238 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



the sport of stalking the bison and sambar in. this 

 fashion can be followed with better chance of success 

 than in the jungles on either side of the upper Tapti 

 valley. Indeed, the very best of this sport can be had 

 within an easy morning's ride of the large city of 

 Burhanpiir, in the Nimar district, situated on the Tapti, 

 a few miles below the point where the narrow rugged 

 valley opens out into a wide basin of fertile and highly 

 cultivated black soil. Here the Tapti is joined by the 

 Mona, a beautiful stream which flows clear and sparkling 

 out of a branch of the Satpiira range called the Hatti 

 hills. It is one of the most singular parts of the great 

 basaltic formation, and forms the extreme westerly 

 termination of the highland region I am describing. 



In the end of February we rode out from Burhanpur 

 to our camp, which was pitched at the last village in the 

 open plain. Next morning a small tent was sent up to 

 a little fort called Gharri, that crowns the northern face 

 of the Hatti range, and we ourselves took different lines 

 through the hills on foot to the same place. The in- 

 habitants of these hills are all Bheels, a good deal spoilt 

 by " civilisation," being mostly lazy and thriftless, and 

 confirmed opium eaters. They are the descendants of 

 ancestors who were nominally converted to Mahome- 

 danism in the days when a strong Moslem power was 

 established at Burhanpur, but now retain scarcely any- 

 thing of their faith besides the name of the Prophet and 

 the practice of its most elementary rites. In Mahomedan 

 times the chiefs of these Bheels were subsidised and 

 constituted wardens of the hill passes in this range, 

 over which ran the main highways between the valley 

 of the Tdpti and Berar ; and they still continue to 

 receive from our Government this subsidy, which is 



