2io Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



below Doobree, and as pigs were very numerous, my 

 friend proposed that we should try a little hog-hunt- 

 ing. Neither of us was well equipped for such a 

 sport. I had a couple of Burma ponies, but no spears. 

 W. had a country-bred mare and a pair of hog-spears 

 such as are used in Bengal ; these are barely six feet 

 long, heavily weighted at the butt end, and are used 

 for "jobbing," whilst those in vogue in Bombay and 

 Madras are much longer and are for "prodding." 

 The Commissioner had had a little pig-sticking with 

 some friends of his in Tirhoot, and it was years since 

 I had ridden a boar, and, alas ! I had put on flesh, and 

 the largest of my nags was only 13 '2, but strong and 

 plucky; the other, a gray, was about 13, speedy 

 but violent. Neither were up to my weight for 

 hunting, still the temptation to follow a boar was too 

 great to be resisted, so we determined first to try the 

 mainland on the right bank, where we had disturbed 

 many a thundering big fellow lying out almost in the 

 open. The country was the very thing for riding, 

 being nearly flat, pretty open, and full of not only 

 pig, but there were tigers about ; also rhinoceros and 

 marsh-deer. Hedges or ditches there were none, 

 but occasionally a dry watercourse, with sloping 

 banks, down and up which it was easy going, was 

 encountered. 



The jemadar of the mahouts was directed where to 

 take the elephants (we had ten with us) at daybreak 

 next morning, and to beat in a certain direction. 

 We were hunting under difficulties, for we had no 

 spare spears, and were inadequately mounted ; but 

 there is a charm in hog-hunting which is impossible 

 to resist, if you have once been " entered " to it. W. 



