They who reverence ancient descent, and a long line of ancestors, are bound to regard the Thugs with peculiar veneration. Perhaps, neither in Asia nor in Europe are there any other families that can date their origin from such remote antiquity. They are said to be sprung from the Sagartii, who contributed 8,000 horse to the army of Xerxes, and are thus described by Herodotus, in the Seventh Book of his History:—

"These people lead a pastoral life, were originally of Persian descent, and use the Persian language; their dress is something betwixt the Persian and the Pactyan; they have no offensive weapons, either of iron or brass, except their daggers; their principal dependence in action is on cords, made of twisted leather, which they use in this manner: when they engage an enemy, they throw out these cords, having a noose at the extremity: if they entangle in these either horse or man, they without difficulty put them to death."

There is some reason to believe, that in later times the descendants of these Sagartii accompanied one of the Mahommedan invaders of India, and settled in the neighbourhood of Delhi. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, Thevenot makes mention of a strange denomination of robbers, who infested the road between that city and Agra, and used "a certain rope, with a running noose, which they can cast with so much sleight about a man's neck, when they are within reach of him, that they never fail, so that they strangle him in a trice." These vagrant plunderers were divided into seven clans or families, called Bahleem, Bhyns, Bhursote, Kachunee, Huttar, Ganoo, and Tundil, the parent stock of all the subsequent ramifications. According to tradition, they were expelled from Delhi by one of the emperors of the house of Gouree, on account of the murder of a favourite slave. Their victim had long been aware of their practices, and had connived at them, for the sake of the handsome gratuities presented as the price of his silence. But, abusing his power, and making exorbitant demands, he quickly experienced the fate of those in whose plunder he had so freely participated. The murderers were therefore driven from the neighbourhood, after being branded on their posteriors with the current copper coin of the empire. Five of the clans removed to Agra, whence their descendants were afterwards called Agureea. A large body of them appear to have travelled to Arcot, and there founded the proudest and most punctilious branch of the fraternity. These Arcottee Thugs used to wear checkered loongees, and short jackets, like the Company's Sepoys; they also carried a knapsack on their back, a light cane in their hand, and generally a small bag of beetel nut and paun. Their leaders, or jemadars, frequently assumed the garb and bearing of wealthy merchants, and had four or five attendants to cook for them, hand the hookah, clean their pony, and do other menial offices, while the rest of the gang followed in small parties, not to excite suspicion, but closed up rapidly when the signal was passed along. The true Hindostanee Thugs, however, professed to look down upon those of Arcot, and refused to intermarry with them. The latter retorted, that the others could have no pretensions to high birth, for at their marriages the matrons, as they threw down the toolsee, were wont to exclaim, "Here's to the spirits of those (Qulunders), who once led bears and monkeys; to those who drove bullocks, and marked with the godnee (kunjurs, or gipsies); and to those who made baskets for the head." But this was explained by the necessity of assuming disguises, in the first place, to escape from Delhi, and afterwards for carrying on their terrible vocation. There was certainly one very low Hindoo class, the Sooseeas, but calling themselves Naeks and Thories, with whom the others associated with reluctance. These chiefly confined themselves to Malwa and Rajpootana, travelling as merchants, with their leader indulging in a hackery or palanquin. Sometimes they disguised themselves as Sepoys, or as treasure-bearers. The most exclusive clan were the Chingurees, or Mooltanee Thugs, who practised female infanticide to a frightful extent. They preserved alive only a sufficient number to provide wives for the members of their own clan. They were allowed to be an ancient tribe, and were much respected by the inferior associations with whom they had nothing in common, except the dialect peculiar to all Thugs. They usually travelled with their families as Brinjarees, with bullocks and cows laden with goods, and strangled their victims with a bullock's rope. A colony of about one hundred families was settled at Hingolee. A very clever and staunch tribe, known as the Jumaldehee Thugs, settled in Oude, who prudently kept their wives in ignorance of the true nature of their pursuits, nor did they initiate their sons till they had reached the age of puberty. When they sallied forth on their expeditions, they left a certain number of their men at home, to take care of the women and children, and to these they allotted a full share of their spoils. The Brinjaree Thugs were especially fortunate in escaping detection, or even suspicion, by reason of their nomade habits, which rendered it extremely difficult to trace any particular crime to them. They were consequently enabled to amass considerable riches, though they seldom renounced their wandering life. A Thug approver told the late Major-General Sleeman, that on one occasion he and his party fell in with a company of merchants from the westward, who were encamped near Jyepore, and wore exceedingly high turbans. "What enormous turbans these men wear!" he remarked to a comrade, using their slang term, aghasee. The chief man among the strangers thereupon stepped forward, and requested the travellers to sit down with them, adding, at the same time, "My good friends, we are of your fraternity, though our aghasees are not the same." It turned out that these supposed merchants were a gang of Brinjaree Thugs, who, having become wealthy, had given up strangulation, but were not the less glad to welcome those who still laboured at the pious crime.

