LIFE IN CENTRAL ASIA. 273 



in a strange country. During our residence at Kurra- 

 chee, some fifteen or twenty of them were sepoys in 

 the 8th Eegiment of Native Infantry, the rule having 

 been abrogated which, at one time, forbade their 

 admission into the Anglo-Indian army. The conse- 

 quence was that a number of singular outrages were 

 perpetrated, which for some time quite baffled the 

 police. Sindees and Cutchees were found lying dead 

 killed, apparently, by stones thrown with great 

 force and dexterity. Officers' bungalows were entered 

 at night, and robbed while the inmates were sleeping. 

 The police puggies or trackers (in a desert country 

 like Sind footsteps are easily tracked, and some men 

 specially devote themselves to the occupation) could 

 find nothing more suspicious than what appeared to 

 be marks of camels' feet. The boldness and unpre- 

 cedented character of the outrages threw speculation 

 quite at fault. Considerable alarm was excited in 

 houses outside, or 011 the outskirts of the camp ; and 

 revolvers immediately rose to a premium. A quarrel 

 among themselves, which led to the treachery of one, 

 disclosed that these depredations were committed, and 

 that very systematically, by the Afghans of the 8th 

 Native Infantry, who managed to steal out at night, 

 in small parties, from the lines of their regiment, and 

 who baffled the puygies by binding up their own feet 

 in rags, a stone being placed under the instep, so as 

 to leave no distinct impression of a foot upon the 

 sand. It being thought expedient to capture some of 



