Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 715

MUTINY BY MERCENARIES
675
and this prevents a large number of mercenaries
from deserting, as they fear to lose what is due to them.
Nevertheless, whole armies have been known to throw down
their arms in face of the enemy and refuse to take them up
again until they had received their pay. It is by no means
in arrear
;
a rare occurrence for large bodies of troops to refuse to set
out on a march for a similar reason.
Mutinous soldiers,
too, frequently put their generals under arrest, send them
to prison, menace them sword in hand, or try to intimidate
them by loud threats and insults. The generals, strange to
say, will calmly and patiently put up with these mutinous
outbursts.
Usually they will pay the mutineers a part of
their arrears and promise the rest in a short time.
Quiet is
then restored, and the men return to duty until another such
occasion presents itself.
Although these undisciplined mercenaries make very
inferior troops, still there are instances on record of honour-
able and brave conduct among their chiefs, especially among
Mahomedan chiefs of high rank. The latter never cry for
quarter
and, even when the day is going against them,
they will not retreat a step as long as they have the support
of a few of their followers.
Flight or retreat under such
circumstances is considered by them even more ignominious
than it is by their European opponents.
The ordinary cavalry troopers, be they Mahomedan or
Mahratta, are usually very badly mounted, and their equip-
ments are still worse. Nevertheless, their weedy-looking
chargers are so inured to fatigue and so accustomed to
privation that they will make, with only a little coarse hay
for food, a succession of forced marches which would be
quite beyond the capabilities of our best European cavalry,
covering as they sometimes do as much as sixty miles a day.
Mounted on these wretched animals, detachments of troops
are able to cover great distances, and to sweep down sud-
;
denly on districts from which they were supposed to be far
away. It must not be supposed that there are not very good
horses to be found, especially in the Southern provinces of
India
but they are only to be bought for very high prices
that are quite beyond the means of ordinary persons.
Only
the chiefs possess really fine horses. They take remarkably
good care of them. They usually decorate them in various
;