120 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
four inches broad. ‘The flowers are globular, cream coloured, with a 
faint greenish tint, waxy in appearance, succulent and extremely sweet, 
but to my taste extremely nasty, there being a peculiar disagreeable 
flavour which lingers long in the mouth. However not only do all 
animals, carnivorous as well as herbivorous, like them, but they are 
highly appreciated by the natives, who not only eat them raw, but dry 
them in the sun and thus keep them for future consumption, and also 
distil an extremely intoxicating spirit from them. The fresh refuse, or 
marc, after the extraction of the spirit is also attractive to animals. 
Some years ago I sent to Mr. Frank Buckland, for publication in Land 
and Water, an account of a dog which used to frequent a distillery for 
the purpose of indulging in this refuse, the result of which was his 
becoming completely intoxicated. This sarc, after further fermentation, 
becomes intensely acid, and on one occasion I used it successfully in 
cleaning and brightening a massive steel and iron gate which I had 
constructed. I made a large vat, and filling it with this fermented 
refuse, put the gate in to pickle. The seeds of the mofzwa yield an oil 
much prized by the natives, and used occasionally for adulterating ghee. 
The wood is not much used ; it is not of sufficient value to compensate 
for the flower and fruit, consequently the tree is seldom cut down. When 
an old one falls the trunk and large limbs are sometimes used for sluices 
in tanks, for the heart wood is generally rotten and hollow, and it stands 
well under water. If you ask a Gond about the mo/wa he will tell you 
it is his father and mother. His fleshly father and mother die and dis- 
appear, but the mohwa is with him for ever! A good mohwa crop is 
therefore always anxiously looked for, and the possession of trees 
coveted ; in fact a large number of these trees is an important item for 
consideration in the assessment of land revenues. No wonder then that 
the villager looks with disfavour on the prowling bear who nightly gathers 
up the fallen harvest, or who shakes down the long-prayed-for crop from 
the laden boughs. 
The Sloth Bear is also partial to mangos, sugar-cane, and the pods of 
the amaltas or cassia (Cathartocarpus fistula), and the fruit of the 
jack-tree (Artocarpus integrifolia). 
It is extremely fond of honey, and never passes an ant-hill without 
digging up its contents, especially those of white ants. About twenty 
years ago my first experience of this wasin a neighbour’s garden. He 
had recently built himself a house, and was laying out and sowing his 
flower-beds with great care. It so happened that one of the beds lay 
over a large ants’ nest, and to his dismay he found one morning a huge 
pit dug in the centre of it, to the total destruction of all his tender 
annuals, by a bear that had wandered through the station during the 
night. Tickell describes the operation thus: ‘‘ On arriving at an ant- 
hill the bear scrapes away with the fore-feet till he reaches the large 
ee. eee eee 
