A TOUGH CUSTOMER. 21 



knew him to be, and if I could only hold him, 

 and get him to turn when the pig 'jinked ' or 

 turned, I thought I should not have got a bad 

 bargain. 



On arriving at the foot of the hill, we were met 

 by old Manajee, the Hunt shikari, with a very 

 long face, as he said that lately the villagers, c may 

 dog defile their graves,' had been shooting the 

 pig a crime as heinous in a pig-sticking district 

 as vulpecide would be in a hunting country at 

 home (at least, from a hog-hunter's point of view, 

 though perchance the poor 'ryot,' or peasant 

 whose crops had been destroyed hardly viewed it 

 in the same light), and, as this involved a loss to 

 Manajee's pocket in the shape of fewer pig ergo, 

 less ' iriam,' or reward for pig found, the said 

 villagers' female relations, mothers, sisters, cousins., 

 and aunts, were favoured with a shower of abuse, 

 whereby their own virtue, and that of all their 

 relations, was called in question. 



Interrogated further, however, Manajee ad- 

 mitted that ' there were a few pig on the hill, 

 and one dantwallah (boar), but he was not a big 

 one.' On the strength of this he had collected 

 some eighty beaters, and waited the sahib's 

 'hookum.' or order. These beaters were armed 

 with old matchlocks, horns, tom-toms (native 

 drums), and 'all manner of music' calculated to 



