AN ADVENTURE WITH WOLVES.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 90, 10 June 1846, Page 4

AN ADVENTURE WITH WOLVES.

" I would I were a wolf," said one of the shepherds; "or, indeed, anything rather than vrhat I am. A pretty life is this of ours, out in the campo, among the carascales, suffering heat and cold for a peseta a-day. I would I were a wolf; he fares better and is more respected than the wretch of a shepherd." " But he frequently fares scurvily," said I ; " the shepherd and dogs fall upon him, and then he pays for his temerity with the loss of his head." "That it is not often the case, senor traveller," said the shepherd ; "he watches his opportunity, and seldom runs into harm's way. And as to attacking .him, it is no very pleasant task ; he has both teeth and claws, and dog or man, who has once felt them, likes not to venture a second time within his reach.' These dogs of mine will sieze a bear singly, with considerable alacrity, though he is a most powerful animal, but I have seen them. , run howling away from a wolf, even though there were two or three of us at hand to encourage them." " A dangerous person is the wolf," eaid the other shepherd, "and cunning as dangerous ; who knows more than he ? He knows the vulnerable point of every animal; see, for example, how-ihe flies at the neck of a bullock, tearing open the veins with his grim teeth and claws. But does he attack a horse in this, manner? I trow not." " $ot he," said the other shepherd, "he is too good a judge ; but he first fastens on the haunches, and hamstrings him in a moment. O the fear ofj the horse when he comes near the dwelling of the wolf. My master was the other day riding in the despoblado, above the pass, on his fine Andalusian steed, which had cost him five hundred dollars ; suddenly the horse stopped, and sweated and trembled like a woman in the act of fainting; my master could not conceive the reason, but presently he heard a squealing and growling in the bushes, whereupon he fired off his gun and scared the wolvres, who scampered away ; but he tells me that the horse has not yet recovered from bis fright." " Yet the mares know, occasionally, how to balk him," replied his companion ; " there is great craft and malice in mares, as there is in all females ; see them feeding in the campo with their young cria .about them; presently the alarm is given that the wolf is drawing

near ; they start wildly and run about for a moment, but it is only for a moment — amain they gather together, forming themselves into a circle, in the centre of which they place the foals. Onward comes the wolf, hoping to make his dinner on horseflesh ; he is mistaken, however, the mares have balked him, and are as cunning as himself; not a tail is to be seen — not a hinder quarter — but there stand the whole troop, their fronts towards him ready to receive him, and as he runs round them barking and howling, they rise successively on their hind-legs, ready to stamp him to the earth, should he attempt to hurt their cria or themselves." " Worse than the he-wolf," said the soldier, "is the female ; for, as the senor pastor has well observed, there is more malice in women than males : to see one of these shedemons with a troop of the males at her heels is truly surprising : where she turns they turn, and what she does that do they; for they appear bewitched, and have no power but to imitate her actions. I was once travelling with a comrade over the hills of Galicia, when we heard a howl. ' Those are wolves/ said my companion, Met us go out of the way;' so we stepped from the path and ascended the side of the hill a little way, to a terrace, where grew vines, after the manner of Galicia : presently appeared a large grey she-wolf, deshcnesta, snapping and growling at a troop of demons, who followed close hehind, their tails uplifted, and their eyes Ike firebrands. What do you think the perverse brute did ? Instead of keeping to the path, she turned in the very direction in which we were ; there was now no remedy, so we stood still. I was the first upon the terrace, and by me she passed so close that I felt her hair brush against my legs ; she, however, took no notice of me, but pushed on, neither looking to the right nor left, and all tl c other wolves trotted by me without offering the slightest injury, or even so much as looking at me. Would that I could say as much for my poor companion, who stood farther on, and was, I believe, less in the demon's way than I was; she had nearly passed him, when she suddenly turned half round and snapped at him. I shall never forget what followed : in a moment a dozen wolves were upon him, tearing him limb from limb, with howlings like nothing in this world ; in a few moments he was devoured ; nothing remained but the skull and a few bones ; and then they passed on in the same manner as they came. Good reason had I to bs grateful that my lady wolf took less notice of me than my poor comrade." — Borrows Bible in Spain.