140 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
The reasoning of a native of India starts from a 
basis not always understood by those who are un- 
familiar with his mode of living and mode of 
thought ; he will not reveal himself till he has trust 
in his master, and even then he is often childish in 
his temper and in its mode of expression, for he has 
behind him centuries of oppression, when, as an aged 
villager once said to me, to wear a clean muslin cap 
on a feast-day was enough to invite a visit from the 
authorities in search of hidden wealth ; and in those 
circumstances the only defence lay in deceit and lies, 
which were justified as necessary to safeguard the 
home and family. The people are what their rulers 
and their priesthood have made them, and the intro- 
duction of new methods and new laws can but slowly 
affect the ideas of a vast population; and so it is 
that, when a truthful servant is found, one is apt to 
feel astonishment, though perhaps in the West this 
may be almost as great a rarity. Yet, curiously 
enough, the introduction of these Western methods 
and laws does not always bear good fruit ; for the 
more uncivilized the people, and the wilder the life 
they lead—in short, the greater freedom from op- 
pression—the greater often is their natural truthful- 
ness displayed : for independence doubtless produces 
as nothing else can self-respect and fearlessness in 
the individual. 
Here is a characteristic narrative of a Théru from 
the north of the Bahraich District, who walked forty 
miles or more to give himself up to the magistrate 
at headquarters. His wife had been enticed away 
by one of the Nepalese guards who watch the 
boundary of that State, and the Tharu confessed his 
