34 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



ing does not trouble Pandu. A narrow cotton cloth 

 wrapped round the loins is his only garment. A 

 bag, somewhat like a soldier's haversack, is sus- 

 pended from his shoulder, and in this are carried all 

 his belongings when on the march. Powder-horn, 

 lead pellets, a rag containing the caps, an old 

 clasp-knife, a little opium, a little tobacco, and a 

 seer or two of rice, and Pandu is ready for a journey 

 of a week's duration. He has enormous hands and 

 feet I don't know that I have ever seen a human 

 being with larger. The fingers are very long, the 

 thumb being short. The sharpest rocks seem to 

 have no effect on the horny soles of his feet, and 

 he uses no covering for his head even in the hottest 

 day in May. 



Pandu first attached himself to my camp in the 

 Chota Nagpore district several years ago. Scarcely 

 a day passed but he brought me in a pea-fowl, 

 green pigeon, jungle cock, or teal, and occasionally 

 a haunch of venison. Pandu dearly loved venison 

 days, because then he was certain of buksheesh (a 

 present), and this he spent in a regular carouse on 

 rice-beer. Rice-beer can only be had at Somij on 

 Sundays, as on that day the coolies get their 

 weekly wage and a hdt y or bazaar, is held under the 

 mango tree near the village. I soon noticed that 

 it was on Sundays also that Pandu brought his 

 venison, and on questioning him he smiled and 

 said : " The Sahib's luck is great, even the deer 

 cannot withstand it." The amount of rice-beer 

 that Pandu could drink was simply astonishing. I 

 am afraid to say how much, but it was certainly not 



