The chief deities worshipped by the Dacoits in common were Kalee or Davee, and Sooruj Deota or Sun God. Before setting out upon an expedition, they were always careful to take the auspices; which was done in this manner. Having procured several goats, the principal men assembled, and while one of them held some water in his mouth, the others prayed, "O thou Sun God! And O all ye other gods! if we are to succeed in the enterprise we are about to undertake, we pray ye to cause these goats to shake their bodies!" If they do not shake them after the gods have been thus duly invoked, the enterprise must not be entered upon, and the goats are not sacrificed. "We then try the auspices with the wheat; we have a handful of wheat, a large shell, a brass jug, cloth, and frankincense (_gogul_), and scented wood (_dhoop_) to burn. We burn the frankincense and scented wood, and blow the shell; and taking out a pinch of the grains, put them on the cloth and count them. If they come up odd, the omen is favourable; if even, it is bad. After this, which we call the auspices of the Akut, we take that of the Seearnee, or female jackal. If it calls on the left, it is good; if on the right, it is bad. If the omens turn out favourable in all three trials then we have no fear whatever; but if they are favourable in only one trial out of the three, the enterprise must be given up." The Bowrees appear to have been an off-set of the Bagree Dacoits. They affected to be descended from Rajpoots, but in truth very little is known as to their origin. Their peculiar dialect, however, was Guzerattee, though for generations past they had not even visited that province, but the circumstance is in favour of the theory that traces them to Chittore, the capital of Mewar, adjacent to Guzerat, whence they are believed to have emigrated when Akhbar captured that city in 1567. According to the deposition of Dhokul Sing, made in 1839, the Bowrees were "not a people of yesterday--we are of ancient and illustrious descent." Their ancestor, Pardhee, was one of the companions of Ram in his expedition for the recovery of Seeta. "If," said this approver, "if any prince happens to have an enemy that he wishes to have made away with, he sends for some of our tribe, and says, 'Go, and bring such or such an one's head.' We go, and steal into his sleeping apartments, and take off the person's head without any other person knowing anything about it. If the prince wanted, not the head of his enemy, but the gold tassels of the bed on which he lay asleep, we brought them to him. In consequence of our skill in these matters, we were held everywhere in high esteem; and we served princes and had never occasion to labour at tillage. We who came to the Delhi territory (they were mostly located about Delhi, Mozuffernugur, and Meerut), and were called Bowrees, took to thieving. Princes still employed us to take off the heads of their enemies, and rob them of their valuables.