THE MAHADEO HILLS 85 



bean of the giant Banhinia creeper, and many other 

 products of trees, are also eaten in different parts of the 

 hills. A species of wild arrowroot (Curcuma), and a sort of 

 wild yam, are also dug out of the earth and consumed. 



The rare occurrence of the general seeding of the bamboo 

 forests, is a godsend to the aboriginal tribes. A certain 

 number of bamboos seed every year, but a general seeding 

 is said to occur only once in about thirty years. Then 

 every single bamboo over a vast tract of country will drop 

 its leaves, and form at the end a large panicle of flowers, 

 to be followed by the formation and shedding of myriads 

 of seeds which are hardly to be distinguished from grains 

 of rice. This done, the parent bamboo itself immediately 

 dies, while a fresh and vigorous crop at once begins to 

 spring from the seed. For some years the scarcity of so 

 useful an article as the bamboo may be severely felt, 

 though it is not often that all the sources of supply are at 

 once cut off ; but in the jmeantime an abundant supply of 

 wholesome grain is afforded, not only to the wild tribes 

 but to multitudes of the poorer inhabitants of the open 

 country, and the cities around, who crowd to the spot to 

 obtain their share of the heaven-sent provender. There 

 is a proverb that this occurrence portends a failure of 

 the common food staples of the country; but like many 

 such it has not been verified by experience. It would 

 probably be in vain to guess the cause of this sudden 

 renewal at long intervals of the whole crop of bamboo. 



This diet of herbs is varied and improved by the flesh 

 of wild animals, procured by extensive drives in which 

 the whole population of a tract will unite; and many 

 small fish are also captured in the mountain streams, 

 chiefly by poisoning the pools with various vegetable 

 substances, of which I am acquainted only with the leaves 

 and fruit of the species of strychnos that grow wild in 

 these hiUs. 



Those of the wild men who live in the neighbourhood 

 of the plains, and have got accustomed to contact with 

 their inhabitants, add considerably to their means of 

 subsistence by trooping out in large numbers, after they 

 have cut their own dhyas, to the reaping of the wheat 



