or Davee, and Sooruj Deota or Sun God. Before setting out upon an
expedition, they were always careful to take the auspices; which was
done in this manner. Having procured several goats, the principal men
assembled, and while one of them held some water in his mouth, the
others prayed, "O thou Sun God! And O all ye other gods! if we are to
succeed in the enterprise we are about to undertake, we pray ye to
cause these goats to shake their bodies!" If they do not shake them
after the gods have been thus duly invoked, the enterprise must not
be entered upon, and the goats are not sacrificed. "We then try the
auspices with the wheat; we have a handful of wheat, a large shell,
a brass jug, cloth, and frankincense (_gogul_), and scented wood
(_dhoop_) to burn. We burn the frankincense and scented wood, and blow
the shell; and taking out a pinch of the grains, put them on the cloth
and count them. If they come up odd, the omen is favourable; if even,
it is bad. After this, which we call the auspices of the Akut, we take
that of the Seearnee, or female jackal. If it calls on the left, it
is good; if on the right, it is bad. If the omens turn out favourable
in all three trials then we have no fear whatever; but if they are
favourable in only one trial out of the three, the enterprise must be
given up."
The Bowrees appear to have been an off-set of the Bagree Dacoits.
They affected to be descended from Rajpoots, but in truth very little
is known as to their origin. Their peculiar dialect, however, was
Guzerattee, though for generations past they had not even visited
that province, but the circumstance is in favour of the theory that
traces them to Chittore, the capital of Mewar, adjacent to Guzerat,
whence they are believed to have emigrated when Akhbar captured that
city in 1567. According to the deposition of Dhokul Sing, made in
1839, the Bowrees were "not a people of yesterday--we are of ancient
and illustrious descent." Their ancestor, Pardhee, was one of the
companions of Ram in his expedition for the recovery of Seeta. "If,"
said this approver, "if any prince happens to have an enemy that he
wishes to have made away with, he sends for some of our tribe, and
says, 'Go, and bring such or such an one's head.' We go, and steal
into his sleeping apartments, and take off the person's head without
any other person knowing anything about it. If the prince wanted,
not the head of his enemy, but the gold tassels of the bed on which
he lay asleep, we brought them to him. In consequence of our skill
in these matters, we were held everywhere in high esteem; and we
served princes and had never occasion to labour at tillage. We who
came to the Delhi territory (they were mostly located about Delhi,
Mozuffernugur, and Meerut), and were called Bowrees, took to thieving.
Princes still employed us to take off the heads of their enemies, and
rob them of their valuables. At present the Bowrees confine themselves
almost exclusively to robbing tents; they do not steal cattle, or cut
into ("dig through") houses; but they will rob a cart on the highway
occasionally--any other trade than robbery they never take to." During
the absence of the men on some thriving expedition, their wives and
families were protected and maintained by the Zemindar, on whose land
they resided, and who likewise was ever ready to advance a small sum of
money to enable his respectable tenants to take to the road--secure
of repayment with usury. Before setting out they sacrificed a goat to
Davee, and offered burnt offerings.
They also presented sweetmeats to the goddess, and vowed no stinted
quantity should they return successful from their wanderings. To omens
they paid great regard. A couplet in familiar use among them was to the
effect, that "if the cow and the deer cross from the left to the right,
and the snake from right to left, and the blue jay from left to right,
even the wealth that has gone from thee shall come back."
