JUNGLES IN CENTRAL INDL\ 261 



an early awakening and a start at daybreak, or before, so 

 as to get the march over before the sun, our natural 

 enemy in India, gets too high. Even now, in January, 

 his rays are unpleasantly hot at ten o'clock ; and in 

 February and March a very thick sola topi must be worn 

 after 8 a.m. if one doesn't want to get a sunstroke, which, 

 once got, perhaps disables a man for life. In a few minutes 

 the tent and trunks are loaded on the camels, and we are 

 off for the march to the next camping ground at a village 

 some fifteen or twenty miles away across country, where 

 perhaps there is no road, only a footpath from village to 

 village, or through the jungle, where the cattle have made 

 tracks leading from their night's lair to grazing grounds 

 in the forest. They are now being driven out from the 

 village, the cows, which have already been milked, 

 lowing to their calves left behind, an old black buffalo 

 cow with shiny back and long, back-drooping horns lead- 

 ing the way, big wooden or iron bells hanging from their 

 necks to keep the herd together. One can hear the tank- 

 tonk of the quaint, deep-sounding notes a long way off, 

 as they move slowly and graze on the green shoots 

 springing from the roots of burnt grass. 



At the margin of the forest, abutting on the bright 

 green of corn-fields, a herd of spotted deer is still grazing. 

 The graceful horns of a noble stag are raised for an 

 instant, as he gazes at the intruders before darting into 

 the thicket. In the open plain, crossing some ridge of 

 bare ground with thorn bushes, a couple of chinkara are 

 moving slowly to take shelter behind some rocks. As 

 some venison for the larder is in request, we beckon to the 

 syce, who trots along behind carrying a light rifle, accom- 

 panied by the dog-bo};' with the three hounds. Presently 

 we have a stalk from the rocks, and get a shot at the best 

 buck at 130 yards as he stands undisturbed. He is hit, 



