426 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



with presents of tobacco and the almighty rupee, and the 

 withdrawal of the elephant to a distance, he found a tongue, 

 and that in good broad Hindu, but only to declare that he 

 knew nothing of the road ; and, indeed, as we were making 

 for nothing more definite than a water-hole in the forest re- 

 joicing in the name of Boogloogee, I dare say the poor youth 

 spoke the truth. We insisted on his trying, however, and at 

 last he started, taking the way back to the huts, and peering 

 about among the bushes as if he had lost something. Pre- 

 sently he put his hand to his mouth and gave a succession of 

 piercing yells, the last of which was answered from the copse- 

 wood, and in a while a very old wrinkled little man crept 

 out, holding his hands across his shrivelled stomach to depre- 

 cate the wrath of the riders on the elephantine gods of the 

 forest. More tobacco and another, bright rupee, and the sight 

 of the youth safe and sound after his awful adventure, brought 

 a grin over the highly Simian countenance of this ancient ; 

 and the pair of them, first diving into a hut for their pipes 

 and axes, stalked away before us through the trees. Soon 

 they got quite chatty, gabbling and grinning to themselves 

 about the elephant and its riders, on whom, however, they 

 kept a sharp look-out over their shoulders. Once or twice I 

 made the elephant take short runs close up behind them to 

 try their nerves ; and the alacrity with which they skipped 

 behind the nearest trees, and chuckled and grinned from their 

 secure positions, was worth seeing. They took us straight 

 across country to Boogloogee without a mistake ; and when 

 we got there, and set them down among their tribesmen to 

 fill themselves with venison, and wheat-flour from our store, 

 they were perfectly happy. 



The Bhumias of these parts are much wilder than those of 

 the Mandte district, cultivating not at all, and subsisting solely 



