Semi=weekly graphic., 1898-03-02
DAC0TTS OF BURMA.
THOUGH SOMEWHAT CHANGED TAsv
 STILL EXIST TO THUNDER.

Burma Jd OilS NA bH6 GUuub4Ao7 bAIfAV 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 oruoiied villagers wholesale and filled old ladies with kerosene were fourishing in full vigor less than ten years ago, but they already belong as completely D the past as Dick Turpin and his colleagues in England. No doubt fresh war or any event seriously sbak' ing the British power or reputation might proddeo arecrudescenoe of the old disease, putin the meantime the daooits have entirely changed their habits In- stead of living together in bands in the jungle they are scattered through sepa- rate villages in tho guise of peaceful eultivators During the day each man attends to his paddy fields just like hin neigbbors, md it is only at night thaA they meet together for the dispatch of their more important and lucrative busi- ness.
 Daeoity as defined tg law is simply robbery committed by 0 band of i've men or more, and it is important only because of the Burmans 8 strong natural propensity toward it and the great difa- culties which his national character places in the way of his detection. It must always be remembered that, Bur- ma being in transition stage and much less settled than India and ths government being extremely short hand. ed, an immense amount of various kinds of work falls upon each single English official. Hence it ia wholly impossible for him to exercise any close or detailed supervision over any particular part os his district This of itself renders the detection of criminals a difficult mat ter. When the dacoits were in the woods it was simply a case of turning out oo- easionally to hunt them down. At pres ent the matter must necessarily be left chiefly in tho 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 daooiting, but the dacOit goes armed, and the supinenesa eld cowatdioe of the Burman in the presence of arms, more particularly Of firearms, aro something almost inoom- prehensibio to the western mind. It is quite sufficient for party Of half dozen men to have a gun among them-effeot. i've or useless, loaded or empty. matters little, the mere show is enoagh-and they may go fcarlessly to work in the midst of a crowd No one will interfers with them h more than one instance bold robbers have made successful st- tacks when armed merely with their dabs-tho dagger which every Burman earries-and " itha pretanded rife made of a stick, with which they frightened off all opposition
 But perhaps the strange workings ot tho native character are best exhibited in the following case, which occurred quite recently. The facts are youched for by an English officer: There was a band of five men who were in the habit of praodoing daooity occasionally. Thres of them eamo from the same village not a common thing, as 1t makes deteo. tion easier-.the fourth from another village, and, as for the fifth, no man knows whence be came, for reasona that will appear. One night these five men, armed with nothing but their knives and spears, which are used for fishing iu lower Burma, entered 8 house, tied up the owner and began plundering, Now, this house was in a large village, containing not only population of some 1, 400, but Q police post with IS native policemen armed with sniders, Tha alarm was given and the house surrounded, and then there was a pause. The robbers continued their work undis- turbed within. The villagers, some 200 or 300 ablebodied men, all more or less armed, sat around on the dam which surrounds aBd protects every house on tho delta, looked down on the house and discussed tho 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 a time volunteered to advance. He erept up quite close to the house and fired in through an opening in the wall. Then he vent farther and actually put his head and part of his body through tue hole, apparently to see what execution Eo had done Oneof therobbers prompt y pinned him to the ground with fish spear and killed hia. By this time they had completed their preparations; so they sallied 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 after them with buckshot and hit three of them in the back, not seriously wounding th9m. But ono of the band had the misfortune to stumble and fall Instantly the crowd rushed upon him, md before he oou H rise literally hacked him to pieces, and so effectively that not tho slightest clew to his identity remained. Hewas absolutely destroyed No one knows even what was his na. tionality The other fonr got ole0 away, Public Opinion