ti.
This, in the first instance; and in the second, the Bagh tigers are no
ordinary tigers either. The sahibs are totally mistaken. These tigers
are the servants of the Sadhus, of the holy miracle-workers, who have
haunted the caves now for many centuries, and who deign sometimes to
take the shape of a tiger. And neither the gods, nor the Sadhus, nor
the glamour, nor the true tigers are fond of being disturbed in their
nightly rest.

What could we say against all this? We cast one more sorrowful look
at the caves, and returned to our antediluvian carriages. The Babu and
Narayan said we must spend the night at the house of a certain "chum"
of the Babu, who resided in a small town, three miles further on, and
bearing the same name as the caves; and we unwillingly acquiesced.

Many things in India are wonderful and unintelligible, but one of the
most wonderful and the most unintelligible, is the geographical and the
topographical disposition of the numberless territories of this country.
Political conjunctures in India seem to be everlastingly playing the
French game casse-tete, changing the pattern, diminishing one part and
adding to another. The land that only yesterday belonged to this Raja or
that Takur, is sure to be found today in the hands of quite a different
set of people. For instance, we were in the Raj of Amjir in Malva, and
we were going to the little city of Bagh, which also belongs to Malva
and is included in the Amjir Raj. In the documents, Malva is included
in the independent possessions of Holkar; and nevertheless the Amjir Raj
does not belong to Tukuji-Rao-Holkar, but to the son of the independent
Raja of Amjir, who was hanged, "by inadvertence" as we were assured, in
1857. The city, and the caves of Bagh, very oddly belong to the Maharaja
Sindya of Gwalior, who, besides, does not own them personally, having
made a kind of present of them, and their nine thousand rupees of
revenue, to some poor relation. This poor relation, in his turn, does
not enjoy the property in the least, because a certain Rajput Takur
stole it from him, and will not consent to give it back. Bagh is
situated on the road from Gujerat to Malva, in the defile of Oodeypur,
which is owned accordingly by the Maharana of Oodeypur. Bagh itself is
built on the top of a woody hillock, and being disputed property does
not belong to any one in particular, properly speaking; but a small
fortress, and a bazaar in the centre of it are the privat