White Sulphur papers; or, Life at the springs of Western Virginia

HUNTING AMONG THE INCAS. 59
good living within my gift,
if he had stopped to take
care of me, I never w^ould have given him any
thing."
A traditional account is given of the celebrated
spring in Germany, called Hirchsprung, having been
discovered by the Emperor Charles IV., who, while
on the hunt, brought a stag to bay at this spot,
whence it leaped down the valley; the stag was
overtaken at the sprudel, which occasioned the discovery
of the spring, from which the emperor, at a
subsequent period, when he was wounded in the
wars, derived so much benefit, that he founded and
gave his name to the town, which soon increased
considerably in size, and became one of the first
watering places in Europe.
In the time of the Incas, a grand semi-annual hunt
was held throughout their land.
About thirty thousand
of the natives enclosed some twenty-five leagues
of countrj'-, bordered by rivers and mountains.
hunters made a great hallowing and noise,
The
and the
animals alarmed, were hemmed in, and taken. Tlie
lions, bears, lynxes, foxes and other beasts of prey,
were extirpated. Sometimes as many as forty
thousand of such animals as the roebuck, fallow deer
and vicuma, were caught.
females were suffered to escape ;
were killed.
All the best males and
the old ones only