Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-08-25
The Murder Of Children In India.

There is, perhaps, no form of crime more
common in India than child murder. The
practice prevailed when first the province
of Bengal passed into the hands of the
British, and it flourishes with scarce abated
vigor mt the present day. Open at random
the Supreme Court of Criminal Judica-
ture-and at brief intervals will be found
such cases rs these: In Cuttack a woman
draws a child aside, takes the silver brace
lets from her arms, and filings the little
victim into n tank. on the surface of which
the body is found floating a few days after
wards. In Behar man strangles boy
nine years old, for the sake of his silver
bracelets and gold earrings, and throws
the corpse into a sugar plantation. AT
Moorshedabad, ChamoO robs a child aged
five, and drops her into a deep and rapid
part of the river. At Benares fellow en-
tees boy twelve years old into his house,
and there cuts his throat in order to get
possession Of his silver bracelets, while a
friend looks on and mildly expostulates,
but neither seriously interferes nor gives
information to the police. Another takes
a neighbor's son into the fields, under pre-
tence of helping him to fly kite, and there
strangles him with his waistcloth, and
strips him of the trashy trinkets with which
he was adorned. Yet another conducts n
boy, aged nine to witness religious pro-
cession, but passing near ditch suddenly
throws him down, partially strangles him,
tears the silver ornaments from his arms
and feet, aud filings him into the ditch
which is fortunately dry, and where he is
found before life is quite extinct. BY the
promise of a melon Leela inveigles Debee
Dee, seven years efage, from his fathers
house, brains him with a hoe. and buries
his turban and trinkets in a field, leaving
the body where it had fallen, and where it
was found by the anxious father. This
murderer, like the others, on being charged
with the crime, at once confessed his guilt,
but pleaded as an extenuating circum-
stance that he was prompted by an @evil
spirit. A woman holds little girl under
water until she is drowned, the temptation
being silver collar of the weight of two
rupees. Two women one evening ask a
child eight years old to come to them on
the morrow for some fruit, and, when she
eagerly arrives, the one holds her while
the other passes rope round her neck and
pulls it till the breath has fed. The body
was speedily found in the midst of some tall
grass near the house, and the spoils consis-
| ted of silver collar weighing four rupees.
A woman of Tipperah was engaged in
cooking her food, when, according TO her
own account, child not above six years
old came toddling up to her. Suddenly n
| thick darkness enveloped her, and voice
sounded in her ears bidding her strangle
her little visitor. Ihereupon she seized
the child by the throat and the darkness
passed away. So she dug hole in the
floor Of her house and laid the body therein,
after taking off the few valueless orna-
ments. A girl aged nine, herself recently
betrothed, browns her playfellow in a shall
low watercOurse, while a boy fourteen
years old leads in play a youthful compan-
ion to the edge of tank, smashes his skull
with flint, possesses himself of tho scanty
| ornaments and then lays the crime at the
door of neighbor. Similar cases might
be quoted to any extent, and they all re-
semble one another in simplicity. No
sooner is the child missed than it is traced
to the company of its murderer who
| straightway relates the whole transaction
and points out whore the ornaments have
been buried. These usually consist ofyery
thin silver bracelets and anllets, with pos
sibly small gold rings on the fingers and
| tiny pearls set as earrings, the value ran
| ging from two TO ten rupees The trinkets,
and sometimes the body, are buried a few
| inches beneath the surface, either in the
dry soil of neighboring field, usually the
murderers own plot OF ground, or in his
hut where its presence must inevitably be
| discovered as soon as decomposition sets in,
! Bodies exposed % the open fields or care
| lessly thrown 90 the nearest jungle arc
| quickly render,u uuregOgnisable by wild
| beasts and birds O.. l..ry, nor does the scan
| ty clothing atforu trustworthy means Of
recognition. Pal Mall Gazette.