CHAPTER XII 



THE KADIR CUP 



I ONCE put on a board on the main road from the 

 Kadir camp to the hunting ground the old Persian 

 couplet : 



Agar firdos bah rue zameen ast, 



Hameen ast, wa hameen ast, wa hameen ast. 



If there is a paradise on earth, 

 It is this, it is this, it is this, 



that all who ran, or fell, might read. And I looked 

 for a kindly smile from the finer minds. Alas, such 

 as glanced at it took it apparently for but yet another 

 edict to annoy a long-suffering public. 



Yet surely it is a paradise, this land at which 

 you look as you stand in the noble bagh with the 

 water at your feet, and the yellow grass stretching 

 far as the eye can see ; full of pig, the heart of the 

 Meerut Kadir. 



The Kadir Cup has often been described. But 

 I must try and write a little about it and give you 

 a few notes. For I hunted the country seven 

 seasons, and have ridden in it fourteen years. 



" The blue ribbon of pig- sticking," the meeting 

 lasts three days, and is always held in the end of 

 March. It begins on Monday. The heats are 

 drawn on Sunday evening. It is good to get out 



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