CHAPTER III 



TIGER-HAUNTED JUNGLES 



* MoTEE PuDHAN ' was the headman, or pudhan, of Juli 

 village, tall and lithe in body and limb. His handsome, 

 well-cut features, dark expressive eyes, and small head, 

 showed him to be of a higher caste. Motee signifies 

 ' pearl.' He was not ill-named, being an honourable, 

 truthful, and well-bred native. He was fairly prosperous, 

 having a well-built stone house roofed with flags, and 

 placed on the sunny side of the hill among his terraced 

 lands, with sheds for his cattle ; having also quite a large 

 family growing up around him, and two very hard-working 

 wives. He always got his barley or wheat sowed in good 

 time, after the rice and millet crop had been cleared away, 

 and had a very good return of corn, grown on his well- 

 tilled land, and reaped in March and early April ; when it 

 would again get ploughed by oxen and a wooden plough, 

 and prepared for the sowing of rice, to be shortly flooded 

 with pure running water led from the mountain stream 

 close by. Then the women and young people would 

 tread in and thin out the green rice plants, which grow 

 in the mud under five or six inches of water. This crop 

 is reaped in the rains. Rice constituted a staple food 

 of the natives, along with wheaten flour made into 

 chapatis, or thin unleavened cakes, with ghee or clarified 

 butter. There were many cows belonging to the villagers, 



