milked. The milk is made into _ghee_, or clarified butter, and large
quantities are sent down to the towns by country boats. When we want to
get up a hunt, we generally send to the nearest _batan_ for _khubber_,
i.e. news, information. The _Batanea_, or proprietor of the
establishment, is well posted up. Every herdsman as he comes in at
night tells what animals he has seen through the day, and thus at the
_batan_ you hear where tiger, and pig, and deer are to be met with;
where an unlucky cow has been killed; in what ravine is the thickest
jungle; where the path is free from clay, or quicksand; what fords are
safest; and, in short, you get complete information on every point
connected with the jungle and its wild inhabitants.

To these men the mysterious jungle reveals its most hidden secrets.
Surrounded by his herd of buffaloes, the _gualla_ ventures into the
darkest recesses and the most tangled thickets. They have strange wild
calls by which they give each other notice of the approach of danger,
and when two or three of them meet, each armed with his heavy,
iron-shod or brass-bound _lathee_ or quarter staff, they will not budge
an inch out of their way for buffalo or boar; nay, they have been known
to face the terrible tiger himself, and fairly beat him away from the
quivering carcase of some unlucky member of their herd. They have
generally some favourite buffalo on whose broad back they perch
themselves, as it browses through the jungle, and from this elevated
seat they survey the rest of the herd, and note the incidents of jungle
life. When they wish a little excitement, or a change from their milk
and rice diet, there are hundreds of pigs around.

They have a broad, sharp spear-head, to which is attached a stout cord,
often made of twisted hide or hair. Into the socket of the spear is
thrust a bamboo pole or shaft, tough, pliant, and flexible. The cord is