6 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



disagreeable it was, though tolerably dry. With the help of 

 the Korkus the little tent was soon pitched, and I transferred 

 myself and dogs to its shelter, while a fire was lit in the hollow 

 of the banyan, and the natives were soon crouching over it as 

 jolly as sandboys ; while my servant plucked and grilled over 

 its embers one of the spur fowl I had shot, as a "spatch- 

 cock." About midnight the rain ceased, and the sky 

 cleared. It was an excessively cold night ; and when I got 

 up shivering in the morning I found my men had stayed up 

 the greater part of the night by the fire for the sake of the 

 warmth. 



The morning broke fine and bright, however, and I started 

 off for a ramble over the plateau. In passing through the 

 swamp below the tent, the dogs put up, and I shot several 

 couple of snipes, and among them a fine specimen of the 

 solitary or wood snipe.* This fine snipe is of rare occurrence 

 in Central India, and in fact I have only met with it on one 

 other occasion, in the Mandla" district. I suspect this is the 

 bird that has stood for the woodcock in the stories told of the 

 latter s occurrence in the Central Provinces ; for though I 

 have hunted every likely spot in the hills for the latter bird, 

 I never found a single one of them. 



There were two small settlements of Korkiis on the plateau. 

 One at Puchmurree itself, and another about a mile to the 

 north of it. The, former was the larger of the two, consisting 

 of about thirty houses, and, besides the Th&kur, a few families 

 of traders from the plains lived in it. The functions exercised 

 by these Hindu dealers in the rural economy of the aborigines 

 will form the subject of some remarks further on. 



A brother of the Thdktir of Puchmurree accompanied me 

 in my ramble, a fine athletic intelligent young fellow of 



* GalUnago nemorkola. 



