I have seen many a fine horse fearfully cut by a charging pig, and a determined boar over and over again break through a line of elephants, and make good his escape.  There is no animal in all the vast jungle that the elephant dreads more than a lusty boar.  I have seen elephants that would stand the repeated charges of a wounded tiger, turn tail and take to ignominious flight before the onset of an angry boar.

His thick short neck, ponderous body, and wedge-like head are admirably fitted for crashing through the thick jungle he inhabits, and when he has made up his mind to charge, very few animals can withstand his furious rush.  Instances are quite common of his having made good his charge against a line of elephants, cutting and ripping more than one severely.  He has been known to encounter successfully even the kingly tiger himself.  Can it be wondered, then, that we consider him a ’foeman worthy of our steel’?

To be a good pig-sticker is a recommendation that wins acceptance everywhere in India.  In a district like Chumparun where nearly every planter was an ardent sportsman, a good rider, and spent nearly half his time on horseback, pig-sticking was a favourite pastime.  Every factory had at least one bit of likely jungle close by, where a pig could always be found.  When I first went to India we used to take out our pig-spear over the zillah with us as a matter of course, as we never knew when we might hit on a boar.

Things are very different now.  Cultivation has much increased.  Many of the old jungles have been reclaimed, and I fancy many more pigs are shot by natives than formerly.  A gun can be had now for a few rupees, and every loafing ‘ne’er do weel’ in the village manages to procure one, and wages indiscriminate warfare on bird and beast.  It is a growing evil, and threatens the total extinction of sport in some districts.  I can remember when nearly every tank was good for a few brace of mallard, duck, or teal, where never a feather is now to be seen, save the ubiquitous paddy-bird.  Jungles, where a pig was a certain find, only now contain a measly jackal, and not always that; and cover in which partridge, quail, and sometimes even florican were numerous, are now only tenanted by the great ground-owl, or a colony of field rats.  I am far from wishing to limit sport to the European community.  I would let every native that so wished sport his double barrels or handle his spear with the best of us, but he should follow and indulge in his sport with reason.  The breeding seasons of all animals should be respected, and there should be no indiscriminate slaughter of male and female, young and old.  Until all true sportsmen in India unite in this matter, the evil will increase, and bye-and-bye there will be no animals left to afford sport of any kind.