286 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



all dense jungle. Having marched on elephants some 

 twelve or fifteen miles, always in a south-westerly direction, 

 and seeing no end to the succession of ridge and valley 

 and dry river beds, we at length come down to an open 

 glade, where runs a beautiful clear stream, and our white 

 tents, sent on on camels, stand on the fiat under shady 

 trees, ready to receive us. 



Near here is a village of the aboriginal Gond inhabitants. 

 They live partly in caves under the rocks and in little 

 grass-roofed sheds, and are more like monkeys than men ; 

 but they are the best shikaris to be found anywhere, and 

 a quiet, well-conducted race, living by herding cattle 

 and the chase of wild animals. They are naturally very 

 skilful in tracking, as they possess no firearms, and use 

 only spears and bows and arrows. They are said to slay 

 the greatest beast of the forest, the gaur or bison, sitting 

 in trees over its path. When the herds are driven by 

 other Gonds along the track, the spears are jobbed down 

 into the gaur's back, and stick there till the animal dies 

 of exhaustion. Every man, woman, and child carries 

 a beautifully shaped light kulhari, or hatchet, made of 

 native steel, with springy bamboo handle. 



It is strange to see the little naked children, each with 

 its diminutive kulhari stuck in its one article of clothing, 

 a loin-rag, or using the tool neatly in felling branches for 

 firewood. The women also have their hatchets, and can 

 use them. The men have larger ones, and can fell a 

 large tree with these light little tools nearly as fast as an 

 American backwoodsman with his great axe, weighing 

 five times the weight. The Gonds are very black, and 

 of a low type of humanity, with snub features, but are 

 extremely active and enduring. They live in the jungle, 

 and do not cultivate land, except on the dahya system, 

 by which great tracts of forest have been hacked away 



