43G THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIi. 



Considerinof that their coss is derived from so indefinite 

 a basis as the distance at which a yell from a hill-top 

 can be heard, it is little surprising if the coss itself 

 should be uncertain. This is their table of long 



measure : — 



2 yells = 1 daah (or " bittock "), 



2 "bittocks"= 1 co^s, 

 12 coss ^^= 1 day's march; 



which seems to be about thirty miles. 



In the jungles of Kenda and Pendra, which form 

 the most easterly section of this forest, and lie right 

 under the range of the Mykal hills, great numbers of 

 wild buffaloes were reported to us ; but we had not time 

 at this season to stop to look after them. Doubtless it 

 is chiefly to these regions that they retire from the 

 Mandla uplands wdien the latter are invaded by the 

 srazinof of domestic cattle. 



So far as we could learn, an area of about 1,200 

 square miles was occupied by herds of wild elephants, 

 whose number we estimated, from all accounts, to range 

 from tw^o hundred to three hundred. They undoubtedly 

 did very serious damage to the crops in the neighbour- 

 hood ; and for many years the annual tribute of the 

 Thakurs whose possessions they disturbed had been 

 remitted on this account. The people were totally 

 unable to defend themselves from such powerful foes, 

 and most of the villages I met with on the borders of 

 the jungle are furnished with platforms in high trees, to 

 which the people were accustomed to retreat on the 

 occurrence of an invasion. Shooting at wild elephants 

 only increases the damage they occasion, by breaking 

 up the herds and spreading their ravages over a larger 

 area ; and, besides, to shoot an elephant is like hanging 

 a man, the worst use that can be made of him. After a 



