THE ABORIGINAL TEIBES. 161 



own favourite recipe of powder and lead, the result is 

 the same. 



The case of the Goad has hitherto little differed, 

 whether he has preferred to cling to his rugged hills 

 and struggle with nature, or has remained on the edge 

 of civilisation and toiled for the superior races. Every- 

 where the aboriginal is the pioneer of the more settled 

 races in their advance against the wilderness. His 

 capacity for toil that would break the heart of a Hindii, 

 his endurance of malaria, and his fearlessness of the 

 jungle, eminently qualify him for this function ; and his 

 thriftlessness and hatred of being long settled in a locality 

 as certainly ensure the fruits of his labour reverting as 

 a permanency to the settled races of the plains. The 

 process is everywhere much the same. The frontier 

 villages in the possession of Hindu landholders, or of 

 the Gond Thakiirs, or chiefs, usually comprehend large 

 areas of culturable but uncleared land, and there are 

 alwavs numbers of the aborio;ines floatinof about such 

 frontiers, earning a precarious livelihood by wood-cutting 

 and occasional jobs, or working as farm-servants, who can 

 be induced to break it up. They have, of course, no 

 capital, and seldom any security to offer ; and the risk 

 of loss must therefore be borne by the landholder. He 

 either lends money himself for the purchase of a plough 

 and pair of bullocks, and the other small farm-stock 

 required to commence with, or becomes security for such 

 a loan borrowed from the banker who is found in every 

 circle of villages, with money always ready to be lent 

 on any such speculation. The interest charged on such 

 a money loan is never less than twenty-four per cent, 

 per annum. Seed grain has also to be borrowed ; and 



