268 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



times, used for a thousand purposes, are all over the 

 country ; but hacked about and over cut, and not given a 

 chance to flourish. The villagers are not ignorant as 

 to the value of forests, but where everyone cuts what he 

 can, have simply been anxious to cut their share ; and 

 where the Government has neglected the conservation 

 of the timber, the wasteful example is followed by every 

 individual. Hence the importance to the welfare of a 

 country of forest management being undertaken by the 

 State. One day in open forest I came across a most 

 astonishing object — the huge pyramidal stem of an un- 

 known tree, about 50 feet in girth and about 40 feet high, 

 with a shiny, flesh-like bark, and a tuft of greeneries at 

 top like a very large carrot. This was the baobab-tree 

 {Adansonia digitata) — a most surprising, if not to say 

 beautiful, tree, reminding one of a gigantic bottle-gourd. 

 I was glad there was only one, as a forest of them would 

 have been too overpowering. How it got there, stuck up 

 by itself, was a mystery unsolved. Perhaps some bird 

 carried the seed, flying from Africa. Its timber is said 

 to be porous and light and quite useless. 



In these provinces, as in most parts of India, are to be 

 found a race of jungle men, supposed to be the remnants 

 of the indigenous inhabitants of prehistoric times. Here 

 they are called ' Sahariyas,' and do not live in any fixed 

 village, but crouch in bamboo and grass chappars or 

 sheds, which they can construct very rapidly an5rwhere 

 in the forest. They are a poor, half -starved and very 

 black race, living on a very small grain, a kind of millet. 

 They can cut down the largest trees with their small 

 hatchets. But they are a monkey-like race, and prefer 

 to cut off the branches, climbing with prehensile toes 

 like apes. It is astonishing to see a man standing upright 

 at the top of a lofty tree, grasping the boughs with his 



