Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1875-08-21
MURDER OF CHILDREN IN INDIA.

There is, perhaps, no form of crime more
common 10 India than child murder. The
practice prevailed when first the province Of
Bengal passed into the hands of the British,
aud it hourishes with scarce abated vigor at
the present day. Open at random the "Decis-
ions of the Nizamut Adawlut-the Supreme
Court of Criminal Judicalure-and at brief ln-
teryals will be found such cases as these: ln
Cuttack woman draws child aside. takes her
silver bracelets from her arms and filings the
little victim into tank, on the surface OF
which the body is found floating u few days at
terward. In Behar mao stranges boy
years old for the sake Of his silver bracelets and
gold earrings and throws the corpse in a sugar
plantation. At Moorshedabad, Chamoo robs
child aged 5, and drops her into deep and
rapid part of the river At Benares a fellow
entices boy II years old into bis house, and
there cuts his throat 10 order to get possession
of his silver bracelets, while friend looks on
and mildly expostuIates but neither seriously
interferes nor gives information to the PC
lice. Another takes a neighbor's son iuto
the fields under pretence of helping him to fly
a kite, and there strangles him with his
waistcoth, and strips him Of the trashy trink-
cts with which be was adorned. Yet another
conducts boys aged nine, to wltness re-
ligious procession, but passing near ditch
suddenly throws him down, partially srangles
him, tears the silver ornaments from his arms
and feet, and hlDgs him Into the ditch, which
is fortunately dry, and where he is found be-
fore life is quite extinct. By the promise of a
melon LeeIa inveigles Debee Dee, seven years
of age, from his fathers house, brains him with
hoe, and buries his turban and trnkets 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 charg-
ed With the crime,a once confessed his guilt, but
pleaded, as an extenuating circumstance, 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 child eight years old to come to
them Tomorrow for some fruit, and when she
eagerly arrives one holds her while the other
passes rope around her neck and pulls il
till the breath has fed. The body was speedily
found 10 the midst of some tall grass near the
house, and the spoils consisted Of a silver cola,
ing her food, WGe6", according to ber o,S co"a
co95r, child not above six years o,J oanae
noos aoaonog up to her. Suddenly thick SarL. DARK
ness enveioped her, and ."re =
Ihereupon she seized the child by the throat
and the darkness passed away. So she due q
hole in the floor of her house and hid the body
therein, after taking off the few valueless orpa-
ments. A girl, aged nine, herself recently be.
trothed, browns her playfelow in shallow
watercourse, while a boy fourteen years old
leads 10 play youthful companion to the
edge OF tank, smashes bis skull with flint.
possesses himself of the scanty ornaments.
and then lays the crime at the door of neigh.
bor
Similar cases might be quoted to any extent,
and they all resemble one another in simplicity.
No sooner is the child missed than it is traced
to the company of its murderer, who straight.
way relates the whole transaction and points
out where the ornaments have been buried,
These usually consist Of very thin silver brace.
lets and ankets, with possibly small gold rings
on the hogers and tiny pearls set as earrings,
the value ranging from two to ten rupees. The
trlokets, and sometimes the body, are buried
few inches beneath the surface, either in the
dry soil OF neigbboring field, usually the
murderer's own plot of ground, or in his hut,
where its presence must inevitably be discov.
cred as sooD as decomposition sets in. Bodies
exposed 10 the open fields or carelessly thrown
Into the nearest jungle are quickly rendered
unacceptable by wild beasts and birds of
prey; nor does the scauty clothing afford
trustworthy means Of recognition. Pail Mall
Gazette.
A DOUBLE HEADED TURTLE.-Captain J.
Il. Coleman, ST.. gentleman of undoubted in-
tegrty, on the llth instant writes US There
was captured on my farm 10 the county of Lu.
DeOburo nm tho O, h ;,,,,a. . l.Ll