This it was not by any means easy to do. Sundry attempts
resulted in bloody fingers, till Jack, taking his pocket-handkerchief,
and fastening one corner round its neck, ran off, dragging it after him
to where his mother awaited us.
`Hullo, mother! Here's a jolly beast, isn't it? I shot it, and it's
good to eat! Father says so! I only wish you had seen how it terrified
the dogs, and heard the rattling and rustling of its spines. Oh, it is
a fearful creature!'
Ernest, examining it carefully, pronounced its incisor teeth, its ears
and feet, to resemble those of the human race, and pointed out the
curious crest of stiff hairs on its head and neck.
`I have read of another species,' said he, `called the tuft-tailed
porcupine, which must be even more curious-looking than this is. It has
short flat quills, and a scaly tail ending in an extraordinary tuft,
like a bunch of narrow strips of parchment. It cannot be such a
disagreeable enemy to encounter as this fellow.'
`Were you not afraid, Jack,' asked I, `lest the porcupine should cast
some of his quills like darts at you?'
`Of course not,' returned he, `I know well enough that is nothing but a
fable!'
`A fable!' said I, `why look at your mother! She is drawing five or six
spines out of each of the dogs!'
`Ah, those stuck into them when they so fiercely fell upon it in their
attack.
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