THE TEAK EEGION 205 



who are tlie hereditary Turvees^ of an ancient village, 

 said to have existed in the palmy days of Mahomedan 

 rule in one of its valleys, and now represented by half-a- 

 dozen Mhowa trees, the fruit of which these Bheels still 

 go annually to gather. Two of the family happened to 

 be among our scouts, and knew every inch of the country. 

 The one who brought us the news rejoiced in the name of 

 Jhingra, or " The Shrimp ; " and really, by some for- 

 tuitous accident, his long attenuated arms and legs, and 

 curiously shrivelled features, with a few long feeler-like 

 bristles in the place of a beard, gave him a very strong 

 resemblance to that innocent crustacean. The name of the 

 other, who had been left perched in a tree to watch the 

 beeves, cannot be handed down to fame, having been lost 

 in the secondary appellation of " The Skunk." I must 

 say the olfactory powers of the bison lost greatly in my 

 estimation when I found that they had remained quietly 

 grazing for half a day within a mile or so of this most 

 odorous of Turvees ! The Shrimp was very anxious that 

 we should proceed there and then to attack the bison, 

 urging how imcomfortable the Skunk would be if left 

 clinging to the upper branches of a tree all night, and 

 patting his shriveUed stomach to show how delighted 

 they both would be to be at close quarters with a bison 

 steak. We pitied the Skunk, and pointed out to the 

 Shrimp a quarter of sambar venison hanging up from 

 which he might satisfy his own cravings; but we had 

 no idea of starting off after bison six. miles away in that 

 country at three o'clock in the afternoon. 



It wanted a good deal of arrangement, in fact, to hunt 

 that country ; and we never found out the proper way to 

 do it till just as we were leaving it. As it was, we sent 

 round a tent and the needful supplies by a very circuitous 

 road, down our valley to the plain, along the foot of the 

 hiUs for a good many miles, and then up another valley 

 that was said to run into the heart of the bison country. 

 The people had directions to go as far up the valley as 



1 The Turvee is the chief of a Bheel clan or settlement; and all 

 heads of Bheel villages in this part of the country are so called by 

 courtesy. 



