YOU may have seen a programme from time to time on BBC TV called Tracks. One star of it is Ray Mears, who showed you a sort of Robinson Crusoe way of making do in the barest of circumstances. How to make fire without matches by rubbing woods together; he tore up what the rest of us might have thought were weeds and scrunched them raw. Lovely. Very nourishing. (Mind you, he did give the proper warnings.) He showed you how to make candles using pine resin. You slit a stick, push in a ball of resin (lots of it about) then insert short twigs to act as wicks. The candle will burn for ten minutes.
Irish people don't all have to be warned about cattle, but England has legal pathways in many places where rambling clubs go wandering. When you are walk ing over a field and a herd of frisky young bullocks come at you, what should you do? No problem, says the booklet Tracks, which is based on the series. They are just herding you out. Together, they know they can shift you. If you walk away, it says, they'll quietly follow to see you off the premises. Don't run. For if you run, they will, and if you fall they won't stop, and you'll be trampled under hoof.
Maybe a bit scary, that, but wise words about meeting a bull in a field. Just run. Bulls take some time to get up speed, and when they get going they're not easily deflected. If you have the odd idea that you should throw yourself on the ground and thereby the bull may lose interest, don't. You could be tossed around very badly.
In a farmyard where a footpath happens to go through (that's in England, remember), and a snarling guard dog confronts you, what to do? Don't run away; you won't outrun a dog. Keep your hands by your side and talk soothingly. Do NOT put out your hand to him. He may bite it. Don't try to outstare the dog, says this booklet, some animals regard it as a threat to their dominance. Avoid direct eye contact, in other words.
Ever heard of rosehip tea? Some people used it during the last war for its alleged vitamin content. You cut off the top of the hips, remove all the seeds and their hairs, put the hips in a cup and pour boiling water over them. You can eat the dregs after drinking the tea. That again was from Ray Mears, who also tells you that you can make ropes out of bullrushes - the Robinson Crusoe complex again. All this and much more in a slim little booklet from BBC Educational Developments, White City, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS. Price, about a fiver.