100 THE HIGHLANDS OF CBNTKAL INDIA 



and the blood had ceased to drop. He would never stop, 

 the people said, till he got to a stronghold of the bison of 

 these hills, about j&ve miles off, a hill called the Biiri-Ma 

 (Old Mother) ; and so I reluctantly gave up the pursuit. 

 When I returned all the beaters were assembled; and a 

 more wild and uncouth set it never before had been my 

 lot to see. Entirely naked, with the exception of a very 

 dingy and often terribly scanty strip of cloth round the 

 middle, there was no difl&culty in detecting the points 

 that mark the aborigine. They were all of low stature, 

 the Korkiis perhaps averaging an inch or two higher than 

 the Gonds, who seldom exceed five feet two inches; the 

 colour generally a very dark brown, almost black in many 

 individuals, though never reaching the sooty blackness of 

 the negro. Among the Gonds a lighter-brown tint was 

 not uncommon. In features both races are almost identi- 

 cal, the face being flat, forehead low, nose flat on the 

 bridge, with open protuberant nostrils; lips heavy and 

 large, but the jaw usually well formed and not prominent 

 hke that of the negro ; the hair on the face generally very 

 scanty, but made up for by a bushy shock of straight 

 black hair. In form they are generally well made, mus- 

 cular about the shoulders and thighs, with lean, sinewy 

 forearm and lower leg. The expression of face is rather 

 stolid, though good-humoured. Some of the younger 

 men might almost be called handsome after their pattern ; 

 but the elders have generally a coarse, weather-beaten 

 aspect, which is not attractive. All the men present 

 carried the little axe, without which they never stir into 

 the forest, and many had spears besides. During the beat 

 they had killed a good many peafowl and hares, and one 

 little deer, by throwing their axes at them, in which they 

 are very expert. 



The Korkiis, I fotmd, were prevented by prejudice 

 acquired from the Hindus from eating the flesh of the 

 slain bison ; so the Gonds from Almod, and a number of 

 a tribe called Bharyas, who had come from the Motiir 

 hills, had him all to themselves, while the Korkiis set to 

 work on the sambar with their sharp little axes, which 

 are all that is wanted for skinning and cutting up the 



