CHAP. IV
Awaked by a herd. of wild swine. Almost devoured with flies. Project of catching swine in a fit. Work hard at it. Catch a boar and pig. kill the boar. Get fire to dress it.
AS we lay in the most serene composure that can be imagined, we were both awaked with a violent uproar of numberless hoarse, inarticulate voices and sounds, which made the very wood ring; when starting up on our backsides, (by the light of the moon, which glimmered through the trees, and checquered the ground beneath us,) we could discern a whole heard of swine, making a delicious meal upon our leavings, and all in full concert; besides several other animals, whose shapes and sizes, though we could not nicely distinguish, yet we saw sufficient to assure us, that they were not of the same swine kind. This musick lasted till day break, when they severally dispersed themselves; but most of them took their course still further into the wood, and very few towards the side we had entered at.
Even this piece of intelligence, trifling as it may seem to the reader, was of the utmost consequence to us, whose lives depended upon the measures we pursued. So soon as the coast was clear, and it was full daylight, we dislodged from our retreat, and gained the ground again; when our first step was, to see what the voracious company had left us; and indeed, they had lost no time, for the head shoulders, body, and entrails were clean gone and the bones picked like a prepared skeleton as were also the hinder legs, as far as they could reach; but the back part of the creature rising very high, (for the feet would not reach the ground,) I may say, they had left best part of the two sir-loins and the broad part of the rumps; so that we had no great reason to complain, being in possession of more than we could possibly consume, while the weather, which was very hot, would suffer us to preserve it from putrefaction; we therefore wished them well with their meal, and cutting out the remaining flesh from the bone as well as we could, packed it up, and marched away with it to the rivulet, which we had crossed the morning before; but sure there never was such a journey; for the sun being very warm, we were pestered with such swarms of flies, and those of such enormous sorts and sizes, drawn together by the scent of the beef, that we could not see before us : If we attempted but to speak, we had them in our mouths; they settled by whole handfuls on our faces and hands, and made such a charm, that we could not hear each other. This inconvenience, (and lest they should fill our meat with maggots,) obliged us to take our handerchiefs from our necks, and tie the meat up in them; but in spite of all we could do, they’d so over us, that we had much ado to reach the rivulet; nor could we then discharge our bundles from them, but by dipping them the water, in which we also soaked our hands, and wetted our faces, to alleviate the smart they had occasioned.
When we had drank and passed the rivulet, the flies beginning their old trade again, grew so intollerable, that we were not able to proceed further without some remedy; so there being great quantities of very long knot grass, about the verges of the bushes, we plucked up a large parcel of it, and putting it under our hats, let it hang over our faces and necks, and then wrapping our hands and bundles in the same, we proceeded with tolerable security; as for our legs, while we kept them in the bushes, they were safe enough.
Having found the benefit of this long grass, we enclosed all our meat in it, and placing it above the reach of any animal in a tree, we took each a slice in our pockets, and returned to our second wood, intending to spend the ensuing night there in our old lodging; but we never passed or repassed the rivulet without drinking, whether we were thirsty or not. Now the reason why we removed our store to the first wood was, that the scent of it might not entice the beasts to accustom themselves to our lodging place, and because we had not observed any creature whatsoever in the first wood; and it was plain, the beasts had never passed the rivulet for though they had very much poached the side where they entered to drink, yet there not being a single mark on the opposite shear, it was reasonable to believe, they had not usually forded it.
On our return to the second wood, we both sat down near to the bones of the bull, and took a short repast, entering into discourse of our providential escape from, and the death of the creature, which had most certainly saved our lives; but then, considering with ourselves, that our stock of provision, were it much larger, would not keep above three or four days, before it would almost poison us, we applied our thoughts to such means, as might, if possible, procure us a succession of victuals; otherwise, a little time must of course reduce us to starving.
Whilst we were on these reflections, Thomas taking up one of the bull’s shoulder bones, says he, if we could but contrive to fix this in a handle, it would not be impossible to dig with it; and if we could but make a pit, we might catch an hog at any time. How so, says I? Why, says he, I have read of catching beasts in pits, covered over with sticks and earth upon them; but I am afraid, says he, it won’t do. I had never heard of such a way before, but however, I soon perceived by a little what a great deal meant; nay, said I, if it be but possible we’ll try, having nothing else to do; and if it is to be done, the sooner the better. We both seemed mighty alert to try our experiment, but did not conceive the labour it would be to compass it. We walked about first to find a spot proper for our purpose, at no very great distance from our lodging, that we might be the readier at hand to kill any taken beast before it should escape; and having pitched upon a place, we marked out the ground about six foot square; then cutting half a dozen large handspikes, about five foot long, we with an infinite labour sharpened them, having no other instrument but our knives, and this concluded our first day.
In the night we again heard our swine, but being more used to them, they now became only our diversion, and towards morning they marched off by the same routs they had taken the day before. We were early at our work to day, resolving to make a good beginning before dinner; and having sharpened all our handspikes the last night, we began to drive them in by repeated blows with our own force only; but the ground was so hard we could make nothing of it, till cutting them about a foot long each; with the great thigh bones of the bull, we could drive them in, and loosen the surface of the ground very much: This work we pursued with great assiduity, so soon as we found it would do, shovelling out the crumbles with the two blade bones, and then by our stakes loosening another layer of earth, we scooped that out in the same manner; so that by noon we had got it about six inches deep and then we crossed the rivulet to dinner, which taking us up about two hours, we wrought at it again till bed time.
