102 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



seemed to be more in tMs valley of Rorlghat than in all 

 the rest of the country. I found the revellers lying like 

 logs just where they had been sitting ; and it was no small 

 labour to rouse and get them together. A couple of days' 

 supply of flour was served out to each, as remuneration for 

 their labour in the drive ; and plenty more was promised 

 if they would come and help to build the lodge at Puch- 

 murree. I also gratified the chiefs by presenting them 

 with sundry canisters of powder and all my spare bullets ; 

 and we parted, I believe, mutually pleased with each 

 other, and with promises of plenty more hunting-meets of 

 the same sort. I had had enough of that sort of sport, 

 however ; and, excepting once with the Thakiir of Almod, 

 never again drove the Mils for game. It is poor sport in 

 my opinion, and is seldom very successful even in making 

 a bag. 



Two days after this, parties of my aboriginal friends 

 began to drop in at the bungalow work; and, as a few 

 masons and brickmakers had also arrived from the plains, 

 our prospects looked cheerful. The wild people brought 

 their women and children along with them, and in half a 

 day erected huts of boughs sufficient for their accommo- 

 dation. They were all told off in parties to cut and bring 

 in Sal poles for rafters, and bamboos and grass for thatch- 

 ing, to break and carry up lime from the ravine, to puddle 

 earth for brick-making, etc. The wood-cutting part of 

 the work they were well accustomed to; but those to 

 whose lot fell the lime and earth business were much dis- 

 gusted, and were with difficulty kept to their work. All 

 payments were made in kind, the convoy of Banjara 

 bullocks being now unremittingly employed in carrying 

 grain from the plains. The work rapidly progressed, and 

 was but slightly interrupted by the absconding after a 

 while of all our masons and brickmakers, who had very 

 unwillingly come up from the plains. Their places were 

 at once taken by the Gonds who had been employed 

 under them, and whom I had selected to learn these 

 branches of the work, with a view to such a contingency. 

 An old foreman carpenter, who stuck by us and super- 

 intended the work, had fortunately some knowledge of 



