when he knew I was near him.  God preserved him to me, till the sight of the new blanket, for I had nothing else in the world, made these people poison us.  I bought it for him only a few days before, when the rains were coming on, out of my savings-it was all I had. (The poor old man sobbed again, and sat down while I paced the room, lest I should sob also; my heart was becoming a little too large for its apartment.) ‘I will never’, continued he, ’quit the bones of my wife and child, and the tree that he and I watered for so many years.  I have not many years to live; there I will spend them, whatever the landholders may do—­they advised me for my own good, and will never turn me out.’

I found all the poor man stated to be true; the man and his wife had mixed poison with the flour to destroy the poor old man and his son for the sake of the new blanket which they saw hanging in the branch of the tree, and carried away with them.  The poison used on such occasions is commonly the datura, and it is sometimes given in the hookah to be smoked, and at others in food.  When they require to poison children as well as grown-up people, or women who do not smoke, they mix up the poison in food.  The intention is almost always to destroy life, as ‘dead men tell no tales’; but the poisoned people sometimes recover, as in the present case, and lead to the detection of the poisoners.  The cases in which they recover are, however, rare, and of those who recover few are ever able to trace the poisoners; and, of those who recover and trace them, very few will ever undertake to prosecute them through the several courts of the magistrate, the sessions, and that of last instance in a distant district, to which the proceedings must be sent for final orders.

The impunity with which this crime is everywhere perpetrated, and its consequent increase in every part of India, are among the greatest evils with which the country is at this time affected.  These poisoners are spread all over India, and are as numerous over the Bombay and Madras Presidencies as over that of Bengal.  There is no road free from them, and throughout India there must be many hundreds who gain their subsistence by this trade alone.  They put on all manner of disguises to suit their purpose; and, as they prey chiefly upon the poorer sort of travellers, they require to destroy the greater number of lives to make up their incomes.  A party of two or three poisoners have very often succeeded in destroying another of eight or ten travellers with whom they have journeyed for some days, by pretending to give them a feast on the celebration of the anniversary of some family event.  Sometimes an old woman or man will manage the thing alone, by gaining the confidence of travellers, and getting near the cooking-pots while they go aside; or when employed to bring the flour for the meal from the bazaar.  The poison is put into the flour or the pot, as opportunity offers.