PAKHAL NADDI OF THE PALM TREES 



f "^HE literature of hog-hunting is already so 



complete, and has been dealt with by such 

 past masters in the sport itself as well as in 

 M its portrayal, that the subject is to be ap- 

 proached with the greatest diffidence. All that can be 

 said on this grand, engrossing hunting topic must needs 

 savour too much of what has gone before ; and yet remini- 

 scences of bygone days at "Junglypur" would be incom- 

 plete without some reference to the opportunities which the 

 old place afforded us of indulging in this very quintessence 

 of the hunter's sport. 



Hog-hunting played a great part in the woodland sports 

 of ancient England, if we are to judge by the preponderance 

 of the ' boare/ the ' wylde swyne/ in the hunting pictures 

 and poetry of a certain period of those olden days. The 

 lines of Chaucer and of other contemporary poets testify 

 to the hunter's joy in partaking of what was evidently con- 

 sidered the "blue riband" of that old-time shikar his pride 

 and boast of conquest over the " fearsome tuskyd beaste." 



In the lay of "Syr Eglamoure of Artoys" (dated 1570) 

 we have a wonderfully spirited account of hog-hunting 

 three hundred and thirty years ago, which will show pig- 

 stickers of to-day that there is little "new under the sun": 



Syr Eglamoure wened well to do, 

 With a speare he rode him to, 

 As fast as he myghte ryde. 

 Or yf he rode never so fast, 

 The good speare asonder brast, 

 It wolde not in the hyde. 

 U6 



