100 The Hunting Grounds 



of her eyes, which were small, and very piercing 

 when she opened them, but she kept them shut, just 

 taking* a peep now and again like a frightened ape. 

 She grunted very hard, and I saw a couple of tears 

 rolling down her weather-beaten and wrinkled cheeks 

 as the gang tied her by the leg to the root of the 

 tree to prevent her running away. The child hung 

 close to the mother, keeping its face hid in her lap, 

 and I had a dog-chain passed round its ancle, and 

 fastened with a padlock to a root also. We looked 

 at them for a long time before we were quite sure 

 whether they were human. I fancied at first that 

 they were some kind of hybrid, for I never beheld 

 such strange objects. The nose was nearly flat, 

 the mouth most capacious, and full of large yellow 

 teeth. The arms were long, attenuated, and wizened ; 

 and may Jove defend me from such nails as were 

 attached to the extremities of the digits, which 

 resembled more the claws of a huge vulture, both 



in colour and form, than anything else. M 



said that the existence of these wild people of the 

 forest had been often questioned, but that he had 

 always believed that there were such tribes, having 

 come across their traces in the dense forests to the 

 south of the Neilgherri Mountains. 



" A heavy shower of rain fell in the afternoon, but 

 towards evening the weather cleared up again, and 

 we pitched our tent, built a hut of branches for the 



