Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 2.djvu/106

 PASSES.

HE Pasees live chiefly in the Banghor district, in the northern part of Oude, and are of very low caste in the Hindoo scale of gradation. They are generally short, square shouldered, and well built. They are brave, active, and strong, and characterised—paradoxical as it may appear—as much by their honesty as by their extreme cunning and deceitfulness. They seldom till the soil: agriculture is not their vocation. They are professional thieves, and steal everything they can lay their hands on, from a horse down to a pair of old shoes. In fighting they make use of bows and arrows, and, through their practice and strength, use them with unerring aim. Their bow has generally a double curve, and is made of horn. When drawing it they support it on the ground, and bend it with their toe and right hand. But their mode of warfare is chiefly of a guerilla character. In the Banghor districts the report of a gun used to bring together thousands of these brave little fellows; for by a mutual compact they were bound to assist any Zemindar, who might choose to declare himself against the Chuckldadar of the King of Oude. They are often employed as watchmen and chowkeydars, and as such prove remarkably faithful and honest. They may be sent with any sum of money, however large, without fear of their appropriating the least part of it; but when they are not held responsible, they rob and steal to their heart's content. There are two Ragpugseas, or chiefs of the Pasee caste, but a very large proportion serve under Talookdars as armed retainers. "I should mention," says Sleeman, "that many of the landholders (in Oude under its native Government) have each armed and disciplined bodies of two thousand foot and five hundred horse; and, what is worse, the command of as many as they like of Pasees, armed with bows and arrows. These Pasees are reckless thieves and robbers of the lowest class, whose only professions are thieving and acting as chowkeydars, or village police. They are at the service of every refractory Zemindar (landholder), for what they can get in booty in his depredations. The disorders in Oude have greatly increased this class, and they are now roughly estimated at a hundred thousand families. These are the men from whom travellers on the road suffer most."—(Sleeman's Journey in Oude, vol. i., p 67.)