A Pindari expedition [441] usually started at the close of the rains,
as soon as the rivers became fordable after the Dasahra festival in
October. Their horses were then shod, having previously been carefully
trained to prepare them for long marches and hard work. A leader of
tried courage having been chosen as Luhbaria, all who were so inclined
set forth on a foray, or Luhbar as it was called in the Pindari
nomenclature, the strength of the party often amounting to several
thousands. In every thousand Pindaris about 400 were tolerably well
mounted and armed; of this number about every fifteenth man carried
a matchlock, but their favourite weapon was the ordinary bamboo
spear of the Marathas, from 12 to 18 feet long. Of the remaining 600
two-thirds were usually common Lootais or plunderers, indifferently
mounted and armed with every variety of weapon; and the rest slaves,
attendants and camp-followers, mounted on _tattus_ or wild ponies and
keeping up with the Luhbar in the best manner they could. They were
encumbered neither by tents nor baggage; each horseman carried a few
cakes of bread for his own subsistence and some feeds of grain for
his horse. They advanced at the rapid rate of forty or fifty miles a
day, neither turning to the right nor to the left till they arrived at
their place of destination. They then divided, and made a sweep of all
the cattle and property they could find; committing at the same time
the most horrid atrocities and destroying what they could not carry
away. They trusted to the secrecy and suddenness of the irruption
for avoiding those who guarded the frontiers of the countries they
invaded; and before a force could be brought against them they were on
their return. Their chief strength lay in their being intangible. If
pursued they made marches of extraordinary length, sometimes upwards
of sixty miles, by roads almost impracticable for regular troops. If
overtaken they dispersed and reassembled at an appointed rendezvous;
if followed to the country from which they issued they broke into small
parties. The cruelties they perpetrated were beyond belief. As it was
impossible for them to remain more than a few hours on the same spot
the utmost despatch was necessary in rifling any towns or villages
into which they could force an entrance; every one whose appearance
indicated the probability of his possessing money was immediately
put to the most horrid torture till he either pointed out his hoard
or died under the infliction. Nothing was safe from the pursuit of
Pindari lust or avarice; it was their common practice to burn and
destroy what they could not carry away; and in the wantonness of
barbarity to ravish and murder women and children under the eyes of
their husbands and parents. The ordinary modes of torture inflicted
by these miscreants were to apply red-hot irons to the soles of the
feet; or to throw the victim on the ground and place a plank or beam
across his chest on which two men pressed with their whole weight;
and to throw oil on the clothes and set fire to them, or tie wisps
of rag soaked in oil to the ends of all the victim's fingers and set
fire to these. Another favourite method was to put hot ashes into a
horse-bag, which they tied over a man's mouth and nostrils and thumped
him on the back until he inhaled the ashes. The effect on the lungs
of the sufferer was such that few long survived the operation.