FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept, i, 1906. 
330 
brink. There is nothing for it but to dive into 
the water. Now he is up the opposite bank and 
off into the bushes. Our horses are used to the 
water and carry 11s safely across, but it is one 
thing to jump into a canal and another to get 
out on the far side. Luckily we strike a place 
where the banks are not too steep, and we 
scramble out very wet but none the worse, ex¬ 
cept for the loss of a stirrup leather or two. By 
this time the pig has gained a quarter of a mile 
start of us, but it being open ground, we are able 
to see him and are soon again on his trail. A 
series of jinks gives us each in turn a chance 
to strike the death blow, and we reel him over, 
fighting to the finish. 
So far I have only given a few of the every¬ 
day incidents of a season’s pigsticking; but I 
cannot conclude without an account of the 
Ivhadir Cup, the great annual event. Perhaps 
1 cannot do better than give you the story of 
the great event in which 1 took a part a year or 
so ago, and which I jotted down at the time. 
• Camp Germateeza, March 28. 
I am out here about thirty miles from Meerut 
for the great pigsticking event of the year. 
This is far the largest meet there has ever 
been. Sixty-eight entries in all. We are all 
encamped in a large grove of trees, and sit 
down to dinner at one long table at a marquee. 
After dinner the first night the heats were drawn, 
seventeen heats of four; then we had lotteries 
run on the same lines as those on board ship. 
The country is open jungle, intersected by 
nullahs, into which you go most awful howlers 
unless you have a very clever horse. Mostly 
long grass, and in some places green shrub. I 
was drawn in the first heat, which, by bad luck, 
contained two others in the regiment, thereby 
considerably reducing our chance, as we only 
had six in all told. 
At 7 A. M. the line started, a long line of 
beaters and about twelve elephants. In front of 
the line were the first four heats, each with an 
umpire. 
For the first hour nothing got up near 11s, 
while nearly all the other heats were run off and 
replaced by fresh ones. Suddenly a pig got up 
in front of us and we dashed up at the heels of 
our umpire. He shouted out: “Do you .all see 
him? Ride!” And off we went at sixty miles 
an hour. I was riding a throroughbred and 
soon left the others; but the pig was very 
nippy, and taking us over a high embankment, 
made for a small river with high banks and 
about thirty feet broad. When I came to this I 
saw him struggling to get up the opposite em¬ 
bankment, so I took a flying leap into the middle 
of the water and all but speared him as he 
reached the top of the bank. The bottom of 
the river was, however, very sticky, and it was 
all I could do to get out again. On the top of 
'the opposite bank 1 found grass and thick 
jungle, but devil a sign of the pig. As I reached 
the top I heard a splash, and the two others 
came head over heels into the river. The fourth 
man got through it and we searched for the pig 
without any success, so the umpire called “No 
heat,” which meant a fresh start, so after catch¬ 
ing Young’s horse, we rejoined the line. 
We still continued out of luck as regards find¬ 
ing pig, and by lunch time eight heats had been 
run off without our turn coming. An hour was 
allowed for the meal, and the consumption of 
liquid was something terrific. The secretary in¬ 
formed me that he allows for over a dozen large 
sodas per head per diem. 
Shortly after lunch we got after a pig. As be¬ 
fore I flew away, and after doing the riding for 
a mile, I got my spear in, and leaving the others 
to kill, I rode to the umpire to “show blood.” 
We got through all the heats by evening, leav¬ 
ing me a seventeen to one chance as compared 
with sixty-eight to one the evening before. 
We were drawn into three heats of four and 
one of five. Fenwick and Rowland were left 
in also,, which gave 11s three chances out of the 
LUTCHMAN. 
Over thirty years head shikari of the Meerut Tent Club. 
seventeen. Unfortunately, Rowland was unable 
to ride, having taken a toss the day before and 
hurt his shoulder; but by the rules his horse 
was ' allowed to compete with another rider, he 
having been hurt during a heat. 
In the -first heat Fenwick got on to the pig 
and was just going to spear when his horse fell 
headlong into a blind nullah and broke its neck. 
Rowland's horse followed suit and got con¬ 
cussion of the brain, but luckily neither of the 
riders were badly hurt. So when my heat came 
round I was left the sole representative of the 
regiment. We were let loose after a very large 
boar, my horse again streaking away from the 
others and as straight as a die. I rode him 
hard with about six lengths’ lead of the second 
man. and getting up alongside, drove the spear 
hard. The brute gave a leap to one side and my 
spear burying itself deep in the ground, snapped 
in two at the shaft. Cruel luck! Every one on 
the top of the elephants thought I had won it. 
