242 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



He was dressed with carbolic ; the others, no worse, 

 were not. 



Spear wounds are very different, and I have seen 

 many fatal accidents from them. The most extra- 

 ordinary recovery I have ever seen was that of a 

 horse, Hunt Cup, belonging to Mr. Yorke, R.H.A. 

 Yorke speared a pig. What happened has never 

 been found out, but it is quite certain that the shaft 

 broke on a crossing pig ; the spear point entered 

 Hunt Cup at the base of the neck on the off side, 

 went through his body, and just failed to come out 

 behind the saddle on the near side. A lump could 

 be felt where the point was ; the broken shaft 

 protruded at the neck. Yorke first, and afterwards 

 Macdonald, attended to this horse, and got the spear 

 out. The horse always fed well, never looked like 

 dying, and two months later was in perfect health. 



Stubs in the sole of the foot are fairly common, 

 and a great nuisance. I have known one or two 

 horses killed by them. The Arhar and the Dal 

 crops grow with stems nearly an inch in diameter. 

 The villagers cut these stems with one strong 

 sloping cut a few inches from the ground. The 

 same thing on a larger scale happens with jhow, 

 too ; the stakes dry in the sun, they are quite sharp, 

 and are soon as hard as iron. In country where 

 there is much of this (Muttra has a great deal), one 

 rides with leather soles, but I do not think they are 

 much good. They keep out nothing and spoil a 

 horse's frog ; they may be of use to show when a 

 small stake has gone in ; there is no mistaking a 

 big one. I have thought of steel shoes, and I 

 believe they have been tried at Agra. I remember 

 a horse of Captain (now Colonel) Pitman, llth 

 Hussars, got badly staked. The stub went in under- 



