The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-06-23
PIG
By RUDYARD KIPLING.

By RUDYARD KIPL1Na.
Go stalk the red deer DER the heather.
Ride, follow the fox If you can.
But, for pleasure and profit together.
Allow me the hunting Of man
The chase Of the human. the search for the
soul
To its ruin-the hunting Of man.
The Old Shikarn.
Ibelieve the difference began in the
matter Of a horse, with twist in his
temper, whom Pinecoffin sold to Naffer-
ton and by whom Naffsrton was nearly
slain. There may have been other
causes Of offense. The horse was the off,
cial stalking horse. Nafferton was very
angry, but Pinecoffln laughed and said
that he had never guaranteed the beasts
manners. Nafferton laughed, too,
though he vowed that he would write
off his fall against Pinecoffin If he wait
ed five years. Now, a Dalesman from
beyond Skipton will forgive an injury
when the Strid let's man live, but a
South Devon man is as soft as Dart
moor bog. You can see from their
names that Nafferton had the race ad-
vantage of Pinecoffin. He was pecul.
lar man, and his notions Of humor were
cruel He taught me new and fasci-
mating form Of shikar. He bounded
Pinecoffin from Mithankot to Jagadri,
and from Gurgaon to Abbotabad-up
and across the Punjab, large province
and in places remarkably dry. He said
that he had no intention Of allowing
assistant commissioners to "sell him
pups, in the shape Of ramping, scream
ing country breds, without making their
lives burden to them.
Most assistant commissioners develop
a bent for some special work after their
first hot weather in the country The
boys with digestions hope to write their
names large on the frontier, and strug-
gle for dreary places like Bannu and
Kohat. The bilious ones climb into the
secretariat, which is very bad for the
liver. Others are bitten with mania
for district work, Ghuznivide coins or
Persian poetry, while some, who come
of farmers stock, find that the smell Of
the earth after the rains gets into their
blood and calls them to "develop the
resources of the province. These men
are enthusiasts. Pinecoffin belonged to
their class He knew great many facts
bearing on the cost Of bullocks and
temporary wells, and opium scrapers,
and what happens If you burn too much
rubbish on field in the hope Of en-
riching used up soil. Nafferton watched
him and thought about the horse. Naf-
ferton said, "See me chase that boy till
he dropsl' I said, "You can't get your
knife into an assistant commissioner. "
Nafferton told me that I did not under.
stand the administration of the prov.
ince.
Our government is rather peculiar.
II gushes on the agricultural and gen.
eral information side, and will supply
a moderately respectable man with all
sorts Of Economic Statistics" il he
speaks to 1t prettily. For instance, you
are interested in gold washing in the
sands of the Sutlej You pull the string
and find that it wakes up half dozen
departments and finally communicates,
say. with friend Of yours in the tele.
graph, who once wrote some notes on
the customs Of the gold washers when
he was on construction work In their
part Of the empire. He may or may not
be pleased at being ordered to write out
everything he knows for your benefit
This depends on his temperament. The
bigger man you are, the more informa-
ton and the greater trouble can you
raise.
Nafferton was not big man, but he
had the reputation of being very lear
nest" An Earnest" man can do much
with a government. There was an ear
nest man once who nearly wrecked 49,
but all India knows that story
Nafferton cast about for peg where.
on to hang his earnestness and for
string that would communicate with
Pinecoffin. He found both. They were
Pig. Nafferton became an earnest in
quirer after Pig. He informed the gov.
eminent that he had scheme whereby
a very large percentage Of the British
army In India could be fed, at very
large saving, on Pig. Then he limited
that Pinecoffin might supply him with
the varied information necessary to
the proper inception Of the scheme. =" So
the government wrote on the back Of
the letter, Instruct Mr.. Pinecoffin to
furnish Mr.. Nafferton with any infor.
nation in his power"
Nafferton had not the faintest inter-
est in Pig, but he knew that Pinecoffin
would flounce into the trap. Pinecoffln
was delighted at being consulted about
Pig. The Indian Pig is not exactly an
important factor in agricultural life,
but Nafferton explained to Pinecoffin
that there was room for improvement
You may think that there is not
much to be evolved from Pig. 1t all de.
ponds on how you set to work. Pinecof-
fin, being civilian and wishing to do
things thoroughly, began with an essay
on the primitive Pig, the Mythology Of
the Pig and the Dravidian Pig" Naf-
ferton filed that information-S7 fools.
cap sheets--and wanted to know about
the distribution Of the Pig in the Pun
jab and how it stood the plains in the
hot weather From this point onward,
remember that am giving you only
the barest outlines Of the affair-the
guy ropes, as 1t were, Of the web that
Nafferton spun round Pinecofan.
Pinecoffin made colored Pig popu.
lation map. and collected observations
on the comparative longevity Of Pig (a)
in the submontane tracts Of the Hima.
layas and 10y in the Rechna Doab. Naf-
ferton fled that and asked what sort Of
people looked after Pig. This started an
chronological excursus on swineherds and
drew from Pinecof1n long tables show.
ing the proportion per 1000 Of the
caste in the Derajat Nafsrton filed
that bundle and explained that the fig.