Of all the long list of officers who served the East India Company there
were few men whose careers were more remarkable than that of General
John Jacob.
Others have raised regiments, conquered provinces, and afterward
administered justice therein; but John Jacob was the first man who
created a nourishing town in a desert wilderness, and formed first one
and then three splendid regiments out of the most sanguinary and lawless
cut-throats on the face of the earth. In the athletic exercises so dear
to the Beloochees he excelled them all. Among a people who may be said
to be almost born on horseback, there was no rider like the commandant
of the Sind Horse.
His men were taken from all the most warlike races of Northwestern
India. The Beloochee, the Pathan, the Mooltanee, and the semi-savage
tribesmen of the hills, had alike to learn obedience when they came
under his command, and his efforts to make them soldiers in the highest
sense of the word never relaxed.
In the year 1854 the country was full of complaints of horse-stealing on
a scale that had not been heard of for many years. No steed of value was
safe, and the thief or thieves must have been tolerably good judges of
horse-flesh, as none but the finest were taken, and these of course
belonged principally to the wealthiest inhabitants. One strange thing
was that the horses were stolen in such an extraordinary manner as to
leave no foot-marks behind them. Not one of the animals could be traced
as ever having been offered for sale in the country. Stables are rare in
Upper Sind, and it is customary to secure a horse by picketing him with
head and heel ropes, the syce, or groom, usually sleeping in the open
air with the animal. The curious part of the matter was that each and
every syce who had had a horse stolen from under his care told exactly
the same story--that it had been taken away by Sheitan himself in
person, after they, the syces, had been put to sleep by his diabolical
arts.
To be sure, they described his personal appearance in many ways,
according to the impression severally produced upon their excited
imaginations, but in the main facts they were all agreed. They had been
sleeping or watching, as the case might be, beside their horses, when a
hideous figure suddenly and silently appeared to them, waved his right
hand, muffled in a white cloth, in their faces; they lost their senses,
and when they recovered, the horses were gone. In no case had the demon
injured the men. Where more than one horse was picketed the fiend never
appeared, which was considered to be the reason that the splendid
chargers of the Sind Horse were not touched.
Superstition is very prevalent in Sind, as indeed it is throughout the
East, and had any native skeptic ventured to hint that alert sentries, a
vigilant patrol, and a stable guard with loaded carbines had anything to
do with this immunity, he would, indeed, have been looked upon as a
scoffer.
As to the British officers, of course, although heroes, they were
infidels, and, however they might laugh at the idea of Satan roaming
about the earth to deprive the sons of men of their horses, they could
have no power to check the public opinion of the bazars.
There was, however, an old Ressaldar, or native captain of the Sind
Horse, who was very much inclined to take the Feringhee view of the
matter. Ressaldar Nubbee Bux was a veteran who had served in his corps
almost from its foundation, and in his younger days had fought against
the flag under which he had since served so long. He, with many other
brave Beloochees, had been opposed to Sir Charles Napier at Meeanee, and
had a vivid recollection of the time when the inhabitants of Sind
actually believed that distinguished though eccentric General to be the
fiend in human form. Since then Nubbee Bux had acquired rank, honor, and
a good deal of worldly wisdom. He was naturally a shrewd, hard-headed
man, and contact with intelligent Europeans had, if not entirely
eradicated native superstitions from his mind, at least rendered him
very dubious of any stories having for their basis supernatural agency.
He had heard of genii, jinns, divs, afrites, and other evil spirits, but
he had never seen one; he had never known them in his own time to
interfere in worldly matters, nor had he heard, even in ancient story,
that they were in the habit of laying felonious hands on live stock, or
earthly property of any description. That the Prince of Darkness himself
should be so hard up for horses as to go about stealing them appeared
to him incomprehensible. It struck him as a mystery he should like to
unravel; and as he feared nothing nor nobody on the face of the earth,
nor below it, save his commanding officer, he determined to try.
Ascertaining the whereabouts of the last wonderful robbery, he obtained
a fortnight's leave of absence, and repaired to the village, well armed,
and mounted on a magnificent thorough-bred Arab horse. He did not enter
it nor put up at the serai, but had a tent some little distance outside.
