A small piece of small but strong twine is
passed through the jaws behind the tusk-like teeth, and tightly tied
round, so tightly as almost to cut into the skin. This is the old way of
muzzling a ferret, handed down from generations: Little John scorns the
muzzles that can be bought at shops, and still more despises the tiny
bells to hang round the neck. The first he says often come off, and the
second embarrass the ferret and sometimes catch in projecting rootlets
and hold it fast. He has, too, a line--many yards of stout twine wound
about a short stick--to line a ferret if necessary.
The ferrets are placed in a smaller bag, tightly tied at the top--for
they will work through and get out if any aperture be left. Inside the
bag is a little hay for them to lay on. He prefers the fitchew ferret as
he calls it; that is the sort that are coloured like a polecat. He says
they are fiercer, larger of make and more powerful. But he has also a
couple of white ones with pink eyes. Besides the sack of nets, the bag
of ferrets, and a small bundle in a knotted handkerchief--his
'nuncheon'--which in themselves make a tolerable load, he has brought a
billhook, and a 'navigator,' or draining-tool.
This is a narrow spade of specially stout make; the blade is hollow and
resembles an exaggerated gouge, and the advantage is that in digging out
a rabbit the tool is very apt to catch under a root, when an ordinary
spade may bend and become useless.
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