8 
THE HOG. 
WILD HOG. 
seem to have been chiefly the boar-spear, and powerful dogs trained to the chase. The animals, however, became gradually 
thinned in numbers by the persecution to which they were subjected; and the Norman invaders endeavoured to protect them, 
by their numerous forest laws, against the encroachments of the people. A law of William the First enacts, that any 
one found guilty of killing a Wild Boar shall have his eyes put out, and other savage enactments are on record for preserving this 
and other beasts of venery. The Wild Hogs continued for some centuries after the Norman conquest to linger in the woods of 
Scotland and England, and many places in both kingdoms retain names derived from reminiscences connected with their existence, 
and the heraldic devices of illustrious families record the valour used in their destruction. Fitzstephen, who wrote in the 
latter part of the 12th century, in the reign of Henry II., informs us, that Wild Boars abounded, together with Wolves, Wild 
Bulls, and other game, in the great forests surrounding London; and we learn from the Scottish writers their existence in the 
woods of Caledon. The precise period of their disappearance in Britain has not been determined. Charles I. endeavoured to 
restore the race in the New Forest, but all the animals he turned loose for this purpose, were destroyed during the civil wars. 
But the forests of other countries of Europe, as of Bussia, Poland, Germany, and Spain, yet contain the Wild Hog, along 
with his perpetual enemy the Wolf. He is killed by fire-arms, or destroyed by the ancient methods of the boar-spear, and pursuit 
of hounds. The Germans, in an especial degree, have retained their fondness for this exercise; but it is solely the occupation of 
the lords of the soil, whose rights of chase are guarded by rigorous laws. Sometimes the animals are butchered in great num¬ 
bers together; they are driven into enclosed spaces in the woods, by surrounding their places of retreat, when, as they issue forth, 
terrified by shouts and clamour, they are killed by fire-arms and spears. 
But the most animating accounts we possess of the modern hunting of the Wild Boar are from our countrymen in the East, 
where the gallantry and address of the youthful hunters console us for the shedding of the blood of animals so unoffending, and so 
brave in their own defence. The Hogs inhabit the thick jungles of the country, which men and horses cannot penetrate; but 
often they quit these impenetrable coverts, either driven by the periodical firing of the jungle-grass, or proceeding in search of food 
into the plantations of sugar-canes, and the fields of rice, or of rhur (a kind of legume, growing from four to six feet high), which are 
often of great extent, or into the patches of long grasses, several feet high, which are found in these countries of rich vegetation. 
In such cases the game is to be dislodged, which, in the cane plantations, is done by numerous natives with staves or poles, drums, 
and other instruments, marching in lines; and in other cases by the huntsmen themselves, on horseback, entering with their attend¬ 
ants the ground where the quarry is supposed to lodge. Elephants are likewise employed in this sport, in which Tigers may be dis¬ 
lodged from their retreats. The Hog, being forced from his cover, is followed by several horsemen with spears, which they 
use in the manner of javelins. They pursue the animal at speed as he makes his way to the nearest cover, darting their spears 
into his body as they come up to him. u Those horsemen,” says Captain Williamson, “ who are posted at the nearest corners, 
should gallop round to watch for the Hog passing on, and giving the halloo, should dash at him at full speed, spearing as they come 
up. Some Hogs, however, are aware of the scheme, having been hunted before: many may be seen with large scars, evidently the 
result of wounds received on former occasions; and such are extremely difficult to deal with. They will break the line repeatedly, 
ripping all they meet, and eventually creating such terror as effectually to discourage the beaters, who thence get into groups, 
and, though they continue their vociferation, act so timorously, as to render it expedient to withdraw them for the purpose of 
trying a fresh cover. It is very common to see ploughs at work at the very edge of the canes where the villagers are beating for 
Hogs; and, as the bullocks employed are extremely skittish and wild, it rarely happens but, on the Hog’s debut, they take fright 
and run off with the plough, which is often broken to pieces. The ploughman, alarmed equally with his cattle, also takes to 
flight, as do all the peasants who may see the bristling animal galloping from his haunt.” * 
Mr Johnston, in his Indian Field-sports, gives us spirited accounts of the danger and excitation of this kind of chase. “ It 
is difficult,” says he, “ to imagine or express the anxiety a keen sportsman feels when sitting on his horse near a sugar-cane, hear¬ 
ing the beaters calling out burrah suer (a large Boar), and perhaps at the same instant hearing his grunt, and the crashing of the 
cane, as he dashes on before them through it, expecting every moment to see him come out. I have often been thus situated, and 
have trembled all over as if I were in a fit of ague, which did not arise from fear, but from extreme anxiety, which went off the 
moment the Hog made his appearance. When a Hog has proceeded to what is considered a sufficient distance from a cane, the 
nearest hunter should follow him at a good rate, and, when he is off about a quarter of a mile, should put his horse out at full 
speed, pressing him as much as possible, observing minutely his motions. If he slacken his pace suddenly, he is probably waiting 
for an opportunity of making a desperate charge at the horse, and if he be in wind, it would be hazardous to withstand his charge; 
but if the hunter is determined to push on and spear him, which is often necessary near a heavy cover, by understanding and ob- 
* Williamson’s Oriental Field-Sports. 
