Something Like a Bullfight.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 200, 23 April 1887, Page 7

Something Like a Bullfight.

" I was one day enjoying a ramble," says Lord Saltoun, in relating his Indian experience, " along the shores of a beautiful lake, I was alone, and having a book with me I sat down under the shade of a tree to read for an hour or so. My position was one of the hills covered with fine smooth turf and studded with pretty large single trees, and near the spot the declivity sloped gently towards the water, but did not reach to it, the ground having given way at some former epoch and formed a small precipice, fifteen or twenty feet in depth from the edge, sheer down to the deep water below. There was a herd of cattle feeding around, of the ordinary Indian breed, the Zebu, or ' Brahminny ' cattle, as they are sometimes called, which in that district are of large size ; and I had not been long seated when I noticed that something appeared to disturb the equanimity of the bull belonging to the herd, a very fine fellow, with a sleek white coat, tinged with grey about the neck and joints, grand horns, and magnificent hump. He began to bellow and tear up the ground with his forefeet, and for a while I was a little apprehensive that these tokens of his wrath might be directed towards me ; but having my gun at my side, without which I seldom went; far, and seeing that the tree i under which I sat was pretty easy to climb, I was reassured, ana watched the old i fellow's proceedings with interest. Soon the cause of his disturbance became apparent ; a mighty voice answered his challenges, and around the hillside came another bull, as nearly an equal match to the first as could be imagined, and as like him as two peas, except that perhaps his grey markings were a trifle darker. Proudly he advanced, bellowing defiance, while the lord of the herd vehemently responded, and seemed to become the incarnation of fury, until, when some twenty yards from each other, down went their heads, and they met with .1 crash that resounded over the whole plat •, and sent each combatant back on his haw .< ;hes. The herd, meanwhile, had gathered together, and stood looking on. Both champions rose from the first shock, and closing again more deliberately, brow to brow, a tremendous tussle began. I have never seen so well matched a pair of gladiators. Round and round they went, backwards and forwards, each straining every nerve to overpower the other, but without success ; only I noticed whichever happened to be uppermost on the hillside had a little the best of it, and drove his adversary back so long as he preserved that advantage. lam sure they must have been fighting for a quarter of an hour, and the struggle, which began to tell upon both, had brought them close to the edge of the little precipice mentioned above, at which moment a sudden turn placed the stranger bull undermost on the hill-side, when the lord of the herd, aided by the advantage of ground, made a vigorous push, the strangers hind feet slipped over the edge, and he plumped with aloud splash into the lake below, disappearing as by magic from the view of his antagonist, who very nearly toppled over and shared his fate. The scene was most absurd. Recovering himself, with a roar of surprise, the astounded victor wheeled about and galloped tail in air, bellowing as he ran, and Mowed by the herd."