The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-07-16
DACOIT OF BURMAH.
Curious Methods of Robbers In
Blocks of Five.
From the st. .Jnme's Gazette.

| From the st. James Gazette.
Burmah is one of the countries that
are changing very fast, and one of the
things that has changed in Burmah is
the dacoit. Instead of living together
in bands in the jungle, Dacoits 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 band of five
men or more, and it is important only
because of the Burman's strong natur-
al propensity toward it, and the great
difficulties which his national charac-
ter places in the way of its detection.
Perhaps in the strange workings of
the native character are best exhibited
in the following case, which occurred
recently. sThe facts are vouched for
by an English official.
There was band of five men who
were in the habit of prscticing dacoity
occasionally. Three of them came
from the same villsge-not common
thing, as it makes detection easier; the
fourth from another village, and as for
the fifth, no man now knows where
he came from, for reasons that will ap-
pear. One night these five men, arm
ed with nothing beyond their knives
and spears, which are used for fishing
in Lower Burmah, entered a house,
tied up the owner and began plumber
ing. Now this house was in large
village containing not only popula-
ton of some 1,4OO, but police post,
with fifteen native policemen armed
with Sniders. The alarm was given,
and the house surrounded, and-then
there was pause. The robbers con-
tinued their work undisturbed within;
the villagers-some two or three hun
dred able bodied men, all more or less
armed sat around on the dam which
surrounds and protects every village
in 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,
hurting no one. One solitary police
man, after time, volunteered to adj
vance. He crept up quite close to the
house, and fired in through an open
ing in the wall; then he went further,
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 promptly pinned
him to the ground with fish spear
and killed him.
By this time they had completed
their preparations, so they sailed
forth, each man with his pack of plum
der 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 wound
ing 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 hack
ed him to pieces, and so effectively
that not the slightest clue to his iden-
tity remained. He was absolutely
destroyed; no one knows even what
was his nationality. The other four
got away.
Now comes the sequel, which is, if
possible, still more extraordinary
Some days after, man in neighbor
ing village informed the thugyi, or
head man, that two of the villagers,
whom he named, had been concerned
in the late dacoity. The thugyi had
them arrested promptly, and they
we're carried to headquarters for iden-
LITIGATION. The man whose house had
been plundered was confronted with
a crowd of men from the informer's
village and told to pick. The first he
picked was the informer; then he
pointed out the two men accused. All
three we're examined and found to
have buckshot still sticking in their
backs, and all three we're hanged-for
dacoity in which man is killed is
murder. The remaining robber was
never traced.