12 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



may be allowed a word of advice to a youngster 

 fresh in the country, I would beg of him never to 

 forget that, simple, ignorant, and limited though 

 they may seem, yet they are not mere automatons, 

 hewers of wood and carriers of water, existing only 

 to carry out our behests. Like us, they are very 

 human with their loves and their hatreds, their 

 sympathies, their sorrows, and their joys. 



Our hunting in this country and in India generally 

 is from November or December up to June. In 

 June the rains break, and hunting then is impossible 

 owing to the wet, fever, and mosquitoes. Later, 

 the grass springs up, and the whole country becomes 

 too blind ; nothing can be done till the grass has 

 been thinned by cutting, burning, or grazing ; and it 

 is seldom fit to hunt before December. 



Our forefathers never hunted in the hot weather. 

 They closed their season in March at the latest, 

 losing thereby what we now think is the best 

 hunting season in the year. 



As I have said, the sea of yellow grass and green 

 jhow, girth high and often much higher, is the 

 feature of it all. The grass generally grows in 

 clumps and tufts, frequently close together, mak- 

 ing grand living-places for pig. It is seldom a 

 level line of grass like a hayfield. In parts we get 

 "tooth-brush" grass, wiry stuff two or three feet 

 high, cut off square for thatching, and often rooted 

 underneath by pig, which makes bad travelling. 

 The country under foot is generally honest, sandy 

 soil, good falling. There are many open nullahs 

 of every size, and some blind ones. 



The jhow is a form of tamarisk. It may be any 

 height, from two inches to twenty feet. When of 

 any size it has great boughs like trees, and is difficult 



