1901,] 
T. G. Bailey —Notes on the Sasi Dialect , 
7 
Notes on the SUsi Dialect.—By Rev. T. Grahame Bailey, B.D., M.A., 
Wazirabad. 
[Read January, 1900.] 
‘ Sasi ’ is the name given by Panjabis to one of the criminal tribes 
of the Panjab. The Sisls are a deeply interesting people. Sunk low 
in the scale of civilisation, addicted by nature and education to criminal 
habits, clinging to traditional beliefs peculiarly their own, living in the 
midst of, yet holding aloof from, other races, they invite the attention 
of students of ethnology and students of comparative religion alike. 
But their linguistic interest is paramount. Being criminals they con¬ 
ceal their language with scrupulous and extraordinary care. Many 
are the stories they tell of Panjabis and Europeans, who attempting to 
become conversant with their speech, relinquished the project in des¬ 
pair, being baffled at the unforeseen magnitude of the task they had 
undertaken. Such stories are, needless to say, exaggerations. 
The StlsI Dialect may be subdivided into two, the main dialect, 
and the criminal variation. While the former will certainly repay time 
spent on it by students of language, the chief interest lies undoubtedly 
in the latter. Here we have the remarkable phenomenon of a dialect 
which owes its origin to deliberate fabrication for the purpose of aiding 
and abetting crime. Siisls themselves are unaware of its source; yet in 
the presence of strangers they unconsciously use a dialect which is not 
a natural growth but a conscious manufacture. So much has this 
become new part of themselves that S^sls from any district in the 
Panjab will speak the same dialect and be ignorant of the fact that 
what they call this language is originally a conscious imposture, a 
deliberate fraud, a carefully laid plot to keep in natural darkness deeds 
which would not bear the light. 
The main dialect is used by all S^sls, both children and adults, 
in ordinary conversation. It closely resembles Panjabi, though some¬ 
times more like Urdu, and if spoken with a clear and deliberate enun¬ 
ciation, might be partially understood by a Panjabi. The criminal 
variation is absolutely unintelligible except to the initiated. Even 
