They also carry water in a small skin-bag, if requisite, which is often the case if the expedition is prolonged.

When all is prepared the band sets off and marches incessantly till within a few miles of where the chupao is to commence, and then halts in some unfrequented spot to rest their camels.

On the approach of night they mount again, and, as soon as the inhabitants of a village have retired to rest, begin their attack by burning, destroying, and carrying off whatever comes in their way.
They never think of resting for one moment during the chupao, but ride on over the territory on which it is made at the rate of eighty or ninety miles a day, until they have loaded their camels with as much pillage as they can possibly remove; and as they are very expert in the management of their animals, each man on an average will have charge of ten or twelve.

If practicable, they make a circuit which enables them to return by a different route.

This affords a double prospect of plunder and also misleads those who pursue the robbers--a step generally taken, though with little effect, when a sufficient body of men can be collected for that purpose." "In these desperate undertakings the predatory robbers are not always successful, and when any of them chance to fall into the hands of exasperated villagers, they are mutilated and put mercilessly to death.