130 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



or anythiag that miglit turn up, always getting dnmk 

 whenever opportunity served. 



Great numbers of them, when once they had resorted to 

 the grog-shop, never again became their own masters, remain- 

 ing practicany the bond slaves of the spirit-dealer ever after. 

 And this introduces one of the most pernicious evils with 

 which we had to contend in the early days of forest con- 

 servation. A very great amount of timber, bamboos, grass, 

 and other forest produce is annually required by the people 

 of the plains for house-building and repairing, fencing their 

 j&elds, and other agricultural purposes. The timber-bearing 

 tracts in the neighbourhood of the cultivated plains having 

 long since been cleared, all this has to be brought down from 

 the interior of the hills ; and such work can only be done by 

 the bold and hardy aborigines. Almost the whole of this 

 trade had got into the hands of the Kulars, or spirit-dealers, 

 by means of the power they had obtained over the tribes 

 by their devotion to strong potations. Badly off as the 

 poor Gond was in the hands of the agricultural money- 

 lender, he was at least paid in wholesome grain or hard coin ; 

 but here the universal practice was to pay him in liquor, 

 all except the pittance necessary to keep body and soul 

 together in the way of food and raiment. Often the Kulars 

 united the three trades, making the Gond cultivate an autumn 

 crop of grain for his own subsistence and the trader's profit 

 at a season when forest operations were impossible, exchang- 

 ing his surplus grain for hquor immediately after, rmtil he 

 had him deep in his books again, and then sending him out 

 to the forests to cut wood to repay him, and to ptirchase 

 back some of his own grain for subsistence. He was clean 

 done and cheated at every turn, having to labour hke a 

 horse, and getting out of it nothing but a scanty subsistence, 

 and as much vile liquor as he could swallow without inter- 

 fering too much with his working power. This trade had 

 become enormously profitable. The numbers of the caste 

 of Kulars, who alone can legitimately deal in spirits, were 

 Hmited ; and they soon were rolling in wealth. A dissolute 

 flaunting set by nature, they did no good with the money 

 they thus earned, spending it chiefly in gambhng and de- 

 bauchery, and in loading themselves and their women with 



