Major-General Harpwicrr’s Account of the Sheep-Eater of Hindustan. 381 
not to be had, he would devour a child, if he could steal one. He obeyed 
the summons, and was liberally provided for the journey, as well as attended 
by the gentleman’s own servant ; and on his arrival at Lucnow, a party of 
more than fifty ladies and gentlemen assembled to witness an exhibition of 
his extraordinary powers ; amongst whom were the late Mr.Sackville Taylor 
and Mr. Cherry, Major-General William Palmer, Major-General Claude 
Martine, Major-General Rawstorne, and many other officers of the Hon. 
East-India Company’s army, the present Right Hon. Sir Gore Ouseley, 
Bart., and the gentleman above mentioned, at whose delightful villa they 
partook of a sumptuous déjedne. 
It may be proper to give some idea of the quantity this monster could 
devour at one of these exhibitions. He commonly ate two of the small- 
sized sheep of the Doab, the weight of which, when not stall-fed, did not 
exceed eight or nine pounds per quarter; on the present occasion, however, 
the gentleman above alluded to had provided the sheep from his own stock, 
and one of them was of larger size, being a breed peculiar to the country 
on the north side of the river Gogra, and weighing from twelve to thirteen 
pounds per quarter: this he finished with as much ease as he had the first. 
It was observed that he carefully collected together the ill-picked bones, 
sinews, and other fragments; and when asked what he intended to do with 
them, he replied, they were to furnish him and his guru with a dinner in 
the evening; and that he always took his usual daily meals, whether he 
had had his sheep in the morning or not. 
(Signed) Tuos. Harpwicke, 
Major-General. 
The Lodge, South Lambeth, 
July 20, 1832. 
NOTE, 
Tue following is extracted from a work entitled ‘ Sketches of India.’* It evidently 
alludes to the same singular person, and is so far of consequence as it affords another 
testimony to the accuracy of the facts detailed in the paper of Major-General Hanp- 
wickeE ; although it differs from it in some minor particulars, erroneously calling the 
Sheep-eater a Musalman Fakir; while the gurw isnot mentioned in it at all. As it is 
evidently only the account that ¢radition, after a lapse of twenty years, had preserved of 
this monster’s powers, which were obviously the effect of disease, it will be considered a 
tolerably faithful corroboration of General Harpwicke’s narration—G.C.H. 
* 8vyo. London, 1816. 
