Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/511

Rh of the Rājas of Tanjore, they were employed in guarding the treasury and jewel rooms. But, since the death of the late Rāja, most of them have emigrated to Mysore and other Native States, a few only remaining in Tanjore, and residing in the fort. The Jettis, in Mysore, are said * to have been sometimes employed as executioners, and to have despatched their victim by a twist of the neck.† Thus, in the last war against Tīpu Sultān, General Matthews had his head wrung from his body by the "tiger fangs of the Jetties, a set of slaves trained up to gratify their master with their infernal species of dexterity."‡ They are still considered skillful in setting dislocated joints. In a note regarding them in the early part of the last century, Wilks writes as follows. "These persons constitute a distinct caste, trained from their infancy in daily exercises for the express purpose of exhibitions; and perhaps the whole world does not produce more perfect forms than those which are exhibited at these interesting but cruel sports. The combatants, clad in a single garment of light orange-coloured drawers extending half-way down the thigh, have their right arm furnished with a weapon, which, for want of a more appropriate term, we shall name a caestus, although different from the Roman instruments of that name. It is composed of buffalo horn, fitted to the hand, and pointed with four knobs, resembling very sharp knuckles, and corresponding to their situation, with a fifth of greater prominence at the end nearest the little finger, and at right angles with the other four. This instrument, properly placed, would enable a man