t)F THE MURDERERS Td% 



armed with a dagger, it Is ufaal for one of the villains to fecure his 



bands. It fomctimes happens, that a party of travellers, confiding of 



feverail perfons, and polTeffcd of valuable effeas, are, while journeying 



in imaginary fecurity, fuddenly cut off; and the lifelefs and defpoiied 



bodies being removed and interred, not a veftige of them appears, {g) 



Indances are faid to have occurred, of twelve and fourteen perfons 



being iimultaneoully deftroyed. But fuch occurrences muft be rare i 



and^ in general, the property taken i^ not confiderable. Such, indeed, 



ar€ the criaelty and cupidity of thefe deteilable wretches, that, on the 



|)refumptionof every traveller poffeffing concealed treafure, or foms 



i-property, however trifling, even indigence affords net its wonted' 



iecuriiy. " 



;FoRMSRL-y, if good hof fes, Oaawls, or other valuable articles, were 

 -among the booty, they were commonly referved for the potygar,' m' 

 payment of prote^ion. A portion of the plunder was ufuaily appro, 

 priated to defraying the expehces of religious ceremonies ; and, fome- 

 itimes, a part v/as alfo allotted for the benefit of the widows and families 

 of deceafed members ©f the gang, l^he'refidiie of the boo y, being di- 

 xvided into fsveral parts, was ufuaily fhared as foUov/s % — to the leaderj 

 two (hares, I to the men aftually cdncerned in perpetrating the murder, 

 ;and to the perfon who cut the dead body, each one fhare and a half; 

 and tothe re^nainder of the gang each one fhare. The plunder was 

 ;almoft always carried home by the F'hdmigdrs and fold greatly below 

 rits value-.-r-itw s never drfpofed of near to the place where the per- 



(gj Near Sailrr,^, about ee i yean ago, i^jtt golah peoni were killed, haring on tiiieiii money in difFcicrrt 

 coins, tf> 'lis amou i( of 1 6,006 rupeei. In i8oj, five ptrfoni were tillsd in CaJKihuloof, and ca(h to the 

 anount of ;ib'.ur j 500 p»goJM, the property of the cdlleflor of the diftrift, was bliert. In t'le fjmt y-T, 

 two refpedahte naiivcs. proceeding on harfeback from Madras to the Malabar coift, with five aitfndant»» 

 wrre fill k'l'd. In 1807, five ptifons, befides two oihetg who had joined Ihera on the road, were killed 

 aiear Bengahre, nnd lohbed of prfpSr^jr fo the amount of 1,00 > pagodas, belonging to an cfficer of sngjneeri* 

 .A,nJ, in J 815, ihfcc pcifoni yizit killed in ihc diftiift of Jf-yaAjJa/a^t, and 2,500 rupees lafceiu 



