1839.] Lieut. Kittoe's Journey through the Forests of Orissa. 673 



I wished to have advanced to the hills where the pass over 

 which the dawk travels, is situated, but so determined were the 

 people to prevent me, that I was obliged to alter my course. I did 

 not lose much by it as I was enabled to survey the country along 

 the right bank of the river and its vicinity, which had never yet 

 been done. This portion of the Subunreeka valley is very fertile, but, 

 of no great extent inland ; undulating ground, and beds of shingle, co- 

 vered with dense jungle occur, forming a belt that divides it, from the 

 valley of the Boorabalung river, which rising in the Semulpal hills, 

 winds under those of Kussum and Bunkati, then flowing in a souther- 

 ly direction towards the Nilgur hills under Balasore, finally empties 

 itself into the sea near Bullramgurhi. 



There is little or no fine timber on the belt of high land above al- 

 luded to; I passed over it in two marches, and entered the Boorabalung 

 valley, then continued in a north-westerly direction to Bunkati, the 

 principal village of the purgunnah of Ooperbaugh. I crossed the 

 Boorabalung which is a very clear, rapid stream, about kneedeep, 

 with very steep banks; its course is here very tortuous, there are 

 many rapids ; I re-crossed it before reaching Bunkati near to which 

 place, I halted a couple of days. There are falls over some talcose 

 rocks about a mile below the village, the spot is held sacred. The 

 water does not fall from any great height, but the strange appearance 

 of the rocks and the wooded banks of the stream, which above the 

 falls is still and deep, render the scene very beautiful. The singular 

 appearance of the rocks (talcose) is occasioned by the strata being 

 vertical or nearly so, they lean against a totally different formation, 

 which appears to be basalt in different stages of decomposition. 



I here observed a very simple, though ingenious, way of entrapping 

 fish. In one part of the falls, in a narrow space between two rocks, 

 there is a long slanting thatch fastened, from the lower end of which 

 is a fine basket work frame, slanting at a wider angle than the former, 

 and above it ; the fish in attempting to leap, fall on to the thatch and 

 slip down to the lower part of it, from whence they cannot escape. 

 The crafty Brahmuns impose on the people by telling them that the 

 presiding " Thacoor" or deity has the power thus to cause the fish to sa- 

 crifice themselves to him or her. The Brahmuns remove the fish 

 early in the morning, and cook them in their " Bhog mundup" temple 

 cook-house ; the first dish is placed as an offering before the idol, for 

 the consecration of the whole, which is eaten by the attendant priests, 

 or distributed to their friends. 



The village of Bunkati is nearly deserted, as well as most others in 



