The policemen, the actual constables,
are divided into privates, corporals and
sergeants. They are sheltered in a
magistrate’s yamun, if bachelors; but it
married they often inhabit a hut within
the compound of their superior’s dwell
ing. They eat rice and melons at the
charge of the province, and they re
ceive a very small monthly payment,
enough to buy tobacco and opium
should their chief not embezzle it on
the road. But for this the pheasant
plumed care little; their dependence is
on bribery, and where denunciation may
cause ruin, and must cause annoyance,
no spy need despair of a comfortable
living. Curiously enough, the police
extort less from the rich than from the
poor. To crush a wealthy man is not
such an easy task as in Mussulman
countries, and justice grows gentle as
she mounts the social ladder. Even
some great mandarin, when degraded
for some offense, is not so harshly used
as a Turk or Persian of corresponding
rank would be by his prince.