In the beginning, as already stated, the Thugs were invariably followers of the Prophet, but after a time Hindoos were initiated, who inoculated their Mussulmaun teachers with their own superstitions. Thuggee now became a divine institution, ordained by the goddess Kalee. It is curious to observe how the amalgamation of the two religions took place. Captain Sleeman asked a Thug approver, named Sahib, if he thought the English would ever succeed in suppressing Thuggee? The answer was, "How can the hand of man do away with the works of God?"

Sleeman.—You are a Mussulmaun?

Sahib.—Yes; and the greater part of the Thugs of the south are Mussulmauns.

Sleeman.—And you still marry, inherit, pray, eat, and drink, according to the Koran? and your Paradise is to be the Paradise promised by Mahommed?

Sahib.—Yes. All, all.

Sleeman.—Has Bhowanee been anywhere named in the Koran?

Sahib.—Nowhere.

It was then explained that Bhowanee was supposed to be another name for Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, and wife of Ali. Sahib acknowledged that Bhowanee had no power to admit her votaries into Paradise, nor any influence over the future state, but maintained that she directed the destinies of Thugs in this world, and that God would never punish any one for obedience to her commands. Sleeman's Mahommedan officers indignantly protested against the idea that Fatima and the Hindoo goddess were identical, and professed an entire disbelief in the divinity of Kalee. But they were somewhat disconcerted when the Thugs asked how they reconciled this want of faith with their presence at Kalee's festivals: they could not say that they were merely spectators, led thither by an idle curiosity. The Thugs then adduced, as a proof of the divine origin of their calling, the fact that they had pursued it with impunity for nearly two centuries. Captain Sleeman having declared that neither he nor his native officers cared one jot for their goddess, and that they were determined to put down her worship in this form, one of them replied, "They may say so, but they all know that no man's family can survive a murder committed in any other way; and yet Thugs have thrived through a long series of generations. We have all children like other men, and we are never visited with any extraordinary affliction."

It may be here parenthetically stated, that of the Oude Thugs nine-tenths were Mahommedans; in the Doab, one-fifth; south of the Nerbudda, three-fourths; in Rajpootana, one fourth; and in Bengal, Behar, Orissa, Bundlecund and Saugor, about one-half.

