230 RIFLE AND ROMANCE 



wander as we will, hunt as we will, for mile on mile in 

 every direction. Water is now plentiful, even up here, 

 and often one stumbles on a lotdn or marshy hole, screened 

 by tall red grass, where the big stags " soil " nightly in the 

 mire. 



At the northern end of the long Belkhera glen, and 

 separated by the pass leading from it in/to the Patoli 

 valley, stand the two Jhakras (barra and Mta), their flat 

 summits rising to a height of 3,500 feet. Far below their 

 northern slopes lie some distant green patches, which are 

 the scattered crops raised by the Korkus of Patoli. To 

 those crops the truculent stag, the watchful hind, and the 

 callow long-limbed fawn descend, together with the shades 

 of night. From his perch in the night-watcher's machdn 

 the indignant Korku hears the breaking of the succulent 

 heads of jawdri, as the deer pull them from their stalks: 

 frantically he yells, and whacks his empty kerosene tin : 

 from other fields comes the mournful clacking of more 

 elaborate wooden rattles : the nocturnal marauders beat a 

 hurried retreat, crushing many a long millet stalk to the 

 earth as they go to resume operations in neighbouring 

 fields. The Korku nods drowsily again, a forlorn, black, 

 blanketted silhouette against the stars : the night wears 

 slowly on, gradually chilling to the dawn. By the first 

 faint harbingers of dawn in the eastern sky a dark shape 

 is seen approaching the lower slopes of the hill. It halts 

 a moment ; then a massive pair of antlers show against 

 the pale horizon as it resumes its leisurely way. Half- 

 way up the side of Chota Jhakra, and just above the lower 

 rock scarps, is a very pleasing lotdn. As the false dawn 

 spreads its green flush abroad, the stag heaves up from 

 this mud wallow, scrapes his mud-plastered sides and 

 grinds his rough horns against the sapling at its brink, and 

 passes slowly on uphill. Higher still he may be seen 

 rearing himself up on his hind legs against an aola tree, or 

 moving about below it picking up the fallen fruit hard, 



