Note 216 — K (continued 6)

“Stolen property”, Mr. Mullaly writes,216 “is disposed of, as soon as they can get a suitable remuneration. The general bargain is Re. I for a rupee’s weight of gold. They do not, however, as a rule, lose much over their transactions, and invariably convert their surplus into sovereigns. In searching a Koravar encampment on one occasion, the writer had the good fortune to discover a number of sovereigns which, for safe keeping, were stitched in the folds of their pack saddles. Undisposed of property, which had been buried, is brought to the encampment at nightfall, and taken back and re-buried before dawn. The ground round the pegs, to which their asses are tethered, in heaps of ashes or filth, are favourite places for burying plunder.”