100 Journal of an Expedition [no. 3, new sehies, 
ing for information as to a line of boundary, a man of one Kader 
tribe stood upon a rock, and looking to the dark cloud overhanging 
us, wished that the lightning might strike him to the earth if that 
was not within his range of forest ; and on his leaving the slab of 
stone another man as earnest in his manner and as wild in gesture, 
stood on the self-same spot and called th:; flash to settle the dis- 
puted point by smiting him if he was not within his own tribe^s 
limits. It was difficult to reconcile these counter statements ; but 
it was probably a point that had been fought for from the earliest 
time. 
The Kaders do not cultivate but live much on the roots and 
fruits the jungle yields spontaneously. They do however obtain 
grain and cotton cloth by barter with the people of the plains, 
which they pay for in wild ginger, turmeric, bees-wax and gums 
of different kinds. The mention of bees-wax calls to my recollec- 
tion a conversation that astonished me not a little. At the time 
it passed, we were looking at some cliffs in the deep forest about 
300 feet in height, against the face of which where reared bamboos 
■with the branches so cut off that they left an inch or two to rest 
the foot upon, and thus formed simple ladders, not altogether easy 
to use by the uninitiated because being single sticks they turn 
round under the weight of those who climb them ; but these were 
Kader staircases, and the use they made of them was most asto- 
nishing. By means of these bamboos raised from ledge to ledge, 
the wall of rock was gained step by step, and where the cliff over- 
hung, the ladder was tied by twisted bark so as to bear the climber's 
weight. It was a marvel how they got the bamboos to the ledges 
that supported them ; but when I asked the little man who led me 
through the forest how, after they had got the ladder in position, 
they could take the combs from the bees that with their vigorous 
attacks had driven us from the summit of the cliff the day before, he 
began his st^ory by saying "We wait till there is no moon, and take 
the darkest night." Imagine the nerve required for that. 
These little dwarfish people file their front teeth into points, to 
facilitate their eating the hardest roots. There is some nerve shown 
in this too, and we may look with wonder and respect upon the 
