356 



WILD SPAIN. 



dogs ran her to bay in a neighbouring mancha. Here one 

 of us who had fired the first shot followed, when, coming 

 unexpectedly upon her in a narrow opening, the lynx being 

 enclosed between man and dogs, made a desperate spring 

 to pass by ; the writer, in stepping aside, tripped and fell 

 prostrate on his back, right under the furious beast — never 

 did man rise more promptly ! luckily without a scratch, 

 and the next moment the lynx lay gasping out its life on 

 the sand. 



After this beat rifles were exchanged for smooth-bores, a 

 line formed, and we shot our way back to the lodge, secur- 

 ing some twenty brace of partridge and other small game, 

 besides another stag, which, all too drowsy, had permitted 

 our line to advance too near ere he sprang from his lair. 

 Shot was quickly exchanged for ball, and as the hart ran 

 broadside on and within one hundred yards of two guns, 

 he was struck in three places, and the dogs soon pulled him 

 down. This was a very old beast, but only carried eight 

 points, the "bay" antlers being entirely wanting, and the 

 double-tops curiously bent inwards. This small-game beat 

 having brought us to the verge of the marisma, we finished a 

 successful day's sport with an hour's flight-shooting, during 

 which five geese and nearly fifty teal and wigeon were 

 brought to bag. The day's results were thus : — 4 stags, 2 

 boar and a lynx, 23J brace small game, and 54 head of 

 wildfowl. 



This evening there was performed the time-honoured 

 ceremony of crowning with the laurel a neophyte in caza 

 mayor. Dark-eyed Petra, the recognized belle of a region 

 where it must be admitted that rivals were few, headed 

 the motley procession of guards, beaters, and miscellaneous 

 folk from the lower regions, and gracefully invested the 

 blushing brows of Santiago, who knelt before her, with a 

 chaplet of flowering arbutus. Then the loving cup passed 

 round, and each drank to the health of the fair donor and 

 the wearer of the crown. There followed a scene of 

 festivity and ordered revels. The spacious court-yard was 

 lit up by a blazing bonfire, and in its lambent light danced 

 stalwart figures arrayed in the picturesque costume of 



