THE TEAK KEGION 193 



of its most elementary rites. In Mahomedan times the 

 chiefs of these Bheels were subsidised and constituted 

 wardens of the hill passes in this range, over which ran the 

 main highways between the valley of the Tapti and Berar ; 

 and they still continue to receive from our Government 

 this subsidy, which is nothing but a compensation for the 

 blackmail levied by their turbulent ancestors from the 

 adjoining plains. A few unconverted Bheels still remain 

 in this country, who are chiefly the hereditary village 

 watchmen of the Hindu villages bordering on the hills. 

 They are usually a good deal Bttnduised in manners, but 

 retain much of the keen natural qualities that render the 

 Avilder members of the race such excellent hunters. Bheels 

 of the wildest character are also found in the mountain 

 region west of Asirgarh, depending for subsistence much 

 on their bows and arrows, and still ready for any under- 

 taking of lawlessness and peril. It is scarcely, however, 

 within the province of this work to devote space to this 

 tribe, which is but scantily represented in the highland 

 region of which it treats. 



The road to Gharri lay up a fine, level, though narrow, 

 valley in the Hatti hills, containing the sites of several 

 old villages marked by ancient trees and Mahomedan 

 tombs. As we overlooked, from the height of Gharri, its 

 long, level reach, and the narrow gorge formed by a trans- 

 verse chain of little hills at its mouth, with the level, 

 black-soil plain of the Tapti valley stretching away into 

 the distant haze beyond, the thought suggested itself at 

 the same time to both of us, how remarkably suited the 

 spot was for an irrigation reservoir. Without — ^the land 

 thirsting for water, being underlaid by a sandy subsoil 

 so deep that no well can tap the stratum of moisture 

 below it, and crowded with a dense population who pay 

 for their dry and unfertile acres the rent that in many 

 places is given for irrigated sugar-cane land. Within — a 

 natural reservoir, fed by the drainage of forty square miles, 

 and only wanting an embankment of a few hundred yards 

 to hold back sufficient water to convert the whole of the 

 plain without into an evergreen garden. Such sites as 

 these, though not always so favoured by a combination 