The next night we slept pretty quiet, there being but few swine near us, and they staying but a little while, their food being entirely consumed the night before. In the morning we went to work again, first new pointing our tools, and found we were likely to have a much easier day’s work than before; for having with some difficulty removed another layer, the ground worked much freer and easier, the deeper we went; so that we sunk it at least a foot that day. The next morning we spent in spreading our earth to a greater distance, and upon our return to dinner, we perceived the swine had smelt our beef, and had been after it, for we found a great deal of their dung under the tree, and many marks of their feet against the bark, and before we went to rest, our hole was about two foot and a half deep.
We were obliged to work for life next day, for our beef was now grown so strong that we could scarce eat it; and rising betimes, we sunk our pit almost a foot and a half. The fourth day we sunk it almost two feet, and the next day we cut our sticks to cross it with, and in our we from dinner, brought with us two bundles of long grass. This we scattered over the sticks lightly, to keep up the crumbles, and spread that over with a thin surface of earth, so that our pit was now about seven feet deep from the new raised mould, which we had cast out and spread round it; in the middle of this we stuck a pole, about four feet higher than the earth, and upon that pole our remaining beef; for we could now scarce endure the smell of it, and had tasted scarce any of it the two last days.
At dark we went to bed, (as I call it,) but had a very indifferent night of it; for long before morning we were surrounded with the roughest musick that ever was heard, nor can it be compared to any other noise : however, we rested, in strong assurance that day light would disperse our pipers, and pleased ourselves with the prospect of a good pork breakfast; but our disappointment was very great, when instead of the multitudes dispersing, their cries had collected treble the number there had been the night before; and though the sun had half mounted to the zenith, there appeared no more sign of the assembly’s breaking up, than there was before day break; nor was there any thing to be heard or seen, from every point of our view, but fresh company trotting, whining, and napping their ears, to join the chorus.
Seeing no prospect of seizing our prey, nor being able to guess when we should, we judged ourselves now to be in the very worst condition we had ever been in; for having drank nothing since the preceding noon, we were ready to perish with thirst; and to venture down, and expose ourselves to the fury of the clamorous rout beneath us, was to clap a razor to our own throats : Again, as the evening was now approaching, we had little hopes of their leaving us, till the next morning at least : But whilst we were cursing our wayward fortune, Thomas rising up, stretched himself, and at the same time giving a loud yawn, in an instant every ear was pricked up to hear from whence that unusual sound came; and some of them spying his uplifted arms, as he was returning them to his sides again; immediately one general snort issuing from the whole herd, each set up his tail and ran for life, with such precipitation, some one way, some another, that in three minutes, there was neither a beast to be heard or seen through the whole wood.
We waited some time in expectation of their return, before we descended, and now hearing no noise in the pit, imagined that what we had taken must have escaped with the rest, or it would not have been so silent. We took our long pointed poles in our hands, and each of us two shorter, and marched softly to the pit, where upon our approach we saw a swinging old boar, sitting on his breech, with his mouth all of a white foam, and so weary with leaping to get out that he could not raise his hinder parts; and by him, with its head under the boar’s breech, a young shoot of about a quarter, four months old, stark dead. The beast ground his teeth, and staring horribly at us, attempted to rise, but was unable, which we observing, struck the points of our long poles with all our force against his sides to dispatch him; but they made no more passage than if they had been forced against a stone wall; then taking up one of the sharpened handspikes, I with all my force swung it downwards to dart him, and this entering about his flank, pinned him to the ground; then with the but end of two others, Thomas and I so plyed him on the head, that we soon dispatched him; one of us then went down, and cut a quarter of the shoot off, with which we marched to the rivulet, for our thirst was too great to permit us to eat till we had allayed it; which having done, we made a hearty meal of it, threw the rest into the water, and returned to our lodging, not doubting but the run-away swine would return and annoy us in the night; but it happened quite otherwise, for we heard no more of them till our remaining pork stank; and after that we never wanted provision for a great while.
Hearing nothing of the herd that night, we were very early at the pit in the morning, and took out the remainder of the shoot, which was as much as we could spend while it would be sweet; when having such plenty before us and not being then very hungry, our palates grew nicer than they had before been; so that we bewailed ourselves very much for the want of fire, which, if we could but have been able to procure, we thought we should have been compleatly happy; for that it might not only serve us for the purpose of dressing our victuals but might be a means of driving any noxious beast from us. A supply for this want dwelt very much on our minds; when the sun being now excessive hot, I bethought myself of an old pair of spectacles, I had had in my breeches pocket every since I left Royston, and which I frequently wore at the finishing of any nice work. Thomas, says I, I have got fire in my pocket; so have I, says he, but we shall never make a blaze with it; (thinking I meant my knife, with which we had often struck fire before, but not forcibly enough to catch on any thing we had applied it to:) Yes, says I, you shall see I have, if you will give me a piece of your shirt. Make your words good, says he, you shall have it all, rather than fail; and upon my assuring him I would, he cut off a piece about as big as a card. We then went to a little spot, where an opening of the trees let in the sun, and pulling out my spectacles, I set the rag on fire directly: Thomas ran and hugged me; O! Jack, says he, now we are happy. I immediately put it out again with my hand, till we were prepared with combustibles for raising a proper pile, which we both went in quest of, and could not be long to seek for in a wood; then heaping up some very dry small stuff and leaves, and disposing larger wood over it, we lighted the rag again, and soon produced what we thought we must for ever have wished for in vain. We had no sooner burnt our wood to embers, than broiling some of our pig, we made a most delicious meal of it and were now, (thro’ our success) grown so dainty, that truly we thought it a difficulty to so it may be, two furlongs every time for drink when we wanted it; This Thomas complaining of, I told him, he should consider, that though we were lords of the country, yet we had no subjects, and consequently should not think much of helping ourselves : Pox of subjects, says he, I want none; If I had but a good large bottle to bring up my water in, it is all I desire. Well, lad, says I, come, as I have already procured you fire, I’ll endeavour to stand your friend in the water affair too, come along with me.