Chapter 8 : 
The End Of Bulka And Milton
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18881888

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Author : Leo Tolstoy

Translator : Nathan Haskell Dole

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Bulka and Milton met their death about the same 
time. The old Cossack did not understand how to treat 
Milton. Instead of taking him with him only when he 
went after birds, he tried to make a boar-hunter of 
him. 
That same autumn a sekatch l boar gored him. No 
one knew how to sew up the wound, and Milton died. 
Bulka also did not live long after his rescue from the 
convicts. Soon after his rescue from the convicts, he 
began to mope and to lick everything that came in his 
way. He would lick my hand, but not as in former 
days when he meant to caress me. He licked long, and 
energetically thrust out his tongue, and then he began 
to seize things with his teeth. 
Evidently he felt the impulse to bite the hand, but 
tried to refrain. I did not like to let him have my hand. 
1 Sekatch is a two-year-old wild boar, with sharp, straight tusks. 
AUTHOR'S NOTE. 
Then he began to lick my boot and the table leg, and 
then to bite the boot or the table leg. 
This lasted two days, and on the third day he disap- 
peared, and no one ever saw him or heard of him again. 
It was impossible for him to have been stolen, and he 
could not have run away from me. 
Now this happened to be about six weeks after the 
wolf had bitten him. It must have been that the wolf 
was quite rabid. Bulka also became rabid and went off. 
He was afflicted with what hunters call stetchka the 
first stage of madness. It is said that madness is first 
shown by spasms in the throat. Rabid animals desire to 
drink, but are unable, because water makes the spasms 
more violent. Then they get beside themselves with 
pain and thirst, and begin to bite. 
Probably these spasms were just beginning with Bulka, 
when he showed such a disposition to lick everything, 
and then to bite my boot and the table leg. 
I traveled over the whole region and made inquiries 
about Bulka, but I could learn nothing about where he 
had gone or how he died. 
If he had run mad and bitten any one as mad dogs 
usually do, I should have heard from him. But probably 
he went out somewhere into the thick woods, and died 
there alone. 
Huntsmen declare that when an intelligent dog is at- 
tacked by madness, he runs off into the field or woods, 
and there finds the herb which he needs, rolls over in 
the dew, and cures himself. 
Evidently Bulka did not get well. He never returned, 
and he disappeared forever.



     From : Wikisource.org

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     Chapter 8 -- Publication : November 30, 1887

     Chapter 8 -- Added : June 30, 2021

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