ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 99 



was at once given. Away we went, threading through the 

 bush at a smart gallop. Hearing us coming up, the boar 

 halted for a moment, and again started off. We now settled 

 down to the work, and were gaining on him, when one of our 

 party, who had been at some distance from us when we 

 started, came down on the pig at a right angle. The boar 

 never swerved, but apparently charged straight ahead, and 

 with the intention of cutting the fore legs of the horse from 

 under him. How the horse escaped we could not imagine. 

 The boar seemed to cross under his neck, and both were going 

 at their best pace. In an instant the rider dropped the point 

 of his spear between the shoulders of the boar, and with a 

 convulsive struggle it rolled over, quite dead. 



The thorns through which we hunted told heavily on the 

 legs of the horses, and they were often much swollen after a 

 hard day's work. A favourite remedy was the red earth from 

 the nests of white ants, boiled up with the leaves of the neem- 

 tree, till the whole formed into a thick paste. With this the 

 legs were plastered, from above the knees downwards ; and 

 the mud on drying formed a sort of bandage round the leg. 

 In the early morning the horses were often taken down to the 

 nearest tank, and kept standing for fifteen minutes in the cold 

 water. These combined remedies seemed to draw out the 

 thorns to the surface, whence many were extracted by careful 

 horsekeepers ; and I have seen a man come up with the back 

 of his currycomb covered with large thorns, which he had 

 picked out from the legs of the horse under his charge. 



During the meet, on the days devoted to shooting, 

 we generally started off in pairs, armed with gun and rifle, 

 and taking a light shooting-cart to carry home the game. I 

 was out one day with a civilian who was passionately fond of 

 the chase in all its branches. We laid in a good lunch, and 



