THE G ARROW HILLS. 233 



has water " laid on " from the hills above, and neatly-cut walks and rides 

 through the woods near. 



Until 1870 this distant abode of the British Lion was defended by a 

 stockade, the palisades bristling with sharp fire-hardened bamboos, whilst 

 the neighbourhood was pleasantly panjied. The uninitiated may imagine 

 that this panjieing is some ornamental arrangement of the grounds, so I 

 must explain that panjies are not a device for the attraction, but for the 

 discouragement, of visitors. They consist of bamboo spikes driven into the 

 ground, almost level with the surface, the earth being scraped away round 

 each so as to form a cup. Hundreds of these are laid in every direction ; 

 grass, falling leaves, &c, soon hide them ; and if trodden upon they inflict 

 fearful wounds. A place strongly panjied is quite safe against night attack 

 or general assault, and can only be approached by a person knowing the 

 locality, or after the panjies shall have been disposed of in detail. 



The Garrow people are not tall, but are well built, and both men and 

 women have open, good-natured countenances. They are warlike and con- 

 stantly at variance amongst themselves, feuds between different villages 

 being kept up for many years. They have a passion for human heads, and 

 are in the habit of decapitating their enemies. When a village has possessed 

 itself of the head of a member of another, there is no peace between the two 

 communities until the loss has been adjusted by a head from the original 

 offenders. Open fighting is not resorted to so much as stealth. For this 

 reason Garrows seldom venture abroad but in well-armed parties. They 

 believe that a decapitated person cannot be at peace in the next world until 

 they have got another head for him from amongst his murderers. Con- 

 sequently a sacred obligation rests upon his friends to procure him one. It 

 may be soon, or not for years, but it must be got in the end. When a long- 

 interval of time intervenes, they are accustomed to say that their friend in 

 the next world will have a " very long neck ! " Much has been done by 

 the British Government since taking over the hills to put a stop to this 

 practice, and it is now only in vogue in villages distant from Tura, and 

 which are still little influenced by British power. I learnt from Captain 

 Williamson, the Deputy Commissioner at Tura, that if the skulls collected by 

 contending villagers be destroyed, the feud must, by the Garrows' usages, 

 cease, and that he had had an immense number burnt at Tura in presence 

 of the parties interested, though there was no doubt they were but a small 

 portion of the heads still in the possession of the Garrows. 



For dress the men wear a strip of cloth round their loins, and the women 

 merely a band of cloth about a foot in width and just long enough to meet 

 round the hips, where it is knotted by the upper corners on the right-hand 