Kalee, the goddess who presided over Thuggee, was worshipped also under the names of Bhowanee, Devey, and Davey. She was the wife of Mahadeo, or Siva, and first appeared on earth on the banks of the Hooghly, at a spot afterwards called, in memory of the event, Kalee Ghaut, now Calcutta. Here stands her most honoured temple, and here is still celebrated with the most solemn rites her chief festival, the Doorga Pooja. They who address her with the greatest reverence style her Kunkalee, or the "man-eater," and represent her as quaffing huge draughts of blood from men and demons. When alone, she is depicted as black and hideous of aspect; but in company with her husband, she is ever fair and beautiful. Once on a time the world was infested with a monstrous demon named Rukut Beej-dana, who devoured mankind as fast as they were created. So gigantic was his stature, that the deepest pools of the ocean reached no higher than his waist. This horrid prodigy Kalee cut in twain with her resistless sword, but from every drop of blood that fell to the ground there sprung up a new demon. For some time she went on destroying them, till the hellish brood multiplied so fast that she waxed hot and weary with her endless task. So she paused for a while, and from the sweat, brushed off one of her arms, she created two men, to whom she gave a roomal, or handkerchief, and commanded them to strangle the demons. When they had slain them all, they offered to return the roomal, but the goddess bade them keep it and transmit it to their posterity, with the injunction to destroy all men who were not of their kindred. There were many exemptions, however, from this rule. The murder of women, for instance, was positively prohibited, and this prohibition was seldom or never violated in Bengal, Behar, or Orissa. To the south of the Nerbudda old women did not always escape, or even young women, when it was found impossible to separate them from a tempting prize. Between the Nerbudda, the Indus, and the Jumna, the Thugs had few scruples of any kind. It was likewise unlawful to murder a Brahman or a Kaet (member of the writer caste), or a religious mendicant of any kind, or oilman, potter, carpenter, blacksmith, goldsmith, elephant-driver, musician, dancing-master, or any one having a domestic animal with him, or carrying a parent's bones to the sacred river. But, in later times, these restrictions were either totally evaded or confined to the first day of the expedition. To the neglect of these and such-like regulations, the approvers ascribed the decay of the "time-honoured craft." Davey used to protect them, they said with a sigh, when they "had some regard for religion." She never forsook them till they neglected her. They were merely instruments in the hands of God. "No man is ever killed by man's killing," but through the will of the Deity. Many "incursions" had been made at different times against Thuggee, but never on such a scale as that instituted by the company's officers. "The Company's Ikbal (genius, or good fortune) is such, that before the sound of your drums, sorcerers, witches, and demons take flight, and how can Thuggee stand?" In the early ages of the "institution," Bhowanee used to dispose of the dead bodies and efface all signs of the murder, but she distinctly warned her votaries against looking back after they had again taken to the road. Curiosity, however, at length proved too strong for the sons of Eve, and one day it came to pass that a Thug looked over his shoulder and beheld the goddess playing at ball with the corpses, throwing them up into the air and catching them as they fell; or, according to another account, she had a dead body in her mouth, the extremities projecting on either side. After this discovery of her favourite pastimes, Kalee refused to have anything more to do with their victims, and left it to themselves to conceal the tokens of their "piety." But she did not altogether abandon them. Even in her wrath she was gracious to those who held her name in honour. She accordingly bestowed upon them one of her teeth for a pick-axe, a rib for a knife, and the hem of her garment for a noose: yellow and white being the colours she most affected, such were frequently the hues of the roomal. To the last she "everywhere protected the Thugs, so long as they attended religiously to their duties." Even when through inattention to the omens she sent for their guidance, any of them were apprehended and punished, her vengeance was sure to overtake their oppressors. "Was not Nanha," said an approver, "the Raja of Jhalone, made leprous by Davey for putting to death Bodhoo and his brother Khumoolee, two of the most noted Thugs of their day? He had them trampled under the feet of elephants, but the leprosy broke out upon his body the very next day." Nanha was so sensible of his guiltiness, that he did all in his power to appease Davey. "Bodhoo had begun a well in Jhalone; the Raja built it up in a magnificent style; he had a Chubootra (tomb) raised to their name, fed Brahmans, consecrated it, had worship instituted upon it, but all in vain; the disease was incurable, and the Raja died in a few months a miserable death.... When Madhajee Scindiah caused seventy Thugs to be executed at Mathura, was he not warned in a dream by Davey that he should release them? And did he not, the very day after their execution, begin to spit blood? And did he not die within three months?... When Dureear, the Rathore, and Komere and Patore, the Kuchwaha Rajpoots, Zemindars, arrested eighty of the Thugs who had settled at Nodha, after the murder of Lieutenant Monsell, they had many warnings to let them go, but they persisted and kept them till some thirty died. They collected 10,000 rupees, at the rate of 125 rupees from every Thug. What became of their families? Have they not all perished? They have not a child left. Rao Sing Havildar, the Gwalior Soobah of Nodha, took the money, but that very day his only son and the best horse in his stable died, and he was himself taken ill and died soon after a miserable death.... The Raja of Kundul, some ninety coss (180 miles) east from Hyderabad, arrested all the Thugs in his Raj for some murders they had committed. For three successive nights the voice of Davey was heard from the top of every temple in the capital, warning the Raja to release them. The whole town heard her, and urged the Raja to comply. He was obstinate, and the third night the bed on which he and his Ranee were sleeping was taken up by Davey, and dashed violently against the ground." They were dreadfully bruised and frightened, and lost no time in releasing their heaven-protected prisoners.