There he was soon visited by the head men of the place, who lost no time
in paying their respects, for a native officer of the Sind Horse is a
great man in the country around Jacobabad.
After salutations the local magnates were full of the unaccountable
robberies, and earnest in their warnings to the Ressaldar to take care
of his noble steed. Had he not better come into the village? The Kotwal
had a stable with lock and key at his service, and would put a watchman
over the door all night. Nubbee Bux civilly but firmly declined these
favors. He said that if it was fated Sheitan should have his horse,
neither lock, key, nor watchman could prevent it; he should stay where
he was, and his syce should sleep with the animal as usual. His visitors
departed, and the native officer, after a stroll about, took his supper
outside the tent, smoked his hookah, and when it was dark dismissed his
servants, and went to bed--or seemed to do so.
When the distant hum of the village was entirely hushed, and no sound
but the usual howling of the jackals met his ear, he rose, pulled aside
the canvas opening of the tent, and made a curious sort of barely
audible noise like the "chup, chup" of the stag-beetle. His syce, who
was lying beside the horse, swathed in a huge blanket, which covered his
head as well as his feet, rose, and with noiseless footfall entered his
master's tent. In three minutes he re-appeared, _or seemed to do so_,
and again wrapping himself in his great blanket, lay down to sleep by
the horse's side, _or seemed to do so_.
In about two hours from that time a hideous form appeared to rise from
the earth. Its figure was human, but the dark brown flesh glistened as
no human flesh ever glistened naturally, while the head was indeed
fearsome to behold. It was surmounted by an enormous pair of horns, had
two glaring eyes, and a mouth full of frightful teeth, from which
protruded a tongue forked like a barbed arrow.
The weird figure stooped and advanced its right hand, wrapped in a white
cloth, toward the head of the prostrate syce. Like a flash of lightning
that prostrate form sprang up. Ressaldar Nubbee Bux (for he was his own
syce on this occasion) dealt his assailant such a slash with his tulwar
as would have cleft the head of any mortal man in halves, and which, as
it was, stretched the horse-thief senseless on the ground.
As Nubbee Bux, bare blade in hand, bent over his foe, a strange sight
met his view.
The blow had split a head-covering composed of buffalo-skin with the
hair on, stretched over an iron mask, something like a diver's helmet,
with eyes of transparent horn ingeniously illuminated by means of minute
lamps concealed in the balls, the real eyes of the wearer having sight
beneath. The false teeth and forked tongue were knocked out, and lay on
the ground with the horns.
The Ressaldar summoned his syce, who had remained in the tent, and a
light being brought, found that the prisoner who had fallen into his
hands was a fine athletic young Beloochee, about twenty-two years of
age. He was quickly bound, and by direction of his captor carried into
the tent.
He was only stunned, and soon recovered to find himself helpless, and
the first words that fell upon his ear were spoken in his own language,
by a stern-looking man of some five-and-forty years, whose right hand
coquetted with the hilt of a tulwar, while his left hand ominously
handled a pistol.
They were few but expressive: "Rascal! can you give me any reason that I
should not blow your brains out?"
The prisoner remained silent. Nubbee Bux continued: "If I took you to
yonder village you would, as you know, be torn to pieces. If I give you
up to justice you will certainly be hanged. If, however, you obey my
orders implicitly, I may deal with you myself. Tell me instantly how you
managed all these robberies, and how you became possessed of that ugly
mask you frightened all the poor fools with."
Then raising the pistol, he added, "I give you one minute to commence
speaking, or I fire--and, mind, no lies, or it will be worse for you!"
The prisoner inclined his head, and said, in a firm voice, and with no
sign of trepidation, "Sirdar, I will speak the truth."
"You had better," replied Nubbee Bux, grimly, toying with his weapons.
"My name is Jumal. I come from Mittree, a small village about fifty
miles from here, on the banks of the Indus. My father is a very poor
man; but some two years ago he and I hid and sheltered an English
deserter from one of the European regiments at Kurrachee. He was much
inquired after by the police, but no one suspected us of harboring him.
