Page:Volunteering in India.djvu/45

Rh severed from the neck by a single stroke from this truly formidable weapon. The man who performed this amazing feat informed us, with broad grins following a convulsive “Ha, ha!” that he could as easily decapitate two human heads with one blow; and a confederate bystander explained the purport of this savage remark by observing that, in divorce cases, not the ordinary law of civilisation, but the all-powerful kokre, summarily settles, and effectually avenges any injury to the matrimonial bed. A more useful weapon it would be impossible to place in the hands of any man than the kokre is in those of the Nipale. He uses it for all purposes, and without it he seldom stirs out abroad. It is his sword, his table-knife, his razor, and his nail-parer; with it he clears the jungle for his cultivation, builds his log-hut, skins the animals that he slaughters — in short, without the kokre he is as helpless as a child; with it he is a formidable warrior, as well as a man of all work.

A few days have passed; the season of Christmas-tide approached, and time, as it went on, revealed indications in a manner not to be mistaken, and into which it was not difficult to see, that our worthy “allies” had been engaged in other plans than those which appeared upon the surface; for by this time it had become self-evident that they had been watching, and waiting for a favourable opportunity to throw off the hypocritical mask, in which they had so long performed a deceitful farce; and now that, by the co-operation of their own troops with ours, they conceived