Page:Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean, vol. 3 (1826).djvu/311



“ that mountainous region called the Bergstrasse, which lies along the banks of the Rhine, it was formerly the custom for the young men, when they came to a certain age, to inroll themselves in a company of hunters, for the express purpose of pursuing and destroying wolves; for which reason the band was called the wolf-slaughterers. Indeed, that part of the country is so craggy, so full of caverns, and so crowded with woods, that it is the place in the world most fitted for the harbour of wild beasts, and accordingly, there were in former times a vast number to be found there; so many, in fact, that had not the wolf-slaughterers been very active, daring young men, it would have been almost impossible to have resided there; and it was only by their exertions, that the villagers of Fiendenheim were able to preserve any cat-