A WILY ASIATIC.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 19, 11 December 1906, Page 7

A WILY ASIATIC.

A Hindu thief will swim or float cautiously along a river at dusk with an old basket or empty goure over his head, whirling and twirling lazily with every eddy, and braving the crocidiles, to gain an entry to the bungalow he desires to plunder, under the very nose of its proprietor. • The writer once saw a coolie cminigrant in Guiana, a field hand on one of the sugar plantations, towing a log of wood along one of the muddy canals or trenches which intersect the cane pieces.

He passed the manager on the path salaamed composedly, and was plodding quietly on towards the village, when the rope hitched in a stake on the bank, causing the log to tilt up, and disclosing the fact that it was ballasted with something underneath. "Something " proved to be a coffeepot, and various other silver utensils w'hich had been purloined from the breakfast-table laid in the verandah of the house, to await our return. In a few hours the whole would doubtless have been converted into bangles, anklets, and earrings ; for the poor Indian’s untutored mind is just as keenly alive to the advantages which attend the development of specie unlawfully acquired, as that of Mr. Fagin, or any other metropolitan "fence.”