hundred infantry, with orders to recruit and augment his corps, and to the charge of one of the gates of this frontier fortress.

the plunderers received, besides their direct pay, one half of the booty which was realized; the other half was appropriated by Hyder, under a combination of checks which rendered it nearly

the same.

In the course of the operations before Trichinopoly, the Beder peons, in the service of Hyder, were gradually augmented, and exercised their usual industry; and a body of select Pindaries, or Beid, was also gradually raised for similar purposes. This description of horse receive no pay in the service of many of the states of India, but live on the devastation of the enemy's country. Hyder, on his first nomination to a command, had engaged in his service à bramin mutteseddy, named Kundè Row, who will occupy a prominent place in our future narrative. To the cool and calculating mind of a bramin accountant, this man added great sagacity and original thinking; a boldness which did not hesitate regarding means; and a combination of ideas which enabled him to convert the unprofitable business of war into a regular system of finance. Hyder, who could neither read nor write, remedied this defect of education by trust ing to a most extraordinary memory; and valued himself, at this early period of his political life, on going through arithmetical calculations of some length, with equal accuracy, and more quickness, than the most expert accountant. The consultations of these two persons produced a sys tem, regularly organized, by which

of the plunder. Moveable property of every description was their object; and, as already noticed, they did not hesitate to acquire it by simple theft from friends, when that could be done without suspicion, and with more convenience than from enemies. Nothing was unseasonable or unacceptable; from convoys of grain, down to the clothes, turbans, earrings, of travellers, or villagers, whether men, women, or children. Cattle and sheep were among the most profit. able heads of plunder: muskets and horses were sometimes obtained in booty, sometimes by purchase. The numbers under his command increased with his resources: and before he left Trichinopoly, besides the usual appendages of a chief of rank, in elephants, camels, tents, and magnificent appointments, he was rated on the returns and received pay for one thousand five hundred horse, three thousand regular infantry, two thousand peons, and four guns, with their equipments. Of the horses, five hundred were his own property; and the difference between the sum allowed by government, and that disbursed in the pay of the man, and the provender of the horse, was Hyder's profit. In consideration of his furnishing the cannon and their draught, the muskets and accoutrements of regular infantry, he was allowed a certain sum for each gun with its equipments, and for

every hundred men; and was permitted to make his own agreements with the individuals at inferior rates; they also, as well as the rest of his troops, regularly accounting for one half of the plunder they acquired. Some portion of this description belongs to the system of most native armies, and would enter into the history of most successful Indian chiefs; but none ever combined with so much skill the perfect attachment of his men, with the conversion to his own use of so large a portion of what was issued for their pay ment: and Sevagi alone could be brought into competition with Hyder for the regular organization of a system of plunder.

The designation of Hyder's new appointment was that of Foujedar of Dindegul; and having recruited his corps with the most select of the men discharged by Nunjeraj, he marched at the head of five thousand regular infantry, two thousand five hundred horse, two thousand peons and six guns. The department of accounts under Kundè Row had necessarily been augmented, and furnished employment for several clerks, who were well versed in his system; and on the departure of Hyder to a distant station, it was considered expedient that his confidential friend and servant Kundè Row should remain at court to watch over his interests. On approaching Pylney and Veerapatchey, he lulled those Poligars into security by offering to exert his influence at court to obtain a remission of their tribute on condition of their consenting to serve with his army; and was thus permitted to pursue his rout as a

friend, until he had reached the proper position; when, the distribution of troops being previously made, he swept off the whole of the cattle of the open country, and drove them rapidly to Darapoor; where they were divided according to compact, and sold at high prices, generally to their former proprietors. He now commenced his operations against the Poligars, in which, after an obstinate and protracted contest, he was ultimately successful. Among the deceptions which he practised on the government in the course of this service, some were so ludicrously gross, that I should hesitate to state them, if they had not been related to me by more than one eye-witness. Nunjeraj, on the receipt of Hyder's dispatches, with a long list of killed and wounded, sent a special commissioner with rich presents for Hyder and the officers who were represented to have distinguished themselves and Zuckhum puttee for the wounded. This officer was soon made to understand his business. Zuckhum puttee is an allowance to wounded men, as some compensation for their sufferings, and for the purpose of enabling them to defray the expences of their cure; for an Indian army has neither hospitals, nor surgeons, provided by the State. The allowance on this occasion was fourteen rupees a month, until the cure should be completed. Hyder marshalled his wounded men to be inspected by the commissioner: sixty-seven was the true number; but about seven hundred had their legs or arms bound up with yellow bandages, and acted their parts with en

