The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-08-30
INDIAN PIG STICKING.
ONE MAN WHO SAYS IT IS THE
FINEST SPORT IN THE WORLD.


Countrics-Plenty Of Danger.
As an ardent pig sticker may be for
given for advancing the opinion that it
is the finest sport in the world. BY ''pig
sticking" of course mean pig sticking
as it is practiced in India and in north
ern Africa and perhaps in some other
English colonies-viz, riding down the
pig on horseback and dispatching him
with spears.
The Indian wild pig varies naturally
according to his home. The biggest
have ever seen were in the Vindhya
mountains, where I used to shoot them
as food for my beaters. Sometimes they
were of vast size, bigger, think, than
even their Gauges cousins.
peculiarity of the wild pig is the
straightness of his tail as compared with
the curled appendage Of his domestic
brother. From the top of his low fore
head to the end of his srout is almost
perfectly straight line, and he has far
longer snout and jaw than the English
market pig. His skin is kind of
blush gray and his bristles gray or
black, though sometimes an almost
brown pig is found. The wild pig will
never live far from water He is hap
piest in the long grass, often 12 feet high,
that grows along the banks of the big
Indian rivers, and above all rejoices in
Jao,' kind of evergreen brushwood
that is as common as the grass. He only
eats at night, and about 10 p. III. he sal
lies forth from cover and will 20 MANY
miles to find the succulent sugar cane or
other luxury, returning as n rule about
an hour before the first streaks of dawn.
Pig sticking begins usually about
Christmas week, when the giant vegeta-
ton of the rains has died down sufficient
iy to get mt piggy, and the marshy
ground where he lives is firm enough for
horses, but it is not till the end of Feb
ruary that really good pig sticking be-
gins, and it improves as the weather gets
dryer and hotter till the June rains come,
and pig sticking instantly ceases
AT about a. m, after a light break
fast, the sportsmen set out-usually ir
"tumtums"-to the meet, having sent
their spears and horses on ahead over
night, together with the all important
mess tiffin basket, i'll which huge block
OF ice and innumerable soda water bot
ties and beer bottles figure largely. 1t
is rare to gather together more than 10
men. 1t may have been different in
olden times, but polo is q formidable
rival to pig sticking nowadays, and the
ordinary British subaltern can rarely af-
ford time and money for both. Indeed
from my own experience, l should say
the average field was not above FIVE. and
personally, much prefer, except from
the social point of view, very few COM
panions.
The officer in command divides the
party, if large enough, into little sections
OF three, and each section separates from
the other and keeps together all day.
either at one end of the line or in the
middle. The coolies are usually about
90 in number and form line, covering
about 200 yards of ground. Each is
armed. or should be, with big stick.
and the end men carry flags, which can
be seen above the long grass and help to
Eeep the coolies in line. Behind them
marches on each wing one of the shi-
Earls satellites, and in the center is the
shlkar, himself on horseback, and these
officers, like sergeants keep the line
straight, and eEhort. often in language
more iorcible than polite, the apathctic
coohcs to strenuous eXertions The
srorismen generally ride few yards in
advance OF the line, unless, from tho ma
ture of the covert, the pig is likely to
break back.
A pig lies usually in kind of form
like hare and will sometimes let n
man or horse almost tread on him be-
fore moving, and being often covered
with mud or dust is very difficult to sec
III the grass and weeds When. how
ever, he does jump up, he slips along at
an incredible speed for the first 80 or 40
yards and then settles down to a very
fast gallop. have known boars at once
on being put up make straight for the
first man or horse they see before they
have been wounded or touched, and as
all know, the tusk of the wild boar cuts
like q razor, though luckily the wound
IS usually healthy, clean cut-very diff
ferent from mauling by the fetid claws
OF tiger or leopard or the thrust of n
stays horn.
Wherever pig gets up one of the
sections go after it, and there are various
little rules IS to how the pig should he
attacked and i'll what order. The most
important rule is never to drop your
spear. still less throw it at the pig, as
some beginners have been known to do.
Spears are weighted with lead at the
handle, and when dropped from the hand
i'll the long grass, the sharp end, being
the lighter, naturally sticks up, SO that
the next horseman or heater may be
wounded. know of several horrible ac-
cldents that have happened in this way.
The man who first draws blood gels
the first spear" and is entitled to the