332 LARGE GAME. chap. vii. 



that no amount of danger or success can atone for hours 

 and hours of walking and running under the glare of a 

 tropical sun, without water, and often, after twelve or 

 fourteen hours so spent without any intermission, having 

 to sleep on the ground under a tree, taking your chance 

 of rain, and without food or any hope of obtaining it, save 

 by the repetition of another such day's work. Tired of it 

 one certainly does get, though a week or two's rest is 

 generally sufficient to make one as keen as ever, and it 

 was during such an interval that I thought of pig-stick- 

 ing. The idea was suggested to me in the following way : 

 I had gone out shooting early one morning, and one of 

 my dogs had followed me unperceived. It knew well 

 enough that it would be sent back if I caught sight of it 

 (for I do not, as some do, consider dogs necessary, or even, 

 except under peculiar circumstances, desirable additions 

 for large game hunting), and so kept itself well in the 

 background, until I fired at, and as I supposed missed, a 

 great boar which was rooting about in one of the glades 

 of the jungle. It then made a rush past in pursuit, and 

 some ten minutes afterwards I heard it giving tongue ; 

 and as the sound was steady in one place, it was clear 

 that the boar must be at bay. Knowing from many a 

 camp-fire story that a dog was nearly certain to lose its 

 life in such an encounter, and this one being an especial 

 favourite of mine from its skill and pluck in tackling 

 wounded buffalo, I made an attempt to force my way 

 through the jungle, here so thick as to be all but impass- 

 able ; and while doing so I came on the spoor, not ten 

 minutes old, of a troop of buffalo, which the noise made 

 by the dog had disturbed, and which were making to- 



