54 TRACiaNG THIEVES. 



district before, the tracker will generally tell 

 by the first glance at the foot-mark who the 

 offender is, and goes straight to his village and 

 secures him. Thieves have been traced after 

 an interval of time had elapsed, and to a dis- 

 tance from the place of perpetration, almost in- 

 credible ; through the running stream, over the 

 newly-ploughed field, through standing corn, 

 over the hard soil of the desert, through the 

 crowded bazaar, and along the high road, the 

 criminal was hunted down. When the foot- 

 marks of thieves were traced to a village, the 

 zemindar was held responsible for the alleged 

 value of the property stolen unless he could 

 show that the foot-marks went beyond. In 

 cases of cattle theft, four times the number 

 stolen were taken from the thief; three-fourths 

 thereof being appropriated by the Sirkar. 



Colonel Rathborne relates an instance of the 

 theft of a camel which was tracked a certain 

 distance, when the tracks were lost and the 

 search abandoned. Several months afterwards 

 the same tracker was employed in tracking 

 some stolen animals in a distant district, and 

 whilst doing so came across a camel's track, 

 recognised it as that of the camel lie had lost 



