The doors of the corral are opened wide, and presently, amid a column of dust, the clattering group of beasts and riders has galloped desperately within and all is business and tumult, the bulls bellowing and snorting with confusion at their novel durance; the bells of the cabestros tinkling furiously; the herdsmen shouting, swearing, and cajoling.

For longer distances the cattle are conveyed by rail, in ponderous boxes not unlike a small bathingmachine in shape, but with a lift-up end. It is needless to say that each bull is enclosed in a separate box. On arriving at their destination, and in order to restore them after the journey, it is customary to pasture them for at least some days before the corrida takes place.

Shortly before the fight, the bulls are coaxed into the chiqueros-dark cells with massive doors that open and shut by means of ropes pulled from above. Here also each bull occupies a single cell, and passes, when his destiny arrives, into a kind of narrow tunnel, and thence into the arena. The work of coaxing the beasts, one by one, and always with the aid of the cabestros, from the corral into the chiqueros, requires great ingenuity and patience, and frequently occupies an hour or more. It is customary, in return for a small fee, to admit the public, who occupy a platform overhead, together with the herdsmen, who run from point to point, slackening or hauling the ropes that open and close the doors, and prodding with a garrocha refractory reses into the position desired.

I mentioned the register kept by the ganaderos. In spite of the scrupulous care bestowed upon the

tienta, the indications then observed are by no means infallible, and it is impossible to predict with more than approximate confidence whether a given res, when the fatal moment arrives, will make a creditable fight or no. However, as a general rule, the bulls of certain ganaderías have certain peculiarities, "marks of the beast," so to speak, or idiosyncrasies of attack and defence which the fighters are solicitous to bear in mind. Now and again a bull distinguishes himself by a more than usually heroic resistance, and (very rarely) the Spanish public, after the usage of their ancestors, the Romans, intercede for his life. Thus, Cantarero, fought at Jerez on July 26th, 1871, accepted thirty-two varas, killing nine horses and wounding eleven. At the request of the respetable público his life was spared. Cartero, fought at Madrid in 1844, killed eleven horses in twelve varas. Centella, fought at Cádiz in 1851, accepted fifty-three varas, killing nine horses and injuring four. His life was pardoned also. And Corcito, the third bull fought at Alicante on July 31st, 1881, accepted ten varas, killing three horses. He then re-charged upon Pinto, a picador, and dashed both him and his horse through the barrera, depositing them in the callejón, killing the horse, and leaving Pinto in a very delicate situation, till the matadores, Cara-Ancha and Gordito, drew off the fiera's attention.

There are numerous instances such as the foregoing, and they surely prove that a fighting-bull is in fact a wild beast, and as such incomparable with any domesticated taurus of the rest of Europe. the inexperienced are sometimes deceived into imagining that because the Spanish res is clean of limb,

Yet

long of body, rather than tall, and proportioned with graceful symmetry, he is therefore inclined to be weak and undersized. Never was a greater error. In freedom from superfluous fat the Spanish beast, I will not deny, might readily disappoint those cattleshow experts of ours who lay such paramount stress upon the aldermanic dimensions of the competitors; but infinitely dearer to the ganadero is the toro bravo's condition; and condition, from the gladiatorial point of view, means perfect speed, perfect courage, and perfect ferocity.

Not for a moment should I elect to wander about an English meadow in company with an English bull; but although this latter might readily tackle a defenceless mortal like myself, it would astonish me greatly to see him accept a second, much less less a twenty-second puyazo from an armed and mounted picador; and after that three pairs of banderillas; and after that the sword of the matador. of course, is within the bounds of the possible; but, given the placid education of the British res, and the tranquillity with which he is allowed to fill his belly to overflowing, and degenerate into a cade and comfortable sleekness, the chances should be altogether in favour of my argument.

All,

Ford was persuaded that the Spanish animal is the weaker of the two; but it does not seem to be so when at Seville, in the summer of 1898, a Muruve bull walked from the barrera to the middle of the ring with a horse and man upon his horns; nor is it unusual for any toro bravo to throw a picador's saddle ten feet into the air; but it takes two men to carry the saddle. As to the Spanish bull's superior agility,