On this spot the baghmars, (tiger killers,) set up the spring-bow with a poisoned arrow: the bow is made of strong bamboo, supported on two cross sticks, to one end of which a string is fastened that crosses the wild beast’s track; as soon as the tiger touches the cord in crossing it to the water’s edge, it releases the bow-string, and the arrow, being immediately discharged with great force, enters the body of the beast just about the height of his heart. A poisoned arrow was thus set for a tiger in Assam, who was found dead sixty yards from the spot—so quickly does the deadly poison take effect. A further account of this bow will be found in a subsequent chapter. The place was one of great interest; the water was surrounded by the high grass; on one side was a cluster of forest trees, and beneath them the slight and delicate bābul. The By’ā birds were flitting about; they delight in placing their long nests on the extreme end of the slight branches of the bābul, pendant over a stream or pool for security. For a further account of these sagacious little birds, see [vol. i. page 220].
The bright sunshine, the deep reflections on the water, the idea that there was danger lurking around, all combined to render this picturesque and secluded spot one of great interest.
The dāndees from the boats that anchor at Sikrī-galī, go up the hills in gangs to cut wood for firing, and bring it down in great quantities. Following their track, I soon joined the party who were shooting snipes in the marsh at the foot of the hills, and at the moment of my arrival, Mr. ⸺ was busily pulling the leeches off his ancles, which had stuck to them in passing through the water. Being fagged with the walk, I got a hackery from a village; it is a sort of cart made of bamboos with small, heavy, clumsy, wooden wheels, drawn by two bullocks. Seated in this conveyance, I desired the man to drive me into the hills. My bones were half dislocated, bumping up and down in such a jungle of a place, over high stones that all but upset the cart, or through the marsh in which the bullocks sometimes being unable to keep on their feet, took six or seven steps on their knees; it was a marvel how the little animals got on, or through such places as we crossed. I went deep into the hills, admiring the beautiful climbers that were in the greatest profusion, and the bearer gathered all the novelties, which made me quite happy in my cart, surrounded by specimens new to me. At last the driver said he could proceed no further; therefore I walked up the hill some distance until I was fagged: the view was very pleasing, looking down the valley over the plain to the Ganges, where the vessels were sailing past. At a bright running stream I gladly quenched my thirst, having taken no breakfast, and it being now nearly eleven A.M. Mounted on my bone-breaking cart, I rejoined my friend, who had only killed five snipe and another bird. He saw but one black partridge, no deer; the game was very scarce.
Elephants here are absolutely necessary to enable a man to enjoy shooting amidst the high grass and thorny thickets. The place is so much disturbed by the people who go into the hills for wood, that the game retreat farther into the jungle. Had we had an elephant, we might have found a tiger; until I have seen one in his own domains, I shall not sleep in peace. The khidmatgārs arrived on a cart with bread, meat, tea, and wine. It being one P.M., and the sun powerful, we seated ourselves under a tree, and made an excellent breakfast, which was most refreshing after such a ramble.
As we were tossing the bones to the little spaniels, we met with an adventure, which, bringing for the second time in my life uncivilized beings before me, quite delighted me. The footpath from the interior of the hills led to the place where we were seated. Down this path came a most delightful group, a family of savages, who attracted my attention by the singularity of their features, the smallness and activity of their bodies, their mode of gathering their hair in a knot on the top of their heads, and their wild-looking bows and arrows. We called these good-natured, gay-looking people around us; they appeared pleased at being noticed, and one of the women offered me some young heads of Indian corn, which she took from a basket she carried on her head containing their principal provision, this boiled and mashed Indian corn. She also carried a child seated astride upon her hip. A child is rarely seen in a woman’s arms, as in Europe. The same custom appears to have existed amongst the Jews: “Ye shall be borne upon her sides, and dandled upon her knees.”—Isaiah.
