THE NAEBADA VALLEY. 79 



numerous of the race, and whom long contact with 

 the people of the plains has imbued with wants and 

 tendencies strange to their wilder brethren, have reaped 

 a rich harvest from this sudden demand for labour 

 arisinoj at their doors. How far it has been to them 

 an unmixed advantas^e will be discussed further on. 

 As labourers, their innate distaste to steady toil, born 

 of long years of a semi-nomadic existence, renders them 

 inferior to the regular Maratha navvy of the Deccan, 

 who is also their superior in muscular power, and can 

 double the wages of any Gond at this sort of work. 



On the 25th of January I quitted the main road down 

 the valley, near the little civil station of Narsiugpur, 

 and struck off nearly at right angles to the south, 

 marchinor direct for the hills that bounded the horizon 

 in that direction. About half-way through the march 

 of fifteen miles, the level deep black soil of the valley 

 began to give place to a red gravelly tract of undulating 

 conformation ; and numerous fine Mhoiva trees, forming 

 groups that at a little distance much resembled oaks, 

 and half-cleared fields, gave indications of the approach 

 of the border belt of half-reclaimed land which inter- 

 venes between the open plain and the forest-covered 

 hills. The Mhowa [Bassia latifolia) is one of the 

 most useful wild trees in this part of India. It is 

 not cut down like other forest trees in clearing the 

 land for tillage, its value being at first greater than 

 that of the area rendered unproductive by its shade 

 and roots. As the country gets more thickly peopled, 

 however, the case is reversed, and it generally dis- 

 appears in long-settled tracts. As a singular instance 

 of the influence sometimes exerted by social customs 

 on the physical character of a country, I may mention 



