226 THE RABBIT 



natives dredged in the Colchester beds or the shell-fish 

 trapped off the Cornish tinneries. But in his native 

 Spain the rabbit is indeed a delicacy. Perhaps he 

 shows to the greater advantage by contrast ; for the 

 beef is leather, and the mutton india-rubber. But the 

 rabbit fattens on the best grazing going, and the very 

 air he inhales is balm, among the wild thyme and 

 aromatic shrubs of the dehesas and depoblados. So 

 in a country where the game laws are laughed to 

 scorn, the muleteer or mounted wayfarer has always 

 the gun lying across the saddle bow, in readiness 

 for the snapshot. Then the rabbit is stuffed into the 

 mouth of the saddle bag, to be brought forth and 

 stewed down for the evening's piichero. But though it 

 is an agreeable variety on the rare scraps of rusty bacon 

 or the garlic-scented sausages, the frugal Spaniard 

 never hesitates to make merchandise of his prize. 

 Many a time has the forlorn Englishman, riding far 

 away from the lean larders of ihefo?idas, and meditat- 

 ing ruefully on the doubtful chances of supper in 

 posada or venta, which only supplies shelter and fires, 

 had a pleasant awakening when he met some poaching 

 rascal with a rabbit or a brace of red-legged partridges 

 to sell. There was slight haggling over the blissful 

 bargain. And at nightfall, sitting over the smoulder- 

 ing charcoal fire, in the mixed group of muleteers 



