TIGERLAND 



and also for his sporting reputation. With the hospitality 

 of his class and time, he insisted on my returning with 

 him at once and putting up at his house during my 

 stay. I accepted the invitation willingly, and for the 

 few days I stayed there was royally entertained, his 

 establishment being conducted in the good, old Anglo- 

 Indian style. 



The house was almost palatial as to size and the magni- 

 ficence of the furniture, while the walls of the dining-room 

 and verandahs were covered with the heads and horns of 

 the various animals he had shot. I noticed, however, 

 that although the collection of trophies included every 

 animal to be found in the Indian jungles, there was not 

 a single boar's head amongst them, nor were there any 

 hog-spears among the many weapons of destruction which 

 also graced the walls. I might not have noticed these 

 omissions had I not heard of his pig-sticking exploits duly 

 chronicled in the old numbers of the " O. S. Magazine " 

 and, wondering why he had kept no trophies of these feats, 

 I asked him one day. His explanation was a long one 

 quite a narrative, in fact but to my mind one sufficiently 

 interesting and unique to justify its length, for a more 

 curiously pathetic tale I had seldom heard. 



It seemed that he had commenced life as an indigo 

 planter, and, like most men of his calling, had taken to 

 pig-sticking early in his career, and being by nature a 

 good horseman, soon became proficient at this fascinating 

 sport. As time went on, and with it promotion, he was 

 able to keep up a good stud, amongst them an Arab gelding 

 named Mustapha the pick of his stables and the best 

 pig-sticker of them all, yet, with the irony of fate, destined 

 to be the cause of his master abandoning this sport. 



One hot April morning, as he was sitting smoking in 

 the verandah, his attention was attracted to an individual 

 coming sidling up towards him in the manner peculiar to 

 the native when desirous of speaking to the " sahib." Find- 

 ing himself discovered, the man halted in front of him, 

 standing on one leg, which he kept rubbing with the other. 



" Well, what is it ? " inquired H , wearily, expecting 



to hear one of the endless complaints he was accustomed to 



receiving. 



232 



