4 REMINISCENCES OF PIG-STICKING. 



early and started on my journey; it was scarcely yet- 

 daylight, I came to what I shall describe as a rather re- 

 markable sight. What proved afterwards to be an old 

 sow and her young ones were evidently having a feed 

 off an old cow's carcass. I stood and looked at this 

 novel sight; in the background a couple of jackals were 

 keeping watch. So intent was the old sow and her 

 family on their business, that they let me go within thirty 

 yards before they started. I rode up to the carcass for 

 a closer inspection, and found that after all the old sow 

 had not been so guilty. True it was she had had a feed, 

 but it was not of putrid flesh; she had merely disem- 

 bowelled the old cow, and was having a feed with her 

 butchas at the half-digested contents of the stomach ; not 

 a bad idea after all, specially for youngsters with weak 

 digestions !!! 



This is the only case that came under my observation ; 

 and pigs seldom enter villages at night, though I will 

 relate a very extraordinary case anent this, i.e., of pigs 

 roaming in villages. 



There was in the Choa patiale an old tailless boar, said 

 by the people to have been there for a number of years, 

 and they used to say that once upon a time, when quite 

 young, he had been caught by some of the sweepers 

 living about the place, and kept in captivity for a con- 

 siderable time ; and when they thought he had been 

 civilized enough, they let him off minus his caudal 

 appendage; but piggy very soon got back to his former 

 habits, and lost no time in making up for his confinement. 



