84 SHIKAR 



"VVurdwanitcs are the most impracticable of savages. 

 It is quite useless treating them with the kindness, 

 liberality, and consideration one practises to civilized peo- 

 ple. They neither understand nor appreciate it. They 

 refuse to part with their stock or produce, as it would 

 appear, solely to enjoy the unaccustomed luxury of 

 asserting a right, and the privilege of giving a refusal ; 

 which they think they may do with impunity in the 

 case of a saheb, but would crouch and fawn in the most 

 abject servility, were it one of the native officials. This 

 is a noticeable trait in the character of this rude people. 

 I am, therefore, compelled to exercise arbitrary authority 

 over them, or I should not be able to procure supplies. 

 Their ungracious denials do not proceed from any wish 

 to retain their property in expectation of higher profit : 

 for I, as do others I understand, pay them nearly double 

 the price the articles are worth, or would realise if dis- 

 posed of to native dealers in the usual course of sale. So 

 that one can only attribute their rejection of liberal 

 trading offers to churlish brutish perversity. The shikar- 

 ries affirm this to be the real state of the case, so I feel 

 little compunction in allowing things to take their course, 

 always insisting conscientiously on a liberal rate of pay- 

 ment being actually made. 



I do not know either the extent, or the amount of 

 population, of this valley : but the latter must be incon- 

 siderable, as the soil, though extremely fertile, is limited 

 as regards facilities for cultivation. The valley and its 

 ramifications being narrow, with sides steeply shelving, 

 offer few and small level spots for raising grain : and the 

 whole surface is covered with rocks and stones, the 

 ' debris * of the impending mountains, shattered at periods 

 by convulsions of nature; and every winter greatly 

 increases these impediments to husbandry, when the 



