Chap. 56.] HEDGEHOGS. 309 
perceive the approach of the hunter, they draw in the head 
and feet, and all the lower part of the body, which is covered 
by a thin and defenceless down only, and then roll themselves 
lip into the form of a ball, so that there is no way of taking 
hold of them but by their quills. When they are reduced 
to a state of desperation, they discharge a corrosive urine, 
which injures their skin and quills, as they are aware that it 
is for the sake of them that they are hunted. A skilful hunter, 
therefore, will only pursue them when they have just discharged 
their urine. In this case the skin retains its value ; while 
in the other case, it becomes spoilt and easily torn, the quills 
rotting and falling off, even though the animal should escape 
with its life. Tor this reason it is that it never moistens itself 
with this poisonous fluid, except when reduced to the last stage 
of desperation ; for it has a perfect hatred for its own venomous 
distillation, and so careful is the animal, so determined to wait 
till the very last moment, that it is generally caught before it 
has employed this means of defence. 
They force it to unroll itself, by sprinkling warm water up- 
on it, and then, suspended by one of its hind legs, it is left 
to die of hunger ; for there is no other mode of destroying it, 
without doing inj ury to its skin. This animal is not, as many 
of us imagine, entirely useless to man. If it Vere not for the 
quills which it produces, the soft fleece of the sheep would 
have been given in vain to mankind ; for it is by means of its 
skin, that our woollen cloth is dressed. From the monopoly 
of this article, great frauds and great profits have resulted ;^ 
there is no subject on which the senate has more frequently 
passed decrees, and there is not one of the Emperors, who has 
not received from the provinces complaints respecting it.^^ 
8s The teasel, or carding thistle, is now used for this purpose ; as also 
iron wires, crooked and sharpened at the point. Not a single quill, pro- 
bably of the hedgehog, is now used in the manufacture of cloth. 
89 Dalechamps suggests that these complaints were probably to the 
effect that thistles and thorns were employed instead of the quills of the 
hedgehog ; that the skin of the hedgehog was brought to market in a bad 
state ; and again, that the rich merchants were in the habit of buying them 
up, and forestalling the market. Hardouin quotes an edict of the Emperor 
Zeno against monopolies of hedgehogs and carding materials, if, indeed, 
that is the meaning of the word " pectinum." 
