84 
It would be dangerous to discover themselves to 
the herd in the night, as the wounded ones would 
attack any man they could get at. The next morn¬ 
ing they go in quest of their game, which they 
generally find dead near the spot, being guided to 
them by their blood. Notwithstanding their ferocity, 
the natives assert that the cows will stand to have 
their dugs handled, and have even been milked 
into a horn in the dark. In some of the provinces 
these wild oxen and buffaloes are exceedingly nu¬ 
merous.* 
The hunting of wild boars also forms a favourite 
amusement with the chiefs and farmers: these ani¬ 
mals take refuge in a thicket, or jungle, which the 
hunters and their dogs beset round. The passages 
to the retreat are generally defended by huge boars, 
very savage and fierce, and who will fight desperately. 
During the attack, the grunting and squeaking of the 
swine, the yelping of the dogs, and the cheers of the 
hunters, raise such a chorus, and make the woods 
* Drury says, that in one of the provinces there were, during 
the time he was on the island, (which was the beginning of the 
last century), a breed of wild oxen, called Hattoy’s cattle. The 
tradition concerning their origin, which he relates, is, that these 
cattle belonged originally to a great man, named Rer Hattoye, 
who, being of a covetous disposition, would kill none of them, 
but suffered them to increase and rove about unconstrained. He 
lived in a forest, but his family and people, after his death, went 
to reside with a king of an inland province, called Untomaroche, 
and left their cattle behind. These cattle were similar to our 
English oxen.— Drury, p.288. 
