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