A
by-road on her right hand descended from the fields into the highway
at the point where she stood, and down the track a bull was rambling
uncertainly towards her and Elizabeth, who, facing the other way, did
not observe him.
In the latter quarter of each year cattle were at once the mainstay and
the terror of families about Casterbridge and its neighbourhood, where
breeding was carried on with Abrahamic success. The head of stock
driven into and out of the town at this season to be sold by the local
auctioneer was very large; and all these horned beasts, in travelling to
and fro, sent women and children to shelter as nothing else could do.
In the main the animals would have walked along quietly enough; but the
Casterbridge tradition was that to drive stock it was indispensable that
hideous cries, coupled with Yahoo antics and gestures, should be used,
large sticks flourished, stray dogs called in, and in general everything
done that was likely to infuriate the viciously disposed and terrify the
mild. Nothing was commoner than for a house-holder on going out of his
parlour to find his hall or passage full of little children, nursemaids,
aged women, or a ladies' school, who apologized for their presence by
saying, "A bull passing down street from the sale."
Lucetta and Elizabeth regarded the animal in doubt, he meanwhile drawing
vaguely towards them.
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