Kalee not only protected the Thugs, but sent them numerous omens as encouragement or warning. An omen was, in fact, a positive command to slay the travellers in their power, or to allow them to go unharmed. If they did not attend to these omens, they became guilty of disobedience, and had no longer any claim upon the goddess for protection. On Captain Sleeman inquiring if any evil would befall them if they used the roomal without reference to the divine signals, Sahib at once answered in the affirmative, adding, "No man's family ever survives a murder: it becomes extinct. A Thug who murders in this way loses the children he has, and is never blessed with more. He cannot escape punishment." "But how," said Captain Sleeman, "how can you murder old men and young children without some emotions of pity—calmly and deliberately as they sit with you and converse with you, and tell you of their private affairs—of their hopes and fears—and of the wives and children they are going to meet after years of absence, toil, and suffering?" The answer was such as might almost have been made by an ancient Hebrew, had any one asked him if he felt no pity for the wretched Canaanites he so ruthlessly murdered. "From the time that the omens have been favourable, we consider them as victims thrown into our hands by the Deity to be killed; and that we are the mere instrument in her hands to destroy them: that if we do not kill them, she will never be again propitious to us, and we and our families will be involved in misery and want." In precisely such a spirit did Samuel hew in pieces before the Lord, Agag, king of the Amalekites. The Thugs were by no means insensible to domestic feelings, or even to the charms of social and friendly intercourse. At home their conduct was irreproachable. Their villages were usually models of cleanliness and neatness; their lands were industriously cultivated, their wives and children treated with all kindness and affection. When Laek, an approver, heard of his brother's arrest, he repeated with much feeling an Hindustani verse, which has been thus rendered into English:—"I was a pearl, once residing in comfort in the ocean. I surrendered myself, believing I should repose in peace on the bosom of some fair damsel—but, alas! they have pierced me and passed a string through my body, and have left me to dangle in constant pain as an ornament to her nose." Their wives frequently were quite unconscious that their husbands were murderers, though they may perchance have suspected them of being thieves and robbers. The sons also were kept in ignorance of the entire truth until they had completed their fourteenth or fifteenth year. In fact, they were gradually trained to the business. At first they were taken out as if for a pleasant excursion, and had generally a pony to ride. Presents, too, were given them after each murder, though they were not made acquainted with the source whence those gifts were derived. However, before they returned home they had usually a shrewd suspicion that their treasured prize had not been honestly come by. Next year they were plainly told that their parents and relations were highway robbers; but by this time they had become too fond of the careless roving life and of their share of the easily-acquired plunder, to listen to the still small voice of conscience. And thus in the third year they were not horrified to learn that they were accomplices in murder. By such gentle transitions the best regulated mind may eventually be attuned to the most atrocious guilt. A comical reason was given to Captain Sleeman to account for the omission on the part of a Thug father to initiate his son. "His father," said the witness, "used to drink very hard, and in his fits of intoxication he used to neglect his prayers and his days of fast. All days were the same with him. This lad, Shumshera, was always sober and religiously disposed, and separated from his father, living always with his uncle Dondee, who was a very worthy, good man." He, too, was a Thug, but likewise refrained from removing the veil from the eyes of the lad. Another relative, however, proved less considerate, and flattered the young man's vanity by telling him that he belonged to a very high family of the Jumaldehee Thugs. A sad tale concerning another youngster was related by Feringeea, a noted leader, who turned king's evidence. One Aman Soobahdar went out upon an expedition, accompanied by his cousin Kurhora, aged scarcely fourteen, whom he gave in charge to Hursooka, his adopted son. After a time the gang fell in with a party of five Sikhs, whereupon Aman desired Hursooka to keep the boy well in the rear, so that he might not witness the contemplated murder. Kurhora, however, becoming frightened, broke away from his companion and galloped to the front to overtake the others. Just as he came in sight, the signal was given. In an instant the fatal noose was applied, a few shrill cries rent the air, and five writhing human bodies lay convulsively distorted on the ground. At the horrid spectacle Kurhora "was seized with a trembling, and fell from his pony; he became immediately delirious, was dreadfully alarmed at the sight of the turbans of the murdered men, and when any one touched or spoke to him, talked about the murders and screamed exactly like a boy talks in his sleep, and trembled violently if any one spoke to him or touched him." Three or four of the party remained with the poor lad, for he was a great favourite with them all, but he never recovered his senses, and died before the evening. Hursooka took his death so much to heart that he retired from the world, turned Byragee (an ascetic), and passed the remainder of his days in serving at a temple on the Nerbudda.

