104 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
away from the sickening sight with shuddering dis- 
gust. I had not advanced very far, before a simi- 
lar object appeared, in all the revolting deformity of 
decay and mutilation. It hung so low, that the 
jackals had been enabled to gnaw the flesh from the 
legs so far as the knees ; and the frightful distor- 
tion of feature, from the summary and clumsy mode 
of strangulation adopted by the native executioner, 
altogether exhibited a picture which I can never 
easily forget. I passed hastily on ; but my annoy- 
ances in this way were not yet at an end. 
I had not proceeded above a few hundred yards 
before a third spectacle, still more revolting than the 
two former, met my view: this was the body of a 
woman hanging by the legs from a rude gibbet set up 
by the roadside. This person had been hanged in 
the usual manner, but the cord having snapped, some 
passengers had probably reversed her position, by 
way of expressing their indignation at her crime, of 
which I shall have presently to speak. The face was 
horribly disfigured by jackals, all the flesh having 
been eaten away, and presenting the mask of a grim 
and hideous skeleton. The vultures were kept off 
by the continual passing of travellers ; else these 
bodies would not have remained twelve hours un- 
consumed: when I saw them they had been hang- 
ing since the previous morning. I counted no less 
than eight of those objects in the course of my 
ride. 
Upon inquiry, I ascertained that they were the 
bodies of a dacoit-gang, called Phansigars, who had 
been detected in attempting to murder a subject of 
