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What time the sun from ocean's peaceful stream Darts o'er the lawn his horizontal beam. The pack impatient snuff the tainted gale; The thorny wilds the woodmen fierce assail; And foremost of the Train, his cornel spear Ulysses wav'd to rouse the savage war; Deep in the rough recesses of the wood, A lofty copse, the growth of ages stood; Nor winter's boreal blast, nor thund'rous show'r, Nor solar ray could pierce the shady bower, With wither'd foliage strew'd, a heavy store! The warm pavilion of a dreadful boar. Rous'd by the hounds' and hunters' mingling cries, The savage from his leafy shelter flies, With fiery glare his sanguine eye-balls shine And bristles high impale his horrid chine. Young Ithacus advanced, defies the foe, Poising his lifted lance in act to throw: The savage renders vain the wound decreed, And springs impetuous with opponent speed! His tusks oblique he aim'd, the knee to gore; Aslope they glanced, the sinewy fibres tore, And bar'd the bone: Ulysses undismay'd, Soon with redoubled force the wound repaid; To the right shoulder-joint the spear applied, His further flank with streaming purple dyed; On earth he rush'd with agonizing pain. With joy, and vast surprise, the applauding train Viewed his enormous back extended on the plain."

The wild boar formed part of the sports, pageants, and wild-beast shows and fights of the Romans. On the return of Severus from Arabia and Egypt, in the tenth year of his reign, sixty wild boars fought each other; and in the year that Gordian the First was ædile, he entertained the people of Rome, at his own expense, once a month; and "on the sixth month there were two hundred stags, thirty wild horses, one hundred wild sheep, twenty elks, one hundred Cyprian bulls, three hundred red Barbary ostriches, thirty wild asses, and one hundred and fifty wild boars," given out to be hunted, and became the property of whosoever was fortunate enough to catch them.

During the middle ages, hunting the wild boar formed one of the chief amusements of the nobility, in most European countries. The dogs provided for this sport were of the slow, heavy kind, anciently known by the name of the "boarhound." None but the largest and oldest boars were hunted, and these afforded a very exciting and often dangerous sport, lasting for many hours; for when first the animal was "reared," he contented himself with slowly going away, just keeping ahead of his pursuers, and apparently caring but little for them, and pausing every half mile to rest himself, and give battle to his assailants, who are, however, too wary to advance upon him until he becomes tired; then he takes his final stand, and dogs and