Feringeea, the narrator of the preceding mournful incident, was a fine handsome fellow, greatly admired by the women, and much respected by his associates. His name was given to him in memory of an attack made by a party of Feringees (Europeans) under the French General Perron, on his uncle's village in distraint of certain customs' dues. As his mother fled from the scene of violence and brutality, she was seized with labour pains and brought a man child into the world, whom, in remembrance of the terror and anguish she had endured, she named Feringeea. On one occasion Feringeea, when he had grown to man's estate and had become a famous leader, was travelling with his cousin Aman Soobahdar and a gang of 150 Thugs through Rajpootana, when he fell in with a handmaid of the Peishwah Bajee Rao, on her way from Poonah to Cawnpore. "We intended to kill her and her followers," he quietly remarked to Captain Sleeman, "but we found her very beautiful, and after having her and her party three days within our grasp, and knowing that they had £15,000 worth of property in jewels and other things with them, we let her and all her party go; we had talked to her and felt love towards her, for she was very beautiful."

But beauty was not always equally powerful to save. At another time, he came up with a beautiful young Moghulanee, travelling with an old female servant, mounted on a pony, an armed attendant, and six palanquin-bearers. The ill-fated damsel, unhappily for herself and her companions, became enamoured of the dashing, handsome young Thug. In vain he tried to shake her off, for he feared a scandal might arise if he, a Brahmin, had any improper intercourse with a Mussulmaunee. And the exchange of other than Platonic love would have saved her life. So at last he insisted that they should "take" her, and she was accordingly put to death. "It was her fate," he said, not excusing himself, but putting the matter in the right light, "It was her fate to die by our hands." Captain Sleeman, then asked Madar Buksh, who actually strangled the poor Moghulanee, if he had no pity for the beautiful young woman. "I had," he answered, "but I had undertaken the duty, and we must all have food." As if hurt by the enunciation of such a base practical motive, Feringeea here struck in, saying, "We all feel pity sometimes, but the goor (consecrated coarse sugar) of the Tapoonee, (feast after a murder), changes our nature. It would change the nature of a horse. Let any man once taste of that goor, and he will be a Thug, though he knew all the trades and have all the wealth in the world. I never wanted food; my mother's family was opulent, her relations high in office: I have been high in office myself, and become so great a favourite wherever I went, that I was sure of promotion; yet I was always miserable while absent from my gang, and obliged to return to Thuggee. My father made me taste of that fatal goor when I was yet a mere boy; and, if I were to live a thousand years, I should never be able to follow any other trade." The fascination of the abominable "trade" is almost incredible. There were many instances of Thugs enlisting into the Company's service, and making excellent soldiers; and yet, whenever an opportunity presented itself, they would get two parades' leave, join some of their old associates, commit as many murders as possible, and then, with satisfied feelings, return to their duty.

