IN THE SWAMPS 179 



not say I enjoyed the game; there is no sport in 

 shooting lead into something you do not get, and 

 when you do get it the reptile is so repulsive as 

 to destroy all the joy of its pursuit. Therefore I 

 was well content when Aboo Din announced that 

 crocodiles had been butchered in sufficient num- 

 bers to quiet the fears of the residents and he was 

 ready to take me inland for wild pig. 



Per contra, no sport in the world is more thor- 

 oughly enjoyable than boar-hunting, or pig-stick- 

 ing as it is done in India ; for this is the pluckiest 

 brute on earth. No beast has more courage than 

 he; in fact, an old wild boar knows no fear; not 

 even of a tiger. The wild boar never loses his 

 head— or his heart; such bravery I have never 

 beheld in any four-footed creature. He has all the 

 cunning commonly accredited to the devil, and in 

 his rage is a demon that will charge anything of 

 any size. I have seen a small boar work his way 

 through a pack of dogs ; and his smaller brother, 

 the peccary, in Brazil, send a man up a tree and 

 keep him there. The boar looks ungainly, but the 

 Indian species is fleet as a horse for about three 

 quarters of a mile. He begins with flight, shifts 

 to cunning, and finally stands to the fight with 

 magnificent valor, facing any odds. As, riding 

 upon him, you are about to plant your spear, he 

 will dart— " jink," as they call it in India— to one 



