PIG-STICKING IN THE BRAHMAPOOTRA CHURS 481 



my two nags, Pekoe and Elgin, would do fairly well, even 

 with a heavyish weight on their backs. 



The jemadar of the mahouts was directed where to take 

 the elephants (we had ten with us) at daybreak next morning, 

 and to beat in a certain direction towards us. As I have said, 

 we were hunting under difficulties, for we had no spare spears 

 and were inadequately mounted ; but there is a charm in hog- 

 hunting which is impossible to resist, if you have once been 

 entered to it. 



Williamson was an out-and-out sportsman, plucky to a 

 degree, a splendid shot, a good rider, and under thirty, while 

 I was over forty. He weighed about ten stone, I twelve or 

 more. His mare was well bred and about 15 hands, and had 

 been ridden to pigs ; mine had had no such experience and 

 were a hand and a half lower, so the handicapping was all 

 against me. In a straight run I should be .nowhere; but in 

 hog-hunting even the slowest of steeds has a chance, particu- 

 larly if the boar turn out a j inker. 



I was tired of being eternally on the back of an elephant, 

 and welcomed the chance of a gallop, even if I failed to draw 

 first blood. To get to work early, we crossed over from the 

 right to the left bank over-night, sleeping in an unused cattle- 

 shed, so we were ready for the fray at dawn. 



The jemadar, on a small elephant, received our orders and 

 went off to execute them, and in about half-an-hour we could 

 see the line of elephants advancing towards us. Williamson 

 was ensconced behind a patch of long grass on the right ; I 

 was similarly concealed a little to the left, an interval of about 

 50 yards between us, having agreed that we were to ride 

 boars only, and to let them pass us and get well ahead before 

 laying in. The space before us, although not quite a plain, 

 was ridable for fully three miles. These boars lead an idle life 

 and have their food at hand, so do not take much exercise 

 and get very fat and disinclined to run, and will as often 

 charge at once as seek safety in flight. So fearless are they 

 that I have in these churs put them out of the same patch of 

 grass as a tiger, the two having been lying within thirty or 

 forty paces of one another. The mahouts were told to 



advance in line and silently only to shout when a boar 



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