'A Grandfather's Tale: Memoirs being mainly concerned with service in the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service in India and the Persian Gulf from 1932-1947' [‎21r] (41/118)

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H® v/as a nice old man, of about 75, who had been on his "guddi" for 62 years
but was now getting rather doddering. He had been a great shikari and th^
mounted heads of the various animals he had shot were hung in every pubSo
room of the palace and overflowed into a specially built museum. TOere were
trophies from Europe and Africa as well as India.
/ e had two nights m Bhuj where it was pretty hot, the State of Cutch
i arS ! 1 * * * * ^ deS ® r ^‘ Th ® town lts elf is, or was, an old walled city and
the Maharag insisted on the gates being locked at 10 p.m. each night and
the keys being ^eposited m his Palace. Cutch was, as may be gathered, about
200 years behind the times. There were very few cars or lorries and m^st
people travelled by camel-cart or on foot. The roads were appalling and
little more than dirt tracks. ^ 6
, w ,° n the ^esday we went down to the Mahara j-Kumar*'s seaside palace
at Mandvi, a delightful spot. His son, Prince Madansinghji, came too. He
was much the same age asl, rising 2 ?, and we took to each other immediately,
He took me out pig-sticking on the Thursday and Friday. Close to the sea
shore tnere was a fair amount of cultivation, including a good deal of sugar
cane and it was in the latter that the pig were thought to be lying up. The
local peasants had suffered considerably from their depredations on the
crops and had petitioned the Maharao for something to be done about it.
Early in the morning the Prince and I rode out accompanied by a few
mounted retainers but only he and I were armed with lances, very unwieldy
weapons compared with the hog-spear, which is weighted at the blunt end and
does not stretch much beyond one’s elbow. When we arrived on the seaward
side of the sugar cane field, the localsstarted walking through it from the
ar side, beating tins and shouting and making a general hullaballoo. Nothing
happened for some minutes and then there was the sound of something crashing
through the undergrowth and a large boar . broke cover about forty yards
ahead oi^ our group. Normally all available spears would have set out in
pursuit but on this occasion, as I was his guest, Madansinghji held back
and I galloped off on my own. fy the time I caught up with the boar we
were on the hard sand of the seashore, and as I drew close enough to’spear
him he turned to charge, and instead of my lance going in behind the shoulder
and down into his heart, it transfixed him, and my horse slipped on the wet sand
and we all came down together. However, I managed to hold on to the reins
with my left hand and the haft of the lance with my right, and as long as I
could do this, I could keep the boar from getting at me and the horse. We
danced round for what seemed ages, but cannot have been more than a minute
or so before the rest of the mounted party arrived and the boar was
despatched. It was a hefty brute, 32” at the shoulder, and weighed about
250 lbs. Later the Prince had the tusks mounted in silver in the form of
a menu-holder and I have it still.
I had occasionally been out on my own after pig in the Agra District
but it was a foolish thing to do and one was always warned against it.
However, on this occasion, the ’’honour of the Paj” was at stake and I could
bardly have avoided the Prince's invitation without giving offence and losing
face, nor in the excitement of the moment had I the least wish to do so,