386 



Callander, the British resident at Jamboseer, who accompanied 

 me to Ahmedabad, and was highly respected throughout the coun- 

 try, corresponded with some Gracia rajahs, who had no concern 

 with the chieftains of Mandwa and Veloria, and were in no shape 

 implicated in their treachery; they assured him, in letters written 

 after my providential escape, of what was the deliberate inten- 

 tion of those cruel tribes, had they secured me alive. These 

 Gracia friends of Mr. Callander, aided by the bhauls of Serulah, 

 were the means of recovering my palanquin and some other effects 

 from the enemy; my sword they detained, as a trophy of their 

 inglorious exploit. 



I formerly mentioned the cruel sheep-skin death, sometimes 

 practised by the Mahraltas, which was not forgotten among the 

 various tortures meditated against me by those merciless chief- 

 tains. To be sewed up naked in the skin of an animal newly 

 flayed, and therein exposed to the solar rays in India, without 

 food or water, is perhaps one of the most cruel deaths ever thought 

 of. The deprivation of sustenance would indeed mercifully hasten 

 the death of the wrelched sufferer; for dreadful must be the tor- 

 ture occasioned by the skin drying, contracting, and closely ad- 

 hering to the flesh of the living victim. 



I do not find any mention made of this punishment in Indian 

 history, excepting one instance recorded in the Ayeen Akbery, 

 which was probably of a similar nature. The anecdote is alto- 

 gether curious, and concludes with one of Abul Fazel's usual 

 remarks. During the khalifat of Waleed, Mohammed Cossim was 

 sent against Dahir, a brahmin who had usurped the throne of the 



