198 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



of its bark by the rubbing of tbe stags' horns against them. 

 Next morning we started ofi, with an extra supply of 

 ammunition, in different directions, our only fear being 

 that we had not people enough to carry in all the enormous 

 stags we expected to bag. For my part, I wandered 

 round and round the plateaux, and over their tops, and 

 through the hollow ground, and everywhere within six 

 miles on my side of the hill ; and though the sambar signs 

 were everywhere plentiful and recent, and there were 

 droppings of bison also of some weeks old, not a dun hide 

 of stag or hind did my eyes behold that morning. It 

 was truly amazing, and I almost feared to return to camp 

 lest aU the beasts should have gone across to T.'s side, and 

 I should find him smoking the pipe of satisfaction amid 

 a hecatomb of slain. He had returned before myself, 

 however; and mutual delight was no doubt displayed in 

 our countenances when we found that each was in precisely 

 the same plight as the other — ^not having seen hoof or horn 

 between us ! Half believing with the Bheels that the 

 place was enchanted, we stayed and tried again next day, 

 but the result was precisely the same. Then we vowed 

 that Dhowtea of the Bheels should be written down with 

 the blackest of spots in our mental map. We were utterly 

 ruined, of course, with the Bheels. Having seen these 

 multitudes of ghostly sambar tracks, we never again found 

 any place vacant of game but to be told with a grin, " Oh, 

 they are gone to Dhowtea, of course ! " 



We were utterly beaten, and the unburnt jungle having 

 also proved too thick for our boundary operations, we 

 determined to retreat to the plains. But we were un- 

 willing to return by the awful road we had come; and, 

 a possible way down the northern face of the hill being 

 reported, we left Dhowtea behind us the next morning, 

 marching along the top of the range for eight or ten miles 

 to a place called Jamti, the residence of another of these 

 petty Bheel chieftains, and marked by a conspicuous 

 banyan tree which is visible from every part of the sur- 

 rounding coimtry. Thence we descended the next day 

 to the Tapti valley, intending to return to the hills when 

 the jungle should be clearer. The truth was, we had 



