THE SAL FORESTS 301 



negretto type of feature than any other of these wild races. 

 Destitute of all clothing but a small strip of cloth, or at 

 most, when in full dress, with the addition of a coarse 

 cotton sheet worn cross-wise over the chest, with long, 

 tangled, coal-black hair, and furnished with bow and arrow 

 and a keen little axe hitched over the shoulder, the Byga 

 is the very model of a hill aborigine. He scorns all tillage 

 but the dhya clearing on the mountain-side, pitching his 

 neat habitation of bamboo wicker-work, hke an eagle's 

 eyrie, on some hiU-top or ledge of rock, far above thfe valleys 

 penetrated by pathways; and ekes out the fruits of the 

 earth by an unwearying pursuit of game. Full of courage, 

 and accustomed to depend on each other, they hesitate not 

 to attack every animal of the forest, including the tiger 

 himself. They possess a most deadly poison wherewith 

 they tip their little arrows of reed ; and the most ponderous 

 beast seldQm goes more than a mUe, after being pierced with 

 one of these, without falling. The poison is not an indi- 

 genous one, bift is brought and sold to them by the traders 

 who penetrate these wSds to traffic in forest produce. I 

 beheve it to be an extract of the root of Aconitum ferox, 

 which is used for a similar purpose by some of the tribes 

 of the eastern Himalaya. The flesh is discoloured and 

 spoilt for some distance round the woimd. This is cut 

 out, and the rest of the carcase is held to be wholesome 

 food. Their bows are made entirely of the bamboo, 

 " string " and all ; they are very neat, and possess wonder- 

 ful power for their size. A good shot among them will 

 strike the crown of a hat at fifty yards. Their arrows are 

 of two sorts, those for ordinary use being tipped with a 

 plain iron head, and feathered from the wing of the pea- 

 fowl, while those intended for poisoning and deadly work 

 have a loose head, round which the poison is wrapped, and 

 which remains in the wound. These poisoned arrows 

 are altogether remarkably similar to those used by the 

 Bushmen of South Africa. Their axes are also of two 

 sorts — one, like the ordinary axes of the Gonds, for cutting 

 wood, and the other, a much more formidable implement, 

 called a tongid, with a long semicircular blade hke an 

 ancient battle-axe in miniature. All the iron for these 



