M.) Wade had been Political Agent at
Ludiana; Major Borthwick was employed at Indore; Captain Paton was
Assistant Resident at Lucknow (see _Journey through Kingdom of Oudh_,
vol. ii, pp. 152-69).
Besides the officers above named, others are specified in
_Ramaseeana_ as having done good service.
_Note._--Mr. Crooke suggests, and, I think, correctly, that the words
_Megpunnia_ and _Megpunnaism_ (_ante_, note 20, and Bibliography No.
7) are corruptions of the Hindi _Mekh-phandiya_, from _mekh_, 'a
peg', and _phanda_, 'a noose', equivalent to the Persian _tasmabaz_,
meaning 'playing tricks with a strap'. Creagh, a private in a British
regiment at Cawnpore about 1803, is said to have initiated three men
into the peg and strap trick, as practised by English rogues. These
men became the leaders of three Tasmabaz Thug gangs, whose
proceedings are described by Mr. R. Montgomery in _Selections of the
Records of Government_, N.W.P., vol. i, p. 312. A strap is doubled
and folded up in different shapes. The art consists in putting in a
stick or peg in such a way that the strap when unfolded shall come
out double.
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