THE BHILLS. 
135 
dispositions, and many of them are intelligent and 
industrious.” 
With all their rapacity, the Bhills have certain 
notions of honour, to which they are known so scru- 
pulously to adhere, that no traveller ever doubts their 
pledge of protection. With a Bhill guide, a person 
may travel through the districts most infested by 
them without the slightest molestation. They would 
put any one of their tribe to death who should rob a 
person so protected Their skill in robbery is extraor- 
dinary. They have been known to make a hole 
through the wall of a bungalo, and carry on their de- 
predations so stealthily as to clear the room, and even 
take the bed-clothes from a person asleep without 
waking him. When they enter a house or a tent, 
they are always naked, and so covered with oil that 
it is almost impossible to seize them. Upon each arm 
is usually fastened a sharp knife, with the blade pro- 
jecting upwards ; thus, if they are laid hold off in the 
dark, the person seizing immediately releases them : — 
indeed, they are very rarely taken. 
An officer, with whom I was acquainted, had a 
narrow escape from death by attempting to seize a 
Bhill who was in the act of robbing him. It happened 
in the neighbourhood of Guzerat. This person was 
asleep in his tent, when, suddenly waking, he felt 
the quilt slightly twitched : suspecting that some one 
was not far from his bedside, he soon began to 
breathe hard, as if he were in a sound sleep. In a 
short time the twitch was repeated with some ad- 
ditional force. Satisfied that there was a robber 
near him, he suddenly sprang from his bed : a Bhill 
