248 HINDOO MANNERS. 



often obliged to acquit the guilty, whom they cannot con- 

 vict but by means of this impure evidence. 



One of the circumstances most inconsistent with our idea 

 of the harmless and gentle character of the Hindoo, is the 

 extensive prevalence of decoity, or gang-robbery ; a system 

 of plunder deeply rooted in the habits of this people. The 

 bands of decoits resemble on a smaller scale the numerous 

 troops of Mahratta and Pindaree freebooters. They are 

 not, like European robbers, bold desperadoes, who set at 

 defiance the order and laws of society. On the contrary, 

 they form a part of that order ; they are sanctioned by 

 those laws which, in the ancient codes, apportion the spoil 

 between the marauders and the state. Even under the 

 British government, which denounces against them rigorous 

 penalties, they calculate on their dexterity for eluding de- 

 tection, and live in the heart of the villages where their 

 practices are well known, but which scarcely render them 

 the less respected. These persons do not usually com- 

 mit depredations on their immediate neighbours, or within 

 the limits of their own village territory. They issue forth 

 in organized bands under regular chiefs, to attack the in- 

 habitants of some distant quarter. In their progress they 

 press into the troop all who can render any service, threat- 

 ening instant death in case of refusal. The timid natives, 

 on their approach, are struck with dismay, and seldom at- 

 tempt resistance, but either fly, or endeavour to avert the 

 violence of the assailants by unconditional submission. In 

 their eagerness to extort hidden treasure, they have recourse 

 to modes of torture more inhuman, if possible, than those 

 already described as practised by the Pindarees. In par- 

 ticular, they are accustomed to apply lighted straw and 

 torches to the body, or having twisted round it hemp cov- 

 ered with clarified butter, set it on fire, so as to cause the 

 most exquisite suffering. At their departure they utter 

 dreadful menaces against such as may take any steps to dis- 

 cover or bring them to justice. On one occasion, after 

 several persons, who had denounced two robbers, had been 

 murdered, a decoit chief entered a village with an earthen 

 pot in his hand, and called out : — " If anybody tells that 

 the four informers were taken off last night, I will tie this 

 pot round his neck and drown him ; I will cut him and his 

 wives and children to pieces. I am Moolea; you know me, 



