106 A TAME HEDGEHOG. 
protected an animal. Dogs, foxes, and cats are the only creatures which _ 
possess the capability of killing and eating the Hedge-hog, and of these foes 
it is very little afraid. For dogs are but seldom abroad at night while the 
Hedgehog is engaged in its nocturnal quests after food ; and the fox would 
not be foolish enough to waste its time and prick its nose in weary endeavours 
to force its intended prey out of its defences. Cats, too, are even less 
adapted to such a proceeding than dogs and foxes. 
It is indeed said that the native cunning of the Fox enables it to overreach 
the Hedgehog, and to induce it to unrol itself by an ingenious, but, I fear, an 
apocryphal process. Reynard is said, whenever he finds a coiled-up Hedge- 
hog, to roll it over and over with his paw towards some runnel, pond, or 
puddle, and then to souse it unexpectedly into the water. The Hedgehog, 
fearing that it is going to be drowned, straightway unrols itself, and 1s 
immediately pounced on by the cunning fox, which crushes its head with a 
single bite, and eats it afterwards at leisure. In America the puma is said to 
eat the Hedgehog in a very curious manner. Seizing the animal by the head, 
it gradually draws the animal through its teeth, swallowing the body and 
stripping off the skin. 
Man, however, troubles himself very little about the Hedgehog’s prickles, 
and when disposed to such a diet, kills, cooks, and eats it without hesitation. 
The legitimate mode of proceeding is to kill the animal by a blow on the 
head, and then to envelop it, without removing the skin, in a thick layer of 
well-kneeded clay. The enwrapped Hedgehog is then placed on the fire, 
being carefully turned by the cook at proper intervals, and there remains ~ 
until the clay is perfectly dry and begins to crack. When this event has taken 
place, the cooking is considered to be complete, and the animal is removed 
from the fire. The clay covering is then broken off, and carries away with it 
the whole of the skin. which is adherent by means of the prickles. By this 
mode of cookery the juices are preserved, and the result is pronounced to be 
supremely excellent. 
This primitive but admirable form of cookery is almost entirely confined 
to gipsies and other wanderers, as in these days there are few civilized 
persons who would condescend to partake of such a diet. Uftilitarians, 
however, can render the creature subservient to their purposes by using it as 
a guardian to their kitchens. Its insect-devouring powers are of such a 
nature that 1t can be made a most useful inhabitant of the house, and set in 
charge of the “ black beeties.” 
The rapidity with which it extirpates the cockroaches is most marvellous, 
for their speed and wariness are so great that the Hedgehog must possess no 
small amount of both qualities in order to destroy them so easily. A Hedge- 
hog which resided for some years in our house was accustomed to pass a 
somewhat nomad existence, for as soon as it had eaten all the cockroaches in 
our kitchen, it used to be lent toa friend, to whom it performed the same 
valuable service. In a few months those tiresome insects had again multi- 
plied, and the Hedgehog was restored to its former habitation. 
The creature was marvellously tame, and would come at any time to a 
saucer of milk in broad daylight. Sometimes it took a fancy to prome- 
nading the garden, when it would trot along in its own quaint style, poking its 
sharp nose into every crevice, and turning over every fallen leaf that lay in 
its path. If it heard a strange step, it would immediately curl itself into a 
ball, and lie in that posture for a few minutes until its alarm had passed 
away, when it would cautiously unrol itself, and peer about with its bead-like 
eyes for a moment or two, and then resume its progress. 
From all appearances it might have lived for many years had it not come 
by its death in a rather singular manner, There was a wood-shed in the 
