100 Journal of an Expedition [no. 3, new series, 



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 the 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 story 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 



