114 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
lahs : — even Brahmins are frequently found among 
them. This arises from the circumstance of their 
never destroying the children of those persons whom 
they rob and murder. The children they take care 
of and bring up to their own horrible mode of life, 
which at once accounts for the strange mixture of 
castes composing their community. Brahmins, how- 
ever, degraded by their own class, have been occa- 
sionally known to join them, though this is not often 
the case. 
A gang of these robbers varies from a dozen to sixty 
or seventy persons. They always commit their de- 
predations at a distance from their place of common 
resort, being frequently absent for several months ; 
and they return to their homes to spend the pro- 
ceeds of their ill-gotten booty in the most revolting 
debauchery. Their victims are travellers whom they 
happen to fall in with on the road. Assuming the 
garb of pilgrims, or appearing as families removing 
to a distant part of the country, by their peaceable 
and homely guise, they beguile the unwary, who, 
when thus lulled into security, become easy victims. 
Each company of these murderers has a chief, to 
whom they scrupulously defer. He directs all their 
operations, but in general is not actively employed, 
except in gaining intelligence, and in those less ha- 
zardous offices which require more astuteness than 
courage or manual promptitude. 
When upon active service, they usually separate 
into parties of from eight to twelve, who again subdi- 
vide into twos and threes, following each other within 
