142 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



We were standing in the uncut grass ; several pig had gone 

 by us into the cut jungle, but none had actually broken. 

 As the line of 200 coolies came level with us (and I never saw 

 a better line kept) on a sudden, as it seemed, the whole of 

 the cut part of the jungle was alive with pig. As the 

 sentinel said of Birnam wood, " you might see it coming, 

 I say, a moving grove," and there drew out into the open a 

 sounder of at least 300. There were among them quite 

 20 grand boar, and about the same number of average 

 height. When they had gone about a furlong, one or two 

 of the finest boar began to break back ; we promptly 

 showed ourselves, trying to turn them. This was a mistake 

 as directly we galloped the sounder stopped, the better 

 boar came back past us instantly, the rest of the sounder 

 went on across the open, and as it was hopeless to follow 

 the large ones into the jungle we had to pick the best of 

 the second raters ; and the way the sows and butchas 

 crossed and recrossed us as we charged into the sounder 

 was most exciting. There were enough boar for us each 

 to take our own and leave for other parties, and we accounted 

 for a good many, but they were small compared to the score 

 of giants which broke back and whose loss we yet regret. 



What might, I think, be called even better sport 

 was a morning I enjoyed with Cresswell and 

 Ferguson on the same chur in March 1906. Leaving 

 Shikarpore at about 8.30 a.m., and arriving at 

 Moiscoondie at 9.30, I got together some thirty 

 to forty coolies and started to beat at once. We 

 sat down to lunch at 1.30 p.m. with a bag of twenty- 

 one boar, to which Cresswell had contributed no 

 less than ten, Ferguson six, and myself five. We 

 each had two horses and the boar were a level lot, 

 quite up to the average in size and weight, and there 

 were no accidents. 



The spears at our meets are always divided into 

 parties, which often do not keep together long 

 owing to the number of pig on foot at one time, so 



