AN EXPLOEATION IN THE FAR EAST 347 



about there were great quantities of game of other sorts, 

 spotted deer along the nalas, and red deer in nearly every 

 glade of the sal forests. Bears were numerous, and I saw 

 a few prowling about in the early morning, but, being 

 unable to work on foot, never got a shot. I picked up four 

 or five deer, of sorts, shooting from the elephant; and, 

 having to follow up the tracks of several which were 

 wounded, had an opportunity of admiring the wonderful 

 tracking powers of these wild Bhumias. An ordinary 

 track that I could barely see, they ran breast-high, and 

 scarcely looking at the ground, and it was not till all sign 

 disappeared to other eyes that real interest in the work 

 began to be displayed. No natives of these highlands 

 can compare with a Bhiimia in real knowledge of woodcraft. 

 A short distance north-east of Matin is a small hill called 

 Malindeh. Many bones of elephants lay strewn about 

 below the steep precipice at one end of this hiU; and it 

 seemed that, the year "before we were there, a singular 

 accident had led to the destruction on this spot of almost 

 the whole of a small herd. The Thakur and villagers 

 were going up the narrow path, by which alone it is acces- 

 sible, to pay their annual devotions to the god of the hill. 

 The procession was accompanied by the noise of drums 

 and much shouting in honour of the deity ; and they were 

 wholly unaware that they were driving before them a herd 

 of five elephants which had been ahead of them on 

 the path. Arrived at the summit, and the noise still 

 pursuing them, the elephants became panic-stricken, and 

 four of them tried to descend on the opposite side. Here 

 a slope of loose shingle led down from the top, ending in a 

 sheer cliff. Once embarked on this there was no retreat 

 for their ponderous weight, and the poor brutes were 

 hurried over the perpendicular fall. The fifth — ^the big 

 tusker whom I had so recently encountered, it was said — 

 charged back through the procession, scattering them like 

 chafi, and made his escape down the path. 



On the 26th, B. rejoined me, having covered a great 

 extent of country by dint of hard marching, and explored 

 the eastern portion of the sal forest and elephant country 

 which belongs to the Thakur of Uprora. He had seen 



