SKETCH OF TKS SIKHS, S59 



the chief; but, more generally, by the relations of the deceased, who, in 

 such cases, rigorously retaliate on the murderer, and sometimes on ail 

 who endeavor to prote(5l him. 



The chara6ler of the Sikhs, or rather Sinhs^ which is the name by 

 which the follov/ers of Gu'ru' Govind, who are all devoted to arms, are 

 distinguished, is very marked. They have, in general, the Hindu cast of 

 countenance, somewhat altered by their long beards, and are to the full as 

 a6tive as the Mahrdtas, and much more robust, from their living fuller, 

 and enjoying a better and colder climate. Their courage is equal, at all 

 times, to that of any natives of India, and wlien wrought upon by pre- 

 judice or religion, is quite desperate. They are ail horsemen, and have no 

 infantry in their own country, except for the defence of their forts and 

 villages, thougli they generally serve as infantry in foreign armies. They 

 are bold, and rather rough in their address, which appears more to a 

 stranger from their invariably speaking in a loud tone* of voice : but this 

 is quite a habit, and is alike used by them to express the sentiments of re- 

 gard and hatred. The Sikhs have been reputed deceitful and cruel, but I 

 know no grounds upon which they can be considered more so, than the 

 other tribes of India ; they seemed to me, from all the intercourse I had 



tration of justice among his countrymen. He spoke of it with rapture ; and insisted, witli true 

 patriotic prejudice, on. its great superiority over the vexatious system of the English govern- 

 ment, which was, he said, tedious, vexatious and expensive, and advantageous only to clever 

 rogues. 



* Talking aloud is so Iiabitual to a Si/Ji, tliat he bawls a secret in your ear. It has often 

 occurred to me, that they have acquired it from living in a country, where internal disputes 

 bavc so completely destroyed confidence, that they can only carry on conversation with each 

 bther at a distance; but it is fairer, perhaps, to impute this boisterous and rude habit, to their 

 living almost constantly in a camp, iu wliich the voice certainly loses that nico modulated 

 tone which distiiiguishes the more polished iuhabitants of cities. 



