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86 a double share of prize money. Each chief, in proportion to his means, furnished horses and arms to his retainers who were called Bárgirs; and as the first tribute exacted from a conquered district was horses, the infantry soldier was, after a successful campaign, generally transformed into a trooper. The infantry were considered an inferior branch of the service, and were only used for garrison and sentry duty, and the battles of the Sikhs were invariably cavalry actions. The only infantry who enjoyed any respect were the Akális. These were a fanatical body of devotees, who dressed in dark blue and wore round their turbans steel quoits, partly for show and partly as weapons, though they were not very effective.

Their other distinctive signs were a knife stuck in the turban, a sword slung round their neck, and a wooden club. These men, excited by hemp, were generally the first to storm a town, and often did excellent service; but they were lawless and uncertain, and, in peaceful times, enjoyed almost boundless license. The Sikh weapon was the sword, with which the cavalry were very skilful. Bows and arrows were used by the infantry, and a few matchlocks; but powder was scarce and its use little liked by the Sikhs, who were never at ease with a musket in their hands. For the same reasons they possessed scarcely any artillery; and although Ranjít Singh, with the aid of French and Italian officers, formed a very powerful and well-appointed artillery, it was, to the last, a branch of the service hated by every true Sikh, and