138 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
outside the walls, I found several hundred people 
collected, some of whom were firing at marks, 
and all looking forward to the day’s sport with 
keen enthusiasm. 
In dense forests there is no other way to 
obtain sport except the old style of beating. 
Some persons declare this is not sport; such 
persons must accordingly remain at home ; but if 
you travel about the world, you will assuredly 
discover that the inhabitants of a locality, no 
matter where it may be located, require very 
little teaching from a stranger. At first sight 
it would appear dangerous, when fifty guns are 
placed in various positions throughout a long 
line of forest, to intercept all animals within the 
beat; but no accident had ever occurred in the 
neighbourhood, and the vast numbers of large 
oak trees which composed the forest would be 
certain to intercept a bullet before it had passed 
through its flight for 50 yards. 
In all these hunts a spirit of goodwill and fair- 
play pervaded the people. If the Turks killed 
wild boar, they handed over the game to the 
Christian community, who were delighted to obtain 
the meat. On the other hand, if the Greeks or 
Armenians killed a deer, it was presented to the 
Turks, most of whom, as hunters, regarded the 
death by bullet as equivalent to the cutting of the 
throat by a knife, and they accepted the animal 
without protest. 
Some of the boars that we killed in these 