Of the cognate tribes of Sanseea and Bereea Dacoits some interesting
details may be gathered from the official reports of the Commissioners
for the suppression of Dacoitee. According to tradition there lived
a long time ago, in the province or Mharwar, two uterine brothers
named Sains Mull and Mullanoor. Sains was very illiterate and found it
extremely difficult to earn a livelihood by his own exertions. So he
went to the god Bhugwan and represented his case. The deity heard him
with compassion and gave him an order upon every village in the world
for the payment of half a crown from each. Returning home the foolish
fellow showed the paper to his brother, who, moved by envy, tore it
in pieces. A fraternal squabble naturally ensued, which at length
terminated by both of them repairing to Bughwan. But the god declined
to give a second order, and advised Mullanoor to assume the life of a
mendicant, while his brother was to maintain himself by singing and
dancing. From the former were descended the Bereeas, who wandered
about the country, playing the _dhol_ (a kind of drum), begging and
stealing: the men and women living together in a promiscuous state of
extreme socialism. The descendents of the other brother were called
Sanseeas, also a roving tribe, pretending to deal in cattle, goats,
horses, cloth, grain, or anything else that came into their hands. They
were generally in great request as _Bhâts_, or Bards at the marriage
festivals of the Jats. Their business was to trace the lineage of their
entertainer to the founders of the Jat family, and celebrate the heroic
virtues of his ancestors. If the host proved a niggard, and refused to
comply with the exorbitant demands of these vagabond minstrels, they
would make an effigy of his father and parade it up and down before
his house;--or even, in extreme cases, suspend it from a bamboo and
fix it over his door, by which means he temporarily lost caste, so
that none of his neighbours would drink or smoke with him. In former
times these Bhâts almost lived upon the Jats, each claiming, as his
peculiar province, fifty or a hundred families who, in succession,
gave him yearly one day's food and two shillings and sixpence in
money. The Sanseeas were divided into two sub-clans, the Malhas and
the Kalkas--the former being descended from Sains Mull's son, and the
latter from his grand-daughter by an adopted son. A Malha could not
marry a Malha, nor a Kalka a Kalka, but the young men of the one family
chose their wives from among the young women of the other. Originally
the Sanseeas confined themselves to mendicancy, minstrelsy, and
cattle-lifting, but after a time, emboldened by poverty or impunity,
they took to Dacoitee, which they reduced to a regular system.
In their expeditions they left their old men and women, and their
children at home, under the protection of a friendly Zemindar, but
took with them a few young women and such as had children at the
breast, with a view to avert suspicion. When they arrived within two
days' march of the scene of their projected operations, the main body
halted, while the leader with a small party of followers, male and
female, went on to reconnoitre and make the necessary preparations.
Their usual plan was to enter a liquor shop, and while purchasing
some spirits, to ask the name of some respectable money-changer or
banker. They thus learnt the address of the one who was esteemed the
wealthiest. On the following morning at early dawn they repaired
to his shop, because at that hour he would be obliged to go to his
treasure-chest, whereas, later in the day he would have a small supply
of money beside him for ordinary business. Having now ascertained
where his hoard was deposited, and such other particulars as might be
useful, they proceeded to the bazar and procured a sufficient quantity
of bamboos for spear-staves. These they buried near the town on their
way back to the camp. All things being ready they took some spirituous
liquor and spilling a little on the ground, prayed aloud: "O Davee!
Mother! If we succeed in our business and get a good deal of booty,
we will make a grand _poojah_ (religious festival) to thee, and offer
thee a cocoa-nut!" The goddess being propitiated, the next step was to
assign to every man his particular post: some to act as scouts, others
to guard the avenues, others again to rush into the house, while the
Jemadar, or leader, reserved to himself the task of breaking open the
money-chest with his trusty hatchet. Early next morning they advanced
to an easy distance of the place, and some of them went forward for
the spear-staves buried on the previous day. A Sanseea, of approved
tact and intelligence again entered the town to purchase oil for the
torches, and to make the final reconnoissance. So soon as darkness
descended, the gang threw off their clothes and started at a rapid
pace, without once looking behind. If they had reason to expect that
the local police would be vigilant--a rare occurrence--they concealed
their spears in a bundle of reeds or coarse straw, which one of them
carried on his head, followed by another to personate the purchaser of
the fodder. On arriving in front of the shop, the bundle was thrown on
the ground, the cord hastily loosened, the spears extracted and the
torches lighted. Then the Jemadar invoked the aid of his patron deity
and vowed a grateful offering if the chest should at once yield to his
blows. Raising their war-cry _Deen! Deen!_ they furiously assaulted the
bystanders, pelting them with stones, striking them with their spears,
and even wounding them if obstinate. The Jemadar, the torch-bearers,
and four or five determined men, under favour of the tumult, broke into
the house, smashing doors and all other impediments. In a few minutes
afterwards the house was abandoned by the unwelcome intruders, who
moved off to the place of rendezvous as fast as their weighty plunder
would permit them; the Jemadar piously imploring of Bhugwan to send
their pursuers in a wrong direction. Should one of the gang happen
to have been slain, his spirit was likewise invoked, and spirituous
liquor and a goat promised to his manes. At every temple on the road,
and at every stream they had to cross, they threw down a rupee or two
to propitiate the genius of the place. When within a couple of miles
of their encampment they called aloud Koo-Koo. If no response were
heard they pushed on rapidly, occasionally imitating the call of the
partridge: when close at hand they uttered a hissing noise. On their
actual arrival they were certain to find everything packed up and
ready for a start. Mounted on their rough, hardy little ponies they
would cover a distance of sixty to eighty miles in twenty-four hours
for two or three consecutive days, until fairly beyond all danger of
pursuit. Any one was allowed to join a gang on payment of a few rupees,
though not to carry a spear or enter the house until his coolness and
courage had been freely tested. If a Dacoit committed homicide he
was obliged to expiate his blood-guiltiness by making a _poojah_, at
which he trusted his comrades with half a crown's worth of liquor.
