AN EXPLORATION IN THE FAR EAST. 417 



aged man, claiming to be a pure Rajput, and a descendant of 

 the ancient dynasty of Eatanpiir, whose stronghold for many 

 years was the fort of Laafagarh. He brought me numerous 

 delicacies produced by his wilds, among which two were 

 particularly acceptable, namely, a fine pure arrowroot (Tikur), 

 made from the roots of the wild Curcuma Angustifolia, and 

 a beautiful small grain called Siker, which is nothing but the 

 produce of old plants of the grain called Kutki (panicum), 

 generally cultivated by those hill tribes in their dhya* clear- 

 ings. After a clearing has been abandoned, the plants of 

 Kutki rapidly degenerate, and in their third and fourth year 

 the grain has become this Siker. It is much smaller than 

 the fully cultivated grain, but also much sweeter, and with a 

 nutty flavour about it, which is particularly delicious. Very 

 little of it is gathered, the labour being great for a small 

 result; but it is so much appreciated as to be generally kept 

 for the Purshdd, or sacrificial food of the gods. It made the 

 best porridge I ever tasted. The TMkiir had been a mighty 

 hunter in the days of his youth, and was full of yarns of 

 his sport. I remember few of them, and was too listless at 

 that time to note them down. He showed me a scar received 

 from a man-eating tiger, which he and another had done 

 to death with their bows and arrows. He told me much 

 about the wild elephants, which wandered all over his own 

 and the neighbouring chieftaincies, their head-quarters being 

 in M&tin and Uprord, about twenty-five miles to the north. 

 He only knew of one of these animals having ever been killed 

 by a native. He was a very old male, with a broken tusk, 

 and was shot in the trunk with a "bisa>," or poisoned arrow, 

 from a tree by the Bhumia, whose rice-field he was devas- 

 tating below. He wandered long in the neighbouring jungle, 

 growing thin and weak, and at last sank down helpless in a 



