Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-03-17
STAR.
ONE OF THE BULL FIGHTS.

In looking over Dumas thousand and
One Phantom's few evenings sncs, We came
across the following description of n scene
which would have made glad the heart of any
lover Of the exciting national pastime of old
Spain. 1t seems that Father Polypus, while
on hunting excursion in India, had the good
fortune to kill wild boar. He, therefore,
thought it would be the simplest thing in the
world to shoot tiger, rhinoceros or an ele
phant. Let rs see how he succeeded:
once more resumed my march through the
forest, desiring nothing better than to engsrge
In struggle for life or death with all the
monsters In the island was conseo uentIy
dsring fro 2. the hurting party. They had told
me that the road went up for about two hours
in ascent; and in less than an hour found
| myself going down. .-
Suddenly, at a distance of few yards from
ms, heard terrible believing L turned TO
the side whence the noise proceeded, and
there stood buffalo
Oh that was fne piece of game for the
sportsman. Nevertheless, as my gun shook
Gttle-I don't know-between my hands, /
| steadied it against branch of the tree, and
pulled the trigger. Scarcely had dono so,
| when saw two red flaming eyes coming to-
| wards me, whilst the furious beast tore up the
coil with his mulzle as plough divides it
into burrows. let 60 my second shot but
Instead of slackening his pace, my second aim
| SEEMED to quicken it
had only time enough left to seize hold of
| branch Of the tree under which 1 was stand
| ing, and to swing myself to it, and then climb
| to the upper branches But when got there
was far from being quit Of my buffalo; for,
not being able to follow me up the tree, lie
very wisely betook himself to guard the trunk
Of it. During the first ten minutes, said to
him You may go round and round, my man;
L don't care fig for you, depend usOn il.
But the next ten minutes began to see that
it was more serious matter than L at first
ina gined.
When had been per,hed there an hour,
| understood, by the quiet composure with
which he paced rcund the tree, that he was
resolved to continue to be my keeper until he
could become my executioner Occasionally
he raised his head up, and looked at me with
CORY eyes, and believing in a threatening
manner; then be would nibble the grass that
grew round the tree, as If to say: You see,
have here all / require-grsss to eat, the
morning and evening dew to slake thirst;
whilst you, as you are a csrniverous animal,
and unaccustomei to feed on verdure you
will be forced to come down from your shelter;
and whenever you do, it will be all up with
you.
fortunately, Father Polypus is a daring
blade, who is not likely TO 60 to sleep in such
an emergency. / said to myself: Polypus
my friend, the longer you wait the weaker
you will become. Allow your buffalo an hour
to sheer of, and if within that hour be is not
not gone, why then we shall see.
Ilooked at my watch-it was III o'clock
Good, said I; at twelve o'clock We shall coEe
to a reckoning
As L had suspected, the buffalo instead of
leaving the tree, continued to keep watch,
raising his nose from time to time upward,
and believing occasionally with sll his might
AS for me, every ten minutes looked at my
watch aud drenh oiP Vut Of my fAsl1 Attic
6ftieth minute, / said to him Mind nv
worthy friend, you have only ten minutes
left; and if, in ten minutes more, you have
not taken yourself of, We will 20 away to
gether. But at the fifty ninth minute, in
stead Of making of, he lay down, stretching
his head towards the foot Of the tree, dilating
his nostrils and glancing at me with an angry
look, which seemed to say Oh, we have yet
time enough before us Don't be uneasy.
But had determined otherwise. At the
sixtieth minute, swallowed all the rum
h had left-a good pull, too. took my cutlass
| between my teeth, and, calculating the ground,
contrived to fall just yard behind his tail,
which l seized with my left hand ss I had
seen the Spanish torreros do at Cadiz and Rio
Janeiro.
Though the buffalo was very nimble. was
quite as much so, and when be started up 1
/ cIung to his tail. He rolled himself over two
CT three times, and as he did it, l rolled his
| tail as often round my left arm. Then, see.
ing that whilst remained thus screwed to
his hams, he could not spike me with his
| horns, L began to recover from my alarm,
whilst he kept believing with all his might
| though in truth it was from anger that he
| did it
| Wait! wait said to him. So you below
| from anger, my friend, 1 will mako you below
directly with pain, that will.
Then, taking out my knife, plunged it into
his belly.
All! This time, indeed, had hit him in his
tender part it appeared; for he shot up like
| a careering horse, and sprang forward with
| 80 unexpected shock that my arm was near
ly torn away; but held hard. L let him 60,
and slash slash! l riddied him with stabs.
That was race I never wish you to run your.
selves, gentlemen 1t lasted quarter Of an
hour, and L was carried six miles through the
bushes, over brooks, marshes, and rivulets; it
was like being fastened to d locomotive en-
gine. And still l kept digging my cutlas into
him. Oh, the wretch! oh the rascal! oh the
villain. Wait bit, wait bit! And now ii
was not fury; it was rage-it was madness he
felt. And away he scampered up to the top
of steep rock, and lespt over int, the yawn
ing gulf But had seen the trick, and let
| 60 his tail at the time. / was left behind on
the peak, whilst he rolled down, down, to the
bottom.
looked over the rock, and saw the buffalo
lying dead in the gulf. AS for me, must not
mince the matter, was almost as bad
was torn, broken, pounded, and covered with
blood but still none of my bones were bro
ken.
got up as well as could, cut of branch
to support me, and went towards brook
which I perceived glimmering through the
trees.
EXTRAORDINARY CRIrrER The following
beats the Baton Rouge " fish" decidedly;
"Mr. Snowman. what is that =, That,