Come, gentle lover, and you shall cry, For kisses no longer will I sigh, But hunt the tusky boar; Yes, come but once, and I will swear You'll worship love no more, For there's nought in the wide world can compare To the hunting of the boar. Jungle, June 26th. MR. EDITOR, BUSTARD SHOOTING. There are great numbers of bustard about this place, but to get at them is the thing; I have tried all sorts of shot and every colour of garment, and with a very few exceptions never could approach nearer than 80 or 100 yards. I have heard of ringing them on horseback, to which I gave a trial, but without success. I then took to the rifle and found it the best plan; but, firing at so small an object, of course many SIR, Yours, misses occurred; besides which, by sometimes putting up the birds in your approach, your rifle becomes useless. Now, if any of your sensible correspondents who understand the trick would let me into the secret, they would much oblige Yours, &c., S. E. R. P.S.-Flints from the Pongo tribe not received. Khandes, 2nd July. LION HUNTING IN KHANDEISH. It being proper in most cases to begin at the beginning, you will excuse my premising that Mount Aboo is the Mahabuleshwur of Guzerat; a kind of selfacting patent refrigerator, the use of which has become so universally fashionable, that it required very little argument to convince me that I stood in positive need of a month's icing myself, in order to carry off the dust and hot weather; and it was with this intention that I left Deesa the 2nd of last month, and arrived at Puttun to breakfast. "Rather roundabout to Aboo,” I think I hear you exclaim after consulting the map; "you might have hit upon a less circuitous VOL. II. must have been at variance with the records of our respective destinies; for on the following morning intelligence of divers lions in the sacred Suruswuttee sent all ideas of heat and cold to the devil, and we both with one accord pronounced that we had seen worse places than Puttun. It only wanted now to realize an elephant, for, as well from a review of the " impossible nature of the ground, as from other equally cogent reasons, we resolved to await the arrival of one of these auxiliaries. The tenders and drivers of elephants and camels, independent as they are for the greater part, are the most immaculate scoundrels on the face of the earth, and have besides sundry opportunities of exercising their surreptitious cunning, which would be denied them were Europeans less ignorant of the diseases and necessities of those animals. I need hardly add that on the present occasion our mahout had no mind to break through the established usages of the fraternity, and was no way backward in excuses to loiter on the road. We sought to beguile the intermediate time by hunting hog; but let me counsel such of my friends who may feel disposed to profit by the disappointments and experience of others to think twice before they attempt anything of the kind at Puttun. The morning of the 15th found us seated in the howdah, and in quest of two lions which had been surrounded by the shikarrees, in one of those extensive patches of half-dried, half-green bulrushes which must be familiar to all who are acquainted with the peculiarities of the Suruswuttee. We were soon aware of the impracticability of ejecting the gentlemen by any of the common means resorted to in tiger-hunting, and it was not until we had called in the assistance of fire, and brought the thermometer to a pitch which rendered the place no longer tenable, that a noble lion stalked forth with the greatest conceivable majesty, regarding us and our bonfire with sovereign contempt. In went a broadside. "Hark to him!" was the word, but he beat us in view to a second clump of reeds, so thick and tangly, that the element was again in requisition. Bolted him close under the feet of the elephant, away into him again, and after a second and third volley he was whoo-whooped in a small open nullah, where we gathered up his remainders, measuring nine feet six inches. The other did not cast up. We were out betimes on the 17th, on intelligence not half a mile from the same place; and since we had taken the field well provided with fire-balls, and had, moreover, appointed a lieutenant fireworker, who occupied the kwass, and had all the implements of ignition in his pocket, we were not tardy in kindling a blaze so potent, that a lioness was in the open ground almost immediately. Let go three barrels when within six yards of her, one of which taking effect in her loins, she sprung perpendicularly from the ground, the full height of the howdah, and in another instant was doing her half mile to the river in 57s., as if nothing had happened. Carried her marks across the plain to a patch of bulrushes which extended as far as the eye could see, and the mahout, who clearly did not look upon lion hunting as a "distinguished amusement,' was lecturing gratis upon the method of doing the trick in Hindostan : She is not here, khudawund," said he; "the place is full of bullocks, and in Hindostan tigers are never-ah! by-the-by, what is that moving in the grass ?" And she was looking him in the face within five yards, so we gathered her unto her fathers. A finer lion than we had yet seen gave us the slip on the following day by charging, salamanderlike, through a narrow clump of blazing rushes, after he had been burnt out, inch by inch, across several acres of similar cover. But the process had trenched so far upon our daylight, that we had barely sufficient left to carry us home. I was infinitely diverted with one of the village coolies who accompanied us; his matchlock over his shoulder, the pan comfortably closed with a bit of cloth, and a lump of cowdung in his hand, with which to ignite the tinder if required. This worthy, thus equipped, was literally poking his addled head into the middle of the very bush said to contain the lion, and moreover pulling the grass on one side to admit of a better view. "What in the name of God are you doing?" exclaimed my companion. 