232 THE HIGHLANDS OE CENTEAL INDIA. 



and over desperate rocky ground we reached it long after sun- 

 down, and encamped uncomfortably in the open plain for the 

 night. The place was perfectly puddled up with the feet of 

 sambar, the footmarks ranging from a day to weeks old ; and in 

 the grass around were literally thousands of sambar forms, while 

 every second or third tree was peeled of its bark by the rub- 

 bing of the stags' horns against them. Next morning we 

 started off, with an extra supply of ammunition, in different 

 directions, our only fear being that we had not people enough 

 to carry in all the enormous stags we expected to bag. For 

 my part, I wandered round and round the plateaux, and over 

 their tops, and through the hollow ground, and everywhere 

 within six miles on my side of the hill ; and though the 

 sambar signs were everywhere plentiful and recent, and there 

 were droppings of bison also of some weeks old, not a dun 

 hide of stag or hind did my eyes behold that morning. It 

 was truly amazing, and I almost feared to return to camp 

 lest all the beasts should have gone across to T.'s side, and I 

 should find him smoking the pipe of satisfaction amid a heca- 

 tomb of slain. He had returned before myself, however ; and 

 mutual delight was no doubt displayed in our countenances 

 when we found that each was in precisely the same plight as 

 the other, not having seen hoof or horn between us ! Half 

 believing with the Bheels that the place was enchanted, we 

 stayed and tried again next day, but the result was precisely 

 the same. Then we vowed that Dhowtea of the Bheels should 

 be written down with the blackest of spots in our mental map. 

 We were utterly ruined, of course, with the Bheels. Having 

 seen these multitudes of ghostly sambar tracks, we never 

 again found any place vacant of game but to be told with a 

 grin, " Oh, they are gone to Dhowtea, of course ! " 



We were utterly beaten, and, the unburnt jungle having 