Feringeea, after the apprehension of his gang, could have escaped to other clans in Rajpootana and Telingana, "but," said he, "you had secured my mother, wife, and child: I could not forsake them—was always inquiring after them, and affording my pursuers the means of tracing me. I knew not what indignities my wife and mother might suffer. Could I have felt secure that they would suffer none, I should not have been taken." He was finally captured by two striplings, whom he could easily have overpowered, had he not imagined that they were supported by a party of police outside the hut, and that all resistance was therefore idle. At one period of his life, he was in General Ochterlony's service, and a great favourite with Sir David. His wife was not aware that he was a Thug. "Her family," he proudly remarked to Captain Sleeman, "are of the aristocracy of Jhansee and Sumtur, as you may know." His foster-brother, being informed the day before his execution, that his foster-mother had been arrested, earnestly begged, as a last favour, that he might have an interview with her as she was led to the scaffold. His request being granted, "he fell at the old woman's feet, and begged she would release him from the obligations of the milk with which she had nourished him, and the care with which she had cherished him from infancy, as he was about to die before he could fulfil any of them. She placed her hands on his head, and he knelt, and she said she forgave him all, and bid him die like a man." The sons were worthy of such mothers, heroic in their firm resolve. There is likewise on record one example of a woman, named Baroonee, who used to assist her husband to strangle his victims. Once she saved his life when nearly overpowered, by tightly pulling the roomal round the neck of the struggling wretch, till he fell dead at her feet. Mothers frequently compelled their sons to go on Thuggee, and wives their husbands; and there was one woman in the Deccan, who kept a gang, though it does not appear that she ever accompanied them. Among the ancient male leaders none was more venerated than Dada Dheera, of the Bhursote clan, whose name was oft-times invoked over spiritual potations, at certain religious ceremonies. Next to him, was the Mooltanee leader, Jhora Naek, who, assisted only by his servant, Koduk Bunwaree, once strangled a man possessed of property to the value of £16,200. Instead of appropriating this valuable prize, he drove the mule home, assembled his neighbours, and distributed to each the share to which he would have been entitled had he been actually present at the murder. For this remarkable display of honour and self-denial, both he and his wife were canonized. The leadership was usually the reward of merit. "A man," said one of them, "who has always at command the means of advancing a month or two's subsistence to a gang, will be called a Jemadar; a strong, resolute man, whose ancestors have been for many generations Thugs, will soon get the title; or a very wise man, whose advice in difficult cases has weight with the gang; one who has influence over local authorities, or the native officers of courts of justice; a man of handsome appearance and high bearing, who can feign the man of rank well—all these things enable a man to get around him a few who will consent to give him the fees and title of Jemadar; but it requires very high and numerous qualifications to gain a man the title of Soobahdar."

It is now time to consider what omens were good, what bad, in the eyes of this strange fraternity. There does not seem to have been any particular reason for deciding on the hidden meaning of the incidents that were supposed to be sent to regulate their conduct. The division of tokens and prodigies into auspicious and adverse was, indeed, most arbitrary and capricious, and can scarcely in any one instance be accounted for. The good were not so numerous as the bad, for even these habitual murderers gladly clutched at any excuse for evading the necessity of taking human life. Very promising was it, on first setting out, to meet a woman, carrying on her head a pitcher full of water: they then felt assured of a happy return to their homes, especially if she happened to be with child. Still better was it to hear an ass bray on the left hand, and then on the right; the expedition might last for years, it would always be attended with success; it passed into a proverb—Sou puk, heroo ek dunteroo,—"One ass is worth a hundred birds." Another proverb,—Baean geedee sona leedee, intimated, that "a jackal, crossing from right to left, brings gold." To rhymed sayings of this kind they were partial, as an assistant to memory. Here is a more elaborate instance:

