THE ABOEIGINAL TErBES. 151 



is seen in impoverishment of the constitution, constant attacks 

 of fever and bowel diseases, and often chronic enlargement of 

 the spleen. Imported diseases like cholera and small-pox 

 also commit dreadful ravages among them. The life of labour 

 which both sexes undergo, and their low physical vigour, re- 

 sult in very small families, of whom moreover a large per- 

 centage never attain maturity. There has been no accurate 

 enumeration of the hill tribes at intervals, from which to judge 

 whether they are increasing or the reverse. I suspect the 

 latter as regards those in the interior, though the better fed 

 and less exposed tribes in and near the plains may probably 

 be increasing. 



Until lately habits of unrestrained drunkenness have 

 aggravated the natural obstacles to their improvement. The 

 labour of their peculiar system of cultivation, though severe, 

 is of a fitful character, a few weeks of great toil being suc- 

 ceeded by an interval of idleness, broken only by aimless 

 wanderings in the jungle or hunting-expeditions. Periods of 

 rude plenty, when the rains have been propitious to the crops, 

 the hunt successful, and the crop of mhowa abundant, have 

 been succeeded by times of scarcity or even of want. Such 

 a thing as providing for a rainy day has never been thought 

 of. The necessity for constantly shifting the sites of their 

 clearings and habitations has created a want of local attach- 

 ment, and a disposition to anything rather than steadiness 

 of occupation. Occasional periods of hardship are sure to be 

 followed, in such a character, by outbursts of excess ; and 

 thus the life of the Gond has usually consisted of intervals of 

 severe toil succeeded by periods of unrestrained dissipation, 

 in which anything he may have earned has been squandered 

 on drink. It is this unfortunate want of steadiness that has 

 led to most of the misfortunes of the race, to the loss of their 



