truffled pig's-feet, truffled boar's-head, or
whatever other form of combination may be
devised. As pigs were the first to uproot
and destroy truffles, so truffles now enjoy the
sweet revenge of increasing the shouts of joy
and triumph which are uttered over the
carcases of innumerable pigs. It is a bloody
mode of retaliation, especially in the cruel
cases where black-puddings are concerned.

For the few persons who do not know, it
may be as well to state what truffles are.
Tuber cibarium and lycoperdon tuber are
learned names for a curious plant; a fungus
which grows completely underground; a
vegetable which has neither leaves, roots,
flowers, nor stems, that we can perceive.
Truffles have been found in England, in the
downs of Wiltshire and Hampshire, and in
the sandy districts of Norfolk, as at Holkham:
but as drought and heat are necessary
to their perfection, British-grown truffles are
worth but little. Where the vine thrives,
there thrive truffles; in Burgundy well—
better move to the south. About Perigord,
and at the foot of the Pyrenees, the truffle
best produces its irregular lumps of
vegetable flesh There are animals that you
would hardly take to be animals, and there
are plants that few would believe to be
plants. The truffle is one on the latter list,
as wild and unmanageable in its nature as is
possible to be. Pliny called it the excrement
of the earth. It thrives best in a mixture of
gravel and clay, on spots which the sun
occasionally (and occasionally only) bakes to the
heat of a natural oven. Favourable localities
are the slopes of hills, the skirts of woods,
the uncultivated brinks of summer torrents
and unrestrained brooklets, and the shadowy
places beneath the arms of vast oaks,
poplars, birches, and willows. Like mushrooms,
truffles like to make a sudden growth after
thunder-storms and heavy summer showers.
It was believed that storm-clouds lay them,
as a hen lays eggs. Some say they are found
more plentifully at full and new moon. It is
clear that a night search at the former bright
period must greatly aid the dogs in finding,
by the dew on the ground causing the scent
to lie. Hogs were used for the discovery of
truffles—dogs are now. A tame grunter,
who knew the taste of truffles, was taken out
for a rural walk; he was sure to make a
point at every spot where savoury odours
arose from the ground; his proboscis went
to work; a cry of exultation escaped him at
the moment when the dainty morsel was
attained; then came down upon him a
shower of thundering blows with the stick;
his master compelled him to relinquish the
prize, and content himself with a handful of
acorns. Truffle dogs do not require such
severe discipline; they are better trained
and better treated. They are little wiry,
bright-eyed mongrel terriers, rather inclined
to give themselves airs. They look as if
they wanted to let you know, "You may
patronise me or not, just as you like. I am
a perfectly independent dog. If truffle-finding
should happen to fail, I can at any time
earn my living (and a comfortable one, too)
by rat-catching." They are taught the smell
and taste of truffles; they scratch the ground
when they scent the black pearl hidden
beneath; and a few truffles are now and then
given them for their pains; for man's
propensity to truffles is shared in common by
dogs, foxes, wolves, and swine.

There are many men who make a trade of
truffle-gathering without any animal assistant
whatever. Most of those with whom 1 have
talked on the subject, refer the faculty (when
manifested by men) to a kind of instinct, which
they exercise without being able to give an
account of it. As Fine-ear, in the fairy tale,
could hear the grass grow, so these Fine-
noses, or Fine-eyes, sniff or perceive the
hidden tuber. They can look through a mill-
stone which has no hole in the centre. They
pretend to take rank with the treasure-
discoverers or water-diviners whom the mysterious
agency of a hazel rod conducts to their
object. But in this there is nothing really
miraculous; the human mind cannot always
retrace the steps which itself has taken.
Calculating boys have given correct arithmetical
results, which they would have a difficulty in
working out on paper. There are market-
gardeners' children about Paris, who, on
looking over a bed of seedling stocks only in
their second leaf, will tell you which will
turn out single and which double, though
they cannot describe the signs by which
they are guided. As old experience doth
attain to something like prophetic strain,
so truffle-hunters may acquire nicely-
discriminating powers by practice. Outward
symptoms for their guidance are far from
being wanting. Where the gravelly surface
is bare of vegetation; where, struck with a
stick, it gives a hollow sound; where there
are slight little swellings and bulgings of
the soil; where there are certain unusual
cracks; where tiny clouds of minute blue
flies hover constantly over the same spot, as
if they had found a nidus for their eggs;—
there is the place to search for truffles. Not,
however, in too great a hurry; for if the
ground is broken before the truffles are ripe,
the bed suffers, even although the earth be
returned immediately,—truffles being, like
others of their class, gregarious and social in
their mode of growth. But the more numerous
they are on the same spot, the less is the
volume of the individual specimens. Truffles
vary greatly in size, from two or three lines
to five or six inches in diameter. Their
average bigness is less than that of a hen's
egg; they seldom weigh more than seven or
eight ounces, though much heavier specimens
are on record. The chances are that the
fourteen pound truffle, seen by Haller, was not of
genuine unsophisticated growth. As a general
rule, the peasant extractors, the peasants who