204 WOLF-HUNTING. 



One blow sufficed, and so rapidly was it given that not a hound 

 was scratched in the affair. 



Hog-hunting, as practised in India, is doubtless a most 

 exciting and manly sport, requiring not only good nerve in the 

 rider, but thorough skill in the management of his horse and 

 spear, good hands, and a quick eye these are indispensable 

 gifts ; and the honour of, winning " first spear " and the tusks, 

 no matter how swift the steed may be, will only accidentally fall 

 to the lot of him who lacks such needful qualifications. But the 

 danger of pursuing the boar in this fashion is not to be compared 

 with the risk a man runs when he closes, chasse-couteau in hand, 

 with the brute at bay. His charge then, if his wind has not been 

 completely pumped out of him, is certain to do serious mischief ; 

 and woe be to the hunter who is a laggard in striking the blow 

 rapidly and expertly so soon as the hounds have done their 

 work brought him fairly to bay. Kergoorlas would not have 

 missed that feat for a dukedom. 



But let us now follow St. Prix, who, when the big boar turned 

 short, and the tail-hounds turned with him, kept his ear on the 

 leading hounds, and sticking to them, found to his joy that, 

 though the hounds had divided, the body of the pack was still 

 with him, and the pig going straight for the river in the hollow 

 vale below. There, he well knew, the beast would make a stand ; 

 and, as the stream was a broad and rocky one, his anxiety for the 

 hounds' safety impelled him forward at a terrific pace. If Barbe- 

 bleu, on which he was fortunately mounted, had possessed the 

 legs of a mountain-cat, he needed them all in descending that 

 steep ravine, obstructed as he was at every stride by the tangled 

 brake and rugged ground over which he was compelled to travel 

 so rapidly. But the gallant steed carried him, like a dragon on 

 wings, through and over every impediment; though, as Shafto, 

 who had vainly attempted to keep pace with him, afterwards told 

 us, it was nothing short of a miracle how both man and horse 



