conspirators, with the exception of the army contractor,'
were actuated by a conscientious zeal for what they be-
lieved to be the cause of God, and by a firm resolve to
abide stedfast to the death. The British authorities took
the wise revenge of denying even to the most treasonable
of them the glory of martyrdom. The highest Court of
the Province, after a patient hearing in appeal,, confirmed
Sir Herbert Edwardes' finding as to their guilt, but modi-
fied the capital sentence even in the three most flagrant
cases to transportation for life.¹
The State Trial of 1864 proved as little effective as the retributive campaign of 1863 to check the zeal of the traitors. Their internal dissensions kept them quiet for a few years on the Frontier, but meanwhile they vigorously preached the Holy War within our territory. In Eastern Bengal, every District was tainted with the treason ; and the Muhammadan peasantry down the whole course of the Ganges, from Patna to the sea, laid apart weekly oflerings in aid of the Rebel Camp. What proportion of these oblations actually reached the Frontier is doubtful ; and as the difficulties of transmission increased, the preachers seem to have felt justified in helping themselves more liberally than their earlier zeal would have permitted. The fanatical Musalmdns of the Delta bear the name not of Wahdbis, but of Fardizis,² or rejecters of all glosses and non-essential parts of I§ldm. They call themselves the
remittances in Gold Mubars are spoken of as rosaries of red beads, and remit-
tances in money as the price of books and mercbandise ; drafts or money
orders are called wbite stones, the amount being intimated by the number of
wbite beads as on a rosary. — Official Papers,
¹ Paras. 182-184 of the Judgment in Appeal by the Judicial Commissioner of the Panjdb, dated 24:tb August 1864.
² Faráizís (from the Arabic Fanzah, plural Fardiz, the same as Farz) are those who admit the obligation of only the first two of the five Muhammadan duties, and reject the other three as not based upon the Kur^ or the Hadis. These five sorts of religious commands are: (1st) Farz (hence Fardizi), the
