THE TEAK REGION. 247 



when he assured us that a big bear had been besieging him 

 and the ponies on the road for ever so long not very far from 

 where we were. After a draught that no one could appreciate 

 unless he has hunted the "bounding bison" through an April day 

 in the trap hills of Nimar, we jumped on the welcome ponies 

 and galloped up the valley to our tent. Kevived by 

 breakfast and cold claret cup, we spent the rest of the day 

 in skinning and preserving the head of the bison we had shot. 

 A fine solemn look have the features of a dead bull. The 

 horns alone are nothing of a trophy compared to the complete 

 head, which should if possible be saved entire.* 



Next morning our Bheels were out early, and we ourselves 

 made for the hill of Alf-Bal-K6t, or the "High Exalted 

 Fort," which being translated means the ruinous little mud 

 keep of one of these pensioned Bheel chiefs. They are all 

 " R&jas " of course, and maintain standing armies of one or 

 two ragamuffins apiece. We always had the " king " of the 

 territory we were in in our camp, and it was really dis- 

 appointing to find how little Hia Majesty differed from 

 any other of these debauched-looking, opium-eating, and 

 utterly ignorant and brutal Mahomedan Bheels. Our 

 shikaris and scouts Shrimp, Skunk, and Co. were ordinary 

 unconverted Bheels, and far superior in every respect to 

 the converts, who, however, looked down upon them as an 

 unregenerate lot. 



We had not proceeded far towards the foot of the hills when 

 a Bheel on a hill-top waving a cloth caught our sight ; and on 

 going up we saw about five or six stag sdmbar slowly wend- 

 ing their way along the far side of a valley towards the 



* I cannot speak too highly of the artistic manner in which some of these heads 

 have been set np by Mr. Edwin Ward, Naturalist, of 49, Wigmore Street. A 

 woodcut from a photograph of one of them was appended to Chapter IIL 



