The Raots--A slippery journey--Superstitious notions--Anger and
jealousy--Friends--To the homes of the
savages--Photography--Habitations.
[Illustration: A YOUNG MAN]
WE had walked seventy-eight miles in three marches, and my men being
footsore, I gave them a day's rest, which I employed in going to the
haunts of the "Wild men of the forest," or _Raots_ or _Rajis_, as they
style themselves. They live in the woods several miles off, and to reach
them I had to descend a steep incline covered by an uncommonly slippery
carpet of dried grass and pine needles. I had to take off shoes and
stockings to get along, and even bare-footed I found it difficult to
maintain my hold. I was accompanied by one of my chaprassis and a man
from Askote, and we were forced down more swiftly than comfortably till
we reached a faint track, which we followed until we came upon a man
hiding behind some trees. He was a wild-looking creature, naked and
unkempt, with flowing hair and scanty beard and moustache, and, regarding
us with an air of suspicion, he was most reluctant to show us the way to
the homes of his tribe. He was a Raot, and his reluctance to let us
approach his home seemed justified enough when he said to my guide, "No
white man has ever visited our home, and should one ever come we shall
all die. The spirits of the mountains will prevent your progress--not we.
You will suffer pain, for the spirit who watches over the Raots will let
no one enter their homes."
I gave the man a rupee, which he turned and weighed in his hand.
"You can come," he muttered, "but you will regret it. You will have great
misfortune."
[Illustration: RAOT ON TREE]
There was something so weirdly peculiar in the tone of voice in which the
man spoke, as if he had been in a trance, himself only the channel
through which the threat of some occult being was conveyed to us, that
for some minutes I could not get his words out of my head. I followed him
as best I could, for he climbed up huge boulders with the agility of a
monkey. It was no easy job, for we bounded and leapt from rock to rock
and vaulted over fallen trees. The track became more marked and went up
along the incline of a steep ravine. We continued until, hot and panting,
we arrived at a large hollow high up in the cliff of clay. There, on a
semicircular platform with entrenchments of felled trees, were about a
dozen men almost devoid of clothing, some sitting on their heels and
resting their arms on their knees, others lying down flat. One fellow
smoked dry leaves inside a pipe of Hindoo origin. I snatched a photo of
the group as, with an air of suspicion mingled with surprise and sadness,
but no apparent fear, they stared at the unexpected visitors. Two of the
elder men having overcome their first stupor sprang to their feet and
with mad gesticulations refused to let me come nearer. But I penetrated
right into their circle, and found myself surrounded by a sulky and angry
crowd.
[Illustration: RAOTS]
"No man has ever been here but a Raot. You will soon die. You have
offended God!" screamed an old man, in a sudden outburst of temper. He
bent his knees and curved his spine, protruding his head towards me. He
shook his fists in my face, waved them about in the air, opened and
tightly clenched them, digging his nails furiously into his palms.
Instead of contracting the scalp of his forehead, the old Raot raised
his eyebrows and turned his polished forehead into a succession of deep
wrinkles, stretching in a straight line across almost from ear to ear,
and showing only a dark dimple over his nose. His nostrils, flat and
broad to begin with, became widely expanded and raised so as to cause two
deep lines to diverge from the nose along his cheeks. His mouth was open
and a peculiar vacillation of the lower lip demonstrated plainly that its
owner had but little command over speech and articulation. His eyes,
which may have been brown originally, were discoloured, probably through
the abuse of excessive animal powers, to the possession of which the
formation of his skull strongly testified, but they assumed extraordinary
brilliancy as his fury increased. He opened them wide, apparently with an
effort, and showed the entire circle of his iris. The pupils were
dilated, notwithstanding that the light upon his face was strong at the
time.
Following his example, some of the rest displayed their discontent in a
similar fashion, but others, among whom I especially noticed two youths
with sad languishing faces, drooping large eyes, and luxuriant growth of
black hair, stood apathetically apart, with head reclining towards the
right shoulder, their features perfectly composed, and supporting their
chins on their hands. Even if they had overcome their stupor, they did
certainly not betray it, and appeared perfectly emotionless as far as
their countenances were concerned.
