Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-23
THE PECCARY.
Some OF the Habits and Characteristic
of q Strange Beast


of q Strange Beast.
Texas has within her borders a beast
into whose narrow skull fear never en-
ters, says the Detroit Free Press. 1t is
the peccary-the HaYilinah Of the Next
cans, the DicOtyles torquatus Of zoolo-
glsts. Bravery is a notable attribute Of
man, and it is discovered in birds, beasts
and fishes. I don't claim the quality for
the brute / am about to describe. / be-
lleye bravery cannot be said to exist in
senses devoid of fear. / conceive that an
appreciation OF danger IS a necessary
menstruum to the nODler courage. II il
not the man Of logged Indifference / adj
mlre, IT IS the man who refuses to 1y
when duty bids him stand, and though he
fears death, fears dishonor more.
NOW the peccary has no particle of fear
ON account Of any show Of odds. and an
pears to live only for the purpose Of mad
Iy dying when opportunity offers. The
game cock fights with heroic yalOr. hut
one sees in his swimming eyes, when
gafted and bleeding in the pit, glances of
regret and nameless fear. He shudders
out his life beneath his Growing cOnoueror.
and his tiny heart, perhaps, swelis with
woe at its last thrObs. At least he looks
that way to me. The dyingpachyderm Of
the Texas forest dies in "a matter of
course" manner as if he was meant to end
that way and was glad oft. He looks upln
the tree where the man sits who shot him
few men of experience ever shoot them
from any other standpOint) and anon he
holds up his clOven hOOf and chances at it.
III the peccary regrets anything in the
hour of dissolution, it is that he was not
made like squIrrel-to climb.
Roaming the glade, searching for mast.
drove Of peccaries resembles a drove of
tame hogs. They never begin war, but
when one is assailed the entire drove rush
10 the attack as men rush when martial
Yalor urges them. Each bead-like eve is
a nre spark, tusks are prOtruded, the
echlnated spine Strengthened, and woe
TO the wretch who falls in their path.
Gored, bitten, torn, trampled upon and
eaten up TO the last shred of his clothing
such is the fate of the man caught by a
drove of angry peccarIes. With the same
fury they assail wolf or attack a bull:
and neither the wolf nor the bull can
stand up against charge of half dozen
peccaTles, Both know this and fly in ter
ror from the field.
Lately, on the Wichita river, l attacked
a drove of peccaries. L was safely perched
IN tree, armed with a Winchester rifle
and accompanied by Sergt. Platt. of the
Frontier Battalion, who occupied a bough
beneath me.
We waited until the drove ap-
preached within thirty yards of our
tree and then we fired simulta-
neously, killing one and wounding
another. The roar of our carbines brought
them upon US with that strange alacrity
that suggested their having awaited
from stockings for just that occasion, and
kept perfectly ready for it. When they
arrived at the tree they bit it each in
turn, and then glancing up, squatted and
hXed upon us dozen pair OF eyes small
as peas and blazing with fierce purpose
and fury intense.
One by one we shot them, and they fell.
one by one, and died; each willing and
ready to go, and accepting his fate as nIeas-
antly as school boys accept apples, Not
grOan or squeal betrayed pain or dismav.
Squattlng on their hams thew gazed at
us and took the bullets as if we
were tossing them acOrns. Presently only
one was left alive amid a dozen corpses,
and there he sat brown, bristling. furious'
toaming with raging life, counting death:
uhmlndIul OF the blood that damped
the grass about him; Indifferent of the
fate of comrades-a very epitome of hate.
Don't shoot yeti" l said to Sergeant
Platt, Il want to study him."
Orlm, VOlceless, hOrrible-the hog sat
ana gave me back glance for glance. The
spot he squatted upon was within the
radlus OF a red ant bed. The insects
craWled over him and stung his thick
hide; they wasted their formic acid,
pIu3ted Ihelr lancets in vain. AS we'll
might they have stung the cactus
plant growing beside their bed.
After time the old boar grew
weary OF the task of gazing. and
he got up and went around, Smelling the
bodies of his late companions, Then he
ate few acorns that had fallen from the
IlHe OAK Tree we were perched in, and
after that he deliberately stretched him
sell al the root of the tree, intending to
remain a sentry and prevent our slipping
away without his permission, or without
others. " Un0
We did not keep him waiting much lon
ger. Plat aimed at his heart and pierced
1t with fOrty-four calibre bullet with a
single glance upward from a sinister eve.
the hog died gently, and with his life
ended his one emotion-hate,
Texas and Pacific and Fort Worth and
Denver City locomotive engineers often
encountered droyes of peccaries, as L sup
pose do all engineers who operate on the
western Texas railroads. No whistle is
sounded to brighten them. The engineers
know That peccaries cannot be frightened.
The engine rushes into the midst of the
drove, and those not killed outright die
madly' charging and biting at the wheels
that crush them.
A peccary is in all respects hog. He
looks, smells, tastes like hog-and is a
hog, but fora thing ofIndomitable courage
OF the lower type, for a hater, of quench-
less fury, and for a fighter to the last
throb Of his heart, commend me to the
fierce Dicotyles tOrquatus, the indigenous
IeXas hog, brute that would, if he could,
While riding in the midst of a cyclone, bite
lightning.