That is, being interpreted, "If the partridge call at night, or the jackal during the day, quit that country, or you will be seized." Immediate and valuable booty might be expected, if the large hill-crow were heard croaking on a tree, with a river or tank in sight; but the reverse was the case, if the bird were seated on a live buffalo or pig, or on the skeleton of any dead animal. Pleasant, too, was the prospect, if a cat came prowling to their encampment by night; and equally cheering to see a wolf, or a shrike, crossing the road from the right to the left; or a large male antelope, or a herd of small deer, or the blue jay, crossing from left to right. It was good to hear the hare calling at night, upon the left, or the loud, continued hooting of the small owl, when sitting; or the call of the partridge, on the left, while travelling, and on the right, while halting. If a herd of deer came in sight, they looked, ere long, to fall in with another gang of Thugs. The call of the sarus was the most variable of all. It was very encouraging if heard first on the left, and then on the right, on opening an expedition, and also on reaching a stage, if heard on the right; if repeated on the left, a rich prize was at hand, but ill luck was betokened if it first sounded on the left; equally inauspicious was the cry heard on the right, on leaving a stage, unless preceded on the left. The most frequent reference was to Pilhaoo and Thibaoo; by the former was meant the voice or appearance of omen-endowed animals on the left hand, by the latter, that on the right. If the Pilhaoo were good, it was improved by being followed by the Thibaoo; if evil, the danger was in like manner diminished. Unless both were obtained before setting out, the expedition was deferred to a later season. On leaving a stage, the Pilhaoo was full of promise,—the Thibaoo of warning; a rule that was reversed on reaching a halting ground.

On the other hand, if a turban fell off, or caught fire, the gang returned home, if at no great distance, and remained quiet for seven days; otherwise, they offered up goor (coarse sugar), and the owner of the turban alone retraced his steps. An expedition had also to be re-commenced, if on the first day or night it encountered the Ansootare, literally, "tear drops;" that is, a shower of rain falling in the dry season, or in any month save June, July, August, and September; nor could any success be anticipated if it thundered, with little or no rain, when a gang was ready to set out. A very dreadful omen was the cry of the kite, heard during the interval between the first watch and day-break. All would then start to their feet, and betake themselves to hurried flight; though no alarm was entertained if the cry were heard between sunset and the end of the first watch, because then "the omen was suffocated under their sides as they turned in their sleep." Hardly less disastrous was a lizard falling upon a Thug; any garment that it touched must be given away in charity. Nothing but ill luck followed the meeting a maimed person, or an oil-vender, or a woman bearing an empty water-jar, or a leper, or any one emaciated by sickness; to meet a donkey face to face, was called Mataphore, or "the head-breaker." It was of evil import to see a jackal, or a wolf, cross the road from left to right, or a large male antelope, or small deer, from right to left. If a snake crossed either behind or in front of the gang, they must kill it or return home; in either case sacrifices were required. The sight of two jackals crossing the road together, in front, foretold prison and chains. The call of one jackal was bad; the general clamour, or "lamentation" of a pack, still worse; but the short, broken cry of that animal, or the noise of several fighting, rendered it necessary to take to precipitate flight. It was ill-omened to hear the call of the kite while flying, or that mournful sound known as the "weeping" of the wolf, or the low hooting of the small owl, repeated two or three times; or the loud responsive cry of two large owls, or the low clicking sound of that bird, or the slight chirp of the small owl, either sitting or flying. If any member of the gang sneezed, either on first setting out, or on leaving a halting-ground, expiatory sacrifices were offered, and all travellers then in their power were allowed to escape. Were a dog seen to shake its head, no Thug would dream of executing any design he might previously have formed.

