Little Paths Led Mysteriously Into The Jungle.
Down Them Came More Savages To Greet Us.
Everybody was most
friendly and cheerful, thanks to Horne's personal influence.
Two
years before this same lot had been hostile. From every hidden
village came the headmen or chiefs. They all wanted to shake
hands-the ordinary citizen never dreamed of aspiring to that
honour-and they all spat carefully into their palms before they
did so. This all had to be done in passing; for ordinary village
headmen it was beneath Our Dignity to draw rein. Once only we
broke over this rule. That was in the case of an old fellow with
white hair who managed to get so tangled up in the shrubbery that
he could not get to us. He was so frantic with disappointment
that we made an exception and waited.
About three miles out, we lost one of our newly acquired totos.
Reason: an exasperated parent who had followed from Meru for the
purpose of reclaiming his runaway offspring. The latter was
dragged off howling. Evidently he, like some of his civilized
cousins, had "run away to join the circus." As nearly as we could
get at it, the rest of the totos, as well as the nine additional
we picked up before we quitted the jungle, had all come with
their parents' consent. In fact, we soon discovered that we could
buy any amount of good sound totos, not house broke however, for
an average of half a rupee (16-1/2 cents) apiece.
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