THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 163 



vator is far better off also than if be bad been working for 

 bire, for tben be would not bave laboured balf so steadily 

 as bis interest in tbe result of tbe crop induces bim to do. 



Until recently, tbe babits of debaucbery I bave 

 mentioned, together witb tbe low value of agricultural 

 produce, usually prohibited tbe advance of the ab- 

 original cultivator from this stage. The harvest reaped, 

 any grain that might fall to his share was at once taken 

 to the spirit-dealer (who usually combined grain-dealing 

 with his more pernicious trade), and converted into 

 mhowa spirit — gangs of Gonds at this season being 

 constantly to be seen rolling about in a perpetual state 

 of drunkenness, or sitting, blear-eyed, at the door of the 

 bothy, until the last of their earnings had been dissi- 

 pated. This effected, they had no resource but to work 

 during tbe rest of tbe season, until sowing-time should 

 again arrive, at occasional jobs of wood-cutting or road- 

 making, or anything that might turn up, always getting 

 drunk whenever opportunity served. 



Great numbers of them, when once they had re- 

 sorted to the grog-shop, never again became their own 

 masters, remaining practically the bond slaves of the 

 spirit-dealer ever after. And this introduces one of 

 the most pernicious evils with which we had to 

 contend in the early days of forest conservation. A 

 very great amount of timber, bamboos, grass, and other 

 forest produce is annually required by the people of the 

 plains for house-building and repairing, fencing their 

 fields, and other agricultural purposes. The timber- 

 bearing tracts in the neighbourhood of the cultivated 

 plains having long since been cleared, all this has to 

 be brought down from the interior of the hills ; and 

 such work can only be done by the bold and hardy ab- 



