786 The Hodesum (improperly called Kolehan). [No. 104. 



secluded vallies, those barely pervious dells, the huge solitary hills 

 tops, buried in one vast sheet of pathless jungle, which except on 

 this annual occasion are never visited by man, now swarm with 

 countless hordes. In front of them the different animals pass and 

 repass, bewildered by opposing hosts. The huge gowers rouse from 

 their noon-day retreats, and stalk with stately steps along the hill side, 

 till infuriated by the increasing din, they rush through the forest, 

 heedless of rock or ravine, and rending the branches in their ponde- 

 rous flight — the wild buffaloes thunder across, brandishing their im- 

 mense horns, stamping and wheeling round their young ones ; — the I 

 neel gyes gallop past like a charge of cavalry. The stately saumer, 

 the beautiful axis, the barking deer or muntjac, dash along, clear- 

 ing the copse wood with flying bounds, and suddenly stopping with 

 erect ears and recurved neck, as the tainted gale warns of danger J 

 a head. The fairy-like ^^Orey," or small red deer, with noiseless feet I 

 comes skimming over the tangled underwood, skipping in wild starts I 

 to the right and left, and sorely bewildering a host of t'hakoors, rajas, 

 and their body guard, who perched upon mechans, (scaffolds) in vain 

 try to bring their lengthy matchlocks to bear ; — with snort and puff a 

 * sounder' of pigs scurry through. The redoubled uproar from without, 

 draws the attention to something which has excited the beaters. The 

 reeds and grass are seen to wave, as if some bulky form were sliding 

 through them, and at length, loath to leave the haunts which had con- 

 cealed him so long, out comes the tiger, with a lumping, stealthy trot, 

 crouching to the earth, with ears quivering and turning to catch every 

 sound. He has soon passed on into the leafy depths, from which his 

 hollow growl may be occasionally heard. And last of all, as tht 

 peacocks begin to mount into the air, and the jungle fowl with noisy 

 cackle take wing, a loud sonorous grunt or shout ushers in the sturdy 

 old " Bhaloo," who forced from the friendly shelter of rocks, comeg 

 bundling over the ground, and shaking his sides in a heavy gallop, 

 oft stopping, wheeling round, and threatening his enemies. The reports 

 of matchlocks ; the '' click" of the arrows striking against trees ; th( 

 shouts of the multitude; the roars, screams, and groans of th( 

 animals ; the piping of flutes ; the beating of drums ; the braying 

 of trumpets, reach their climax, and the multitude, composed of all 

 classes and sorts, meet near the raja's mechan to compare notes of the 