One fellow with an extraordinary head, a mixture it seemed of a Mongolian
and a Negroid type, was the first to calm himself of those who were so
madly excited. With piercing though unsteady eyes, and with nervous
twitching movements, he scrutinised my face more closely than the others,
and seemed to reassure them all that I had not come to hurt them. He made
signs to the rest to desist from their threats, and then, squatting down
himself, invited me to follow his example, by sitting on my heels. When
the storm had subsided and they had all sat down, I drew out of my pocket
some coins and gave one to each of them, with the exception of one man on
whom I thought I might study the passion of jealousy in its most
primitive form. I watched the man closely, and soon saw him draw apart
from the others and become sulky. The others were by now comparatively
calm. They seemed predisposed towards sadness, and I could with
difficulty extract from any of them more than a very faint sort of a
smile. They turned and twisted the coins in their hands, and compared
them among one another, jabbering and apparently content. The jealous man
kept his head turned away from them determinedly, pretending not to see
what was going on, and, resting his chin on his hand, he began to sing a
weird, melancholy, guttural song, assuming an air of contempt, especially
when the others chaffed him. Having allowed him to suffer enough, I gave
him two coins instead of one, and with them the satisfaction of the last
grin.
[Illustration: HEAD OF YOUNG MAN]
I then tried to photograph them, but my camera was looked upon with
suspicion, and as plate after plate was exposed in portraying single
individuals or groups, they shuddered at each "click" of the spring.
"The gods will be angry with you for doing _that_," said a Raot, pointing
at the camera, "unless you give us a large white coin."
I took advantage of this, and promised them as best I could through my
guide "two large coins" if they would take me to their huts, some few
hundred yards below the lofty eyrie in the cliff, but I must for the sum
be allowed not only to see but to touch and have explained to me anything
I liked.
They consented, and we began our descent of the precipitous track leading
to their habitations, a track fit really only for monkeys. Several women
and children, who had come up attracted by the sight of strangers, joined
with the men in giving us a helping hand, and in fact, I believe there
cannot have been a single paw in the company that did not at one time or
other during the descent clutch some portion of my clothing in the
friendliest spirit. Holding on to one another, we proceeded in a body,
not always at a pleasant pace, down the dangerous cliff. Two or three
times one of the natives or myself tripped and almost dragged the
remainder of the party over the precipice, while the piercing yells and
screams of the women seemed to echo back for miles around. I was not
sorry when we at last reached the small huts by the river which made up
their village.
[Illustration: TWO MEN SITTING DOWN WITH CHILDREN]
The habitations were squalid beyond measure. Constructed with a rough
frame of tree-branches, fortified by wooden posts and rafters, roofed
over with a thatch of dried grass, the majority of them measured about
ten feet. They were built against the hillside, a strong bi-forked pole
in the centre of the structure supporting the roof, and were usually
divided into two sections, so as to give shelter each of them to two
families. They contained no furniture, and but few utensils of the most
primitive make. There were circular wooden bowls scooped out in the past
by means of sharp-edged stones, and more recently by cheap blades, which
were of Indian manufacture. For such cultivation as they were capable of
these people used primitive earth rakes, and they also possessed coarse
mallets, sticks, and net bags in which they kept their stores. Their
staple food in former days was river fish, flesh of wild animals, and
roots of certain trees; but they now eat grain also, and, like all
savages, they have a craving for liquor. The interior of Raot
habitations was so primitive and lacking of furniture, that it hardly
requires to be described, and the odours that emanated from these huts
are also better left to the imagination of the reader.
Entering one of the dwellings, I found squatted round a fire of wood some
women and men, the women wearing silver bangles and glass bead necklaces,
the men very little more than string earrings. Only one of the men had on
as much as a diminutive loin-cloth, and the women had scanty dresses of
Indian manufacture, obtained in Askote.
Scanning their features carefully, it struck me that in their facial
lines many points could be traced which would make one feel inclined to
attribute to them a remote Mongolian origin, modified largely by the
climate, the nature of the country, and probably by intermarriage. In the
scale of standard human races the Raots stood extremely low, as can be
judged from the accompanying photographs. The women, as will be seen, had
abnormally small skulls with low foreheads, and although they looked
devoid even of a glint of reason, they were actually fairly intelligent.
They had high cheek-bones; long, flattish noses, broad and rounded as in
the Mongolian type. The chin was in most instances round, very receding,
though the lips were in their normal position, thin, and very tightly
closed with up-turned corners to the mouth. The lower jaw was extremely
short and narrow, whereas the upper one seemed quite out of proportion to
the size of the skull. Their ears were large, outstanding, and
unmodelled, but capable of catching sounds at great distances.
The men had better heads than the women, underdeveloped yet comparatively
well balanced. They had higher and broader foreheads, similar though
shorter noses, chins not quite so receding, the whole lower jaw
extraordinarily narrow, but the upper lip, as with the women, huge and
out of all proportion.
