The easternmost resting place was a very elaborate one. ( No. 1 )
There were windbreaks to the east, four beds of single sheets of bark,
another four beds of interwoven palm branches. One central bed had a
small recent earthen wall around the head portion. On the hillside there
was a dense bamboo thicket. On the valley side a windbreak was erected
on wooden poles. Six large bamboo water containers four full of water,
leaned on the bamboo-thicket. Three fires were burning, two more camp
fires had been used recently, probably the night before as ashes, charcoal
and blackened wooden sticks were still fresh. The place was designed for
eight people but could have been used by more.
The second resting place ( No 2 ) had not been used recently as a
long bamboo branch with drying leaves was over it. There were five
camp fires, all containing cold ashes but none with halfburnt wood or the
like. The bushes on the north side contained dry palm branches and
must therefore have once formed a very effective windbreak. There were
no bamboo water containers around.
The third resting place ( No. 3 ) had windbreaks affixed to wooden
poles on the north side. There were two bamboo flasks leaning against
trees on the hillside. Two of five camp fires had recently been used, three
contained only old ashes. One bed consisted of dry, one of fresher leaves.
The place could hold eight people but only four had been sleeping there
recently. These three resting places were relatively near to each other.
After a distance of sixty meters we came to a second group of three
resting places. The first in this group ( No. 4 ) was the biggest of the
whole camp. Four of seven fires were burning or smoking. Only one


A DESCRIPTION OF MRABRI CAMP 187
camp fire had not been used for some time. There were nine bamboo
water containers standing around. Four of them were bound together
and had obviously just been brought from some stream in the valley.
The two central beds contained a layer of well woven palm branches.The
other four beds had only dry and fresh leaves. The bamboo on the hill-
side to the north was quite thick. In eastern direction there were several
trees near to the fires and the beds. The place could be used by 12 peo-
ple. It belonged to the group of the oldest Mrabri in the tribe.
The next resting place ( No. 5 ) faced east. There were two walls
of windbreaks left and right, the northern one enforced by a high bamboo
thicket. Three fires must have been extinguished only recently as they
were now cold although half-burnt wooden sticks were still there.
The last resting - place ( No. 6 ) had four camp fires with three ra-
ther high fires flaming up. There were three beds but only two of them
had been used. This place belonged to a Mrabri whose mother and son
had been brought to our camp the day before. Now the old woman and
the child had fled into the jungle. The man, our guide, invited us to his
place and there we got his flute in exchange for some cloth for his boy,
He also invited a few of his friends who gradually came over. They lay
down between the fires to show how they sleep at night. We also tried
to lie down but the heat was too great for anybody wearing clothes.
The fires glow all night and the firewood is laid alongside the beds
warming the whole body from head to toe. The woman we had exami-
ned the day before had her entire back covered with a large burn now
healed. It seems dangerous to sleep so near the fire on not completely
fresh leaves ! The central bed was used by father and son, the eastern one
by the old mother. The wife of the man was dead, he told us. There-
fore the western bed was not used ; dry bamboo - sticks laying on it and
stretching over to the fire. There were four bamboo containers, two
containing water, leaning on trees around the place.
The whole camp stretched over a distance of 160 meters between
the first and the last resting -place. It was all surrounded by dense bam-
boo and virgin forest. In the forest we found many holes in the ground
where roots had been dug up as food. A bamboo container of food had
188 Christian Velder
been found near one of the fires, half burnt. The contents had been eaten
after cooking.
In the six resting places there were altogether twenty beds in use,
nine of then single and 11 double, bringing the number of people actually
living in the camp up to 31. The camp could accomodate and had ac-
comodated another 14 people as there were 7 sleeping places between older
ashes. The tribe might contain about 45 individuals. We had met 22
men the day before in our camp, plus one woman and one child. Con-
sequently there must be a certain surplus of men in the tribe.
As we had met a group of nine Mrabri in August 1962 about 40
Km. north of this present camp it seems as if they migrate in families or
smaller groups throughout the year, coming together only in the cold sea-
son when the many fires of the common camp must help them endure the
cold; each individual group could hardly fight separately.