26 PIG-STICKING 



crowned with success, for, on Christmas night 

 I shot my first tiger. On other days pig- 

 sticking, antelope-stalking and gay dances 

 succeeded each other in splendid procession. 



Now let me describe pig-sticking. When 

 we rose in the early morning it was still dis- 

 tinctly cold. It required a certain amount 

 of determination to leave one's warm bed 

 and — after a short halt before the friendly 

 grate — to go to one's bath in the adjoining 

 room. After a most hearty breakfast, such 

 as one only gets in England, we and one or 

 two officers rode forth pig-sticking. 



It was a perfectly beautiful morning. A 

 clear, dry air, and yet so sharp that one's 

 fingers tingled. And the sun was just rising ! 

 On a bright morning such as this, astride a 

 good horse, one feels one could touch the tree- 

 tops. The English have a very good name 

 for the feeling; they call it " Fit." 



The country was very flat, a kind of wilder- 

 ness covered with tufts of very high reedy grass. 

 The ground was of hard, dried-up loam in which 

 were great '^clefts. 



