Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/131

Rh Similar cruelties were practised on the people of Coorg, the small hill district where Haidar had barbarously cut off the heads of all who opposed his progress. Some resistance having been made to the Mysore Governor, Tipú marched into the country with his army, and lectured the Coorgs on the iniquity of their custom of polyandry. He warned them that if any further rebellion took place he would extinguish it by removing the population and Islámizing them. At a later period he actually carried this barbarous threat into execution, devastating the province, and driving the wretched inhabitants like sheep to Seringapatam, where they had to submit to circumcision and the sanctifying rites prescribed by the despot.