The Spanish Fighting-Bull 205 
supreme réle—that of killing the bull as art demands—-there is 
no room for half-measures or deceptions. To valour, ability 
must be united. When those two qualities are not both coupled 
and balanced, then one of two things happens: Hither the scene 
becomes a dull one, a mixture of funk and feebleness made patent 
all round ; or disaster is at hand. This one hears forecast in the 
strange cries of this meridional people—from all sides come the 
shouts of ‘‘ Hule! Hule!” Now Hule is the name of the material 
with which the stretchers for the killed and wounded are covered ! 
At this period (summer of 1908) a combination of the bull- 
fighting craft attempted a boycott of the Miura herd, or at least 
double pay for killing them. This was done secretly at first, 
since neither would open confession redound to the credit of the 
“ pig-tail,” nor did it promise favourable reception by the public. 
At this conjuncture a notable corrida occurred at Seville— 
six Miurenos being listed for the fight. Ricardo Torres (Bombita 
II.) despatched his first with all serenity and valour; with his 
second, a magnificent animal worthy of a royal pageant, he would 
doubtless have comported himself with equal skill but for an 
extraneous incident. Upon rushing into the arena this bull had 
at once impaled a foolhardy amateur named Pepin Rodriguez who 
(quite against all recognised rule) had madly sprung into the ring. 
The poor fellow was borne out only in time to receive the last 
religious rite. 
At the precise moment when Ricardo stepped forth to meet 
his foe, the murmur reached his ear—Pepin was dead, and his 
superstitious soul sank down to zero at that whisper from without. 
When the critical moment arrived—the popular matador stood 
pale, nerveless, incapable. Then the scorn of the mighty crowd 
burst forth in monstrous yells. Ricardo Torres had fallen from 
the pinnacle of fame to the level of a clumsy beginner. In a 
moment he was disgraced, his increasing reputation ruined for 
ever under the eyes of all the world—and that by a Miureno bull. 
From that moment the fallen star organised his colleagues in 
open rebellion against the victorious breed. 
The line of action adopted was to abuse and libel the incrimin- 
ated herd. It was urged that the bulls lacked the true qualities 
of dash and valour and only scored by treachery ; and especially 
insinuated that the young bulls were expressly taught at their 
tentaderos, or trials on the open plains, to discriminate between 
