136 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



good fire can always be lit in a few minutes, dry wood 

 being never far off in an Indian jungle. An elevated 

 place, at the same time sheltered from the wind, should 

 be chosen for the purpose, as the valleys are more 

 malarious at night. A shelter of boughs should always 

 be knocked up, which your wild men will do hand- 

 somely in five minutes. I learned more of the simple 

 nature of the forest people during the few hours' chat 

 by the fire on these occasions than I believe I would 

 have done otherwise in as many years. I think they 

 got attached to me a good deal ; and, though they are 

 not very demonstrative at any time, I was often 

 touched by some simple act of thoughtfulness one 

 would hardly have expected from their untutored 

 natures. 



About the hardest day I had was after a couple of 

 bulls I had seen grazing on the very top of Dhiipgarh, 

 looming against the sky-line like two young elephants 

 in the red sunlight. It was evening when I found 

 them, and, as the spot was inaccessible by stalking, I 

 sent round a couple of Korkus to move them, while I 

 posted myself on the road they would be most likely to 

 take down the hill. They went, however, by a pass a 

 few hundred yards further on ; and though I ran over 

 the intervening bare and slippery rocks as hard as I 

 could to get a shot, I was only in time to see them 

 fioundering down the hill-side like two great rocks, and 

 they never pulled up till far down in the blue haze that 

 hung over the bottom of the valley they looked scarcely 

 bigger than a couple of crows. As they had not been 

 alarmed by shooting, and would probably be found in 

 the valley next day, I went home and prepared for a 

 long hunt. We took the road round by the great 



