9t THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



slaughter of a cow with horror (though they will kill the 

 nearly related bison of their hills), wearing the holy thread of 

 the twice-born castes, and keeping a family Br&hmn to do 

 their household worship for them. The Puchmurree Thakur 

 was a well-grown young man of about twenty-five ; but 

 awkward in manner and incapable of any sort of conversation. 

 I subsequently found that he was, like most of these petty 

 chiefs, a confirmed opium-eater. By his side, however, stood 

 the Br&hman " Dewan," or minister of state (!), whose glibness 

 of tongue was fully sufficient for both. Behind them came 

 four or five tatterdemalion retainers, in quilted garments of 

 many hues, girded as to their loins with broad embroidered 

 belts of Sambar leather, in which were stuck, or suspended, 

 swords, daggers, and the cumbrous appointments of a match- 

 lockman, the matchlock itself being borne, with smoking 

 match, over the shoulder of each. These were mostly of the 

 same breed as the Thakur, being his poor relations in fact. 

 This description would serve sufficiently well for the great 

 majority of these petty semi-aboriginal chiefs, who are so 

 numerous in the hills of Central India. Though the breed 

 between the Rajput and the aborigine produces the best of all 

 shikaris and foresters, in a somewhat higher sphere they are 

 chiefly remarkable for debauchery, and a vain and silly pride 

 which leads them into expenditure beyond their means, and 

 ruinous debt. They all call themselves " Rajds," and keep up 

 minute standing armies of these ragamuffin retainers, as well 

 as one or two Brahman bloodsuckers to manage their holy and 

 clerkly affairs. As they are always seeking for brides for their 

 sons in families with higher claims to Rajput descent than 

 their own, they have to pay enormous sums for marriage ex- 

 penses, and this is probably the chief cause of their generally 

 hopeless poverty. 



