Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-07-31
ADROIT THIEVES OF INDIA.

22nd.
ADROIT THIEVES OF INDIA.
No Question But That They Have
Reduced Thievfng to a Fine Art.
From the Penny Magazine.
A very interesting and valuable re-
port was issued several years ago by
the INSPECTOR Of prisoners Of the Indian
Empire, in which almost incredible ac-
counts are given of !ne practice Of this
extraordinary art by the thieves of
lower Bombay. The thieves them
selves, with better reason, feel doubly
secure, for If, in spite Of his invisible
ity, by some unlocked for and unlucky
chance, one Is seized, his oily body
slips away like an cells, and in the still
more unlikely contingency Of his being
held with an unbreakable grip, he has
slung by a slender cord about his neck
little knife with an edge as sharp as
that of the keenest razor, with which
he cuts the tendons Of the intruding
wrist. This, however, he considers a
last resort, for he prides himself upon
doing his work without inflicting bod
lily harm upon his victims.
To enter a zenana, or the woman's
apartment in a native house, where all
the family treasures are kept, is the
ambition of every native thief. This Is
no easy matter, for the zenana Is the
centre Of the house. surrounded by 9TH
er apartments occupied by ever-wake-
thief burrows under the house until his
tunnel reaches a point beneath, the
floor Of the room to which access Is
sought. But the cautious native does
not at once enter. Full we'll he knows
that the inmates Of the house some
times detect the miner at work and
stand over the hole, armed with deadly
weapons, silently awaiting his appear
ance. He has with him a piece Of bam-
boo, at one end of which a bunch of
grass represents a human head, and
this he thrusts up through the COM
pleted breach. If the vicarious head
does not come to grief the real one
takes it's place, and the thief, entering
the zenana, secretes himself, or finding
everything already favorable for this
purpose, proceeds to attempt what
seems an impossible undertaking.
This, indeed, is no less task than to
remove from the ears and arms and
noses the rings Of the sleepers without
awaking them, and to get safely away
with his pTunder. Who but a dacoit
would be equal to so delicate, danger
Gus and difficult piece Of work? But
the dacoit seldom fails.
"These adroit burglars" says my
authority, commit the most daring
robberies in the midst Of the English
army. Knowing the position Of the
tents, they mark out one which Is oc-
cupied by an officer of high rank, and
| creep silently toward 1t. Arrived at
the tent, their sharp knife makes them
a door in the canvas. and they glide
undiscovered into the interior. Indeed,
so wonderfully adroit are they that
even the very watchdogs do not dis
| cover them, and a thief has been
known to actually step over a dog
without disturbing the animal"
But the most marvelously clever de-
vice practiced by the thieves Of lower
Bombay, Is that used Dy the Mooches
in throwing pursuers Off their track.
The Mooches come down in gangs
from the back country and raid the
settlements. Their speciality is poison
ing cattle. They smear plantain leaves
with their own particular brand of cat
tie eXterminator, and scatter them
about among the herds. at night In
the morning as many Of the cattle as
have partaken are dead, and have been
abandoned by their owners.
The Mooches fay the dead animals
and sell their hides. Pursued, these
honest creatures make at full speed for
the jungle. If they reach it all hope
of capturing them is at an end; but
even when they discover that they must
be overtaken before they reach 1t they
by no means lose heart, and are meas
ureably sure of escaping, especially If,
as is often the case in India, the surface
is burned over and the trees and
bushes that have not been consumed
are charred and blackened and bereft
of their foliage q many perhaps re-
duced to lit more than blackened
stumps by the fire by which the fields
are annually burned over. If hard
pressed in such a country as this they
cease to fly, and Immediately disap-
pear.
For a long time the English troops
which police the districts where they
made their raids were completely nom
plussed. Again and again, on the very
point of being captured, the Mooches
escaped by miraculously vanishing,
and the officers as we'll as soldiers be-
came superstitious. With the power of
maintaining fixed, immovable postures,
in which their race seems to excel,
these Indians. grasping in their hands
such blackened branches as they pick