Pandours

Pandours, a people of Servian origin who lived scattered among the mountains of Hungary, near the village of Pandour in the county of Solh. The name used to be applied to that portion of the light-armed infantry in the Austrian service raised in the Slavonian districts on the Turkish frontier. They originally fought after the fashion of the 'free-lances,' and were a terror to the enemy whom they annoyed incessantly. Their appearance was exceedingly picturesque, being somewhat oriental in character, and their arms consisted of a musket, pistols, a Hungarian sabre, and two Turkish poniards. Their habits of brigandage and cruelty rendered them, however, as much a terror to the people they defended as to the enemy, and about 1750 they were put under stricter discipline, and gradually incorporated with the regular army. The name is now obsolete.