MEET A FELLOW-COUNTRYMAN. 157 



wild ones. Their hind -legs were hobbled and thick ropes put on their 

 necks, when each was marched off by two tame elephants, one before and one 

 behind, to our camp at Jadoogapara. 



It would take up too much space to relate our operations at Jadooga- 

 para in detail, so I will pass on. 



On January 15 th we marched back to Gasban with the captured ele- 

 phants, and here I met a countryman, P., the political officer stationed at 

 Eungamuttea. The meeting of Livingstone and Stanley in Central Africa 

 was a trifle — to us — to this " forgathring " in one of the uttermost corners 

 of the earth ! I found P., who was a model frontier officer, squatted in a hut 

 with the noble savages around him, trying to impress upon them some 

 notions of Government dues, and taking a friendly pull at their liquor now 

 and again. The Joomas hospitably invited me, through P., who had some 

 knowledge of their language, to a drink of the beverage which had been 

 provided for the assembled council. There was a pot of it holding several 

 gallons and occupying an honourable position in the centre; across the 

 mouth of the vessel was a thin slip of bamboo level with the liquor. From 

 the slip of bamboo a small piece of stick depended about a quarter of an 

 inch, and P. told me that Jooma etiquette required that the imbiber should 

 lower the liquor by suction through a hollow reed till the dependent slip 

 cleared the surface, when he was considered to have duly shown his appre- 

 ciation of the brew. The liquor was prepared from fermented rice and 

 fruits, and was very good, being something like cider. P. and I smoked and 

 chatted till evening, when we looked at the new elephants, and then dined 

 in P.'s up-stair hut. A clay hearth on the floor admitted of our having a 

 fire. I slept in my tent, where the thermometer stood at 32° next morn- 

 ing, though the elevation was probably under 100 feet above sea-level. 



Next day I accepted an invitation with P. to breakfast at the house of 

 one of the Jooma chiefs. He gave us some good pork curry (we had seen 

 the animal which furnished the wherewithal being pursued by Joomas with 

 gleaming knives the evening before, who, as soon as they caught him, cut 

 off his head almost before he had time to squeal), and a sort of pudding. 

 We ate with our fingers off leaf-platters. I daresay any one at all fastid- 

 ious might have had some qualms regarding the cleanliness of the cooks 

 who prepared the repast, and I was amused at P.'s frequent apologies for 

 his friends. However, I was not less of a jungle- wallah, accustomed to 

 chumming with the noble savage, than himself, and felt quite at home. 

 After breakfast I played some tunes on my cornet, and P. struck up on a 

 tin whistle, which greatly pleased the Joomas. 



P. departed with his dug-out boats next day down the Chengree towards 



