131 



tail high over his back, he turns round and gives a side 

 glance, he has seen enough, a snort and a grunt and 

 away he goes bounding in a cloud of dust. Tally ho ! — 

 " Ride well to his left, and keep him off from the village," 

 is the cry, and away we go dashing ; the going is grand, 

 mostly cayenne pepper fields, which does not improve 

 by our riding through them ; the chillies, as they hit 

 against the horses' legs go flying in all directions, there 

 must be a certain amount of damage done. The native 

 cultivator is certainly the most passive of his kind 

 from either apathy, enmity to the porcine tribe, or 

 fearful of after consequences the Bengal ryot seldom 

 howls or complains of your riding through their crops 

 — but wait and see if he catches any of your followers 

 squatting down by the side of a pea or gram field and 

 refreshing themselves, down he comes gesticulating, 

 shouting and swearing to wreak vengeance and make 

 them pay for all the damage done, including what has 

 been brushed away by the elephants; luckily, barring 

 threats, the ryots' vengeance goes no further. 



After the boar then. — The pace we were going very 

 soon told, and though a good deal pumped piggy made 

 one more attempt to get to the friendly cover of the 

 jungle which was now only some two hundred yards 

 or so off ; but Ferguson going ahead made him change 

 his mind and down he came a furious charge, McNeil 

 getting a good spear and leaving it in the pig. The 

 boar was now within a few paces of the jungle, and 

 before he could be speared again crashed in the nearest 



