ay be
mentioned their apparent inability to distinguish colours or count
numbers, due alone to their want of words to express themselves." [327]

4. General Outram and the Khandesh Bhil Corps.

The reclamation and pacification of the Bhils is inseparably associated
with the name of Lieutenant, afterwards Sir James, Outram. The Khandesh
Bhil Corps was first raised by him in 1825, when Bhil robber bands
were being hunted down by small parties of troops, and those who were
willing to surrender were granted a free pardon for past offences,
and given grants of land for cultivation and advances for the purchase
of seed and bullocks. When the first attempts to raise the corps were
made, the Bhils believed that the object was to link them in line
like galley-slaves with a view to extirpate the race, that blood was
in high demand as a medicine in the country of their foreign masters,
and so on. Indulging the wild men with feasts and entertainments, and
delighting them with his matchless urbanity, Captain Outram at length
contrived to draw over to the cause nine recruits, one of whom was a
notorious plunderer who had a short time before successfully robbed
the officer commanding a detachment sent against him. This infant
corps soon became strongly attached to the person of their new chief
and entirely devoted to his wishes; their goodwill had been won by his
kind and conciliatory manners, while their admiration and respect had
been thoroughly roused and excited by his prowess and valour in the
chase. On one occasion, it is recorded, word was brought to Outram
of the presence of a panther in some prickly-pear shrubs on the
side of a hill near his station. He went to shoot it with a friend,
Outram being on foot and his friend on horseback searching through the
bushes. When close on the animal, Outram's friend fired and missed, on
which the panther sprang forward roaring and seized Outram, and they
rolled down the hill together. Being released from the claws of the
furious beast for a moment, Outram with great presence of mind drew a
pistol which he had with him, and shot the panther dead. The Bhils,
on seeing that he had been injured, were one and all loud in their
grief and expressions of regret, when Outram quieted them with the
remark, 'What do I care for the clawing of a cat?' and this saying
long remained a proverb among the Bhils. [328] By his kindness and
sympathy, listening freely to all that each single man in the c