A Christmas Meet 



off in heats of three or four spears, the winner 

 being he who can show blood on his spear-head 

 first to the umpire. 



Generations of sportsmen have come and gone 

 in the kardir; one only has been a fixture. I 

 refer to Luchman, the Tent Club's head " shikara; " 

 he is mentioned familiarly in the records in 1874. 

 For all I know, he is there now, standing on the 

 back of his pad elephant, and using most fearful 

 Hindustani oaths at the beaters, affecting them- 

 selves, their relations, and their pedigrees for 

 many generations. Luchman has been " sacked " 

 at intervals by keen presidents of the Tent Club 

 for mistaking the ownership of whisky and such 

 little peccadillos; but this has always been followed 

 by such a falling-off of sport that he has been 

 soon in his old place again, till such time as 

 some one, who "knew not Joseph," repeated the 

 unsuccessful experiment. 



One day's pig-sticking is much like another; 

 a short ride from the tents to the meet, and an 

 extended line of coolies are seen squatting in the 

 high, rank grass, and shivering in the cold morning 

 air. This only refers to a cold-weather pig-stick, 

 of course. There will probably be about one 

 hundred beaters, a few elephants, and a camel or 

 two. The spears having arranged themselves in 

 heats of about four behind the line, a move forward 

 is made, the coolies beating the grass with their 



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