gret, the wonted wolf-hunt, always kept up
in Lithuania from the middle of December till Christmas-eve.

It was a custom, time immemorial, in the province, and followed as much
for the amusement it afforded the young people, as for the destruction
of the deadly prowler. The mode of conducting it was this: Every two or
three families who chanced to be intimate, when the ice was sufficiently
strong and smooth for sledge-travelling, sent forth a party of young
hunters, with their sisters and sweethearts, in a sledge covered at the
one end, which was also well cushioned and gayly painted; the ladies in
their best winter dresses took possession of it, while the hunters
occupied the exposed part, with guns, shot-pouches, and hunting-knives,
in complete readiness. Beside the driver, who was generally an old
experienced hand, there was placed a young hog, or a leg of pork,
occasionally roasted to make the odor more inviting, and packed up with
cords and straw in a pretty tight parcel, which was fastened to the
sledge by a long rope twisted to almost iron hardness. Away they drove
at full speed, and when fairly in the forest, the pork was thrown down,
and allowed to drag after the sledge, the smell of it bringing wolves
from every quarter, while the hunters fired at them as they advanced. I
have seen a score of skins collected in this manner, not to speak of the
fun, the excitement, and the opportunities for exhibiting one's
markmanship and courage where one would most wish to have seen them.

The peasants said it was never lucky when Christmas came without a
wolf-hunt; but that year it was like to be so; for, as I have said, the
snow kept falling at intervals, with days of fog and thaw between, till
the night before the vigil. In my youth, the Lithuanians kept Christmas,
after the fashion of old northern times. It began with great devotion,
and ended in greater feasting. The eve was considered particularly
sacred: many traditional ceremonies and strange beliefs hung about it,
and the more pious held that no one should engage in any profane
occupation, or think of going to sleep after sunset. When it came, our
disappointment concerning the wolf-hunt lay heavy on many a mind as well
as mine; but a strong frost had set in before daybreak, and at the early
nightfall a finer prospect for sledging could not be desired--over the
broad plain, and far between the forest pines, the ice stretched away as
smooth and bright as a mirror. The