In the division of spoils the Jemadar claimed one-tenth in addition
to the repayment of his advances towards fitting out the expedition.
The balance was then divided among the entire gang, the leader again
sharing, and provision was made for the wounded and for the widows of
those who had fallen.
The religious creed of the Sanseeas was sufficiently simple. "I
believe" said one of them, "in Ram (God), Bhowanee, and Sheik Fureed,
whose shrine is at Gierur, about eighteen miles from Hingunghat. There
we make offerings after a successful expedition. Sheikh Fureed acquired
his saintship thus:--he first performed a devotional penance of twelve
years, carrying about with him a load of wood tied to his stomach, but
that was not accepted: next another, in which he ate nothing but forest
leaves for twelve years--not accepted: lastly, his third trip, he hung
himself up by the heels in iron chains in a Baolee (a well) at Gierur;
then he was taken up and asked what he wanted; he said, to have every
request granted; this was promised, and he disappeared. Many people now
pray to him for luck."
Like the Thugs and the other Dacoits, the Sanseeas prided themselves
on the exact observance of omens. They looked upon it as unfortunate to
hear the cry of the jackal or the cat, a kite screaming while sitting
on a tree, the braying of an ass, a flute, or the lamentation over
the dead. It was equally inauspicious to see a dog run away with any
one's food, a woman break a water-pitcher, a hare, a wolf, a fox, a
chamelion, an oil-vender, a carpenter, a blacksmith, two cows tied
together, or a thief in custody. If they encountered a corpse, or if
a turban fell off, or the Jemadar forgot to put some bread in his
waist-belt, or left his spear or axe behind him--the expedition must
be deferred. But nothing could be more promising than to meet a woman
selling milk, or any one carrying a bag of money, or a basket of grain,
or fish, or a pitcher of water. Nor was it less encouraging to see a
calf sucking, or a pig, or a blue jay, or a marriage procession.
Their most binding form of attestation was by means of a piece of
new cotton cloth, exactly 1¼ cubit square, in which was tied up
half-a-pound of coarse sugar. The accuser hung the parcel upon the
branch of a peepul tree, and challenged the accused to touch it. If the
latter foreswore himself, he would sicken within three days. Another
ordeal was to tie seven peepul leaves, one over the other, on the
palm of the suspected person's hand, on which a red-hot iron plate was
then placed. Unless he carried this seven paces without suffering any
inconvenience and deposited it upon seven thorns arranged to receive
it, he was pronounced guilty. At other times a Punchayut, or Council
of Elders, seated themselves on the bank of a river, when one of them
stepped forward and fired two arrows together from one bow, the one in
the name of Bhugwan, the other in that of the Punchayut. The furthest
one was then stuck upright in the ground, while a man walked into
the stream up to his breast and planted a bamboo in the channel. The
accused also entered the water and laid hold of the pole. A member of
the Punchayut having clapped his hands seven times as a signal for him
to plunge his head under the water, set off at the top of his speed for
the arrow, brought it back, and again clapped his hands seven times.
If the accused had kept his head immersed until this second signal, he
was deemed innocent: otherwise, his guilt was held to be satisfactorily
proven.
