pig-sticking, cemented our friendship, kept us in health, and
encouraged all the hardy tendencies of our nature. It whetted our
appetites, it roused all those robust virtues that have made Englishmen
the men they are, it sent us back to work with lighter hearts and
renewed energy. It built up many happy, cherished memories of kindly
words and looks and deeds, that will only fade when we in turn have to
bow before the hunter, and render up our spirits to God who gave them.
Long live honest, hearty, true sportsmen, such as were the friends of
those happy days. Long may Indian sportsmen find plenty of 'foemen
worthy of their steel' in the old grey boar, the fighting tusker of
Bengal.

[Illustration: PIG-STICKERS.]




CHAPTER XI.


The sal forests.--The jungle goddess.--The trees in the jungle.
--Appearance of the forests.--Birds.--Varieties of parrots.--A 'beat'
in the forest.--The 'shekarry.'--Mehrman Singh and his gun.--The
Banturs, a jungle tribe of wood-cutters.--Their habits.--A village
feast.--We beat for deer.--Habits of the spotted deer.--Waiting for
the game.--Mehrman Singh gets drunk.--Our bag.--Pea-fowl and their
habits.--How to shoot them.--Curious custom of the Nepaulese.--How
Juggroo was tricked, and his revenge.

Tirhoot is too generally under cultivation and too thickly inhabited