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A MORNING’S JOURNEY 195
he threw the hide over his shoulder, gave the carcass a
parting kick and disappeared. At once there was a
furious swoop from out of the air and over the ground.
In an instant the carcass was covered with hungry
dogs and greedy ravens. But an old gypsy woman was
walking down the river. She threw stones to drive
away the animals and then proceeded to cut away the
juiciest slices from chest and thighs of the carcass. She
cut the meat into thinner slices, concealed the slices
over her naked skin, and then adjusted her clothing
over the slices. This is the conventional method of
smuggling meat through the excise gates. Afterward
it is an easy matter to sell it in the market-place as beef
or pot-roast. Finally the dogs and ravens could start
their breakfast. When the sun appeared over the
peaks of the Sierra, only the skeletons remained.
After this incident, the dogs ran about half sated,
sniffing with curiosity at the blue luster of the inflated
bodies of their fellow-dogs who lay dead in the water,
with their snouts submerged and the corners of their
jaws reversed. Perhaps they would be in the same
position themselves the next morning, in the same spot,
and in the same state of decay.
There was a tremendous number of masterless dogs
who had been going to seed for several generations in
Granada, a plague indeed to the city and its environs.
It was a difficult matter to overcome the natural in-
ertia and the dogs were left to themselves, until the
hot weather came. It had already come, in March,
and hydrophobia had resulted in mortal injuries. On
one day six persons were bitten by mad dogs. Finally
the city administration deigned to intervene and
ordered poisoned meat to be laid in the gutters at
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