    a blood chit is a notice carried by military personnel and addressed to any civilians who may come across an armed-services member â such as a shot-down pilot â in difficulties. as well as identifying the force to which the bearer belongs as friendly, the notice displays a message requesting that the service member be rendered every assistance. alternative names are escape and identification flags (). chit (also 'chitty') is a british english term for a small document, note or pass; it is an anglo-indian word dating from the late 18th century, derived from the hindi citthi. the idea of blood chit originates from 1793 when french balloonist jean-pierre blanchard demonstrated his hot air balloon in the usa. because he could not control the direction of the balloon, no one knew where he would land. because blanchard did not speak english, george washington gave him a letter that said that all us citizens were obliged to assist him to return to philadelphia. in world war i, british royal flying corps pilots in india and mesopotamia carried a "goolie chit" printed in four local languages that promised a reward to anyone who would bring an unharmed british aviator back to british lines. the term "goolie" is british slang for "testicles" and was so called (and still is called by the royal air force) because, in the areas where the chits were used, local tribesmen were said to turn over aviators to their womenfolk, who castrated the pilots for use as servants. but the british officer john masters recorded in his autobiography that pathan women in the north-west frontier province (1901â1955) of british india (now modern day pakistan) during the anglo-afghan wars would behead and castrate non muslim soldiers who were captured, like british and sikhs.{{cite book|url=http://www.amazon.com/bugles-tiger-gurkhas-military-paperbacks/dp/0304361569/ref=sr_1_1?ie=utf8&s=books&qid=1276361279&sr=1-1|title=bugles and a tiger|author=john masters|date=june 13, 2002|publisher=c
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