A party of the English residents of Trichinopoly made an excursion to the Cauvery while I was there. A boat was procured and some of them went for a row on the river. As they glided along a lady trailed her hand in the water. Suddenly a log-like object came silently to the surface scarcely a foot from the tempting white fingers. With a startled exclamation one of the rowers bade her take her hand out of the water. The mugger disappeared, sinking below the surface as suddenly as he had come up, and was not seen again. The danger was over and the matter was treated lightly, but there was a disagreeable possibility about the incident which might easily have turned it into a tragedy.
A legend relating to the miraculous origin of the mugger may account for the veneration in which the reptile is held. An ascetic of superlative sanctity took a vow that he would travel throughout the entire length of Hindustan without making his toilet. When he reached the end of his journey he stepped into one of the sacred tanks of the north and shook himself. His travelling companions that had made the journey as passengers upon his person fell into the water. So imbued with virtue were they from having lived so long with their patron that they did not drown. They grew and increased in size and numbers until the tanks and rivers were stocked with muggers.
Vellore was taken by the English (1761) during the war with Chunda Sahib and the French. From that time it was an important post between the Coromandel Coast and Mysore. In 1806 it was the scene of a serious mutiny among the sepoys. For half a century the Europeans had been busy evolving a serviceable native force out of the raw material. Their efforts were attended with marked success, and the sepoy proved an efficient fighting man. In the desire to make him a perfect soldier
