CHAPTER X. 



A ROYAL PIG-HUNT. 



A royal boar hunt The Sultan of the Sulus Sultana and ladies of the 

 court Sulu costume and arms Fine breed of ponies Rough ground 

 Pig sticking Food for the dogs A pleasing sight Invitation to 

 the Istana Datu Mahomed The Sulu " Prince of Wales" Curious 

 saddles Pony racing Mcimbong stream Pleasant evening light 

 Birds Large bats Abundance of butterflies Fine fish Good 

 angling The "Hill of Tears" Sugh, the old capital Market at 

 Mcimbong Tobacco Native produce Chain armour Chinese 

 settlers. 



Soon after dinner one of the Sultan's "ministers" came 

 on board to tell us that a grand pig-hunt was to be held 

 on the morrow, at which the Sultan and suite were to be 

 present, and as royal boar-hunts are not every-day affairs, 

 we all made up our minds to get ponies and go to see the 

 sport. These pig-hunting forays are as popular in Sulu as 

 a royal stag-hunt at home, only that the Sulus have per- 

 haps a better reason to hunt their wild pigs, since they do 

 a deal of damage to the growing crops. About 9 o'clock 

 in the morning we went down to the headman's house 

 at Mcimbong and got our ponies saddled, and after a ride 

 of about half-an-hour through long grass and bushes we 

 came upon the beaters and dogs in a strip of low jungle 

 at the foot of a little hill. The men were yelling and 

 shouting so as to frighten the pigs from their covert out 

 into the grassy plain, where horsemen, each armed with 

 a long slender-shafted hunting-spear, were waiting in 



