Veddah Ripped by a Boar. 171 



back without once losing his hold, the elk's pace was 

 reduced to a walk. With both greyhounds now hang- 

 ing on his ears, the buck reached the river, and he and 

 the dogs rolled down the steep bank into the deep 

 water. I came up just at this moment and killed the 

 elk, but both dogs were frightfully wounded, and for 

 some time I despaired of their recovery. 



This was an extraordinary feat in seizing ; but Kill- 

 buck was matchless in this respect, and accordingly of 

 great value, as he was sure to retain his hold when he 

 once got it. This is an invaluable qualification in a 

 dog, especially with boars, as any uncertainty in the 

 dog's hold renders the advance of the man doubly dan- 

 gerous. I have frequently seen hogs free themselves 

 from a dog's hold at the very moment that I have put 

 the knife into them : this with a large boar is likely to 

 cause an accident. 



I once saw a Veddah who nearly lost his life by one 

 of these animals. He was hunting " guanas" (a species 

 of large lizard which is eaten by all the natives), with 

 several small dogs, and they suddenly found a large 

 boar, who immediately stood to bay. The Veddah ad- 

 vanced to the attack with his bow and arrows ; but he 

 had no sooner wounded the beast than he was sud- 

 denly charged with great fury. In an instant the boar 

 was into him, and the next moment the Veddah was 

 lying on the ground with his bowels out. Fortunately 

 a companion was with him, who replaced his entrails 

 and bandaged him up. I saw the man some years 

 after; he was perfectly .well, but he had a frightful 

 swelling in the front of the belly, traversed by a wide 

 blue scar of about eight inches in length. 



A boar is at all times a desperate antagonist, where 



