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CHAPTER XIV 



SPEARING VARIOUS ANIMALS 



Although our legitimate quarry in this book is 

 the boar, still many other animals are ridden and 

 speared, and I propose to give you a few notes on 

 those more commonly met. You will notice that 

 I particularly avoid classifying some animals as 

 rideable and others as not. I am convinced that 

 there is no animal living, excepting elephant and 

 rhino, with which, given fair riding country, a 

 determined man with a good spear on a bold horse 

 cannot compete successfully. 



Having expressed this heroic statement, let me 

 have my usual clear understanding with you. 

 Reader. I have never met buffalo or tiger in riding 

 country. I can tell you nothing about them ; and 

 I am sure that should I so meet them, my attitude 

 would be that of the Army of Lars Porsena in its 

 historic encounter with that friend of our youth, 

 Horatius Codes. 



There is no record, that I know, of either tiger 

 or buffalo having been speared in recent years. 

 This you must not ascribe entirely to the degeneracy 

 of modern sportsman. With the increased facilities 

 for shooting, and the extension of cultivation, it is 

 very rare for these animals to be found in country 

 open enough to permit of riding. 



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