THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 63 



course quite insignificant as compared with the terms of the 

 new bond, put the case into court. 



In vain the Pathan implored, in vain in the courts he tried 

 to explain the real facts of the case, the net was well woven, 

 there was no escape, decree was given against him, and the 

 usurer was ordered to be placed in possession of the property. 



Now the Pathan was very old and feeble ; he belonged to a 

 generation that would far ratber die than be disgraced, and 

 to whom to yield one foot even of his ancestral lands was the direst 

 and most utter disgrace. He had two sons trained in the same 

 school, and when his enemy came down to take possession he 

 told them to defend the land or never see his face again. 



The law must be upheld. I quite admit this, but for all 

 that to these two sons it was an unavoidable and sacred 

 duty to obey their father in this matter. Had they hesi- 

 tated, their whole kin would have disowned them, their sons 

 like themselves would have been outcasts, their little daughters 

 must have grown up as prostitutes, as no Pathan would have 

 married them. Thus at least they viewed the case, and thus 

 doubtless the case then stood, but as we know a very few years 

 have sufficed to change even the Pathan's views on these subjects. 

 That this change has been in a great measure due to the steru 

 punishments meted out in this and some similar cases, I do not 

 doubt ; it justifies the administration of the time, it cannot lessen 

 our pity for the individual victims to a mistaken notion of duty. 



So the two sons called together sundry cousins, and went out 

 to meet the usurer and his servants, who, relying on the strength 

 of the iron British hand, went boldly down to take possession, 

 escorted only by one little wretched Hindustanee clerk, but he a 

 noher-sirhar, a servant and representative of the ruling power. 



Angry words ensued ; the clerk of course disappeared ; blows 

 followed (everybody in the Peshawur district was in those days 

 armed to the teeth) and in the melee the usurer and one of 

 the brothers were killed, and half a dozen others on each side 

 were wounded. 



My poor friend and party escaped into foreign territory, but 

 this was just after the mutiny, it was absolutely necessary to 

 punish with a high hand all such outrages ; the native police 

 pounced upon the old father and the women of the family, and 

 to save them from disgrace he came in and gave himself up. 

 He was sentenced to death, but some glimmering of the ab- 

 stract merits of the case seems to have reached the authorities, 

 for his sentence was commuted to transportation for life, and 

 he was one of the first batch of convicts sent to Port Blair. 