He had rupees, and gave some to my father; but had it not been so, the
Sirdar is aware that the Beloochees, whatever else we may do, would
never turn from our door a hunted fugitive in distress."
Nubbee Bux nodded.
"We finally got him away up the river to Mooltan, where he said he would
be safe, as no one thereabouts knew him, and he had grown a long black
beard since his desertion, which, together with his hair, my father dyed
red for him. He was a clever fellow; he and I became friends, and he
made the mask which you destroyed to-night, to assist me in
horse-stealing, which I had already practiced on a small scale. He also
showed me the use of chloroform--an English medicine--and instructed me
how to procure it from Kurrachee. I used to pour some of it on the cloth
you saw on my hand, and used it to stupefy the syce after I had
frightened him. I then let the horse smell it sufficiently to render him
quiet. Before making my appearances I always dropped, a few yards off, a
small sack containing four little bags of moist sand, one of which I
tied round each foot of the horse, so that on leading him away his feet,
thus incased, hardly made any track, and the little impression there was
upon the dry loose sand far more resembled the footprint of a camel than
that of a horse, and even this was generally obliterated by the first
drifting of the sand in the morning breeze. The peculiar appearance of
my skin is due to the profuse application of cocoa-nut oil and sulphur.
When I had got the horse to a convenient distance I uncased his feet,
and stowing the coverings and my disguise in the sack, I mounted and
rode him straight across country, avoiding all roads, to a hiding-place
we had in the thick jungle. There my father and some friends who were
used to the business soon so altered his appearance by well-known means
that his late owner would hardly have known him. I never stole but one
horse at a time, and they were all sent up the river to Mooltan, thence
to be sold at various places remote from this."
After this Jumal, the young horse-thief, gave up his evil ways, and
enlisted in the Sind Horse, becoming in a short time one of the most
valued members of the company commanded by his captor, old Nubbee Bux.
This is one method of obtaining horses. Among certain tribes of Indians
in this country another method is practiced that is equally curious, but
far more honest. It is the custom called by the Indians of the plains
"smoking horses." If a tribe, or a band belonging to that tribe,
decides to send out a war party, one of the first and most important
things to be thought of is whether there are enough horses on hand to
mount the warriors. If, as is often the case, the horses of the tribe
have been stolen by other Indians, they decide to "smoke" enough horses
for present needs, and to steal a supply from their enemies at the first
opportunity.
[Illustration: SMOKING HORSES.]
In order to "smoke horses" a runner is dispatched to the nearest
friendly tribe with the message that on a certain day they will be
visited by a number of young men, forming a war party from his tribe,
who require horses.
On the appointed day the young warriors appear stripped to the waist,
march silently to the village of their friends, seat themselves in a
circle, light their pipes, and begin to smoke, at the same time making
their wishes known in a sort of droning chant.
Presently there is seen far out on the plain a band of horsemen, riding
gayly caparisoned steeds fully equipped for war. These horsemen dash up
to the village, and wheel about the band of beggars sitting on the
ground, in circles that constantly grow smaller, until at last they are
as close as they can get to the smokers without riding over them. Then
each rider selects the man to whom he intends to present his pony, and
as he circles around, singing and yelling, he lashes the bare back of
his victim with his heavy rawhide whip, repeating the stroke each time
he passes, until the blood is seen to trickle down. During this
performance the smokers take no notice of what is going on, but sit
immovable, calmly smoking and singing. If one of them flinched under the
cruel blows, he would not get his horse, but would be sent home on foot
and in disgrace.
At last, when the horsemen think their friends have been made to pay
enough in suffering for their ponies, each dismounts, places the bridle
of his pony in the hand of the smoker whom he has selected, and at the
same time handing him the whip, says, "Here, beggar, is a pony for you
to ride, for which I have left my mark."
After all the ponies have been presented, the "beggars" are invited to a
grand feast, during which they are treated with every consideration by
their hosts, who also load them with food sufficient to last them on
their homeward journey.
At last the "beggars" depart with full stomachs and smarting backs, but
happy in the possession of their ponies and in anticipation of the time
when their friends shall be in distress, and shall come to "smoke
horses" with them.
[Begun in No. 46 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, September 14.]