302 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



not pursue me far, and I dis- 

 mounted and took the rope from 

 the ill-smellinp; little beast, and 

 returned to where Wess was 

 waiting for me. We worked the 

 same plan over again, v^ith the 

 result this time that I got my 

 horse under . the tree, and John 

 jumping quickly down, without 

 even waiting to pick up his guu, 

 which he had thrown down upon 

 our arrival, vaulted upon my 

 horse with me, and then the fun 

 began! (?). The horse I was rid- 

 ing had not been broken to carry 

 double and no sooner had he 

 struck, than tvith a snort and an 

 arching of the back the infernal 

 beast tried with a vim to unseat 

 us both. Things were certainly 

 getting bad, when the same thing 

 that got us in the trouble got us 

 out, namely, the javelins. One 

 of the little savage devils coming 

 back from the pursuit of Wess' 

 horse, saw the horse there, .' and 

 apparently did not wait for an in- 

 vitation to join in the fun, but 

 came right in with a right good 

 will. The first intimation I had 

 of his presence was to hear him 

 snap his teeth directly behind 

 the madly pitching horse — and the 

 next thing I knew he had 

 slashed the horse's right hind leg 

 with his razor-like teeth. 

 Well, if the situation had not 

 been so serious, it would have 

 been funny no doubt to have seen 

 how quickly the horse's objection 

 to our presence on his back 

 changed to the javeline's on his 

 hind leg! With a blood-curdling 

 scream of brute terror that was 



half human, the horse did not wait 

 for the second attack, but imme- 

 diately started on a wild run 

 back in the direction we had come 

 from. This piece of blind luck 

 was lucky, indeed, for us, for the 

 horse was absolutely unmanage- 

 able, and it was not until we 

 neared the camp, and John risk- 

 ing broken bones and pear thorns, 

 jumped down as we were near- 

 ing the camp, and I then suc- 

 ceeded in quieting the bleeding 

 horse enough to get him headed 

 more slowly toward our camp. 



It was now well past midnight, 

 but we would not let John retire 

 until he had recounted his adven- 

 ture at length to us. It seems as 

 if the leader of the javelines was 

 a evry large, boar, and this par- 

 ticular javelin was making things 

 interesting for John by making 

 leaps straight up in the air to try 

 to slash him with his teeth, and it 

 was not until he had fired four 

 shots at him did he succeed in kill- 

 ing him on account of the uncer- 

 tain shooting in the semi-dark- 

 ness. One thing John was puz- 

 zled over, was where this leader 

 of the band was when he first shot 

 the one in the brush, as he did not 

 appear upon the scene for over an 

 hour after he had been treed. Us- 

 ually, the leader of the band is 

 the first one upon the job ; but 

 we decided he was wandering 

 about with some of the others 

 in search of some food. We agreed 

 that there must have been nt 

 least 35 of the peccaries in that 

 bunch and a visit to the spot the 

 next day showed seven of them 

 dead. 



