32 A Sportswoman in India 



A spear should never be thrown at a pig like a 

 javelin ; all sorts of serious accidents have happened 

 through this being done. I know on one occasion 

 an enthusiastic griffin (as new arrivals from England 

 are called) hurled his spear at a pig which was 

 jinking in front of him, and the spear rebounding 

 off the iron ground, went into his horse above the 

 outside of the stifle on the off side, and came up with 

 the point projecting near the hip. With frantic kicks 

 the horse sent the spear flying some twenty feet into 

 the air, whence it came hurtling down among us all, 

 and it was the greatest mercy that it fell clear of 

 horses and riders. 



I believe the wild boar is supposed to be the original 

 stock of our domestic breeds of swine : of course 

 they were well known here in our little England till 

 the reign of Henry II., when they seem to have 

 disappeared ; and King Charles I.'s project to restock 

 the New Forest with them turned out a failure. 

 William the Conqueror, a true sportsman, made any 

 man killing a pig liable to have his eyes put out. 

 Nowadays, in Europe and in Asia, wherever deep 

 recesses of forest and marshy ground are to be found, 

 wild boar abound. Vambery, in his journey through 

 Central Asia, found them in enormous numbers in 

 the extensive swamps of Turkestan. But India, and 

 India alone, is the land of pig-sticking. In the matter 

 of sport " the shiny East " has stood the test of 

 time better than any of her rivals. Once upon a time 

 America was equally attractive to the lover of shikar, 



