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MISCELLANEA AND CORRESPONDENCE.
MARCH, 1874.]
wealthy criminal may generally obtain "not only the reversal of the sentence by which he was justly condemned, but may also inflict whatever punishment he pleases on the accuser, the witnesses, and the judge."
Thags, as a rule, are more addicted to murder than robbery, and they are especially prone to Meghapanna Thagi-the crime of strangling or poisoning parents for the sake of their children, who are sold in distant places, or to persons of the wandering classes, likely to carry them away to far-off countries. Boys are generally sold for a trifling sum, Brinjârâs often purchasing them at the rate of five rupees, or so, each. Female children are more profitably disposed of, and are eagerly sought for by Nath Gypsics. The crime is secretly practised, and if the corpses of the victims should occasionally be seen, little notice of such things is taken in the countries infested by these monsters, who, if they continue the inhuman practice at all, take care to confine it to native territory. Meghapanna Thagi is also followed by a race called Naiks, a low caste of men inhabiting Jaypur, Mårwâr, Mewâr,and Mâlwa. They travel about as religious mendicants of the Hindu classes, but more generally as Bairagis of the Sar-Bhangi sect, who eat at every one's hand, and this disguise has fastened itself upon some of them to such an extent, that they are still generally called Bairagis even in their own villages, although in caste they are simply Naiks. In expeditions of Thagi, they formerly went out in small isolated parties, meeting in large numbers when occasion required; but they were all cognizant of the criminal acts of each other, and therefore formed an extensive secret brotherhood, but to what extent they now commit the crime, it is difficult to tell.-Friend of India, September 5th, 1872.
THE MUSALMANS OF INDIA.
At the time of the Muhammadan invasion, the Hindus were far more civilized than any other Asiatic people with whom the Arabs had come into contact, and to the present hour they are more keen and subtle in intellect, preserve more of their ancient traditions and practices, adapt themselves more readily to circumstances, and have made more substantial advances than those who ruled over them, more or less completely, for eleven centuries. It would be a mistake to suppose that the extension of Muhammadanism in India was entirely the result of violence. Whole sects of Hindusare said to have voluntarily adopted the new religion, and the intermarriages of the conquerors and the conquered, whether forcible or voluntary, have so confused their characteristics that it is very difficult to trace the origin of the Musalmans of many parts of India, or to distinguish them from the
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older inhabitants of the same countries by their mere physical characters. As a rule, they are more robust and muscular, from their more varied and nutritive dietaries, and from the greater amount of physical exertion which they undergo. They are more brusque and independent in manner, and are said to be less social and hospitable. They are, however, easily distinguished by their dress, by the absence of all marks and symbols of caste, by their modes of salutation and address, and by a thousand minute shades of difference. which those who have lived long among them easily distinguish, but which it would be difficult to describe. The Musalmans, when they appeared in India, were inferior to the Hindus except as warriors, and even in this respect the early records show that they were frequently defeated, and when victorious purchased their victories dearly. Yet they acquired an influence over them by slow degrees during the last six centuries of their rule, which has even to the present day modified the manners and customs of all classes subject to their rule. They themselves have again been influenced by the natives of India so much as to change some of their ceremonial observances, and in some matters their manners and customs, to an extent which has caused Musalmans from other countries, and some of the reformers amongst themselves, to doubt if they are genuine Musalmans.
Dudu Miyah, the head of the sect of Ferâgis in Eastern Bengal, was a most remarkable man, much misunderstood and grievously mismanaged by the civil authorities. He himself estimated his followers at seven millions, and I dare say he was not far wrong in his calculations. His fether was killed in an agrarian riot in 1831. Dudu Miyah was in constant trouble, in consequence of his followers resisting their Hindu landlords and resorting to acts of violence which brought them into the courts and prisons. Their apparent turbulence was attributed to religions bigotry and intolerance; but this was a mistake, and if, instead of treating the leader of these men as a mischievous fanatic, the authorities had gained his confidence by a little of the kindness and consideration which is never misplaced in such cases, they might have been enlisted in the cause of order, and the Wahabis would have found few proselytes among them. The judicial records show that there is comparatively little crime among them. In prison they are always clean, orderly, and wellbehaved, and I am strongly of opinion that they were what their leader represented them to be, Musalman puritans, anxious to purge their religion from many Hindu and other practices, which had crept into, and in their belief, corrupted it, and ready to resist all attempts to interfere in