The party consisted of a man and three boys, apparently eight, twelve, and sixteen years of age, two women, and a little girl. The man said he had come from a place four coss within the hills, by our calculation eight miles, but hill measurement of distance being generally liberal, I should suppose it double that distance. Their descent at this time to the plains, was to help in gathering in the present crop of uncut rice, for which purpose the owners of the fields had asked them to come down. The man appeared to be about five feet in height, remarkable for lightness and suppleness of limb, with the piercing and restless eye that is said to be peculiar to savages. His countenance was round and happy; the expression had both cunning and simplicity; the nose depressed between the eyes, and altogether a face that one laughed to look at. His black hair drawn tight up in a knot on the very top of the head, the ends fastened in with a wooden comb. His only clothing a small piece of linen bound around his middle. He carried a bow of hill bamboo, the string of which was formed out of the twisted rind of the bamboo, and the four arrows were of the common reed, headed with iron barbs of different shapes; one of the barbs was poisoned. The hill-man said he had bought the poison into which the barb had been dipped of a more remote hill tribe, and was ignorant of its nature: he begged us not to handle the point. The natives will not mention the name of the plant from which the poison is procured; it appears to be a carefully-guarded secret. On each arrow were strips of feather from the wing of the vulture. The boy was similarly dressed, and armed. The woman, who carried the child, appeared to be the favourite from the number of ornaments on her person. She was extremely small in stature, but fat and well-looking. Unlike the women of the plains, she wore no covering on her head, and but little on her body. Two or three yards of cloth were around her waist, and descended half way below the knees; whilst a square of the same was tied over her shoulders like a monkey mantle; passed under the left arm it was drawn over the bosom, and the ends tied on the shoulder of the right arm. Her hair was tied up in the same fashion as the man’s. Around the rim of each ear were twenty-three thin ear-rings of brass; and three or four necklaces of red and white beads hung down to her waist in gradations. Her nose-ring was moderately large in circumference, but very heavy, pulling down the right nostril by its weight; it was of silver, with four large beads, and an ornament of curious form. She had thick purple glass rings on her arms, called churees, of coarse manufacture, and other ornaments which I forget, something of the same sort.
She talked openly and freely. I took the man’s bow, and shot an arrow after the English fashion; at which the whole family laughed excessively, and appeared to think it so absurd that I should not draw a bow in the style of a mountaineer. I begged the man to show me the proper method; he put a sort of ring on my thumb, placed my right forefinger straight along the arrow, and bid me draw it by the force of the string catching on the thumb-ring. I did so, and shot my arrow with better aim than when pursuing the English method. His happiness was great on my giving him a rupee for a bow, two arrows, one of which was the poisoned one, and the thumb-ring. He said his employment consisted principally in shooting animals at night by laying in wait for them. He crouched down on the ground to show the way of laying in wait for wild hogs. On seeing a hog near, he would immediately spring to his feet and shoot his arrow, drawing it quite to the head. Sometimes they kill hogs with poisoned arrows; nevertheless they feed upon the animals, taking care to cut out the flesh around the arrow the instant the hog falls. He told us he had but one wife, his tirī, the hill-man’s name for wife, whom he had left at home; perhaps the tirī was an abbreviation of istirī, or tiriyā, wife.
After our long conversation with the savages we bade them adieu, and my parting present was a pink silk handkerchief for his tirī in the Hills. We returned at two P.M. to the boats, completely fagged, with the accompaniment of headaches from the heat of the sun: unmoored the vessels, and with a good breeze reached Rajmahal at dark. During our absence some hill-men came to the boats, and offered bows to the dāndees, begging in exchange a piece of linen. They parted with them afterwards for one halfpenny a piece. I must not omit to mention the magnificent wild climber, the Cachnár, Bauhinia scandens, which I gathered in the pass. The leaves are of immense size, heart-shaped, and two lobed: they collapse during the night. It is called Bauhinia from two botanical brothers, John and Caspar Bauhin, who, like its leaves, were separate and yet united. The Cachnár at Allahabad is a beautiful tree, but its leaves are not so luxuriantly large as those of the wild creeper of the Rajmahal Hills. A cold bath and a late dinner restored me to comfortable feelings, and thus ended my adventures, and a happy day in the Hills of the Sikrī-galī Pass.