The Ogre of Khondvalasa

Words: Old and New

• Achilles' heel - a weak spot, from the hero of classical mythology, Achilles. Achilles is the hero of Homer's great epic, "The Iliad"
• aerial trunk - tree roots growing from branches and shooting downward to the ground as seen on the Banyan tree
• ballerinas - female dancers in a ballet
• bamboo - any of the hardy tropical grasses, from Malay bambu
• bantam - small sized chicken, named for the village of Bantam, Indonesia
• banyan tree - an East Indian fig tree, from Portuguese banian, from Gujarati vaniyan, Sanskrit vanij.
• Bagheera - 'leopard' in Hindi. Also, a character in Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book." (Note: Link is to entire book)
• brown cobra - a variety of cobra in East India
• bungalow - a tiled house surrounded by a veranda; in Hindi bangla
• Carlsbad Caverns - a series of limestone caverns in New Mexico
• charpoy - a four-legged cot, from Hindi
• Dhanyavad - 'Thanks' in Hindi
• encampment - a temporary camp
• greyheaded vultures - carrion-eating scavenging birds common in India
• igneous rock - volcanic rock
• Khonds - a tribe of jungle dwellers in southern India
• Khondvalasa - a temporary village of the Khonds
• kill (n) - the remains of an animal killed by a big cat
• leopard - a panther
• limestone - consisting mostly of calcium carbonate
• lookout (n) - a sentry
• machaan - a platform built in a tree, from Hindi
• machete - a large knife for clearing underbrush
• man-eater - a tiger or a leopard or a lion that has learned to hunt humans for food
• mango tree - a fruit bearing tree of India, mangifera indica. Should not be confused with mangrove
• marauder - a raider, a plunderer
• matins - morning prayers, often read or sung aloud
• myths - legends that express basic beliefs
• nightjar - a nocturnal bird with a harsh cry
• nullah - a stream, from Hindi naala meaning a brook
• ogre - a legendary monster
• peacocks - the male of the peafowl
• periphery - outer boundary
• porcupine - rodent with sharp quills
• pug marks - foot prints of a big cat; paag in Hindi means 'footprint'
• pyramid - masonry with a rectangular base and an apex
• quills - hollow spines on a porcupine
• racket-tailed drongo - an East Indian bird of the flycatcher family
• red jungle cocks - a species common in the jungles of India, perhaps the ancestors of modern poultry
• rednecked parrots - one of four kinds found in India
• ruminating - chewing the cud
• sambhur - also spelled sambar, an antlered deer of India
• Savara - a jungle tribe of southern India
• soapstone - a kind of stone resembling marble
• spoor - a trail
• toddy palm - black palm tree
• turban - a head dress used by some people in India
• turret - a hole in the tree
• veranda - 'porch' in Hindi
• wattle - a number of rods interwoven with twigs for making fences or walls
• witchdoctor - medicine man