A FIERY OLD GENTLEMAN. 51 



head away whenever he saw the pig coming down, so, 

 though Morey got a couple more spears, they were not 

 what you call killing spears. Finding the game getting 

 rather warm the boar jumped down in the bed of the 

 khal and made for the river ; and when we got to the 

 bank we found him striking across for the opposite 

 side, and I am sure the look he gave us was almost a 

 wink ! ! 



The Kiver Bhoirop, though not broad or deep, is still 

 deep enough not to allow of its being forded with safety ; 

 and the nearest ferry was at least two miles away ; so 

 Morey and I did not exactly know what to do next. 

 We did not like the idea of letting a wounded boar go, 

 specially as it was near a village. On the opposite side 

 was a big rice or cargo boat. We hailed the boatmen 

 to take us across ; we could not take the horses with us ; 

 not only was the country where the pig had gone not 

 rideable but the boat could not do so. So taking the 

 few coolies we had with *us and the gun with some big 

 shot cartridges we got ourselves carried across. 



At first we could see nothing of the pig, as he had 

 disappeared among some mulberry ditches, but all of a 

 sudden there were shouts and the boar was seen in full 

 chase after a score or so of villagers, who had now join- 

 ed in the hunt ; for a few minutes there was scarcely 

 three or four feet between the boar and some of the 

 bipeds. Luckily pigs are not vindictive ; for no sooner 

 he saw the defeat he had inflicted than he again retired 

 to the mulberry ditches. 



