ere, the Badhaks were accustomed, whenever
it was possible, to preserve the bones of their dead after the body
had been burnt and carry them to the Ganges. If this was not possible,
however, and the exigencies of their profession obliged them to make
away with the body without the performance of due funeral rites,
they cut off two or three fingers and sent these to the Ganges to
be deposited instead of the whole body. [63] In one case a dacoit,
Kundana, was killed in an affray, and the others carried off his body
and thrust it into a porcupine's hole after cutting off three of the
fingers. "We gave Kundana's fingers to his mother," Ajit Singh stated,
"and she sent them with due offerings and ceremonies to the Ganges
by the hands of the family priest. She gave this priest money to
purchase a cow, to be presented to the priests in the name of her
deceased son, and to distribute in charity to the poor and to holy
men. She got from us for these purposes eighty rupees over and above
her son's share of the booty, while his widow and children continued
to receive their usual share of the takings of the gang so long as
they remained with us."

12. Taking the omens.

Before setting out on an expedition it was their regular custom
to take the omens, and the following account may be quoted of the
preliminaries to an expedition of the great leader, Meherban Singh,
who has already been mentioned: "In the latter end of that year,
Meherban and his brother set out and assembled their friends on the
bank of the Bisori river, where the rate at which each member of the
party should share in the spoil was determined in order to secure to
the dependants of any one who should fall in the enterprise their due
share, as well as to prevent inconvenient disputes during and after
the expedition. The party assembled on this occasion, including women
and children, amounted to two hundred, and when the shares had been
determined the goats were sacrificed for the feast. Each leader and
member of the gang dipped his finger in the blood and swore fidelity
to his engagements and his associates under all circumstances. The
whole feasted together and drank freely till the next evening, when
Meherban advanced with about twenty of the principal persons to a spot
chosen a little way from the camp on the road they proposed to take in
the expedition, and lifting up his hands in supplication said aloud,
'If it be thy will, O God, and thine, Kali, to pro