Of their Wild Beasts.
Lithuania possesses other wild beasts, besides such as are found in Germany, namely, bisons, buffaloes, and alces, which are wild horses, called by some onagri [wild asses]. The Lithuanians call the bison, in their own language, "suber". The Germans improperly call it "aurox" or "urox", which name better suits the buffalo, which manifestly has the form of an ox, while the bison is a very dissimilar kind of animal; for the bisons have manes, and are hairy about the neck and shoulders, with a kind of beard hanging from their chins, their hair smelling of musk, their heads short, their eyes large and fierce, as if they were on fire, and their foreheads broad, with horns generally so wide apart and stretched out, that the space would take in three tolerably stout men; a fact which was shown by Sigismund, King of Poland, father of the present King Sigismund Augustus, whom we know to have been a man of well-built and strong frame, who tried the dangerous experiment with two others of no less bulk than himself. The back of the bison is raised as with a kind of hump, the anterior and posterior parts of the body being more depressed.
Those who hunt the bison had need be men of great strength, agility, and cunning. A suitable spot for the hunt is selected, where there are trees growing at equal distances from each other, with trunks of moderate thickness, so that it may be easy to run round them, and yet sufficiently large to protect the body of a man. Each of the hunters places himself at one of these trees, and when the bison has been roused by the dogs that are set upon him, and is driven towards the spot, he rushes with great ferocity upon the first hunter who presents himself. The latter, however, protects himself by placing the tree between them, and strikes the beast with his hunting-spear, wherever he can; the
