8 2 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



appearance, and who were not possessed of any 

 caste till very lately. But they have been greatly 

 oppressed by the Hindoo element. The Mozadars and 

 other officials, all Hindoos, impress them as coolies- 

 sparing their own people and bully them in every 

 way. The Hindoos (Assamese), bad as are the Bengalis, 

 are but a poor specimen of them. They are bigoted 

 in religion, have not a grain of pluck, and would 

 sooner lie and perjure themselves, in a case before the 

 courts than speak the truth. Their priesthood are 

 debauched, and live most sensual lives, and think 

 themselves beyond the pale of the law. 



At Kamykiah one of their temples near Gowhaty, 

 the number of dancing girls attached to the pagoda 

 was over four hundred. They are professional pros- 

 titutes to a hundred priests and yet are supposed to be 

 perpetual virgins ! The Assamese have no shame. The 

 girls when young are not bad-looking nor badly made, 

 but inferior in that respect to Indians, or to the 

 Burmese. They may have heard of virtue as an 

 extinct quality but only as such. During one of 

 their feasts and I witnessed one every man, woman 

 and child was drunk ; debauchery was openly carried 

 on ; women and men as stark naked as at the moment 

 they were born, danced and wrestled together, in fact 

 behaving generally as wild beasts. As I said before, 

 gangs of Assamese used to follow me about when I 

 was shooting in the dooars. I gave them every scrap 

 of meat from the rhinoceros I killed, yet if I required a 

 drop of milk I could get none, unless by order of the 

 omnipotent Mozadars, although such supplies as were 

 brought were paid for by me in person even when I 

 wanted to move camp, not an Assamese would be 



