112 
KOOTAN. 
they heard that there was no certain antidote, against the baneful 
effects of poison. 
The three villages, of which the rebels were now in complete pos¬ 
session, extended across the valley in a line east and west. There was 
some interval between them; so that the two extremes, 1 reckon, are 
rather more than a mile apart. In the morning, it might be observed, 
that they had very nearly completed a breast-work along the whole of 
this space, which afforded a safe line of communication from one 
village to another, the only break being between the westernmost and 
the centre. This breast-work was a wall of loose stones, over which 
they could fire when they stood up, but which afforded them a com¬ 
plete cover when they crouched down, the ends of their bows only 
being visible above it. 
About noon, a messenger came to me from the Raja, desiring us to 
wait upon him., and we immediately obeyed the invitation. He apo¬ 
logized, at the instant of our meeting, for not having seen us during 
the last tiiree days, his attention, during that time,, having been en¬ 
tirely engaged ; and exhorted us not to be alarmed at the present dis¬ 
turbances, comparing the insurgents to the Sunneassees and Fakeers, 
that occasionally traverse, in tumultuous bodies, the borders of Bengal. 
“ They are a disorderly rabble,” says he, “ led on by a Zempi, whom 
I dismissed for his misconduct, and suffered to go away unpunished; 
but he, availing himself of this indulgence, before his disgrace became 
publicly known, obtained under the sanction of my name, from various 
officers in my employment, sundry valuable effects, which he embez¬ 
zled, and then took refuge in the woods. Our searches for him, in 