When a male child was born, his head was carefully shaved, with the
exception of a small spot dedicated to Bhugwan. This lock of hair
was all that he was permitted to wear until the completion of his
tenth or twelfth year, when it also was shorn off by the barber, and
his relatives gave a grand entertainment to the tribe. Those who died
before this ceremony were simply buried with the face downwards:
the only solemnity being the preparation of some sweet cakes, of
which three were given to a dog and the rest consumed by relatives
and friends. But those who survived this important epoch of their
lives were, after death, placed on a funeral pyre. When the fire was
extinguished, the ashes were carefully examined and the bones buried on
the spot. Great feasting and jollity then followed, and the spirit of
the deceased, propitiated by an offering of swines' flesh and spirits,
was invoked to aid and protect his family.
Matrimony was a matter of arrangement between the parents; a Punchayut
deciding the amount of the dower to be given by the father of the
bridegroom to the bride's father. The marriage ceremony consisted in
a libation of spirits to Bhugwan, the Supreme Being, and a public
declaration that the boy and girl were henceforth man and wife; the
whole concluding with a feast. If a man happened to be touched by the
petticoat of his mother-in-law, or daughter-in-law, he lost caste,
and therefore took care never to go near them. The same result was the
consequence of his being struck by his wife's petticoat in the course
of connubial strife. By thus losing caste he was incapacitated from
joining his tribe in worship, or in funeral rites, though he was still
allowed to eat and drink with them. However, a handsome entertainment
to his brother robbers and a humble offering to the gods removed all
impurities, social and religious.
The Bolarum Dacoitee committed in 1837 is such an excellent
illustration of the system adopted by the Sanseeas that no apology need
be offered for the length of the narrative, as given to Captain Malcolm
ten years afterwards by one of the Dacoits actually engaged in it.
"From this place (Sadaseopath) I and four others came on to Hyderabad,
where we looked about us for five days, but finding nothing likely
to suit our purpose, we went to Bolarum, and took up our quarters
at a buneeya's (tradesman's) shop in the village of Alwal, close to
the cantonments. In the cantonments we soon discovered a respectable
looking shop, which appeared well suited for a Dacoitee. Early one
morning I took fifty shuhr-chelnee rupees with me and went to the shop,
where I found the owner transacting business. I asked him to exchange
the shuhr-chelnee for bagh-chelnee rupees, and when I had agreed
to give him one pice discount on each rupee, he went and unlocked
one of two large-sized boxes, which I saw in an inner room, and out
of which he took the money I required. I also noticed some silver
horse-furniture hanging upon a peg on the wall, and in a niche a dagger
and a pair of pistols." "Having thus obtained all the information I
required as to the exact spot where the property was likely to be
found, I next examined the position of the different guards likely to
interrupt us in the act of breaking into the house. I found that a
guard of eighteen men was stationed at the chowrie (police station)
some distance off, and that a sentry was posted at night at a place
where four streets met, close to the shop I had reconnoitred. From the
latter I feared no opposition, as he could easily be overpowered, and
we calculated upon breaking into the house before the chowrie-guard
could turn out and come to the rescue of the banker."
"I then returned to my comrades, with whom I remained for two days,
making ourselves acquainted with all the localities about the place,
the roads leading from it, and in fact with everything that might be of
use to us in the enterprise we were about to undertake. Among other
things, we learnt that after gun-fire, or eight o'clock, the guard had
orders to stop all parties entering the cantonments, and we therefore
determined to commence operations before that hour."
"We then returned to Sadaseopath (forty miles distant), and on relating
the result of our proceedings to the gang, it was determined to risk
a Dacoitee on the Sowar's house at Bolarum. Our next proceeding was
to convey as secretly as possible to the vicinity of that place
sufficient arms and axes to answer our purpose; these were made up into
bundles and entrusted to four men, who proceeded in the night time to
Puttuncherroo, and on the following night, a couple of hours before
daybreak, we reached a small nullah (ravine) behind the mosque near
Bolarum, where the axes and spears were carefully buried in the sand.
The rest of our party in the meantime struck their camp, and, leaving
the high road, made to the village of Tillapoor, about eight or nine
miles from the fort of Golcondah."
