A Stoat Legend Has a stoat ever attacked man ?
In the legends about such attacks one often hears that the stoats were hunting in a pack. J., who is a carpenter, is the only man I have ever met who swears he was attacked, and by a single stoat at that. He was a youth at the time, and working in a hayfield with his father, when he encountered the stoat. He threw a stone at it, whereupon the creature sprang at him and he Was forced to scramble on to a five-barred gate. The stoat disappeared in the grass after crouching menacingly and watching him clinging to the gate. I think the stoat's natural ferocity might make it turn upon a plan if it were cornered, but J. insists that he only threw a stone and the stoat attacked, and he will not be shaken in his story. He has probably told of his experience a few hundred times in his life, and, if he has not added to the legends, one can be sure that a listener has already embellished the thing.
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