'Doing!" said the chap with evident surprise, and blowing his fid of cowdung; "why, looking for the lion, to be sure. Are not you looking for him? About noon the next day our people had surrounded the same lion close to the old city of Puttun. Our incendiary was not long in making the place too hot to hold him, and he took across a dead plain of half a mile and more in extent, at a walk. It was a grand sight; and had the mahout done his duty, Leo must have mended his pace, or paid the debt of nature then and there; but unfortunately our friend did not consider it consistent with the dictates of prudence to hurry his elephant, and having once made up his mind on the subject, was alike deaf to fair words and foul, thereby suffering the game to make the opposite jungle with only one wound. After several unsuccessful casts, found him again, dead beat, and wheezing and hallooing at a devil of a rate. Bolted him, and tickled him under the throat, upon which he mustered a gallop for twenty yards or so, and then died suddenly; and so ended the fourth day. Made Sidpore on the 25th; and the residue of the lions having taken warning by the fate of their comrades, we had recourse to our spears. After killing a fine boar, came suddenly on a panther in some grain fields, but lost him again almost immediately. The arrival of the elephant, however, and an ounce ball slap through the head, gave our attendants opportunity of slinging his remainders on a stick, and conveying them to the tents. an I may, perhaps, tell you more about Aboo next year. In the meantime, Yours obediently, June 1st, 1831. OH! REST THEE, MY HUNTER. Oh! rest thee, my hunter, oh! sleep while you may; Then rest well, my hunter, oh! sound may you sleep, So sure is thy footing, so good is thy speed, But seal'd is the boar's death, when once brought to bay. Then carry me swiftly, and when thou art old, G. SIR, ON THORNS. In an early number of the O. S. M. one of your sporting contributors begged to be informed, through the medium of your pages, if a remedy had not been found by some of the numerous sportsmen in India for that great drawback to the noble sport of hog-hunting-the baubul thorns, more commonly called "cockspur thorns." As no abler pen has undertaken to give information on the subject, perhaps I may be allowed to acquaint you and the public, if you deem my letter worth a place in your valuable magazine, with the result of many years' experience amongst baubul bushes and cockspur jungles. As soon as I am aware that my horse has suffered from thorns, I foment the part affected with the neem leaf (the mountain neem is the best) during the first day. On the second I make a poultice of the white-ant earth, or rather of the nest, which boiled up with a little water makes a glutinous paste; and this I apply to the part as hot as the animal can bear it; after one or two applications he submits to it patiently, as if sensible of the benefit intended to him. The operation is performed in the most simple manner. The paste, having been made of a moderate consistence in any common sort of earthen pot (to be procured in every village), is applied by means of a rag, tied to the end of a stick of one or two feet in length, and is dabbed on the part affected, whether the legs, chest, or thighs, where it adheres without the trouble of applying a bandage. It may be renewed every hour or oftener, until the horse feels relief. I have frequently known extraordinary cures performed by this application, and have seen horses apparently "broken down" fit to work the second or third day, and the sinews, muscles, &c., recover their form and elasticity long before the most sanguine could have hoped to be able to cross the nag again. This simple recipe has frequently "saved the bacon" of many an enthusiastic sporting sub, whose only horse and tattoo were dead lame from thorns, and enabled him to gallop back to camp some 50 or 60 miles over night, to be present at that grand spectacle, a guard mounting, or a brigade drill. This recipe was first given to me by that prince of sportsmen and gallant soldier, Major Evan Davies, better known, for his ever daring courage, by the name of Tiger Davies." Instead of pure water, I generally use a strong decoction of the neem leaf to make the poultice ; but I doubt that it has in this state any great virtue. I remain, Mr. E., your constant reader and admirer, DEEMUK-MUTTEE. N.B. As this will be the first time any production of mine has appeared in print, I hope you will pardon a pun when I own that I am just now, like my subject, on thorns, till I see it amongst the selections for No. 13. JOHN DOCKERY REDIVIVUS. D. Dockery. (Dreaming still) Be you ready? Off! (kicking and spurring as though riding a race). Nimrod.-Look at that dream ing dung-cart; he still fancies he is at his old trade of racing; knock his dumpy legs off the table, Surly, and bring him to his senses. (Sam Surly throws a biscuit at John, which hits him on the head, and awakens him.) John.-Hollo, hollo! Sam.-Why, what's the matter, honest John? Did you hear anything knock? John.-Where be I, Lord a marcy; where be I?-oh! I ax your pardon, gentlemen, twenty times, for being so desperate unmannerly like, but 'pon my sole Mr. Nimrod's reading was so (yawning) cruel slow, that I couldn't keep my eyes open, and I was dreaming as how I was riding Master Doolittle's Bloo Blazes, when all of a sudden I comes whop against the distance post, and then I woke; but as I sed afore, I ax pardon for my manners, and 1 hopes as 'ow the supper's ready, for I be mortal peckish. Nimrod.-Peckish! why, you eat enough at dinner for three. John.-Ees, but I hant had nothing to signify since, and so I'll go and see what the black cook's about, 'cause you knows |