The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-11-13
THE DAcoIrs OF BURMAu

Burmah Is one Of the countries that
are changing very fast, and one of the
things that has changed in Burmah is
the dacoit. The sportive gentlemen de-
scribed by Rudyard Kipling and others,
who crucified villagers wholesale and
filed old ladies with kerosene, were
nourishing in full vigor less than ten
years ago, but they already belong as
completely to the past as Dick Turpin
and his colleagues in England. No
doubt q fresh war or any event seri-
ously shaking the British power or re-
putation might produce "reminiscences
of the old disease, but in the meantime
the dacoits have entirely changed their
habits. Instead OF living togethehr in
bands in the jungle they are scattered
through separate Villages in the guise
of peaceful cultivators. During the day
each man attends to his paddy fields
just like his neighbors, and it is only
at night that they meet together for the
despatch of their more important and
lucrative business.
Dacoity as defined by law is simply
robbery committed by D band of tive
men or more and it is important only
because of the Burman's strong natural
propensity toward it, and the great
difficulties which his national character
places in the way of his detection. 1t
must always be remembered that,
Burmah being in transition stage and
much less settled than India, and the
government being extremely short
handed, an immense amount of various
kinds of work falls upon each single
or detailed supervision over any parti-
cular part Of his district, This of itself
possible for him to exercise any close
English official. Hence it is wholly inn
renders the detection of criminals
difficult matter When the dacoits were
in the woods it was simply case OF
turning out occasionally to hunt them
down. At the present the matter must
necessarily be left chiefly in the bands
of natives. Now, the natives are for the
most part honest and tolerably law
abiding, and they have no sympathy
whatever with man who goes dacoit-
ing; but the dacoit goes armed, and
| the supineness and cowardice of the
Burman in the presence of arms, more
particularly of firearms, are something
| almost incomprehensible to the West
ern mind. 1t is quite sufficient for a
party of half a dozen men to have a
gun among thenl-effective or useless,
| loaded or empty, matters little, the mere
show is enough and they may go fear
/ lessly to work in the midst of a crowd;
no one will interfere with them. In
more than one instance bold robbers
| have made successful attacks when
armed merely with their dabs-the
dagger which every Burman carries
and with pretended rifle made Of a
stick with which they frightened off
all opposition.
But perhaps the strange working of
the native character are best exhibited
in the following case, which occurred
quite recently. The facts are vouched
for by an English officer. There was a
band of five men who were in the habit
of practising dacoity occasionally.
Three of them came from the same viii
lage-not a common thing, as it makes
detection easier-the fourth from anoth
village and as for the fifth no man
knows whence he came, for reasons that
will appear. One night these five men
armed with nothing but their knives
and spears, which are used for fishing
in Lower Burmah, entered a house, tied
up the owner, and began plundering
Now, this house was in large village
containing not only a population OF
some 400 but a police post with fifteer
native policemen armed with Sniders
The alarm was given and the house
surrounded and-then there was 9
pause. The robbers continued theil
work undisturbed within. The villagers
some 020 or 300 able-bodied men, al
more or less armed-sat around on the
dam which surrounds andprotects every
house on the delta, looked down on The
house, and discussed the question:; thu
house and fired shots into it through
the bamboo walls. hurting no one.
One solitary policeman, after a time
volunteered to advance. He crept VI
close to the house, and fired in through
an opening in the wall: then he wen
further and actually put his head anC
part Of his body through the hole
apparently to see what execution h
had done. One of the robbers prompt!
pinned him to the ground with fish
spear and killed him. BY this tim
they had completed their preparations
so they sailed forth, each man will
his pack of plumber on his back, Though
; the house was surrounded, they appea
to have no difficulty in making thei
way through, only the police fir
ed after them with buckshot ant
: hit three of them in the back, no
: seriously wounding them. But one o
the band had the misfortune to stumbl
and fall. Instantly the crowd rushe'
upon him. and before he could ris
, literally hacked him to pieces, and S
effectively that not the slightest clu
to his identity remained. He was abso
lutely destroyed; no one knows eve1
what was his nationality, The othe
four got clear away.-Public Opinion.
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