REMINISCENCES OF PIG-STICKING. 77 



By five o'clock we were all dreassed and ready, and 

 as soon as daylight broke, we wound our way to the 

 patiales. Our beating line for the day was to consist 

 of sixteen elephants, some two hundred coolies, and 

 about the same number of village chowkidars, with the 

 Police Sub.-Inspector at their head, and a valuable 

 contingent of some forty stalwart Sikhs from Captain 

 Wilson's regiment. A most imposing army indeed, 

 and enough to strike terror in the hearts of all the 

 porcine inhabitants of the patiales ! ! ! 



As soon as a proper line had been made, and the 

 Sikhs with their havildars told off to keep it in order, 

 the advance began amid the trumpeting of elephants, 

 firing off of guns, beating of tom-toms and the shout- 

 and swearing of some four hundred beaters, who in their 

 vocabulary spared neither the pigs themselves nor any 

 of their male or female ancestors ! ! 



When we had gone about half the distance, pigs were 

 breaking all over the place but, unfortunately, on the 

 village side, where it was impossible to follow them. 

 We had, however, soon the satisfaction of seeing a fine- 

 looking solitary boar come out in the open and, going 

 a short distance, he stopped as if rather anxious to see 

 what was going on behind him. A charge of No. 9 

 shot rather startled him, and he made up his mind to 

 clear out and trotted away. We were just starting to 

 ride him when a regular sounder broke out, and this 

 made us pull up to let the family get well away from 

 the patiale. As soon as they had gone to a safe distance 



