THE MAHADEO HILLS 101 



carcase of the largest animal. My servant secured tlie 

 tongues and marrow-bones, and a steak out of the under- 

 cut of the bison — all delicacies of the first water for the 

 table of the forest sportsman; and the remainder of the 

 flesh was given up to the hungry multitude. As night 

 fell, they lit fires where the bison had fallen, and near the 

 village where they had brought the deer; and for hours 

 after continued carrying about gobbets of the raw meat, 

 which they hung up on the surrounding trees, broiUng 

 and swallowing the titbits during leisure moments. This 

 was only the prehminary to the great feast, however — ^the 

 dozen of oysters to whet the appetite for turtle and venison. 

 Soon the trees were fully decorated with bloody festoons, 

 and the savages set to work in earnest to gorge themselves 

 with the half-cooked meat. The entrails were evidently 

 the great dehcacies, and were eaten in long lengths, as 

 Italians do macaroni. The gorging seemed to be endless, 

 and I sat outside my little tent for hours looking on in 

 wonder at the bloody orgie. The bonfires they had 

 lighted threw a ruddy glow over the open glade, and on 

 the crimson junks of flesh hanging on the trees, bringing 

 the dusky forms of the revellers into every variety of 

 picturesque relief, and forming a wild and Eembrandt- 

 like picture which I shall not soon forget. Till a late hour 

 many new arrivals continued to add to their numbers, 

 winding down the steep path that leads over the Rorighat, 

 with lighted torches and loud shouts to show the way and 

 scare wild beasts. All were welcome to a raw steak and 

 a pull at the pot of Mhowa spirit that stood beside every 

 group. Ere long they began to sing, and then to dance 

 to a shrill music piped from half-a-dozen bamboo flutes. 

 The scene was getting uproarious as I turned in ; and my 

 slumber was broken through the greater part of the night 

 by the noise and the glare of the great fires through the 

 thin canvas of my tent. 



Next morning I was roused by the crow of the red 



jungle-fowl, which swarm in the bamboo cover of this 



little valley, and by the unremitting " hammer, hammer " 



of the little "coppersmith" barbet,^ of which there 



^ XantholcBtna indica. 



