In Times of Peril | Page 6

soon as the animals were fairly off. A number of
villagers, in whose fields of young rice the family had done much
damage during the few days that they had taken up their abode in their
present quarters, were assembled on such little rises of ground as were
likely to give a good view of the proceedings. There were about a
dozen horsemen with spears; of these, three or four were novices, and
these intended to try their skill for the first time upon the "squeakers,"
as the young pigs are called, while the others prepared for a race after
the old ones.
Great nerve, considerable skill, and first-rate horsemanship are required
for the sport of pigsticking. The horse, too, must be fast, steady, well-
trained and quick, for without all these advantages the sport is a
dangerous one. The wild boar is, at the start, as fast as a horse. He is
very quick at turning, and when pressed always attacks his pursuers,
and as he rushes past will lay open the leg or flank of a horse with a
sweeping cut with his sharp tusk. If he can knock a horse down the
position of his rider would be serious indeed, were not help to arrive in
time to draw off the attention of the enraged animal from his foe.
Heavy falls, too, take place over watercourses and nullahs, and in some
parts of India the difficulties are greatly increased by bowlders of all
kinds being scattered over the ground, and by the frequent occurrence
of bushes and shrubs armed with most formidable spines and thorns.
Conspicuous among these is the bush known as the "wait-a-bit thorn,"
which is furnished with two kinds of thorn--the one long, stiff, and
penetrating, the other short and curved, with a forked point almost like
a fishhook. When this once takes hold it is almost necessary to cut the
cloth to obtain a release.
Scarcely had the beaters, with much shouting and clamor, entered the
patch of bush in which the pigs were lying, than the porcine family,
consisting of a splendid boar and sow, and eight nearly full-grown
squeakers, darted out on the open, and in a moment the horsemen were
off in pursuit. The ground was deep and heavy, and the pigs at the first

burst gained fast upon their pursuers. There was no attempt on the part
of the pigs to keep together, and directly after starting they began to
diverge. The old boar and sow both kept across the plain--one bearing
toward the left, the other to the right. The squeakers ran in all
directions--some at right angles to the line that the old ones were taking.
The object of one and all was to gain cover of some kind.
With their hats pressed well down upon their heads, and their spears
advanced with the head some two or three feet from the ground, the
hunters started after them--some making after the boar, some after the
sow, according to the position which they occupied at the
commencement of the chase, while some of the young hands dashed off
in pursuit of the squeakers.
There were five, however, after the boar; Captain Dunlop, a young
ensign named Skinner, the Scotch doctor of the regiment, and two
civilians. For a short time they kept together, and then Captain Dunlop
and Skinner began to draw ahead of the others.
The boar was a stanch one, and a mile had been passed before his speed
began sensibly to diminish. The young ensign, who was mounted on a
very fast Arab, began to draw up to him three or four lengths ahead of
Captain Dunlop, bearing his horse so as to get upon the left side of the
boar, in order to permit him to use his spear to advantage.
He was nearly up to him when Captain Dunlop, who saw the boar
glancing back savagely, cried:
"Look out, Skinner! he will be round in a moment; keep your horse
well in hand!"
A moment later the boar was round. The horse, young and unbroken at
the work, started violently, swerved, and, before his rider could get him
round, the boar was upon him. In an instant the horse was upon the
ground, with a long gash upon his flank, and Skinner, flying through
the air, fell almost directly in the boar's way.
Fortunately for the young ensign, Captain Dunlop, as he shouted his

warning, had turned his horse to the left, so as to cut off the boar when
he turned, and he was now so close that the boar, in passing, had only
time to give a vicious blow at the fallen man, which laid his arm open
from his shoulder to his elbow.
At that instant Captain Dunlop arrived, and his spear