CHAPTER IV. 



Wild Hog and Hog-hunting Character and Nature of the Bengal Boar 

 Hog-hunting and Fox-hunting compared Reminiscences of the Old 

 Tent Club Accidents excessive on account of Jealous Riding 

 Sumptuous Entertainments A successful Meet near Tumlook 

 Eighty Boars in Six Days A contented Spirit Christmas Meets 

 Large Parties objectionable in many respects Some old Horses 

 Riding down a Hog-deer Description of Old and Modern Spears 

 Modes of using Spears Comparison of Boars of different Localities 

 Size and Colour of Wild Hogs Their Craftiness A very gallant 

 Pig European and Indian Pig compared. 



WHAT the knight of old was among ordinary men, the wild 

 boar is among the beasts of the field. The buffalo may be 

 as courageous, but he is not as gallant and chivalrous 

 as the boar, which of all animals is the most consistently 

 brave under all circumstances. As fierce under provocation 

 as the tiger and the panther, he is neither as cruel nor as 

 bloodthirsty ; with him as a rule, a cut and thrust follow a 

 supposed insult or injury, and then he passes on without 

 any desire to pursue the quarrel to the bitter end ; ever ready 

 to draw the sword on challenge or provocation given, the 

 combat over, he does not make it the cause of a lasting ven- 

 detta ; nor as the victor does he hack and mangle his 

 vanquished enemy. This description may be thought some- 

 what poetical, but the writer, from a long experience of the 

 gallant beast, both as the conqueror and the conquered in 

 many a hard fought single combat, believes it to be true in 

 the main. 



The wild hog is the commonest of all wild animals of the 

 first class in Bengal, and even at this day is plentiful in many 

 places, and affords the best sport in the world, where the 



