effort or a successful attack, he stands majestically in the middle
of the area, scraping up the sand with his hoof, foaming at the mouth,
and quivering in every fibre with rage, agony, or indignation, looking
towards his adversaries, and meditating a fatal rush--the sight combines
every element of interest and agitation which can be found in contempt
of danger, in surprising boldness, and great animal force intensely
excited. The horns of the Spanish bull are always sharp, and never
covered. An animal of sufficient power and spirit to command popular
applause frequently kills five or six horses, the riders taking care to
fall over on the side most distant from the enemy, and being instantly
relieved from their perilous situation by the bandarilleros, who attract
his attention: and the bull himself is always killed in the ring by the
_matador_, who enters in on foot with his bright flag in the left
hand, and his sword in the right, and who, standing before the enraged
animal waiting the favourable moment when he bends his head to toss
him on his horns, plunges his sword into his neck or spine in such a
fatal manner that he frequently falls instantaneously as if struck by
lightning. This last operation is as dangerous as it is dexterous.
At the moment in which the matador hits the bull, the pointed horn must
be within an inch or two of his heart, and if he were to fail he must
himself be the victim. When he succeeds in levelling to the ground with
a single stroke his furious and irresistible enemy, the music strikes
up, the applauses of the amphitheatre are showered upon the conqueror,
he stalks proudly round the area, strewed with dead horses, and reddened
with blood, bowing first to the judges of the fight, and then to the
spectators, and leaves the place amid enthusiastic _vivas_ for his
successful audacity. The field of slaughter is then cleared by a yoke of
horses, richly decorated with plumes on their heads and ribands on their
manes, to which the dead bull or horses are attached, and by which they
are dragged out at a gallop. That no part of the amusement may want its