FRIENDS OR FOES t 215 



but these very soon harden, and they begin to look 

 like their elders. There is not the least danger of 

 the hedgehogs being exterminated at present, in 

 spite of traditional superstition which has handed 

 down his name in connection with the bat, the toad, 

 and the owl, all which inoffensive creatures are still 

 in ill odour, although the spread of literature and 

 better education has done much to set the public 

 right as to the true use and position of these. All 

 the creatures that come out by night, though they 

 do man good services by their destruction of his 

 worst enemies, are looked upon by the rustic popu- 

 lation as uncanny. 



