118 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



for the jhow. We now press for all we are worth, 

 and have half a mile to catch him in, though there 

 is as yet a sinking fear that he may turn out to be 

 a sow after all. All we can see is a faint black 

 mass on a lighter background. Our stride tells, 

 and we are soon on the pig, when a sudden jink 

 reveals a lean, long head and wicked gleaming 

 tushes. All our doubts are now at an end, and 

 there remains for us good hard galloping and a 

 sharp fight before we kill while yet well away from 

 the cover. 



We have dismounted, and are standing with 

 our panting horses over the fallen boar, drinking 

 in the clear, fresh morning air, as the first rays of 

 the sun top the distant mountains and the little 

 fort on the bluff. Surely never was fairer start to 

 fairer day. 



And now, reader, I must leave you dismounted, 

 and return to hard realities. I have often goomed 

 here alone, and I never failed to have good sport, 

 and one morning I killed two hog and speared and 

 lost a third. This day I began to fear my luck had 

 at last failed me, for the sun was almost up, and there 

 was no sign of a pig. But on taking a final " goom " 

 through the grass I saw to my delight the cocked 

 head and ears of a pig about a hundred yards away. 

 He had not seen me, and I quietly made a detour 

 and got between him and the jhow. I then gave 

 chase, and was astonished to find that the pig, 

 instead of jinking back past me went straight out 

 towards A, who was nearest to the jheel. I rode the 

 pig quietly, chiefly because I did not want to press 

 him and drive him back to the jhow, and also 

 because I believed he was a sow. 



A wisely stood still till the pig passed close to 



