114 DISTRIBUTION OF BOOTY. 



out to kill or capture those who in their pas- 

 sage through the country had so cruelly ill- 

 treated the people, whom they had slain in 

 cold blood, besides subjecting many to torture, 

 with other fearful outrages. 



^'When daylight appeared, upwards of seven- 

 ty bodies la}^ stark upon the field, and a vast 

 quantity of loot or booty of all kinds. The 

 waistbands of the dead were first submitted to 

 search, and these were found to contain a great 

 number of female ornaments, many of the nose 

 and earrings being still affixed in the severed 

 members, which had been seemingly cut off, as 

 the quickest mode of appropriating the orna- 

 ments. It was indeed a sickening sight. Having 

 collected the dead, they were thrown into a pit, 

 which was at once filled up. The camels were 

 laden with the more valuable booty, and taken 

 with the horses to the Rajah, who was delighted 

 with our success, ordered an auction of the cap- 

 tured proj^erty, unless claimed and the owner- 

 ship substantiated within a certain number of 

 days, and a division made amongst the captors, 

 after deducting a ' lion's share ' on account of 

 His Highness, and an ample slice for myself" 



