386 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTBES. 



cation, that may chance to cross their paths, men and 

 animals very soon learn that their only safety is in flight. 

 As they rush upon the object in a body, and fight until the 

 last of their number is slain, it is fruitless to stop and battle 

 with them, as they would cut either a man or the largest 

 animal, so badly, before they could all be despatched, that 

 the victory would prove a dear one indeed. 



There is no wild animal that will stop to fight them, and 

 men, dogs and horses run from them in the most ridiculous 

 consternation — indeed, they are the very terror of hunters. 



This droll creature seems to be exactly the intermediate 

 between the family of hedge-hogs and that of the wild boar, 

 or common hog. Its general form, so far as the body is 

 concerned, resembles rather more that of the hedge-hog, 

 while its hair, which is about the average length of the 

 bristles of the common hog, is thinly set in a rough skin, 

 and flattened and sharp, as are the spines of the hedge-hog, 

 and of the same bony consistence in appearance, though so 

 thin as not to be prickly to the touch, except very slightly, 

 when erected — as they always are if the animal is enraged, 

 after the manner of the whole family of porcupines. These 

 thin spines, or hairs, are also parti-colored — being barred with 

 the muddy white and bluish chocolate, producing the general 

 efiect of a roan — they are destitute of a tail, (excepting 

 merely a fleshy protuberance,) in common with the hedge-hog, 

 and have that curious gland which is vulgarly called the 

 "navel on the back." They have no appearance of the 

 navel underneath; and this depression of the spine, which 

 is directly over the loin, looks more like a navel than 

 anything else, though it contains a deposite of a certain 

 musk, which the animal gives forth when excited, and which 

 assimilates it again with the civet-cat of the East. Its 

 shoulders, neck and head resemble the wild boar quite 

 closely in conformation, though the outline, of course, is 

 much more delicate, and sharpened at the snout. Its legs 



