in the suburbs of towns and villages, will attempt to catch or kill
them. All other Hindoos have a superstitious dread of destroying or
even injuring them; and a village community within the boundary of
whose lands a drop of wolf's blood has fallen believes itself doomed
to destruction. The class of little vagrant communities above
mentioned, who have no superstitious dread of destroying any living
thing, eat jackalls and all kinds of reptiles, and catch all kinds of
animals, either to feed upon themselves, or to sell them to those who
wish to keep or hunt them.

But it is remarkable, that they very seldom catch wolves, though they
know all their dens, and could easily dig them out as they dig out
other animals. This is supposed to arise from the profit which they
make by the gold and silver bracelets, necklaces and other ornaments
worn by the children whom the wolves carry to their dens and devour,
and are left at the entrance of their dens. A party of these men
lately brought to our camp alive a very large hyæna, which was let
loose and hunted down by the European officers and the clerks of my
office. One of the officers asked them whether this was not the
reason why they did not bring wolves to camp, to be hunted down in
the same way, since officers would give more for brutes that ate
children, than for such as fed only on dogs or carrion. They dared
not deny, though they were ashamed or afraid to acknowledge, that it
was. I have myself no doubt that this is the reason, and that they do
make a good deal in this way from the children's ornaments, which
they find at the entrance of wolves' dens. In every part of India, a
great number of children are every day murdered for the sake of their
ornaments, and the fearful examples that come daily to the knowledge
of parents, and the injunctions of the civil authorities are
unavailing against this desire to see their young children decked out