Connecticut western news., 1889-12-25
A RECOGNIZING ORDEAL
HOW NATIVE THIEVES ARE CON.
 VOTED OF CRIME.
The Novel Way Employed by Hindoos
 in Calcutta.

thief by the ordeal of chewing drled rice. We once saw it tried, and tried with success. It happened more than forty years ago; but as the custom of employing this ordeal has almost dis appeared with the advance of civiliza- ton and education in British India, we may be allowed to tell what we re,ncin- Der of it.
 Four of Us were living together in Calcutta, ''chumming," as was called out there. We were youi r men under % years of age, recently ar.ived from England, with fair earningsor salaries, and good prospects in our several pro- fessions. We lived in three-storied house, in large compound or garden, ill the fashionable quarter of Calcutta. Among us we had d large retinue of servants = altogether about ten men apiece-so that the whole domestic cs- tablishment numbered some forty per- sons.
 One day there was an alarm that my friend Govrge Christians gold watch was missing. Search for it was made in vain, and we reluctantly arrived at the conclusion that it had been stolen. We had a domestic court of inquiry, with the aid of the moonshees or na- tive tutors who used to come to teach us the languages; but it was difficult to fix even suspicion on any one. From the arrangement of our rooms in the house it seemed probable that one of Christian's own servants must have been the thief. But he indignantly re- pudiated the idea. He said that his servants were the best in the house and would never have robbed him, as he was SO kind and liberal to them.
 We may observe that all of us were very confident of the integrity of our own private servants, as is the custom of most young men in India, until they have gained experience. We were al- most jealous of one another as to which kept the best servants. We arrayed them in smart liveries, with silver badges in their turbans and colored waist bands. My friend Christian had one remarkably good-looking khidmud- gar, or table servant, named Abdul, whom he considered the show servant of our establishment, and he valued him accordingly.
 As our domestic court of inquiry failed to detect the thief or recover the property one of our moonshees sug- gested that we should apply to the Cal cutta police for the services of the na- tive official who was then retained in the employ of the government for con- ducting the process of detecting thieves by the ordeal of rice-chewing. It must be remembered that the Calcutta police itself was at the lowest stage of eff ciency. It was feobly officered and badly manned. For the detection of thieves, especially in cases like ours, where domestics were suspected, they trusted to the services of a professor of magic.
 The Pundit-as we shall call the professor-with two or three police men escorting him, arrived at our house about II o'clock one morning. All our servants had been warned of the impending ordeal, and the lodge keeper had been ordered to allow no one to go outside. The Pundit was a tall and stout man, arrayed in muslin, and evidently possessed with a great idea of his own importance.
 According to his request the servants were all seated ill two long rows on the ground in one of the long verandas of our house, and we took up our position so as to be able to superintend the operation. The Pundit's attend ants then produced some pieces of green plantain leaf, and small por- | ton was placed i'll each mans hands, to serve as plate on to which he was to eject the dried rice after he had suc- cessfully chewed it.
 The Pundit then went round with q bowl of pounded rice, like flour, and with wooden spoon poured quantity of this rice flour into the open mouth of each servant. The order was given that each man was, within five minutes by the watch, to chew the rice flour and eject it, iu state of pulp, on the pIantain leaf before him.
 Most of the men set to work with E will, though a few were rather fright ened at first; but long before the five minutes had elapsed almost every man had got through the process, and held 1 what might be called "the evidence ot his innocence in his hands. But why are so many eyes turned toward one man, who sits back as if anxious tc avoid observation? We also look, and there is Christians favorite khidmud. gar, Abdul, with his face almost con. vnlsed, and trying ill vain to get the rice flour out of his mouth. His lips are dry and his glands refuse to mois. ten the rice flour. At last the Pundit'f eyes glare at him, and, pointing at him with his long, bony finger, he sayl solemnly: "There is the thief"
 The victim quails and grovels on the floor before him; his handsome face becomes livid with terror, and ct las he faintly appeals to his master fol forgiveness and promises that he vii restore the watch. All the other ser wants arc now talking as fast as they can, delighted at their own deliver ance and full of reverance and dread for the Pundit. The convicted thief slowly rises, and requesting his mas ter to follow him, goes to the well 1T tho garden and produces the gold watch from under loose brick
 The Pundit and his men were duly presented with a handsome reward and the members of our household re turned to their ordinary duties. No quite so, perhaps; for although the thief was not given up to the police to be tried and punished by magis trate, he was brought before the do mestic tribunal, at which lis master was president, and sentenced to rc ceive twenty strokes from lattan The twenty strokes were presently ad ministered by two of our most stalwar syces.