tire success. The money was paid to Hyder according to the muster, and to the probable time of cure reported by the attending surgeons, at the rate of fourteen rupees per man per month. To the really wounded he gave seven and of the presents brought for the officers of the army he made a distribution equally skilful, while each officer was made to believe that he was the person most particularly favoured by Hyder. During these operations Kundè Row was perpetually sounding the exploits of his mas

ter to Nunjeraj; exaggerating the disturbed state of the country and the necessity of augmenting the forces; which was accordingly authorized from time to time, and assignments on the revenues of other districts were added for that purpose to his other resources. Special commissioners were always deputed to muster the new levies; and on one occasion, Jehan Khan saw exhibited the manoeuvre which he calls a circular muster, by which ten thousand men were counted and passed as eighteen thousand.

VOL. LIII.

OF

AT MYSOOR.

From Historical Sketches of the South of India, by Lieut. Col. Mark Wilks.

I

N passing from the town of Silgut to Deonhully in the month of August, 1805, I became accidentally informed of a sect, peculiar, as I since understand, to the north-eastern parts of Mysoor, the women of which universally undergo the amputation of the first joints of the third and fourth fingers of their right hands. On my arrival at Deonhully, after ascertaining that the request would not give offence, I desired to see some of these women, and the same afternoon seven of them attended at my tent.

The sect is a subdivision of the Murresoo wokul, and belongs to the fourth great class of Hindoos, viz. the Souder. Every woman of the sect, previously to piercing the ears of her eldest daughter, preparatory to her being betrothed in marriage, must necessarily undergo this mutilation, which is performed by the blacksmith of the village for a regulated fee, by a surgical process sufficiently rude. The finger to be amputated is

places alchisel over the articulation of the joint, and chops it off at a single blow. If the girl to be betrothed is motherless, and the mother of the boy have not before been subjected to the operation, it is incumbent on her to perform the sacrifice.

After satisfying myself with regard to the facts of the case, I inquired into the origin of so strange a practice, and one of the women related with great fluency the following traditionary tale, which has since been repeated to me with no material deviation by several others of the sect.

A Rachas (or giant), named Vrica, and in after times Busmaasoor, or the giant of the ashes, had, by a course of austere devotion to Mahadeo, obtained from him the promise of whatever boon he should ask. The Rachas accordingly demanded, that every person, on whose head he should place his right hand, might instantly be reduced to ashes; and Mahadeo conferred the boon, without suspicion of the purpose for which it was designed.

The Rachas no sooner found himself possessed of this formidable power, than he attempted to use it for the destruction of his

The Rachas, having lost sight of Mahadeo, inquired of a husbandman who was working in the adjoining field, whether he had seen the fugitive, and what direction he had taken. The husbandman, who had attentively observed the whole transaction, fearful of the future resentment of Mahadeo, and equally alarmed for the present vengeance of the giant, answered aloud, that he had seen no fugitive, but pointed at the same time with the little finger of his right hand to the place of Mahadeo's concealment.

In this extremity Vishnou descended in the form of a beautiful damsel to the rescue of Mahadeo. The Rachas became instantly enamoured: the damsel was a pure bramin, and might not be approached by the unclean Rachas. By degrees she appeared to relent; and as a previous condition to further advances, enjoined the performance of his ablutions in a neighbouring pool. After these were finished, she prescribed as a further purification the performance of the Sundia, a ceremony in which the right hand is successively applied to the breast, to the crown of the head, and to other parts of the body. The Rachas, thinking only of love, and forget

ful of the powers of his right hand, performed the Sundia, and was himself reduced to ashes.

Mahadeo now issued from the linga tunda, and after the proper acknowledgment for his deliverance, proceeded to discuss the guilt of the treacherous husbandman, and determined on the loss of the finger with which he had offended as the proper punishment of his crime.

The wife of the husbandman, who had just arrived at the field with food for her husband, hearing this dreadful sentence, threw herself at the feet of Mahadeo. She represented the certain ruin of her family, if her husband should be disabled for some months from performing the labours of the farm, and besought the deity to accept two of her fingers, instead of one from her husband. Mahadeo, pleased with so sincere a proof of conjugal affection, accepted the exchange, and ordained, that her female posterity, in all future generations, should sacrifice two fingers at his temple, as a memorial of the transaction, and of their exclusive devotion to the god of the ling.

The practice is accordingly confined to the supposed posterity of this single woman, and is not common to the whole sect of Murresoo wokul. I ascertained the actual number of families who observed this practice in three successive districts through which I afterwards passed, and I conjecture that within the limits of Mysoor they may amount to about two thousand houses.

The hill of Seetee, in the talook of Colar where the giant was destroyed, is (according to this tra