Evening star., 1896-07-02
THE DACOIT OF BURMAH.
Curious Methods ef Robbers Who
Work in Blocks of Five.

httnOdS HObbera " no
Work in Blocks of Five.
From the St. James Gazette.
Burmah is one of the countries that are
changing very fast. and one of the things
that have changed n Burmah is the dacoit
Instead of living together in bands in the
jungle dacoits are scattered through sepa-
rate villages in the guise OF peaceful cul-
tivators. During the day each man at
tends to his paddy fields Just Ike his
neighbors, and 1t is only at night that they
meet together for the dispatch of their
more important and lucrative business
Dacoity, as defined by law, is simply rob-
berry committed by L band of five melt or
more, and 1t is important only because
or the Burman'S strong natural propensity
toward it, and the great difficulties which
his national character places in the way
of it's detection.
Perhaps the strange workings Of the ma
tive character are best exhibited in the fol-
lowing case, which occurred recently The
facts are vouched for by an English Of
fetal:
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 a common thing. as il makes detectlon
easier: the fourth from another village, and
as Tor the NTH, no man now knows where
ne came from. for reasons that will ap-
pear one night these five men, arneI
with nothing beyond their knives and
spears. which are used for fishing In lower
Burmah. entered a house, tied up the own
er and began plundering. Now this house
was In large village containing not only
population of some 1,4OO. but a police
post, with fifteen native policemen armed
with Sniders. The alarm was given. and
tne mousse surrounded, and-then there was
pause The robbers continued their work
GndiSturbed within: the villagers-some two
or three hundred able-bodied men, all more
or less armed-sat around on the dam which
SUIT! surrounds ana protects every village in the
delta, looked down on the house and dis
cussed the question: the police stood rather
rearer the house and fired shots into it
tnrough the bamboo walls. hlrting no one
one sontary policeman, after time. VOL
unteered to advance He crept up quite
close TO the house and fired in through an
Opening i'm the wall: then he went further.
and actually put his head and part of his
h9dy through the hole. apparently to see
what execution he had done One of the
robbers promptly pinned him to the ground
with fish spear and killed him.
BY this time thy had completed their
preparations. so they sailed forth each man
with his pack of plunder on his back.
Though the house was surrounded they
appear to have had no difficulty in making
their way through: only the police fired af-
ter them with buckshot and hit three of
them In the back, not seriously wounding
them But one of the band had the mis-
fortune to stumble and fall. Instantly the
crowd rushed upon him. and before he
could rise literally hacked him to pieces.
and so effectively that not the slightest
clue to his identity remained. He was abso-
lutely destroyed: no one knows even what
was his nationality. The other four got
away.
Now comes the SEQUEL. which is if pos:
S'ble. still more extraordinary Some days
after. man in neighboring village in
formed the thugyi. OF head man. that two
of the villagers. whom he named. had been
concerned in the late dacoity. The thugyi
had them ARE sted promptly. and they were
carried to headquarters for Identification.
The man whose house had been plundered
was confronted with a crowd of men from
the informers village and told to pick The
frst he picked was the informer: then he
pointed ont the two men accused All three
were examined and found to have buckshot
still sticking in their backs. and ell three
were hanged-for dacoity In which a man
Is Killed is murder. The remaining robber
was never traced.