154 



ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



of bhunder-baboons. The brutes had been captured in 

 flagranti^ and, as the chief culprit could not be identified, 

 the incensed Mussulman sent the whole troop to the 

 Selinghar, or state prison, which joins the royal palace 

 of Delhi. The sentence was certainly not excessively 

 rigorous, but before night the whole town was agog 

 with ranting Brahmins and howling women. They 

 kept up their lamentations all night, and the next 

 morning, having ascertained the whereabouts of the 

 martyrs, they shook hands with them through the 

 grated windows and perfumed them with attar. The 

 Peshwar was going to bring the matter before a mu- 

 nicipal court, but the Shah induced him to enter a nolle 

 prosequi and release the defendants. 



In Agra, where the honumans are a terrible nuisance, 

 the English Protestants have a cemetery of their own, 

 and have come to the conclusion that the Sikh Lascars 

 (discharged Mohammedan soldiers) make the only re- 

 liable sextons. The Rev. Allen Mackenzie was once 

 summoned by a frightened messenger, who informed 

 him that the " niggers" were going to gut the grave- 

 yard on account of some baboon-difficulty or other, 

 but upon his arrival at the cemetery he found that the 

 turbaned sexton had been already reinforced by an 

 armed troop of his countrymen, who threatened to 

 impale the first idolater who should presume to molest 

 the faithful guardian of a 'government preserve. The 

 whole fuss was about a couple of honumans who had 



