THE KHOND HIGHLANDS. 259 



worst was over when I resumed charge, 

 but the very next day came news of 

 trouble nearer home. 



There was to the south-west of 

 Soorada a cluster of hills and valleys 

 inhabited by some few hundred Khonds 

 who bore a bad character, as having 

 more debased habits than the rest of 

 the nation. They owned a nominal 

 allegiance to the Raja of Bodagudda, 

 whose estate bordered the wild and 

 rugged country they inhabited ; it was 

 separated from the Khond Hills on the 

 Goomsur and Soorada side by an in- 

 terval of some width, and which I find 

 described in my diary as a beautiful 

 level valley, with fine trees scattered 

 about it, and along which we rode for 

 twenty miles to the western corner of 



