s in Bundelkhand are a pleasant
sight to English eyes. Edgeworth's list of plants found in the Banda
district, as revised by Messrs. Waterfield and Atkinson, is given in
_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. i, pp. 78-86.

CHAPTER 20

The Men-Tigers.

Ram Chand Rao, commonly called the Sarimant, chief of Deori,[1] here
overtook me. He came out from Sagar to visit me at Dhamoni[2] and,
not reaching that place in time, came on after me. He held Deori
under the Peshwa, as the Sagar chief held Sagar, for the payment of
the public establishments kept up by the local administration. It
yielded him about ten thousand a year, and, when we took possession
of the country, he got an estate in the Sagar district, in rent-free
tenure, estimated at fifteen hundred a year. This is equal to about
six thousand pounds a year in England. The tastes of native gentlemen
lead them always to expend the greater part of their incomes in the
wages of trains of followers of all descriptions, and in horses,
elephants, &c.; and labour and the subsistence of labour are about
four times cheaper in India than in England. By the breaking up of
public establishments, and consequent diminution of the local demand
for agricultural produce, the value of land throughout all Central
India, after the termination of the Mahratha War in 1817, fell by
degrees thirty per cent.; and, among the rest, that of my poor friend
the Sarimant. While I had the civil charge of the Sagar district in
1831 I represented this case of hardship; and Government, in the
spirit of liberality which has generally characterized their measures
in this part of India, made up to him the difference between what he
actually received and what they had intended to give him; and he has
ever since felt grateful to me.[3] He is a very small man, not more
than five feet high, but he has the handsomest face I have almost
ever seen, and his manners are those of the most perfect native
gentleman. He came to call upon me after breakfast, and the
conversation turned upon the number of people that had of late been
killed by tigers between Sagar and Deori, his ancient capital, which
lies about midway between Sagar and the Nerbudda river.

One of his followers, who stood beside his chair, said[4] that 'when
a tiger had killed one man he was safe, for the spirit of the man
rode upon his head, and guided him from all danger. The spirit knew
very well that the tiger would be watched for many days