THE MAHADEO HILLS. 121 



selected to learn these branches of the work, with a view to 

 such a contingency. An old foreman carpenter, who stuck by 

 us and superintended the work, had fortunately some know- 

 ledge of bricklaying, and with his help we soon began to get 

 the Gonds to turn out very respectable work indeed. Nobody 

 knew how to turn an arch, however ; and I had to evolve the 

 idea of one out of my own consciousness, and build the first 

 over the fireplace myself. The Gonds were immensely amused 

 at the idea of the Koitor, or " men," as they call themselves, 

 dabbling in bricks and mortar, and laughed and joked over it 

 from morning to night. Regular industry, however, was not to 

 be got from these unreclaimed savages; and there were seldom 

 half of those on the muster-roll actually present. Every now 

 and then, too, they would walk off in a body, and have a big 

 drink somewhere for a couple of days, returning and setting 

 to work the next morning without appearing to think a word 

 of explanation necessary. The height of absurdity was reached 

 when I imported a plough and a pair of bullocks from below, 

 and sent a Korku to work with them to plough up a piece of 

 land for a garden. He really made a sad bungle of it at first, 

 having no conception of the business ; and I had to set one of 

 my peons, who had followed the plough before he donned the 

 badge of office, to help him. In a little while, however, 

 several of the Korkus became quite aufait at ploughing; and 

 an acre or so of fine soil in the old bed of the tank was soon 

 fenced in, deeply ploughed, and prepared for gardening opera- 

 tions at the commencement of the rainy season. 



For the next few weeks my spare time, was pleasantly 

 passed in exploring the neighbourhood of the hills and 

 their productions. I visited the Sal forest in the Delakari 

 valley, to the east of Puchmurree. It was one of the few 

 forests in this part of the country which had till then escaped 



