THE TKAK REGION. 243 



and hunt, each with a few Bheel attendants. My way 

 lay along the backbone of the range beyond Bingara. 

 After walking some miles, examining carefully with 

 glass and eye the declivities on either side, my Bheel 

 henchman, a sharp lad called Cliaud, or "the INfoon," 

 fixed a longer look than usual on the slope of a distant 

 hill-side, and after a wdiile motioned me up to him, 

 and directed my binocular to the centre of a scrubby 

 patch of teak forest. Presently I caught the glint 

 of the sun on something moving, and made out a 

 noble sambar stag standing under the trees motionless, 

 except that he slowly turned his antlered head from 

 side to side, sweeping w^ith keen vision the whole 

 semicircle within his ken. He was not more than a 

 mile ofi* in a direct line ; but to get to the spot it would 

 be necessary to go several miles round the head of a 

 long ravine. As he was almost certain to lie down where 

 he was, we carefully marked the spot, and slipping 

 back over the edge of the saddle started off at a brisk 

 walk to circumvent him. The sun was well up now, and 

 it is very hot in March even at that early hour ; so 

 that by the time we had got round into the ravine 

 below, our temperature was considerably higher than 

 when we started. Now commenced an excruciatins; 

 advance on tiptoe, with bended backs, over a stratum 

 of fallen teak leaves of the " tin-box " description, to 

 step on a single one of which would be fatal to the stalk. 

 As the only alternative foot-ground was on rounded 

 trap boulders, given to rolling away from beneath 

 the unwary foot, the heat developed by the exertion 

 was greatly out of proportion to the progress made. 

 At last, however, we sighted the red-topped tree under 

 which we had marked our stag; and. then " the Moon," 



