ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 21 



When the hill was breasted, and we had reached our 

 halting-place, my four bearers put me down quietly, with- 

 out fuss or visible and embarrassing signs of relief : they 

 grinned at me in a friendly way, these stalwarts, pleased 

 to have accomplished the ascent, and, I think, proud of their 

 own thews and muscles. It had been a stiff climb, and it 

 was easy to make them understand how much appreciated 

 and admired was their superior strength. These men, who 

 belonged to the Kurumber tribe, were old acquaintances of 

 F.'s — quite old friends, indeed, from having shared many 

 a night's vigil or long tramp with him on previous tours 

 hereabout, particularly two of them, named Botha and Ika. 

 A very little will make friends for you of these most simple 

 folk, and ever afterwards the Dursani (mistress), who had 

 not hitherto appeared on the scene, was bracketed in their 

 loyalty and affection with the Doray (master) : greater could 

 not be — he was their ideal. Of good caste, finely built, 

 with keen, steady-eyed faces, all were clever shots with 

 their bows and arrows and treasured old muzzle-loaders. 

 Breech-loaders they did not possess, and most intensely 

 interested were they in F.'s battery, for he had a great 

 variety of guns and rifles. One little beauty, by Holland 

 & Holland, a miniature Express, was mine, and they were 

 never tired of looking at its delicate mechanism ; but for 

 the heavy elephant rifle they felt nothing less than awe. 

 Most of their time in camp was spent, by hours together, 

 enviously watching the peons rub up and clean these 

 treasures ; their delight and pride was to be set to cast 

 bullets for them. Whenever we were in that neighbour- 

 hood that special quartette attended us in our expeditions, 

 with others of their own choosing, who, they saw to it, were 

 to be trusted for carrying spare rifles or for sitting up all 

 night with the Doray in trees, on a machan — pronounced 

 machawn — to shoot a marauding panther. 



A machan is a platform made of bamboos or boughs, 