"The gang chosen for the Dacoitee consisted of twenty-four able men,
under Rungelah Jemadar and myself, and left Tillapoor about ten o'clock
in the forenoon, and, in small parties of two and three, reached at
twilight the spot where our arms were concealed. We then procured some
oil from the shop in the cantonments, and, about half-past seven or
nearly eight o'clock, we proceeded in straggling order towards the shop
about to be attacked, and which we reached without being challenged by
any one. The sentry posted near the shop we were about to attack did
not appear to suspect or notice us; and the moment our _mussal_ (torch)
was lighted, he was speared by Baraham Shah and Kistniah, while others
commenced breaking in the doors of the inner room, the outer partition
of the shop having been found open. Three bankers, whom we found
writing their accounts in the outer shop, rushed into the house and
disappeared. The lock of the door yielded to one blow from the axe of
Rungelah, and, on throwing down the planks of which it was formed, we
found the box which I had seen on a former occasion, unlocked and open.
Out of this we took sixteen bags full of money, leaving four, which we
were obliged to relinquish, as we were pressed for time, and had not
sufficient men at hand to remove them. The whole place now was in a
state of commotion and uproar; and, as we drew off as fast as we could,
we were followed by a crowd of camp-followers and Sipahees, to the
place where a number of bullocks were picketed. We here struck into
the paddy (rice) fields, and across these our pursuers did not attempt
to follow us. A short distance from Bolarum, two of the bags broke, and
the money fell to the ground; and as it was dark, and we had no time to
search for it, we lost nearly 1,500 rupees." Nevertheless, they got off
with 14,500 rupees, and with silver horse-furniture valued at £15 more.
The impossibility of guarding against these organized attacks by
large bodies of armed men, through the means of the ordinary police,
induced Lord Auckland in 1838 to appoint Captain Sleeman commissioner
for the suppression of Dacoitee, in addition to his duties as General
Superintendent of measures for the suppression of Thuggee. The task
was a difficult one. Not only were the Dacoits protected and screened
by the native princes, land owners, and magistrates--their own numbers
and determination rendered their apprehension a matter of some danger.
It was afterwards ascertained that in 1839 there were no fewer than
seventy-two leaders south of the Jumna who could gather together 1,625
followers; and to the north of that river forty-six leaders, supported
by 1,445 men. In the Oude jungles were many powerful colonies, who
were usually warned by friendly Zemindars of the approach of danger,
and thus enabled to flee to less accessible fastnesses. On one occasion
1,500 of them escaped into Nepaul where they temporarily dispersed,
to meet again at a given rendezvous. The Commissioner himself aptly
compared their colonies to a ball of quicksilver, which, if pressed
by the finger, will divide into many smaller globules, all certain
to come together again and cohere as firmly as before. However, the
constant alarms to which they were now subjected, compelled them to
conceal themselves in such unhealthy spots that they were decimated by
disease. In the Goruckpore district a gang, consisting of ninety-four
men and 280 women and children, suffered so much from this cause that
they voluntarily surrendered themselves. Others were hunted down from
one district to another, until in despair they yielded themselves
prisoners, or endeavoured to abandon their illegal vocation and
settle down to agricultural pursuits. Many of the prisoners, being
conditionally pardoned, were admitted into the police force, where
they distinguished themselves by their courage and intelligence. It is
a remarkable trait in the character of the Dacoits that they rarely
forfeited their word. If once they pledged themselves not to revert
to their former evil habits, there was little danger of a relapse. An
experimental colony was formed of the approvers and their families
near Moradabad, at a place called, _de nomine facti_, Buddukabad. The
result has been satisfactory, though the Dacoits usually complained
of the difficulty of confining their expenditure to the comparatively
small means furnished by honest industry. A Budduk, they would say,
cannot live on eight rupees a month (three rupees being the wages of
an ordinary labourer): he requires at least two rupees a day, because
he eats meat and takes large quantities of _ghee_ and rice, and loves
liquor, and is addicted to polygamy. One of them, who had been ten
years in prison, being asked by Capt. Ramsay if, in the event of his
liberation, he would promise to amend his life, shook his head and
answered with a merry laugh:--"No, no, that would never do. Why should
I become an honest man--work hard all day in the sun, rain, and all
weathers, and earn--what? Some five or six pice a day! We Dacoits
lead very comfortable and agreeable lives. When from home, which is
generally only during the cold season, we march some fourteen or
sixteen miles a-day for, perhaps, a couple of months, or say four, at
the outside--commit a Dacoitee and bring home money sufficient to
keep us comfortable for a year, or perhaps two. When at home we amuse
ourselves by shooting, or visiting our friends, or in any way most
agreeable--eat when we please, and sleep when we please--can, what you
call an honest man, do that?"