"If men's bodies swelled for murder, my friend," I said, "we should have no end of swelled bodies in Oude, and among the rest, that of Prethee Put's, of Paska." "Their bodies all swell, sooner, or later," said old Bukhtawar Sing, "when they commit such atrocious crimes, and Prethee Puts will begin to swell when he finds that you are inquiring into his." "I am afraid, my friends, that the propensity to commit them has become inveterate.

One man hears that another has obtained lands or wealth by the murder of his father or brother, and does not rest till he has attempted to get the same by the murder of his, for he sees no man punished for such crimes." "It is not all nor many of our clan" (Rajpoots), said the Rajah of Bulrampoor, "that can or will do this: we never unite our sons or daughters in marriage with the family of one who is so stained with crimes.

Prethee Put and all who do as he has done, must seek an union with families of inferior caste." I asked him whether the people, in the Tarae forest, were still afraid to point out tigers to sportsmen.

"I was lately out with a party after a tiger," he said, "which had killed a cowherd, but his companions refused to point out any trace of him, saying, that their relatives' spirit must be now riding upon his head, to guide him from all danger, and we should have no chance of shooting him.

We did shoot him, however," said the Rajah, exultingly, "and they were all, afterwards, very glad of it.