A STORMY WEEK IN THE FOREST 111 
shows how little was formerly known as to the 
age of a stag, came into my mind : 
Tri aois coin, aois cich ; 
Tri aois eich, aois duine ; 
Tri aois duine, aois feidh ; 
Tri aois feidh, aois firein ; 
Tri aois firein, aois dbaruicli, 
which may be translated : 
Thrice dog's age, age of horse ; 
Thrice horse's age, age of man ; 
Thrice man's age, age of deer ; 
Thrice deer's age, age of eagle ; 
Thrice eagle's age, age of oak. 
It is probably true to say that a stag in its wild 
state rarely lives beyond sixteen or seventeen 
years of age. In those forests w^hich are on 
islands, for example Jura, stalkers have unusual 
opportunities of observing and learning the history 
of particular stags, and I recollect when stalking 
in North Jura two years ago discussing this 
subject wdth John Mackay, the head stalker. He 
told me that he had several times been familiar 
with a stag all through its life, and in more than 
one instance had seen a stag with a fine head 
gradually lose its points, until at last it had only 
comparatively short upright narrow horns with 
two short brow points, the stag itself losing 
