238 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



Chital 



There is a strict law against riding chital in India. 

 It has been found that after a severe run these 

 beautiful stags always die from a broken heart. 

 On one of the two hunting trips I made near the 

 Terai I was on the edge of a very good chital jungle. 

 On off-days I stalked chital and I missed three good 

 stags with the most disgraceful shooting you can 

 imagine. I got disgusted with this, and laid myself 

 out to ride one, for I then knew neither the law 

 against riding chital nor its reason. I daily watched 

 a certain patch of jungle about six hundred yards 

 from the main forest. One day I heard it harboured 

 a good stag. I beat the stag out and rode him over 

 a line of beautiful turf. I was riding New Zealand, 

 and he was not quite fast enough. I rode the stag 

 into the thick jungle just out of reach of my spear ; 

 in another fifty yards I would have killed him. 

 He ran straight and never jinked. His spotted 

 skin and fine spreading horns, just out of my reach, 

 looked splendid. I was much vexed. 



Swamp Deer 



I have never seen swamp deer in riding country. 

 One was speared a few years ago in the Fyzabad 

 Tent Club. Shooting them from an elephant you 

 feel you are firing at a huge cobweb of horns. 



