HILLS NEAR RA'jAMAHALL. 91 



the huntsman, by drawing some game within view 

 of t.he festival, that he may sally forth to kill it ; and 

 whatever his success may be on this occasion, it is con- 

 sidered as an add i lion to his offering, and accordingly- 

 eaten on the same altar. It is to be observed, that 

 every sacrifice to their God is eaten. 



When a hunter wounds game which he cannot 

 find, he returns home to collect his friends to go in 

 search of it : in the interim, should any person or per- 

 sons pick it up, carry it off and eat it, — on detection, 

 they will be fined by the judges five rupees and as 

 many hogs; though the complainants in general let 

 such offenders off, on their delivering one rupee and 

 one hog. 



Dogs that will hunt are held in estimation by the 

 mountaineers ; and any person killing one, is fined ten 

 or twelve rupees. 



The penalty for killing a cat is whimsical : a per- 

 son guilty of it must collect all the children of the 

 village, and distribute salt among them, that he may 

 avert divine vengeance. 



It is related that a man, sitting with another, ob- 

 served his companion's clothes on fire, and that, for 

 informing him of it, the latter demanded a fowl, to 

 shed the blood of it on his burned clothes for his 

 friend's officious kindness, observing also that the 

 clothes were his ; and that he had no business to say any 

 thing about them. This practice is now obsolete as 

 far as regards the exaction of a fowl -, but the circum- 

 stance is related to this day. 



Hos- 



