In stature the Baigas are a little taller than most other tribes,
and though they have a tendency to the flat nose of the Gonds,
their foreheads and the general shape of their heads are of a better
mould. Colonel Ward states that the members of the tribe inhabiting
the Maikal range in Mandla are a much finer race than those living
nearer the open country. [94] Their figures are very nearly perfect,
says Colonel Bloomfield, [95] and their wiry limbs, unburdened by
superfluous flesh, will carry them over very great distances and
over places inaccessible to most human beings, while their compact
bodies need no other nutriment than the scanty fare afforded by their
native forests. They are born hunters, hardy and active in the chase,
and exceedingly bold and courageous. In character they are naturally
simple, honest and truthful, and when their fear of a stranger has
been dissipated are most companionable folk. A small hut, 6 or 7 feet
high at the ridge, made of split bamboos and mud, with a neat veranda
in front thatched with leaves and grass, forms the Baiga's residence,
and if it is burnt down, or abandoned on a visitation of epidemic
disease, he can build another in the space of a day. A rough earthen
vessel to hold water, leaves for plates, gourds for drinking-vessels,
a piece of matting to sleep on, and a small axe, a sickle and a spear,
exhaust the inventory of the Baiga's furniture, and the money value
of the whole would not exceed a rupee. [96] The Baigas never live in
a village with other castes, but have their huts some distance away
from the village in the jungle. Unlike the other tribes also, the
Baiga prefers his house to stand alone and at some little distance
from those of his fellow-tribesmen. While nominally belonging to
the village near which they dwell, so separate and distinct are
they from the rest of people that in the famine of 1897 cases were
found of starving Baiga hamlets only a few hundred yards away from
the village proper in which ample relief was being given. On being
questioned as to why they had not caused the Baigas to be helped,
the other villagers said, 'We did not remember them'; and when the
Baigas were asked why they did not apply for relief, they said,
'We did not think it was meant for Baigas.'