360 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



somewhat modified their original habits, and live, along with 

 the Gonds, in villages lower down the valleys. These have 

 been slightly tainted with Hinduism, shave their elfin locks, 

 and call themselves by a name denoting caste. But the real 

 Byga of the hill ranges is still almost in a state of nature. 

 They are very black, with an upright, slim, though exceed- 

 ingly wiry frame, and showing less of the negretto type of 

 feature than any other of these wild races. Destitute of all 

 clothing but a small strip of cloth, or at most, when in full 

 dress, with the addition of a coarse cotton sheet worn cross- 

 wise over the chest, with long, tangled, coal-black hair, and 

 furnished with bow and arrow and a keen little axe hitched 

 over the shoulder, the Byga* is the very model of a hill 

 aborigine. He scorns all tillage but the dhy ^-clearing on 

 the mountain-side, pitching his neat habitation of bamboo 

 wicker-work, like an eagle's eyrie, on some hill-top or ledge 

 of rock, far above the valleys penetrated by pathways ; and 

 ekes out the fruits of the earth by an unwearying pursuit 

 of game. Full of courage, and accustomed to depend on 

 each other, they hesitate not to attack every animal of the 

 forest, including the tiger himself. They possess a most 

 deadly poison wherewith they tip their little arrows of reed ; 

 and the most ponderous beast seldom goes more than a mile, 

 after being pierced with one of these, without falling. The 

 poison is not an indigenous one, but is brought and sold 

 to them by the traders who penetrate these wilds to traffic 

 in forest produce. I believe it to be an extract of the root of 

 Aconitum ferox, which is used for a similar purpose by 

 some of the tribes of the eastern Himalaya. The flesh is 

 discoloured and spoilt for some distance round the wound. 

 This is cut out, and the rest of the carcass is held to be 

 wholesome food. Their bows are made entirely of the bam- 



