The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-28
THE TOMB
HIS u.s.
BY KIPLINo.
Copyright 1897 BY Rudvdrd KtpiipS.
IAN rights rescrved.l

IAN rights rescrved.l
Tros, Advance sheet, Of Meclurs's S~fdoasfne.
eome people will toll you that II there were bu
. single loaf OF bread in nll India 1t would be di
vidcd equally between tho Plowdcns, the Tire
vora, the Beadons, and the Rivett.C ornacs. Tha
is only one way OF saying that certain families
serve India generation after generation as dol
phfns follow In limo across tho open sen.
To take a small and obscure case. There
has always boon at least one representative OF
the Dovonshire Chinns in o. near Central Indls
since the days of Iieutcnant.F irew Hum
phrey Chinn OF the Bombay European Regiment,
who assisted at tho capture Of Seringapatam IN
1899. Alfred Ellis Chinn, his younger brother,
commanded n regiment of Bombay grenadiors
from 1904 TO 1873, when he saw some mixed
nghting; and IN 1894, ono John Chinn OF the
saIne family WI will call him John Chinn the
First--came TO light as n lcvel.hcaded admins
traitor in time OF trouble at a place called Nun.
dcsur. He died young, but he loft his mark on
the new country, and the Honorable the Board
Of Directors Of the Honorable the East India
Company embodied his virtues in a stately reso.
luton, and paid for the expenses Of his tomb
among the Satpura hills.
He was succeeded by his son, Lionel Chinn,
who left tho little old Devonshire home just in
time to DO severely wounded in the Mutiny.
He spent his working life within a hundred and
fifty miles of John Chinn's grave. and rose to
the command Of n regiment Of little, wild hill
mon. most Of whom had known his father. His
son, John. was born in the small matched
roofod, mud. walled c%antonment, which is to.
day eighty miles from the nearest railway, in
the heart Of n scrubby, rocky, tigerish country.
Col. Lionel Chinn served thirty years before he
retired. In the Canal his steamer passed the
outward-bound troopship. carrying his son
eastward to take on the family routine.
The Chinns are luckier than most folks, be.
cause they know exactly what they must do.
A clover Chinn passes for the Bombay Civil
Service, and gets away to Central India, where
everybody is glad to see him; a dull Chinn en-
ters the Police Department or the Woods and
Forest, and sooner or later he, too, appears in
Central India, and that is what gave rise to
the saying, Central India is inhabited by
Bills, MARS. and Chinns. all very much alike
The breed Is small-boned, dark. and silent, and
the s%tupidest of them are good shots. John
Chinn the Second was rather clever, but as
the eldest son he entered the army, according to
Chinn traditions. His duty was to abide it, his
fathers regiment for the term of his natural
life, though the corps was one which mos men
would have paid heavily to avoid. They were
irregulars, small, dark, and blackish, clothed In
rifle green with black leather trimmings; and
ITlenuS Cuueu Incn the NuQQarS which
means a race of low-casto people who dig up
rats to eat but the Wuddars did not resent 1t.
They were the only Wuddars, and their points
OF pride were these:
Firstly, they had fewer English officers than
any other native regiment; secondly, their SUBJ
alterns were not mounted on parade, as Is the
rule. but walked at the head of their men. A
man who can hold his own with the Wuddars at
their quickstep must ne sound in limb and wind.
Thirdly. they were the most pukkd shikarries
tout and out .h~unters) in all India. Fourthly-
up to one hundredthly-they were the Wuddars
-Chinn's Irregular Bill Levies Of the old days,
but now. henceforward, and forever, Wuddars.
No Englishmen entered their mess except for
love or through family usage. The officers
talked to their soldiers in a tongue not 200 folk
in India understood, and the men were their
children. all drawn from the Bills, who are.
perhaps. tho strangest of the many strange
races in India. They were, and are at heart.
wild men. ~furtive, shy. full of untold supersti.
tons.
The races whom we call natives of the coun.
try found the Bhil in possession of the land
when they first broke into that part of the world
thousands of years ago. The books call them
Pre'Aryan, Aboriginal. Dravidian, and 30 forth,
and in other words. that is what the Bills call
themselves.
." " iNoJpub cIltl, VINO can sing his Dedi-
gree backward for twelve hundred years, is set
on tho throne. his investiturc is not complete or
lawful till he has been marked on this forehead
with blood from the veins of a Bill. The
RaJpnts say the ceremony has no meaning, bu.
the Bhil knows that 1t is the last shadow of his
Old rights as the long-ago owner of thesoil.
centuries of oppression, and massacre made
the Bhil "A cruel and half-crazy thief and:cattle
Htealer, and when the English came he seemed
TO be almost as open to civilization as the
tigers OF his own jungles. But John Chinn the
First, with two or three other men, went into
his country, lived with .him, learned his Ian.
guage, shot the deer that stole his poor crops,
ana won his confidence, 80 that some Bills
learned to plough and SOW, while others were
conxed into the company's service to police
their friends.
When they understood that standing in line
did not mean instant murder. they accented
soldering as II cumbrous but amusing kind of
sport, and were jealous TO keep the wild Bills
under control. That was the thin edge OF the
wedge. John Chinn the First gave them writ.
ten promises that II they were good from a GER
tain dGtc.s the Government would overlook
previous offcnccs, and since John Chinn was
never. known to break ibis word he promised
once to hang a Bhil locally esteemed invulnera-
BILE. and hanged him in front of his tribe for
seven proved murders-the Bills settled down
ms much as they knew how. 1t was slow. I'm.
seen work. of the sort that is being done all
over India to-day, and though John Chinn's
only reward came, us ! have said, in the shape
Of n grave ct Government expense, the people
Of the hills never forgot him.
Col. Lionel Chinn knew and loved them, too,
and they wero very fairly civilized for Bills
before his service ended. Many of them could
hardly be distinguished from the low.caste
Hindu farmers, but in the south, whore John
CmNn was buried, the widest of them still
chung 10 the Satpura ranges, cherishing q
legend that some day Jan Chinn, ms they
called him, would return to his own, and In the
meantime mistrusting. the white man and his
ways. The least excitement would stampede
them at random, plundcring, and now and
then killing. but If they were handled dis
%ereotly, they grieved like children, and prom,
iscG never TO do it again.
The Bills OF the regiment were virtuous In
many ways, but they needed humoring. They
felt bored and homcsick. unless taken after
ftpan 10 - ,-l hi 4