eel
that they are helpless, and we are strong; and they seek our aid
whenever they see any chance of obtaining it, as in the present
case.[13] Considering that every European gentleman they meet is more
or less a surgeon, or hoping to find him so, people who are
afflicted, or have children afflicted, with any kind of malformation,
or malorganization, flock round them [_sic_] wherever they go, and
implore their aid; but implore in vain, for, when they do happen to
fall in with a surgeon, he is a mere passer-by, without the means or
the time to afford relief. In travelling over India there is nothing
which distresses a benevolent man so much as the necessity he is
daily under of telling poor parents, who, with aching hearts and
tearful eyes, approach him with their suffering children in their
arms, that to relieve them requires time and means which are not at a
traveller's command, or a species of knowledge which he does not
possess; it is bitter thus to dash to the ground the cup of hope
which our approach has raised to the lip of mother, father, and
child; but he consoles himself with the prospect, that at no distant
period a benevolent and enlightened Government will distribute over
the land those from whom the afflicted will not seek relief in
vain.[14]

Notes:

1. The garrison is stated in the _Gazetteer_ (1870) to consist of a
European regiment of infantry, two batteries of European artillery,
one native cavalry and one native infantry regiment. In 1893 it
consisted of one battery of Royal Artillery, a detachment of British
Infantry, a regiment of Bengal Cavalry, and a detachment of Bengal
Infantry. According to the census of 1911, the population of Sagar
was 45,908.

2. The Banjaras, or Brinjaras, are a wandering tribe, principally
employed as carriers of grain and salt on bullocks and cows. They
used to form the transport service of the Moghal armies, and of the
Company's forces at least as late as 1819. Their organization and
customs are in many ways peculiar. The development of roads and
railways has much diminished the importance of the tribe. A good
account of it will be found in Balfour, _Cyclopaedia of India_, 3rd
ed., 1885, s. v. 'Banjara'. Dubois (_Hindu Manners, &c._, 3rd ed.
(1906), p. 70) states that 'of all the castes of the Hindus, this
particular one is acknowledged to be the most brutal'.

3. See note on human sacrifice, _ante_, Chapter 8, note 8.

4. In the Hoshangabad district of the Cen