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MEENAS.
(204)

The Meenas are one of the aboriginal tribes which formerly, perhaps, peopled Rajpootana, where they still remain. They are found in Jeypoor, Joudhpoor, and generally all over Rajpootana; but is is only as one of the wandering raced of the north-west that they are seen at Delhi. As such they bear the worst of characters. They have been Thugs and Dacoits, and may be classed with the Sanseeas, the Khunjurs, and other habitually and hereditarily predatory classes, who are as yet unreclaimed, and to many appear unreclaimable. Of late, some attempts to redeem the Meenas have been made with success; and there appears no valid reason why all these wnadering and mischievous tribes should not be collected, and prevented from preying upon the community at large, as they may have done for thousands of years. In their own country the Meenas are watchmen and village servants, and scouts of a low degree. Being thieves themselves, they are capital trackers of others; and it is surprising with what accuracy and intelligence the "spoor" of cattle, or of men, will be followed to others than a Meena quite impossible of detection. But wherever he is, migratory or settled, the Meena is a robber. In his own country, where gangs can assemble, distant expeditions, involving the employment of many men, may be organized, and considerable booty be the consequence; but away from home, the Meena has to trust to his own resources, and he is by no means so quickwitted as the Khunjurs or the Sanseea. He has no hereditary profession, and is obliged to work, very indifferently and lazily, as a day labourer or tiller of the soil. Instead of this, the Meenas and their women infinitely prefer to steal, and do so whenever they have an oppotunity; being pickpockets, or cutters away of pockets, which is dexterously done with a sharp knife in crowded bazars. They can beg also, and can affect the most wretched poverty, with the peculiar whine which is supposed to excite charitable feelings; and as they are generally suspected of prying about with a view to robbery, they often succeed in obtaining small