1 THE SOODHUN REVOLT, 211
2 vision being made for their subsistence. The troops themselves,
3 at this time, lived chiefly on the grain called Mukh or Mekei
4 which they eat raw ; and a bundle or two of this was daily
5 thrown among' this herd of five thousand human beings, as all
6 that was considered necessary to preserve them from actually
7 dying of hunger. To quench their thirst they were once a day
8 loosed from their fold and led to some neighbouring stream,
9 and then like sheep driven back again. To such barbarous
10 treatment, and other ill-usage, which it is not necessary to
11 describe, no less than fourteen or fifteen hundred of these
12 poor wretches fell victims during the halt at Pelundheree.
13 The males of the insurgent tribes had been almost entirely
14 exterminated, some five or six thousand of them, whose heads
15 were tossed about the encampment in the sight of their captive
16 relatives, having been hunted down and slain during the halt
17 of fifteen or sixteen days at Pelundheree. Altogether not
18 less than fourteen or fifteen thousand people of these small
19 tribes perished in this campaign.
20 During the stay of the army at Pelundheree, some of the
21 enemies of Shumass Khan, for whose head Goolaub Sing had
22 offered a very large reward, promised to lead the Rajah's forces
23 to the spot in which the insurgent chief was secreted with a
24 few of his followers. Accordingly Meean Oottum Sing, with
25 a strong detachment, was guided to the very house in which,
26 by the advice of his betrayers, Shumass Khan had taken up
27 his abode. He was there surprised while he and his attendants
28 were asleep, and of course was immediately put to death. His
29 head with that of his son, who was killed at the same time, was
30 afterwards exhibited in an iron cage, at the top of the Adha
31 Dek Pass above Poonch, where it remained for some years.
32 With the life of Shumass Khan ceased the last hopes and
33 efforts of the insurgents. No further resistance was offered
34 to the triumphant progress of the victors ; and satisfied with
35 the amount of punishment which he had inflicted, Goolaub