156 KEMINISCENCES OF PIG-STICKlXG. 



had not seen seated very long when I heard a shout of 

 bag ! bag ! and on getting up I was just in time to see 

 a splendid leopard going away in big bounds, his tail 

 high up in the air, and scarcely a couple of yards be- 

 hind a big boar with bristle and tail on end in full cry. 

 I think it was as well for this leopard that he had the 

 advantage of the pace, for piggy seemed to have his 

 temper very much ruffled. The destruction caused by 

 jackals among wild pigs is solely confined to squeakers. 



But though a good many pigs may be annually killed 

 by tigers and leopards, and squeakers destroyed by jack- 

 als, still the amount falls short to what are accounted for 

 by native shikarees. 



There are three classes of these pig - shooters, viz. 

 there are first the native cultivators, who, to prevent 

 nightly depredations among their crops erect machans, 

 or bamboo platforms, from where they get easy shots, and 

 a few pigs are thus annually killed. The great enemy, 

 however, of the porcine tribe among the genus homo are 

 the native pot-hunters. These, as a rule, always hunt in 

 company of half-a-dozen or so. In the early mornings 

 and also in the evenings they watch the tracks or runs 

 the pigs generally use for their noctural wanderings, and 

 as these shikarees fire within a few paces their aim is 

 unerring, and many a fine boar, who would have died 

 fighting gallantly in the field, is thus ignominiously put 

 to death. In the day-time these pot - hunters go about 

 wandering in village jungles or wherever they know pigs 

 are fond of lying down, and generally manage to make 



