THE MAHADEO HILLS. 99 



On my return to the tent I had an interview with 

 the Thakiir, or chief, of Puchmurree. This potentate 

 is the proprietor of a considerable tract of hill and 

 forest in the Alahadeo range, and the valleys at its 

 base. He is the representative of one of the families 

 already referred to as having been established in the 

 ea,rly days of Aryan colonisation, by an intermixture 

 of the blood of the adventurous Rajpiit with that of 

 the aboriginal (in this case Korkii) occupants of the 

 soil. In personal appearance and habits the family 

 exactly correspond to their descent. Taller and fairer 

 by far than the undiluted Korkiis about them, they 

 still possess the thick lips and prominent jaw of the 

 aborigines. With all the love of tinsel and sounding 

 form of the vain Eajpiit, they unite much of the apathy 

 and unthrift of the savage. In religion they are (like 

 all converts) ultra Hindu, worshipping Siva, looking 

 on the slaughter of a cow with horror (though they 

 will kill the nearly related bison of their hills), wearing 

 the holy thread of the twice-born castes, and keeping 

 a family Brahman to do their household worship for 

 them. The Puchmurree Thakiir was a well-grown young- 

 man of about twenty -five, but awkward in manner and 

 incapable of any sort of conversation. I subsequently 

 found that he was, like most of these petty chiefs, 

 a confirmed opium-eater. By his side, however, stood 

 the Brahman "Dewan," or minister of state (!), whose 

 glibness of tongue was fully sufficient for both. Behind 

 them came four or five tatterdemalion retainers, in 

 quilted garments of many hues, girded as to their loins 

 with broad embroidered belts of Sambar leather, in 

 which were stuck, or suspended, swords, daggers, and 

 the cumbrous appointments of a mntchlock-man, the 



