<a > 
in the Lower Valley of the Indus and Cutchi. 31 
business with a party of Bardis, some twenty of the tribe were 
seated around him, and it was suggested by a spectator that 
not a single individual of the party would be found with a 
whole skin, or without wounds over some part of his body. 
The examination was made, turbans were removed, and chests 
and arms bared; the result was, that every man was more or 
less desperately seamed with sword cuts; skulls indented, and 
awful scars. the results of fearful wounds, more or less disfigured 
each individual. As the party was accidentally assembled, they 
offered a pretty fair specimen of the peaceadle habits of Bilt- 
chis. The Sindhian authorities, whenever they had the good 
luck to catch a notorious delinquent, (which was seldom.) 
mutilated him or them by cutting off the left hand; for the 
Bilichi men never deprived a Bilichi of life ; and many does 
the author know so situated, yet still managing, with his Khu- 
assan mare, and right hand at liberty, to be capable of setting 
a whole district in a state of perfect misery and commotion! 
The experiment was tried by the British authorities, of re- 
claiming these tribes by holding out inducements to peaceable 
occupations, but in vain; for as the Asiatics happily express 
it, the “ass on which the prophet* rode was still an ass”—the 
robber was a robber to the last. The Bilichis, as wellas the 
Mekrains, are found in India, serving in the capacity of mer- 
cenaries; and the author heard of a colony of them settled in 
the neighbourhood of Aurungabad, in the centre of the Deckan, 
where they had originally emigrated in the above capacity. 
They do not, however, hold so high a title as the Arabs as 
military hirelings—the latter being some of the most deter- 
mined enemies we have had to encounter. 
It would be uninteresting to describe in detail all of the 
tribes ; but we may mention the really powerful clan of Murris, 
who inhabit the rocky defiles and valleys of the Murri hills. This 
division holds a very high reputation for bravery and indepen- 
dence, and it was proved by us that they fully merited it; for 
on its being considered necessary to occupy their country, we 
were brought into hostility with them, and they behaved with 
true gallantry, and shewed a high-minded and generous sense 
* Our Saviour. 
