196 THE HiaHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



wMch. by no means adds to the attractions of the place. 

 The building itself was the habitation of bats and owls ; 

 and so we pitched our little tent a short way back from 

 the lake under the shade of some immense banyan trees. 

 Just as we arrived some dogs belonging to the Bheels, 

 which had been ranging in the jungle, passed across the 

 dry bed of the lake in full cry after a doe sambar they 

 had roused. Of course we flew to our rifles, but were 

 just in time to miss her handsomely as she dashed into the 

 thick jungle, followed for a little way by the dogs, who 

 soon came Umpitig back, however. 



Next morning we took different directions to explore 

 and hunt, each with a few Bheel attendants. My way 

 lay along the backbone of the range beyond Bingara. 

 After walking some miles, examining carefully with glass 

 and eye the decHvities on either side, my Bheel henchman, 

 a sharp lad called Chand, or " the Moon," fixed a longer 

 look than usual on the slope of a distant hill-side, and after 

 a while motioned me up to him, and directed my binocular 

 to the centre of a scrubby patch of teak forest. Presently 

 I caught the glint of the sun on something moving, and 

 made out a noble sambar stag standing under the trees 

 motionless, except that he slowly turned his antlered 

 head from side to side, sweeping with keen vision the whole 

 semicircle within his ken. He was not more than a mile 

 off in a direct line; but to get to the spot it would be 

 necessary to go several miles round the head of a long 

 ravine. As he was almost certain to lie down where he 

 was, we carefuUy marked the spot, and slipping back over 

 the edge of the saddle started off at a brisk walk to circum- 

 vent him. The sun was well up now, and it is very hot 

 in March even at that early hour ; so that by the time we 

 had got round into the ravine below, our temperature 

 was considerably higher than when we started. Now 

 commenced an excruciating advance on tiptoe, with 

 bended backs, over a stratum of fallen teak leaves of the 

 "tin-box" description, to step on a single one of which 

 would be fatal to the stalk. As the only alternative 

 foot-ground was on rounded trap boulders, given to 

 rolling away from beneath the unwary foot, the heat 



