TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



This incident reminds me of an amusing story, once 

 told me by a friend, in connection with this drug and drink 

 habit to which, as I have already mentioned in my de- 

 scription of these people, the Bhils are unfortunately 

 addicted. On the occasion to which this story refers, a 

 party of the Bhil Corps Sepoys, while escorting some 

 prisoners to the magistrates' camp, came upon a liquor 

 shop en route. Unable to resist the temptation, they stopped 

 to have a drink, with the result that the Sepoy escort 

 ultimately arrived at the camp in a bullock cart, all more 

 or less hors de combat, while the prisoners they were supposed 

 to be escorting, were acting as their guard ! 



However, this is their only little failing, for taking 

 them as a whole, the Bhils are singularly free from the vice 

 common to most other Indian natives, and, as sportsmen, 

 are, as I have also said before, difficult to beat. They are 

 exceptionally expert with the bow, used either with arrows 

 or pellets, and in throwing any heavy implement such as 

 an axe or hatchet. 



Once when out shooting small game, one of our party 

 missed a partridge which rose almost under his feet ; a 

 Bhil beater, seeing the miss, threw his hatchet at the bird, 

 and, much to the humiliation of the sportsman, and to 

 the amazement of us all, knocked it over. 



In my description of the Bhils I find I have omitted 

 mention of one section of the tribe, viz. the Dangchias, or 

 Dang Bhils, who are probably the most uncivilized of any 

 of the wild tribes of India. They live in cone-shaped huts 

 made of tree boughs, and feed on vermin, garbage of all 

 kinds, monkeys and rats being also a portion of their diet, 

 and Mouha spirit their favourite beverage. 



Of clothing they have practically none, the " langote," 

 a narrow strip or loin-cloth, and a wisp of cloth round their 

 heads being all they use in the way of dress. Like their 

 brethren they are strong believers in omens, and greatly 

 dread the powers of witches and of the Evil Eye. Their 

 most frequent crime is the torturing of the former, gene- 

 rally selecting an old woman as their victim. 



Their chief object of worship is the " Vagh Deo," or 

 Tiger God, in whom they believe the souls of their ancestors 

 to have become incarnate. Hence they hold the tiger as 

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