270 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



cleverer in jungle-lore and hunting and tracking, and 

 fashioning of implements out of hard wood. Their 

 women, who have few wants and live in the jungle, are 

 good dressers of skins, and weave mats of bamboo, and 

 make themselves a sort of thatch of leaves on a bamboo 

 frame, which they carry over their backs in the rains to 

 keep off the tropical downpour. They each possess a 

 hatchet, which is stuck in their only garment, a cloth 

 round their loins, and are as dirty and black as other 

 savages. They worship the same fairies of the rock, 

 flood, or forest, which our ancestors in Europe reverenced. 

 They are a simple, well-disposed people, not treacherous 

 or cruel or given to robbery ; at least, one does not see 

 any S3^mptoms of those characteristics. 



There is another interesting casteless race of the wander- 

 ing t3'pe, which exists in the jungles of the Central 

 Provinces. They are the Brinjaras, corresponding to our 

 gypsies or Zingari. They are met travelling with carts, 

 donkeys, and ponies, and always dogs of their own 

 peculiar breed, as swift as greyhounds, and powerful- 

 jawed, courageous, and fierce. The Brinjaras are said 

 to eat anything they can devour, jackal's flesh preferably, 

 which their dogs easily procure. The latter will tackle 

 and slay the great jungle wolf, and pull down nilghai 

 easily. The two Brinjara dogs which I possessed, Bigli 

 and Begum, were worth anything to bring big game to 

 bag, and most clever at cutting off a wounded buck, 

 hunting by scent as well as by sight. They were quite 

 as fast as the Scotch deerhound Effie, but very different 

 in disposition, being sulky and treacherous with strangers 

 or other dogs, though faithful to their masters ; whereas 

 Effie was demonstratively friendly and affectionate, and 

 would not hurt anyone. They always went for the hind- 

 legs of a deer, whereas Efiie went for the throat. They 



