They protested
that they had never seen any such cultivators, and knew nothing
whatever about them. They were bound and taken off to Deogon to
Bhooree Khan, who had them both put into the stocks. After having
been in the stocks for five days, they were again taken to Bhooree
Khan, who ordered them to produce the cultivators, or pay a ransom of
one hundred and five rupees. They were then taken back to prison, and
confined for eighteen days more; and having no food supplied them,
they were obliged to sell all the clothes they wore to procure a
scanty supply.
To frighten them, Bhooree Khan one day ordered his followers to make
outcasts in their presence of two respectable men whom he had in
prison, Deena Sing, a Chowan Rajpoot of Jooreeum, and a Brahmin of
Poorwa, a small hamlet near Deogon, while he sat on the roof of his
house to look on. One of his Musulman followers forced open Deena
Sing's mouth, and spit into it; and the others tied the bones of a
neelgae round the neck of the Brahmin, by which both of them were
deprived of their caste. They then told Pransook and Lullut Sin that
they would be served in the same manner unless they paid the ransom
demanded. They became alarmed, and sent to their friends to request
them earnestly to borrow all they could, and send it for their
ransom. Their cousin, Sheobuksh Sing Jemadar, an invalid pensioner
from the 2nd Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, collected one
hundred and eighteen rupees, and sent them.
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