434 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



More tobacco and another bright rupee, and the sight of 

 the youth safe and sound after his awful adventure, 

 brought a grin over the highly simian countenance of 

 this ancient ; and the pair of them, first diving into a 

 hut for their pipes and axes, stalked away before us 

 through the trees. Soon they got quite chatty, gabbling 

 and grinning to themselves about the elephant and its 

 riders, on whom, however, they kept a sharp look-out 

 over their shoulders. Once or twice I made the ele- 

 phant take short runs close up behind them to try their 

 nerves ; and the alacrity with which they skipped 

 behind the nearest trees, and chuckled and grinned 

 from their secure positions, was worth seeing. They 

 took us straight across country to Boogloogee without 

 a mistake ; and when we got there, and set them down 

 among their tribesmen to fill themselves with venison, 

 and wheat-flour from our store, they were perfectly 

 happy. 



The Bhiimias of these parts are much wilder than 

 those of the Mandla district, cultivating not at all, and 

 subsisting solely by their bows and arrows, and the 

 roots and fruits of the jungle, and collecting the dammer 

 resin of the sal tree to barter for the few necessaries of 

 life not produced by their wilds with the traders who 

 reside at the head-quarters of their Thakiirs. They 

 have scarcely an idea of the use of coined money, the 

 rare rupees that reach them being pierced and worn as 

 ornaments by the women. They are said to have, 

 besides their little hamlets in the forest, a retreat in 

 some still more secluded wild, known only to the family 

 it belongs to, in which all their worldly substance 

 beyond a few days' supply is kept, and to which they 

 are ready to fly at a moment's notice. The sal forest 

 has thus here escaped much of the devastation it has 



