AN EXPLORATION IN THE FAR EAST. 427 



by their bows and arrows, and the roots and fruits of the 

 jungle, and collecting the dammer resin of the sal tree to 

 barter for the few necessaries of life not produced by their 

 wilds with the traders who reside at the head-quarters of their 

 Thdkurs. They have scarcely an idea of the use of coined 

 money, the rare rupees that reach them being pierced and 

 worn as ornaments by the women. They are said to have, 

 besides their little hamlets in the forest, a retreat in some still 

 more secluded wild, known only to the family it belongs to, 

 in which all their worldly substance beyond a few days' sup- 

 ply is kept, and to which they are ready to fly at a moment's 

 notice. The sal forest has thus here escaped much of the 

 devastation it has suffered where the tribe is more numerous, 

 and where they cut it down for dhya' cultivation. Many of 

 the trees are annually ringed for the extraction of dammer ; 

 but the forest is too extensive to be much injured by the 

 operations of this handful of savages ; and as it is the oldest 

 trees that are selected, which, if not cut down, soon become 

 useless L from heart-shake and dry-rot (a peculiarity of the 

 sal), probably little harm is done by them in so remote 

 and inaccessible a region. The general elevation of the 

 country we traversed is about 1700 feet above the sea. It 

 is very level, and with a light porous soil formed by the de- 

 tritus of the primitive rocks, which here mostly lie near the 

 surface. The water-courses are broad, shallow, and sandy, 

 showing that large floods do not occur. Thus in the summer 

 there is little or no water on the surface, but a little below it 

 the soil is everywhere full of moisture ; and the brilliant 

 greenery of the sal forest thus plentifully supplied with sap, 

 melting in the distant vistas with startling rapidity into won- 

 derful blues, is unspeakably delicious at that torrid season of 

 the year. Wild animals are very scarce, owing to the absence 



