274 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



They must fasten by buckles. Any lacing or tying 

 arrangements are unsound in the jungle ; they 

 always become undone or broken by stakes and 

 branches. 



With cactus fences you want knee-pads for your- 

 self and your horse in a modified form. A friend 

 of mine, F, after having had his horse badly damaged 

 by thorns, appeared with a magnificent pair of 

 gaiters on his animal. They laced all along the 

 tendon, with projections far up the forearm and down 

 the pasterns. The only defect in them was that 

 the horse could not bend his leg. 



Tents, — For tents most people use the service 

 80-lb. pattern. If you are tall these tents ruffle 

 your hair and your temper. I never use one unless 

 on duty, and prefer either to bivouac, if on a light 

 scale, or else to camp in comfort in a Swiss Cottage 

 tent. My bivouac is a bed of Kadir grass with a 

 waterproof sheet above, pegged down on the windy 

 side and open and supported by sticks some 3 feet 

 high on the other side. The bath is in the open, 

 sometimes cool, air. A grass bed with a few 

 blankets is far warmer and more comfortable than 

 any spring-mattress. I read once that newspapers 

 were a perfect substitute for blankets. I arrived 

 at the Delhi Durbar of 1903 armed only with sheets 

 and copies of the Pioneer and Pink-Un, The 

 warmth was outside. 



Tents can always be had of khaki, and I recom- 

 mend that colour. For new tents the price should 

 be about one rupee per lb. weight. 



In any big tent in cold weather a fireplace is a 

 necessity. I know no pattern as good as the 

 " Moradabad " stove, which burns firewood safely 

 in an open English grate. 



