244 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



stripping himself of next to Lis last fragment of raiment, 

 swarmed up a teak pole to look out ahead. Nothing 

 was seen, however, and so we stole on again, friend 

 Chand swarming up trees at intervals, and I balancing 

 myself in fear and trembling on the rounded boulders. We 

 were not to succeed, however ; for the Bheel in coming 

 off a tree accidentally stepped on a leaf, and the game 

 was up. Though I dashed ahead at once, knowing 

 that we could steal in no further, it was too late ; 

 and all I saw was a dark form running low, but at 

 a great pace, through the teak scrub, too far off for 

 a shot. I believe that this was about the only sambar 

 then on the hills ; for though the forms where they 

 had been lying were numerous, and both T. and I 

 hunted the livelong day for them, not another hoof 

 or horn did we see. The Bheels said they had all 

 gone to "Dhowtea" — a place which we afterwards 

 found was so difficult of access that very few of them 

 had ever been there ; and so they used it, much as 

 we do " Jericho," to express an indefinite region where 

 everything that can't be found elsewhere must certainly 

 have gone. 



Greatly to the surprise of the Bheels, w^e did shortly 

 after this go to Dhowtea ; and if its name was great 

 before, it certainly became much more so after we 

 had been there. Neither of us ever saw anything so 

 extraordinary in our lives ; and to the Bheels there 

 was nothing short of magical devilry in what w^e 

 found, or rather did not find. Dhowtea was a hollow 

 on the top of the range surrounded by flat plateaux 

 of small elevation, with a fine stream of water in the 

 centre, and long grass all about. After a long struggle 

 through thick jungle and over desperate rocky ground, 



