Page:Warren Hastings (Trotter).djvu/75

Rh which they bring home to them.' Most of them, in fact, were members of a great robber caste bound together by hereditary ties, by the use of a secret language and secret signs, and, like the Thags of a later day, by the common observance of religious rites. They looked like travellers or pilgrims, whose only weapons were long walking-sticks, that served as handles for the spear-heads hidden about their dress. As their attacks were made by night in gangs of thirty or forty, the startled villagers had no time for resistance. From the banker to the peasant, all were plundered without mercy, and those were fortunate who escaped with their lives. A portion of the booty was set aside for the Zamíndár with whose connivance the robbery had taken place. The village headman and the Thánádár, or chief constable, were usually bribed to silence by a share of the spoils.

Hastings set himself to repress these outrages with a strong hand. He decreed, with the sanction of his colleagues, that every convicted Dakáit should be hanged in his own village; that the village itself should be heavily fined; and that all his family should 'become the slaves of the State, and be disposed of for the general benefit and convenience of the people, according to the discretion of the Government.' Faujdárs, or chief officers of police, were placed in every district to protect the peaceful villagers, and to take all due measures for tracking out and capturing Dakáits. And they were further