CHAP. VIII 



HOG HUNTERS' HALL 121 



of great numbers of pig in two places. One was 

 an island in the Brahmaputra, and the other the 

 Forbesganj district in Purneah. Between these, 

 on further inquiries being made, there appeared 

 little choice, but I was told that the island was some- 

 times flooded, and therefore might prove a failure, 

 and this decided me to select Forbesganj as less of 

 a gamble. 



Mr. Irwin of Motihari kindly introduced me to 

 Mr. Patrick Duff, a veteran planter and manager 

 of the Forbes estate. This gentleman made excellent 

 arrangements for us, and the only difficulty unsolved 

 was how to get elephants to beat, as we were assured 

 that coolies would be useless in that district. I 

 therefore wrote to my friend Victor Brooke of the 

 9th Lancers, who was at that time Military Secretary 

 to the Viceroy and in touch with all the native 

 nobility in Bengal. 



The Maharajah of Dharbanga came to our aid — 

 may his shadow never grow less — and not only lent 

 us thirty of his state elephants, but a large and 

 complete camp equipment as well. These were 

 later supplemented by six very experienced shikar 

 elephants belonging to the Maharajah of Baneli, 

 procured for us by Mr. Frank Lyall, I.C.S., who 

 later joined our camp for a few days. Messrs. 

 Kellner of Calcutta provided the mess, and did it 

 cheaply and well. 



The arrangements were now complete excepting 

 that we were in the normal position of the young 

 cavalry officer of not having enough horses. 



As I was then commanding the regiment, and 

 have always considered that pig-sticking is the 

 finest war training for both horse and man, we made 

 up our numbers with troop horses. These we bought 