Undoubtedly the Raots are not a pure race, and even among the few I came
across variations so considerable occurred as to puzzle one in tracing
their origin. They invariably possess luxuriant coal-black hair, which
never attains more than a moderate length. It is not coarse in texture,
but is usually so dirty that it appears coarser than it really is. They
have very little hair on their bodies except in the arm-pits, and their
moustaches and beards hardly deserve the name.
The men generally part the crop on their head in the middle, so that it
flows on either side of the skull, just covering the ears, and I found
the same strange custom that I observed years ago among the Ainu of Yezo
of shaving a lozenge-shaped portion of the scalp in the centre of the
forehead directly above the nose. The women, using their fingers as a
comb, draw their hair to the back of the head and tie it in a knot.
The bodies of the better specimens I saw were slight and agile, with no
superfluous fat or flesh. Supple to a degree, yet solid and muscular,
with well-proportioned limbs and a skin of a rich tinge between bronze
and terra-cotta colour, these savages, dirty and unclothed as they were,
certainly appealed to the artistic side of my temperament, particularly
on account of their very majestic deportment. I noticed their regular
breathing, which they usually did through the nose, keeping their mouths
tightly closed, and also one very curious peculiarity about their feet,
viz., the length of the second toe, protruding considerably beyond the
others, and giving them no doubt the power of using their toes almost as
we should our fingers. The palms of their hands were almost without
lines, the finger-nails flat, and their thumbs stumpy with the last
phalange curiously short.
[Illustration: A YOUNG MAN]
If the Raots to-day have adopted some articles of clothing and ornament,
besides altering their diet to a certain extent, it is due entirely to
the Rajiwar of Askote, who, taking a great interest in the tribes he
rules over, provides them in a patriarchal way with all sorts of
necessaries of life. Very few Raots have of late years visited Askote, as
they are of a retiring nature and seem contented with their primitive
abodes in the forests of Chipula, which they claim as their own. Their
only occupations are fishing and hunting, and they are said to have a
predilection for the flesh of the larger Himahlyan monkey, although from
my own observation I should have said that they would eat almost anything
they could get. It has generally been assumed that the Raot women are
kept in strict seclusion and hidden from strangers, and I cannot better
prove the absurdity of this than by reproducing in these pages one of
several photographs of the Raot women, for which they posed at my
request without the slightest objection from the men. They are generally
believed to be chaste, and my photographs prove, I think, that whatever
charm they may possess for the Raot men, their peculiar beauty offers but
little temptation to others.
They are rapidly diminishing in numbers, chiefly no doubt on account of
constant intermarriage. I was assured that the women are not sterile, but
that there is enormous mortality among the young children. They bury
their dead, and for several days afterwards offer food and water to the
spirit of the departed.
I was unable to ascertain what their marriage ceremonies were like, or if
they had any to speak of, but it appeared that there was a considerable
family feeling among couples living maritally together. They are
superstitious and hold in curious awe the spirits of the mountains, the
sun, the moon, fire, water, and wind. Whether this amounts to a definite
form of worship I cannot say: I certainly saw no signs of the offering of
prayers or sacrifices.
The Raots claim to be the descendants of kings, and they refuse
allegiance to any one. They will neither salute you nor bow to you.
"It is for other people to salute us. Our blood is the blood of kings,
and though for choice we have for centuries retired to the jungle, we are
none the less the sons of kings."
After a while, and when I had spent some considerable time among them,
these royal savages seemed uncomfortable and apprehensive. I had turned
over, examined, drawn or photographed every household article I had seen,
had measured every one, male and female, who consented to be measured,
and paid them the stipulated money. As I was about to leave, the
grey-haired man approached me again.
"You have seen the home of the Raots. You are the first stranger who has
done so, and you will suffer much. The gods are very angry with you."
"Yes," rejoined another savage, pointing at the ravine, "whoever treads
along that track and is not a Raot will be afflicted by a great
calamity."
"_Kush paruani, Sahib"_ ("Never mind, sir"), interrupted the guide, "they
are only barbarians, they know no better. I have myself never been here,
so I suppose I shall also come in for my share."
"You too will suffer," said the old Raot, with self-assurance.
The Raots stood round me silently as I packed up the camera, and I felt
that they looked upon me as a man whose fate was settled. They did not
acknowledge my farewell, and, had I been in the least superstitious,
might have made me thoroughly uncomfortable with their solemn, stolid
gravity.
[Illustration: RAOT WOMEN OF THE FOREST]