424 THE HIGHLAN'DS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



middle-aged man, claimiDg to be a pure PJijput, and 

 a descendant of the ancient dynasty of Ratanpiir, whose 

 stronghold for many'years \Yas the fort of Laiifagarh. He 

 brought me numerous delicacies produced by his wilds, 

 among which two were particularly acceptable, namely, 

 a fine pure arrowroot {Tihtr), made from the roots of 

 the wild Curcuma angustifolia, and a beautiful small 

 grain called Siker, wdiich is nothing but the produce of 

 old plants of the grain called Kitthl (ijanicum), gene- 

 rally cultivated by those hill tribes in their dhya 

 clearings. After a clearing has been abandoned, the 

 plants of Kiitki rapidly degenerate, and in their third 

 and fourth year the grain has become this Siker. It is 

 much smaller than the fully cultivated grain, but also 

 much sw^eeter, and with a nutty flavour about it, w^hich 

 is particularly delicious. Very little of it is gathered, 

 the labour being great for a small result; but it is 

 so much appreciated as to be generally kept for the 

 PiLTslidd, or sacrificial food of the gods. It made the 

 best porridge I ever tasted. The Thakiir had been a 

 mighty hunter in the days of his youth, and was full of 

 yarns of his sport. I remember few of them, and was 

 too listless at that time to note them dow^n. He showed 

 me a scar received from a man-eatinoj tio^er, which he 

 and another had done to death with their bows and 

 arrows. He told me much about the wild elephants, 

 which wandered all over his own and the neighbouring 

 chieftaincies, their head-quarters being in Matin and 

 Uprora, about twenty-five miles to the north. He only 

 knew of one of these animals having ever been killed by 

 a native. He was a very old male, with a broken tusk, 

 and was shot in the trunk with a " bisar," or poisoned 

 arrow, from a tree by the Bhiimia, whose rice-field he 

 was devastating below. He w'andered long in the 



