xvn THE BOAR 309 



ordinary power of a knife with the efficiency of a bill-hook, for 

 clearing jungle when necessary; for cutting poles, to carry home 

 the heads and horns of sambur deer, etc. ; to fell the young trees 

 for building an impromptu hut ; and for the hard work of cutting 

 up large animals into quarters, for conveyance by coolies, where no 

 roads existed, either for pack animals or carts. It was difficult to 

 arrange a knife that would comprise all these desiderata, but Mr. 

 Paget, of Piccadilly (long since dead), was a first-rate cutler, and 

 he produced the perfection of a blade. The knife weighed exactly 

 3 Ibs., including the sheath. It weighs 2^ Ibs. now without the 

 cover, being reduced by constant grinding during many years of 

 hard work. The blade was 1 foot in length, 2 inches wide, and 

 double edged 3 inches from the point, slightly hollow in the centre 

 (If inch wide), and again 2 inches wide at the base, and T 5 g- inch 

 thick at the back. 



I give the exact measurement of this blade, as it performed 

 several curious feats during the period of active service. When 

 sharpened to as keen a point and edge as could be obtained, this 

 highly tempered steel would pierce a hole right through one of the 

 old rim pennies, and would cut the same coin into two halves, 

 when placed upon a block of oak, without in the least degree either 

 turning the point or damaging the edge. It will of course withstand 

 the same test at the present moment. 



This was the perfection of a weapon for the purpose required ; 

 it was the companion of every hunt where no firearms were 

 permitted, and, whatever the game might be that was discovered 

 by the pack, it was brought to bay and killed by the hounds and 

 hunting-knife. Sometimes it might be a sambur deer, which was 

 the recognised object of pursuit ; at other times it might be the 

 small red-deer ; frequently a wild boar ; and sometimes, but 

 rarely, a buffalo, which many years before had deserted from 

 its owner and run wild among the forests of the Ceylon High- 

 lands. 



As I class the pig with the pachydermata, which will be 

 concluded in this chapter, I introduce the hunting-knife as closely 

 connected with hunts that will be continued with the deer 

 (Cervidcc\ as the experience of such animals was almost identical 

 in the same period and locality. It may readily be understood, 

 from my detailed description of the weapon, that such a knife, in 

 the hand of any person who knew how to use it, would have been 

 nearly as formidable as the old Roman sword. I have on more 

 than one occasion stood against the charge of a sambur stag at bay, 

 and met the attack with the point of the knife in the face, held 



