JUNGLES IN CENTRAL INDIA 269 



feet only, and taking a view over the surrounding 

 country to mark the direction he wishes to go. I have 

 had guides through the forest who occasionally went 

 through this performance where the jungle was very 

 thick and the view obstructed. They make remarkable 

 guides, and their tracking powers are unerring. The 

 Sahariyas are very destructive to timber production, 

 as they have practised for ages the pernicious dahya 

 system of cultivation, which has now been prohibited 

 by forest law. The custom is to hack off the branches of 

 all the standing trees in a likely locality. The boughs 

 are spread over the ground, and when dried and withered 

 by the sun they are set fire to, and every vestige of 

 vegetation burnt, except the mutilated stems of the old 

 trees, which are scorched by the fire. This is done just 

 prior to the commencement of the rains. The ground 

 is then covered with the ashes of the timber, which 

 manures it sufficiently to grow a miserable crop of millet, 

 called kutki and tili. The seed is only scattered on the 

 ground, no ploughing or cultivation being attempted. 

 When this crop is saved the Sahariyas move on to another 

 square of the forest, and begin lopping the branches for 

 the next year's crop, returning to the same ground only 

 once in ten or twelve years, when a new supply of branches 

 has grown. The mutilated stems are spoilt for all 

 timber purposes, and become knotted, gnarled, and hollow, 

 and occupy the ground which would grow good timber. 



The Sahariyas are a very different race from the Hindu 

 and Mohammedan conquerors of the country^ who, as in 

 other countries, have taken all the best lands, and driven 

 the aboriginal races into the jungles and poorer hilly 

 districts. They have no caste, speak very little Hindu- 

 stani, and have a language of their own. They are quite 

 as clever at their own business as the Hindu rayat, and far 



