1837.] 



An Account of the Tribe of Mhadeo Kolies. 



257 



bled the Naiks of the fifty Mawils with their retainers, and all of them 

 marched and invaded the fort. A year and upwards having elapsed, 

 and there being no prospect of obtaining possession of ine horse, the 

 Kolies were told that they were such faithless and such an extravagant 

 set of people, that they could not be depended on, and, unless they cap- 

 tured the fort in less than one month, a number of the Naicks and fol- 

 lowers should be put to death in a very disgraceful manner. This 

 threat frightened the Kolies ; numbers of them lied to the jungles during 

 the night, and only the Naicks of twenty-two Mawils and their followers 

 remained with Bhokkur, who gave his people orders to prepare their 

 ladders of the Maryelloo, remarking that, as a sentence of death was 

 impending over them, they had much better try to capture the fort, and 

 die in the attempt, than submit to be disgraced. Bhokkur and his 

 confidential friend Bhoirjee Istah, disguising themselves as dheres, 

 sellers of firewood, ascended the fort, and succeeded in bribing 

 one of the garrison to assist them. At the appointed time, this man 

 drew up the ladder and secured it at the top, but when the Kolies reach- 

 ed the place where they were to begin to ascend by the ladder, they 

 discovered it was four or five cubits short. Bhokkur now despaired of 

 succeeding, but Istah cheered him on, and remarked that they both to- 

 gether measured much more in height than the extent of the vacant 

 space. " We shall manage it between us ; so you get up on my should- 

 ers, and a third person can reach the ladder from off your back." They 

 soon lengthened it, and seventy or eighty of them ascended the hill. 

 They attacked and overpowered the guards, and were moving off 

 with their prize, when an officer satisfied that to obtain posses- 

 sion of the horse was the cause of the fort being captured, fired 

 and killed the beast on the spot. One of the Mahomedan princes 

 being in the vicinity, expressed his great approbation of Bhok- 

 kur's daring spirit, and gave orders for his being brought to 

 court, that he might be rewarded for his services. It is said that 

 owing to an accident that had befallen Bhokkur, which had much dis- 

 figured his face, he was mostanxious to avoid making his appearance at 

 court ; and that he dressed out a friend and despatched him, with di- 

 rections to say, that he was Loomajee Bhokkur. The deception was de- 

 tected and Loomajee was obliged to attend himself. When he was in- 

 troduced to the prince, one of the attendants placed a shield on the 

 Naik's head, and it was filled with as many gold mohurs as he could 

 carry away with him. Loomajee had the title of munsubdar conferred 

 upon him. Moreover it is stated that he built a large house at Joonere 

 under which he had a subterraneous passage or cellar. Superstition and 

 tradition united, maintain that all the riches Loomajee* secured at 



* It is the general belief, that whoever attempted to descend into the cellar was de- 

 troyed. Some fifty years ago Dussajee Bhokkur (who was killed at Hursh) had a sou 



