The Bush-Pig 529 



his gallant pluck and splendid fighting qualities ; and I have often thought 

 since, when reading depreciatory remarks about him, how very little those 

 who penned them actually knew of him, and how different a tale they 

 would tell had they ever been — as I have scores of times — face to face with 

 a furious old boar in the middle of a " fast " bush, and only a Swazi 

 " stabbing assegai " with which to kill him. I have seen an old boar after 

 receiving nine thrusts from those terrible weapons, two of which were 

 still fast in him, make a charge that scattered us like chaff, and in three 

 consecutive lunges lame one of our number for life and disembowel two of 

 the finest "pig-dogs" I ever hunted with. In such encounters a boar 

 inflicts terrible wounds with his teeth as well as with his tusks. The plan 

 invariably adopted on these hunts was to take up the spoor from the "mealie 

 fields " in the early morning, and follow it till we marked the pigs down in 

 a certain bush or kloof, which was then immediately surrounded, the dogs 

 loosed, and the pigs brought to bay. A word of advice to any one who 

 may wish to try this form of sport. The regular "stabbing assegai" of the 

 Swazis, although very handy in thick bush, is too short in the haft to be of 

 any service in stopping the onrush of a boar. I tried it once, but never 

 again, for I got more pig than " kudos " thereby. The charge must be 

 dodged, as the natives do, and the weapon plunged between the shoulders 

 of the boar ; or a longer haft can be fitted, and, if the bush is not too dense, 

 the charge can be met squarely on the lowered point. 1 Owing to the 

 nature of the country it is absolutely impossible to ride a boar, as is the 

 time-honoured custom in the East ; it is therefore quite permissible to use a 

 rifle, game being driven from the bush towards guns posted at likely points 

 of egress, or the sportsman can station himself in one of the runs inside the 

 kloof when it is being driven. But it is tame work compared to tackling 

 them with the assegai. 



A .450 bore rifle is the best weapon to use, with either solid or 



1 It is a dangerous thing to try, as the risk of the point glancing from the skull is great. 

 3 * 



