The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-27

inmates Of the house sometimes detect the
miner at work and stand over the hole,
armed with deadly weapons, silently await
ing his appearance. He has with him q
piece of bamboo, at one end of which a
bunch OF grass represents a human head.
and this he thruSIS up through the COM
pleted breach. If the vicarious head does
not come TO grief the real one takes its
place, and the thief, entering the Zenana,
secretes himself. or, finding everything
already favorable for his purpose, proceeds
to attempt what seems an impossible I'M
dertaking.
This. indeed, is no less a task than to
remove from the ears and arms and noses
the earrings, bracelets, armlets, bangles
and nose rings of the sleepers without
awakening them, and to get safely away
with his plumber. Who but a dacoit would
be equal TO so delicate, dangerous and diff
icult a piece of work? But the dacoit sell
dom fails.
These adroit burglars says my author
ity, commit the most daring robberies in
the midst of the English army. Knowing
the position of the tents, they mark out one
which is occuDied by an officer Of high
rank, and creep silently toward it. Ar
rived 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
the very. ~watchdogs do not discover them,
and a thief has been known TO actually
step over a dog without disturbing the
But the most marvelously clever device
practiced by the thieves Of lower Bombay,
is that used by the Mooches in throwing
pursuers off their track. The MOoches
/ come down in gangs from the back coun-
try and raid the Their spe-
clalty is poisoning cattle. They smear
plantain leaves with their own particular
brand of cattle 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 aban-
doned 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 Ii they by no means lose heart. and
are measurably sure of escaping. especially
If, as is often the case in India, the sur
face is burned over and the trees and
bushes that nave not been consumed are
charred and blackened and bereft of their
foliage, and many perhaps reduced TO little
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 dis
appear.
For a long time the English troops which
pOliced the districts where they made their
raids were completely nonplussed; again
and again, on the very point OF being can
tured, the MOoches escaped by miraculous
soldiers became suDerstitious. With the
power OF maintaining fixed, immOVable
postures, in which their race seems to ex-
eel, these Indians, grasping in their hands
such blackened branches as they pick up
in their flight. can instantly assume and
retain for a long time an almost perfect
mimicry of the groups of blackened stumps
and half-burned. stunted trees with which
the country abounds. In Abyssinia the
Bareas tribe have the same trick Of be-
coming invisible, added to which they place
their rounded shields. that disposed in the
grass look eXastly like boulders. before
them for screens, while they lie fiat, watch
ing, unseen for travellers to rob or enemies
10 Kill.