USE OF THE SPEAR. 259 



speed at the outset, and kept at it till he is 

 sj^eared. At the moment of attack the horse 

 should be well in hand. The spear should be 

 directed just behind the shoulder, and about six 

 inches below the back-bone, for that is the road 

 to the heart. If a hog be touched in the spine 

 too, he di'02:)s instantly. When a boar charges 

 he always raises his fore-quarters, and sometmies 

 even rises on his hind legs. A boar rips with 

 his tusks, a sow bites. The former cuts alter- 

 nately to the right and left with a rapid move- 

 ment, seeming to wriggle his nose against the 

 object of attack. I remember Lieutenant 

 Messiter, of the Madras 22nd Regiment, getting 

 a very ugly bite from a sow, which thus resented 

 his attack upon her offspring in the Hingin- 

 ghaut Bheer, a celebrated hunting spot in the 

 Nagpore country. 



On reaching the Meer's camp, we found it 

 pitched on the high bank overhanging the Indus 

 at Nauchee, rather a picturesque situation, with 

 several large Landces, or temporary sheds, 

 formed of the reed which grows in such abund- 

 ance in the valley of the Indus, and thatched 

 over. 



Preparations had been made for receiving a 



17* 



