30 TWO METHODS OF PIG-STICKING. 



The "Deal table hunt" of Ahmed-nugger was famous 

 throughout India in those days; men came from all parts to 

 join in it. The anticipation of one of those glorious meets 

 became, as the old song has it, 



" My morning thought, my midnight dream, 

 My hope throughout the day." 



I shall never forget the excitement of my first spear ; the 

 hog was a small one, but from the enthusiastic expressions in 

 my journal one would fancy it was one of the finest boars ever 

 slain! There are two methods of pig-sticking. The Ben- 

 galees use a short jobbing spear loaded at the butt and the 

 rider strikes almost clown on the boar. In Madras and 

 Bombay a bamboo spear between eight and nine feet in 

 length is the weapon, and you ride at the boar with your 

 lance in rest, as it were, but an old hog-hunter once said to 

 me " Don't attempt to poke your spear at the boar, you must 

 hold it free and firm, and spear him with your spurs ! i.e., ride 

 on to him holding your spear perfectly steady. 



I once lost a splendid old boar by trying to prod him, it 

 looked so easy. 



It happened in this way ; we had heard of a number of 

 hog, and after some beating found a sow, a lot of squeakers and 

 a boar, but they kept running from one field to another, the 

 boar knocking over one or two beaters ; at last he came out 

 close to me (upsetting a little boy in beautiful style, luckily 

 without hurting him), and I followed him through a narrow 

 strip of grain leading to the open without pressing him, which 

 if done generally makes a hog double back, and I soon got 

 him fairly in the midaun, when at him I went, my horse, " Old 

 Duck," behaving beautifully, and I soon had the boar within 



