The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-12-25
DACOITS OF BURMA.
THOUGH SOMEWHAT CHANGED THEY
STILL EXIST TO PLUMBER.
Authorities Are Unable to Stop the Thiev-
ing and Do Not Often Capture One of
the Dacoits-A Sample Case of the Inef-
ficiency of the Police Officers.

ing and Do Not Often Capture One of
the Dacoits-A Sample Case of the Inef-
fciency of the Police officers.
Burma is one of the countries that
are changing very fast and one of the
things that have changed in Burma is
the dacoit The sportive gentlemen de-
scribed by Rudyard Kipling and others
who crucified villagers wholesale and
filed old ladies with kerosene were
furnishing 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
a fresh war or any event seriously shak
ing the British power or reputation
might produce recrudescence of the old
disease, but in the meantime the daooits
have entirely changed their habits. In
stead of living together in bands in the
jungle they are scattered through sepS-
rate 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 dispatch of
their more important and lucrative bust
ness.
Dacoity as defined by law is simply
robbery committed by band of five
men or more, and it is important only
because of the Burman's strong natural
propensity toward it and the great diff
culties which his national character
places in the way of his detection 1t
must always be remembered that, Bur
ma being in transition stage and
much less settled than India and the
government being extremely short hand
ed, an immense amount of various kinds
of work falls upon each single English
official. Hence it is wholly impossible
for him to exercise any close or detailed
supervision over any particular part of
his district. This of itself renders the
detection of criminals difficult mat
ter. When the dacoits were in the woods,
it was simply case of turning out &C.
casionally to hunt them down. At pres
ent the matter must necessarily be left
chiefly in the hands 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 dacoiting, 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 incom-
prehensible to the western mind. 1t is
quite sufficient for party of half dozen
men to have gun among them-effect-
i've. or useless, loaded or empty, matters
little, the mere show is enough-and
they may go fearlessly to work in the
midst of a crowd. No one will interfere
with them. In more than one instance
bold robbers have made successful at
tacks when armed merely with their
dabs-the dagger which every Burman
carries-and with a pretended rife made
of stick, with which they frightened
off all opposition.
But perhaps the strange workings 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 practicing dacoity occasionally. Three
of them came from the same village
not common thing, as it makes detec-
tion easier-the fourth from another
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 Burma, entered a house, tied
up the owner and began plundering.
Now, this house was in large village,
containing not only population of
some 400, but police post with 10
native policemen armed with sniders.
The alarm was given and the house
surrounded and then there was pause.
The robbers continued their work undis-
turbed within. The villagers, some 200
or 800 ablebodied men, all more or less
armed, sat around on the dam which
surrounds and protects every house on
the delta, looked down on the house and
discussed the question. The police stood
rather nearer the house and fired shots
into it through the bamboo walls, hurt
ing no one.
One solitary policeman after time
volunteered to advance. He crept up
quite close to the house and fired in
through an opening in the wall. Then
he went farther and actually put his
head and part of his body through the
hole, apparently to see what execution
he had done. One of the robbers prompt
ly pinned him to the ground with a fish
spear and killed him. By this time they
had completed their preparations; SO
they sailed forth, each man with his
pack of plumber on his back. Though
the house was surrounded, they appear
to have had no difficulty in making
their way through, only the police fired
after them with buckshot and hit three
of them in the back, not seriously
wounding them. But one Of the band
had the misfortune to stumble and fall.
Instantly the crowd rushed upon him,
and before he could rise literally hacked
him to pieces, and so effectively that