100 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



matchlock itself being borne, with smoking match, over 

 the shoulder of each. These were mostly of the same 

 breed as the Thakur, being his poor relations in fact. 

 This descri])tion would serve sufficiently well for the 

 great majority of these petty semi-aboriginal chiefs, 

 who are so numerous in the hills of Central India. 

 Though the breed between the Edjpiit and the aborigine 

 produces the best of all shikaris and foresters, in a 

 somewhat higher sphere they are chiefly remarkable 

 for debauchery, and a vain and silly pride which leads 

 them into expenditure beyond their means, and ruinous 

 debt. They all call themselves "Rajas," and keep up 

 minute standing armies of these ragamuffin retainers, 

 as well as one or two Brahman bloodsuckers to manage 

 their holy and clerkly affairs. As they are always 

 seeking for brides for their sons in families with higher 

 claims to Rajput descent than their own, they have to 

 pay enormous sums for marriage expenses, and this is 

 probably the chief cause of their generally hopeless 

 poverty. 



I found I was likely to have a good deal of trouble 

 in getting the wild hill people to help in building our 

 lodge. The Thakur made all sorts of excuses for with- 

 holding from us his influence with his "subjects." There 

 was great scarcity among them, owing to a failure of their 

 precarious crops ; they had nearly all left the hills to 

 seek service in the plains ; they w^ere engaged in preparing 

 the land for their crops ; they hated work they had not 

 been accustomed to ; they w^ould be afraid to help in 

 making a house on Mahadeo's hill — and so on. Truth 

 was, I saw the chief himself and his advisers hated our 

 intrusion. With some truth they feared we were come 

 to break up their much-beloved seclusion, and un- 



