themselves, and that the day was just about to break, he got them at
once on the way.

"He confessed after a while that he must have been in error, and that
it was really earlier than he had supposed. 'No matter,' said he, 'we
shall have made all the better progress by the time the sun has risen.'

"In fact, before the sun was hot upon them, they had got far into the
jungle, and were at a great distance from any other human beings.

"At length, when they approached the half-dried-up bed of a stream
through which they must ford, Jowahir proposed that they should first
sit down by the margin and rest and eat before proceeding further.
This proposal was readily agreed to by all. But by the side of each of
the three hapless and unsuspicious travellers, there sat down in
apparent amity and good fellowship two members of the gang, one of whom
was really the Ghumgeea or holder of hands, while the other was the
Phansigar or strangler.

"Suddenly, and without affording the poor wretches a moment's warning,
on a sign from Jowahir, the holder of hands seized on the man with whom
he was amicably conversing, and the strangler, passing the roomal round
his neck with the speed of lightning, strangled him in an instant."

"What," asked the Caliph, "is a roomal?"

"It is," replied Hunoman, "simply a strip of cloth. Although the
stranglers are termed Phansigars, from phansee, a noose of cord, yet in
practice they scarcely ever use a cord, which if it were found upon
them would at once betray and convict them; they employ instead, to
effect their murderous purpose, the roomal, a strip of cloth which
appears innocent and harmless enough--it might be a turban or a waist
cloth--but which in their expert and practised hands is equally
effectual.

"After killing the travellers, stripping them, and burying the bodies,
the murderers and thieves divided the few coins and other property
found upon them. But when making this division in certain proportions
according to their usage, these strange monsters did not neglect to set
apart a small sum as an offering to Kalee their goddess; and when,
after this and several other murders, all characterized by similar
features of treachery and baseness, they returned to their village,
they proceeded at once to celebrate Tapoonee, or a solemn rite of their
most vile idolatry.

"A cloth was spread upon a clean spot of ground. Upon this cloth was
placed the consecrated pickaxe and a piece of silve