160 THE HIGHLANDS OF CEXTKAL IXDIA. 



enumeratiou of the bill tribes at intervals, from wbicb 

 to judge wbetber tbey are increasing or the reverse. I 

 suspect tbe latter as regards tbose in tbe interior,, 

 tliougb tbe better fed and less exposed tribes in and 

 near tbe plains may probably be increasing. 



Until lately, babits of unrestrained drunkenness 

 have aggravated the natural obstacles to their im- 



DO 



provement. The labour of their peculiar sj'steni of 

 cultivation, though severe, is of a fitful character, a 

 few weeks of great toil being succeeded by an interval 

 of idleness, broken only by aimless wanderings in the 

 jungle or hunting expeditions. Periods of rude plenty, 

 when the rains have been propitious to the crops, the 

 hunt successful, and the crop of mhowa abundant, have 

 been succeeded by times of scarcity or even of want. 

 Such a thing as providing for a rainy day has never 

 been thought of. The necessity for constantly shifting 

 the sites of their clearings and habitations has created 

 a want of local attachment, and a disposition to any- 

 thing rather than steadiness of occupation. Occasional 

 periods of hardship are sure to be followed, in such a 

 character, by outbursts of excess ; and thus the life of 

 tbe Gond has usually consisted of intervals of severe 

 toil succeeded by periods of unrestrained dissipation, in 

 which anything he may have earned has been squandered 

 on drink. It is this unfortunate want of steadiness that 

 has led to most of the misfortunes of the race, to the 

 loss of their heritage in the land, and in a great many 

 cases practically even of their personal liberty. Inferior 

 races give way before superior whenever they meet ; 

 ami whether, as here and in America, the instrument 

 selected be "fire-water," or as in New Zealand, it be our 



