THE ABOEIGINAL TRIBES 127 



economical position and their probable future. Their 

 methods of subsistence in the interior of the hiUs have 

 already been described ; and their hfe has been shown to be 

 one of great hardship and toil. Although so far inured to 

 malaria as to be able to exist, and in some measure continue 

 the race, in the heart of jungles which are at some seasons 

 deadly to other constitutions, the effect of the chmate and 

 a poor diet is seen in impoverishment of the constitution, 

 constant attacks of fever and bowel diseases, and often 

 chronic enlargement of the spleen. Imported diseases hke 

 cholera and smalUpox also commit dreadful ravages among 

 them. The hfe of labour which both sexes undergo, and 

 their low physical vigour, result in very small famihes, of 

 whom moreover a large percentage never attain maturity. 

 There has been no accurate enumeration of the hiU tribes at 

 intervals, from which to judge whether they are iacreasing 

 or the reverse. I suspect the latter as regards those in the 

 interior, though the better fed and less exposed tribes in and 

 near the plains may probably be increasing. 



Until lately, habits of unrestrained drunkenness have 

 aggravated the natural obstacles to their improvement. 

 The labour of their peculiar system of cultivation, though 

 severe, is of a fitful character, a few weeks of great toil 

 being succeeded by an interval of idleness, broken only by 

 aimless wanderings in the jungle or hunting expeditions. 

 Periods of rude plenty, when the rains have been propitious 

 to the crops, the hunt successful, and the crop of Mhowa 

 abundant, have been succeeded by times of scarcity or even 

 of want. Such a thing as providing for a rainy day has 

 never been thought of. The necessity for constantly shifting 

 the sites of their clearings and habitations has created a want 

 of local attachment, and a disposition to anything rather 

 than steadiness of occupation. Occasional periods of hard- 

 ship are sure to be followed, in such a character, by outbursts 

 of excess; and thus the hfe of the Gond has usually con- 

 sisted of intervals of severe toil succeeded by periods of 

 imrestraiaed dissipation, in which anything he may have 

 earned has been squandered on driak. It is this unfortunate 

 want of steadiness that has led to most of the misfortunes 

 of the race, to the loss of heritage in the land, and in a great 



