INDIAN SPORTING SONGS. 317 



XL 



We met in midTcareer ; 



Loud crashed my shiver' d spear 



One shock and I knew no more : 

 Till, on rising from the heath, 

 There side by side in death 



Lay my steed and that noble boar ! 



XII. 



Now all true sportsmen hail ! 

 And may ye never fail 



To have luck and good sport to the fore : 

 May ye never lose a horse, 

 Or else, what is far worse, 



May ye never lose an old grey boar ! 



COLONEL NIGHTINGALE, 



Hyderabad Contingent. 



NOTE. These lines were written by a celebrated Indian 

 sportsman the late Colonel Nightingale, who commanded a 

 regiment of irregular cavalry in the Hyderabad Contingent. He 

 has seldom been excelled, or even equalled, as a shot or spear, 

 and, I suppose, shot more tigers and speared more panthers, 

 bears, and hog than any man of his time. He died very sudden- 

 ly in October, 1868, at Secunderabad, in the Deccan. A panther 

 had been caught and turned out on the race-course before seve- 

 ral sportsmen to ride with spears. Colonel Nightingale and a 

 young native officer were leading, when he was seen to sway in 

 his saddle, and his spear dropped. His companions were just in 

 time to catch him as he fell from his saddle but he never re- 

 covered consciousness, and was buried the following day. His 



