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Sleeman, William, 1788-1856

"II"

They all fled once more,
and went to reside at Putgowa. At Mukdoompoor, Bhooree Khan had
Bhowanee Purshad flogged so severely that he fell down insensible,
and he then had red-hot iron spikes thrust into his eyes, and a few
days after he died in confinement of his sufferings. The value of the
property taken from the family, besides the five hundred rupees'
ransom, was one thousand rupees. He, about the same time, seized and
carried off from Mukdoompoor Gunga Sookul, a Brahmin, tortured him to
death, and threw his body into the river.
About the same time, August 1847, he seized and carried off Cheyn, a
Brahmin of Mukdoompoor, son of Bhowanee Buksh. He had come to him to
pay the year's rent for the lands he held in that village. After
paying his own rents and those of others who were afraid to put
themselves into Bhooree Khan's power, and had sent by Cheyn all that
was due, he demanded from him a ransom of four hundred rupees. He
could give no more, and was put under a guard and tortured in the
usual way. As he persisted in declaring his inability to pay more, a
necklace of cow's bones was put round his neck, and one of the bones
was thrust into his mouth, and the blood of a cow was thrown over
him, from which he became for ever an outcast from his religion. He
expected to be put to death, but a friend conveyed to him the sum of
ten rupees, which he gave to the robbers employed to torture him, and
they spared his life.


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