork-stoppered cow's horn, the quantity 

 settled by eye-measurement in the palm of his hand, a 

 wisp of palmetto leaf well rammed home, and a similar 

 process gone through with the shot from a leather pouch, 

 he may be trusted to give a good account of darting bunny 

 or rattle- winged red-leg. Poor fellow ! the respect and love 

 he bears for his old favourite receive a rude shock when 

 the power of modern combinations of wood-powder, choke- 

 bore, and Purdey barrels have been successfully and 

 successively demonstrated. But it is only after repeated 

 proofs that his lifelong faith in the unique powers of that 

 old escopeta begins to shake. 