* * * What is left of me will endeavor to write 
an account of yesterday’s proceeding. The line 
started at 8 A. M. The four left in for the cup 
forming the center group. I rode with the line 
and had a good gallop after a para or hogdeer, 
which broke back. Horns about the size of a 
roe deer. We had a great chase after him, and I 
eventually speared him. The next excitement 
was squeals from a dog in the thick part of the 
jungle. We formed all the elephants close to¬ 
gether and drove it out. During the operation 
one of the i elephants set up a tremendous 
trumpeting and a huge leopard sprang out and 
made for another thick patch. Here we lost 
him, owing to the excessive thickness. Lunch 
time, and the final was still not run off. Im¬ 
mediately afterward, however, a boar broke, and 
the word “ride!” was given. Allyn, of the Ninth 
Lancers, who had beaten me in my heat, led all 
the way and gained first spear easily, thus win¬ 
ning the cup. 
Then came the Hoghunters cup, a four-mile 
point to point with twenty starters. At the lot¬ 
teries the night before my horse, “Waterline,” 
was made a ridiculously hot favorite, the odds 
working out at 6 to 4, whereas the next best 
favorite stood at 10 to 1, and others 20 to 1. 
After going about half a mile, we came to an 
enormous nullah full of water. I was lying 
third; the first two horses came crash down, I 
followed suit. Luckily, I held on to my reins; 
but by the time I got my horse out of the water, 
the whole field was a long way ahead, and I 
found my left arm quite useless. I thought I 
must have broken my collar bone, but managed 
to scramble on with one hand, with very slippery 
reins all drenched with water. I flew after the 
field, who by this time were about 400 yards 
ahead. Gradually I began to catch them up 
and one by one passed them, till we came within 
half a mile of the finish, when I came up abreast 
of the leading horse. We both pulled up short 
of a large drop into a river, there was no time 
to take a pull. My horse took a flying leap 
and landed in the middle, but, slipping, his feet 
came down in the water. I scrambled up again, 
but too late, and only managed to ride in fifth. 
My arm is bad to-day, as I find I have ruptured 
the muscles of the shoulder. The regiment has 
been out of luck, two horses killed, as Rowland 
had to shoot his yesterday, and three men dis¬ 
abled. On the whole, I came off best, as it is 
less expensive to hurt oneself than one’s horse, 
especially if you are a client of an insurance 
company. I think the majority of these institu¬ 
tions would put up the shutters if the directors 
were to witness a Khadir cup meeting. 
I would impress upon my readers that a sport 
that might appear, when read of in cold blood, 
to tend somewhat toward cruelty and foolhardi¬ 
ness, has a very different complexion when one’s 
excitement is raised to fever heat. Doubtless 
many of you know Mr. Jorrock’s famous remark 
about fox hunting, “Hunting is the sport of 
kings, the image of war without its guilt and 
only five and twenty per cent, of the danger.” 
Now, Mr. Jorrocks was a fine sportsman, but 
there were evidently no pigs in the country he 
hunted, or he would never have added the last 
few words to his celebrated saying. 
Three Dawks. 
“Good morning, Friedrich, what are you fish¬ 
ing for?” 
“Pickles.” 
“Are there many pickles in the pond?” 
“Some days dey vas be pooty good many, and 
some days dey aindt be none at all.” 
“Where are the pickles on the days when they 
are not in the pond?” 
“Don’t know! Guess dey vas be hidin’ some- 
veres.” 
“Are there any large ones?” 
“Py golly, yes! Dey vas some dat catch my 
leetle dawk.” 
“You must keep your next dog chained up.” 
“I don’t mean dat dawk, but de kind dat 
schvim on de vater mit de old hen.” 
“You mean the kind that swim in the water 
while the old hen stays on shore.” 
“Ya!” But how you tell between dat dawk 
vot schvim on de vater, and dat dawk vot you 
schain up to home, and dat dawk vere you hitch 
up de ship?” 
“Oh, well! One holds up a bark, and one 
lets go a bark, and one will bark an ear of corn 
pretty fast.” 
“Ya!” Robert T. Morris. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
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supply you regularly. 
BIG BOAR KILLED IN THE KHADIR. 
Stood 32 inches from shoulder to ground. 
