These were at one time largely employed by the different rulers of southern India and made the best of soldiers.

In the Maratha armies [409] their rate of pay was Rs.

12 a month, while the ordinary infantry received only Rs.5.General Hislop stated their character as follows: [410] "There are perhaps no troops in the world that will make a stouter or more determined stand at their posts than the Arabs.

They are entirely unacquainted with military evolutions, and undisciplined; but every Arab has a pride and heart of his own that never forsakes him as long as he has legs to stand on.

They are naturally brave and possess the greatest coolness and quickness of sight: hardy and fierce through habit, and bred to the use of the matchlock from their boyhood: and they attain a precision and skill in the use of it that would almost exceed belief, bringing down or wounding the smallest object at a considerable distance, and not unfrequently birds with a single bullet.