THE ABORiaiNAL TRIBES 131 



massive golden ornaments. The evils of the system were 

 incalculable. In his wild state the Gond or Korkii has been 

 recognised to be truthful and honest, occasionally brekking 

 out into passion which might lead to violent crime, but 

 free from tendency to mean or habitual criminahty. Now 

 he became a thief and a scoundrel. His craving for drink 

 made him a ready tool in the hands of every designing knave ; 

 and to the dangerous temper of the drunken savage he soon 

 began to add the viciousness of a debased and desperate 

 character. To the forests the injury was scarcely less. 

 Having no implements but their little axes, and their em- 

 ployers being wholly indifferent to economical processes, 

 these woodcutters procured their material in the most 

 wasteful way possible. To procure a post for a cattle-pen 

 a straight youjig teak sapling of ten or fifteen years' growth 

 would be felled, and a piece six feet long taken from its 

 middle, aU the rest being left to perish. To procure a plank 

 for a door a mature tree would be cut down, and hewn away 

 to the requisite thickness with the axe. Timber was then 

 doubtless cheap because nothing but the labour of these 

 downtrodden races was expended in procuring it, and as 

 many of them as they desired could be procured by the 

 spirit-dealers for a wage which to the latter was almost 

 nothing. In those days, the excise arrangements being 

 very lax, the duty levied on spirits was very low; and 

 enough liquor could be brewed to make a Gond drunk for 

 about a penny of our money. No forests could stand such 

 a drain as this ; and this wasteful system of working them 

 was one of the main causes of their impending exhaustion. 



It is fortunate that, under an improved administration, 

 means were found at once to put a stop to this wholesale 

 waste, and to greatly ameUorate the condition of the aboriginal 

 labourer. The first step in this direction was the intro- 

 duction of a new excise law, under which the formerly 

 unrestricted power of establishing spirit-stiUs and grog-shops 

 among the aborigines was withdrawn. Liquor was allowed 

 to be distilled only at certain central places, and on payment 

 of a fixed and considerable still-head duty. A certain 

 number of retail shops only were allowed, sufficient in number 

 and position to supply all the proper requirements of the 



