98 THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



little over four feet, and the women considerably 

 shorter, and they all wore their hair tied with a 

 piece of creeper at the back of their head, and 

 spreading out behind like a peacock's tail. They 

 had short bamboo bows, the strings of which were 

 formed of the sinews of some animal, and the arrows 

 were reeds hardened by fire, and tipped with the 

 quills of pea-fowls. They were in great fear when 

 we first approached, but seemed to get over it by 

 degrees, and ate sugar, raw potatoes, and rice with 

 great relish. They held a long communication with 

 the old woman, in a strange guttural language which 

 none of us could understand ; and she must have 

 allayed their fears, for they all laid down by the 

 fire and slept, or rather pretended to sleep, for every 

 now and then I saw one or the other open his eyes 

 and look suspiciously round. Some of my gang 

 kept watch during the night, and I still kept the 

 first child chained by the leg. In the morning when 

 I got up, I found them squatting on their hams in 

 deep consultation. I showed them the skin of a 



bear which M had killed a few days before, 



and they evidently knew what the animal was at 

 once, for they imitated the noise of his grunting 

 exactly. I pointed out the bullet-holes in the skin, 

 and showed them my gun, which, much to their con- 

 sternation, I fired against a tree ; and, when their 

 fright had a little subsided, I showed them the hole 

 in the trunk which the bullet had made, and one of 

 luy people cut it out with an axe. This instrument 



