PIG-STICKING or HOG-HUNTING is the sport of chasing the wild boar on horseback with a spear. From the earliest times the pursuit of thi wild boar has been a favourite pastime in Europe but the modern sport of pig-sticking is of Indian origin. It is now generally accepted as a fact that pig sticking was the outcome of bear-spearing, which was popular amongst British sportsmen in Bengal until the beginning of the 19th century when bears had become so scarce that wild boars were substituted as the quarry. Early in the 19th century it seems that the spear was generally thrown and Captain Johnson, writing in 1827, gives directions for throwing the spear, which was a weapon more in the nature of a javelin with different coloured ribbons attached to the butt so as to enable the owner to reclaim his spear. In 1830 Mr. Mills, of the I.C.S., seems to have introduced the "jobbing" spear in his district and this weapon was universally used in Bengal. But the jobbing, or thrusting, spear was known before 1830 and was used regularly by officers of Lord Lake's Army as early as 1803 (vide War and Sport in India: an Officer's Diary, 1802-1806). At the present time there are really three types of spear in general use : the short Bengal spear which is about 5 feet long and is always used over-hand; the long Bombay spear, which may be as long as io to I 2 feet and is always used under-hand like a lance ; and a spear about 6 to 7 feet long, well leaded at the butt so as to balance about a foot from that end, which is generally used under-hand but which can, should circumstances so demand, be used over-hand. This last is the type of weapon common in the United Provinces and Delhi districts. The best type of horse is one that is fast and quick, yet not too big, as very rapid twists and turns must be made when following a pig which "jinks," or turns sharp in its tracks. For this same reason the horse must be perfectly balanced and well back on its hocks, while a good shoulder and long rein help it to stand up over bad ground.
A large area of land is controlled and hunted by a "Tent Club" which corresponds to a Hunt in England, and private expeditions after pig in any such area are forbidden by etiquette. A Tent Club is managed by an honorary secretary, which is an unfor tunate title as this individual has powers and prestige similar to those of a M.F.H. in England. The season varies in different districts but begins as soon as the heavy undergrowth, which springs up during the monsoon, has died sufficiently to enable riding across country, usually in January, and continues through out the hot weather until the rains break towards the end of June. April, May and early June are the best months. Meets of a Tent Club take place, as a rule, once a fortnight and last for two tc four days. There are two methods of hunting. Where the whole country is covered with girth-high grass and jhow (tamarisk) a long line of beaters advances while the "spears" ride with the line. These are divided into "heats" of three or
four and only one heat may ride a boar that is put up, or "reared," by the beaters, the heat nearest the boar taking the hunt. The rider who gains "first spear," that is who spears the boar first, claims the head and tusks as his trophy. But where the boar inhabits thick patches of unridable jungle, as is the case in Central India and Guzerat, as well as in isolated cases in other parts, the heats wait in hiding outside while beaters drive out the boar. The rules for riding are the same in both cases.
There are various pig-sticking competitions the best known of which is the Kadir Cup. The word "Kadir" (pronounced "Karder") merely means the old bed of a large river. All the big Indian rivers are constantly changing their courses and the land which has at one time been under water may be anything from five to thirty miles in width. Such land is a river Kadir and is overgrown with tamarisk and grass, intersected with nullahs (i.e., water courses, dry or full of water), and dotted with jhils (swamps). Villages are few and far between, while the ground is the haunt of wild boar and many other species of game, both big and small. A large part of the Ganges Kadir has been con trolled by the Meerut Tent Club since before the Mutiny, and the Kadir Cup is run annually in March in this country. Com petitors may enter two horses, but not more. Heats of three are determined by lots, and the gainer of the first spear in each heat qualifies for the second round, and so on to the semi-final and final heats. The winning of the Kadir Cup, which was instituted in 1869, constitutes the blue ribbon of pig-sticking.
Other pig-sticking competitions are the Guzerat Cup, which is run in Guzerat on similar lines to the Kadir Cup ; the Nagpur Hunt Cup, which goes to the member of the Tent Club who gains the greatest number of first spears in the season; and the Muttra Cup, which was instituted in 1913 and is awarded to a team of three who actually kill the greatest proportion of boars to those hunted. This event is run in the Jumna Kadir near Muttra.
Pig-sticking in India suffered severely during the War owing to the shortage of spears and many old Tent Clubs were auto matically disbanded through lack of members and funds. But there has been a great revival since 1919 and almost all the old Clubs have been resuscitated ; the sport is as popular now as it has ever been in the past, and in 1927 one of the largest boars ever recorded as being speared was killed in the Gogra Kadir by the Fyzabad Tent Club. This boar measured 37-* inches at the withers and weighed 325 pounds.
The only other country where pig-sticking is practised is in Tangier, where there is a flourishing Tent Club.