886 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
‘ 
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 consistenee 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 
effect 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 
muck more delicate, and sharpened at the snout. Its legs 