It was also unlucky to hear cats fighting in the day-time, or after the first watch at night; or the low gurgling of the large owl, which somewhat resembles the bubbling of a hookah. If this sound were observed on first setting out, the expedition was postponed for several days; if, afterwards, on the left, the gang hurried on, for there was danger behind; if on the right, they halted, for there was danger before them. But probably, no omen was more dreaded than the sight, or the cry, of a hare. Unless a sacrifice was immediately offered, they were certain to perish miserably in the jungles, and the wild animals of the forest would drink water out of their skulls: should they impiously plunder any traveller then with them, they would obtain no booty. One of the most intelligent approvers ascribed his apprehension on one occasion to his neglect of this omen. "A hare crossed the road," he said, "we disregarded the omen—though the hare actually screamed in crossing—and went on." On the following day he and seventeen of his associates were arrested, and only obtained their release after a long detention.

It has been already stated that the Thugs attributed their recent misfortunes to their want of "religion" in neglecting omens, and disregarding the restrictions assigned to their homicidal duties. Their evasions of the latter were sometimes humorous. They were forbidden to destroy any one accompanied by a woman or a cow. But a party of fourteen, possessing both these safeguards, once fell into the hands of a gang at Kotree, in Huttah, and were persuaded by the Thugs to sell the cow to them, as they had made a vow to present one to the Brahmans at Shahpore. They did actually fulfil their pretended vow, but not until they had strangled, without any remaining compunction, every one of their unsuspecting victims, not even excepting the female. According to the approvers, the practice of killing women had prevailed only five years, and became one great cause of their ruin. The principal reluctance to woman-slaughter was entertained by the Hindoos—the Mussulmauns, perhaps, from their larger experience of the sex, showing little inclination to spare them. On a certain occasion a Hindoo lady, called the Kalee Beebee, was met by a gang as she travelled in a dooly (a sort of litter), accompanied by twelve dependents. The Thugs having discovered that she had £400 worth of property with her, her death was insisted upon by the Mussulmauns, and as strenuously objected to by the Hindoos. Thereupon a violent quarrel arose between them, which was only appeased by the former perpetrating the deed by themselves. The Hindoos, however, did not refuse to share in the plunder, save only the lady's personal ornaments and clothes. One of them, a Brahman, named Purusram, was shunned by his own brother until he expiated his guilt by feasting several hundred Brahmans at a great expense. Another member of the gang, also a Brahman, "got worms in his body, and died barking like a dog." A third died miserably, and the families of all became extinct.

A more horrible instance of woman-slaughter appears to have escaped unpunished, at least for a time. The Moonshee, Bunda Alee, in company with his wife, an infant daughter, and six servants, was taking to her bridegroom another daughter who had attained to a connubial age. On the journey he fell in with a numerous gang of Thugs, the leaders of whom contrived to ingratiate themselves with the Moonshee's party, and all travelled on together. One evening towards dusk some of the Thugs seated themselves, as usual, with the Moonshee at his tent door, and began to sing and play on the sitar. One of them presently took up the Moonshee's sword, which was lying on the ground at his feet, as if to examine it. The signal was then suddenly given, but the Moonshee sprung to his feet, screamed aloud, and tried to rush into the tent, but was instantly seized and strangled. His wife, hearing his shrieks, came running out with the infant in her arms, and shared his fate. The bride was put to death within the tent. The servants were at that moment engaged in grooming the horses, and one of them crept under a horse's belly and lustily bawled out "murder!" but they were all quickly silenced by the fatal noose. Ghubboo Khan, who had murdered the mother, intended to adopt the infant, but was dissuaded by one of his comrades who pointed out that it might lead to their discovery. He therefore threw the child alive into the hole in which the dead bodies were already deposited, and the earth was hastily shovelled in upon the living and the dead. While this dreadful scene was enacting, a number of Khulasies were, within sight, occupied in pitching the tents of the European officers commanding a detachment of troops marching along the road. The Thugs, however, had taken care to play and sing, at the top of their voice, as soon as the butchery commenced, while others let loose two vicious horses and chased them with vociferous shouting, so as effectually to drown the cries of their victims.

The five years assigned as the duration of feminicide was simply a euphuism; it prevailed through a very much longer period. In 1816 a party of eighteen men and seven women were strangled near Shikarpore, but the Thugs spared two boys, one of whom, however, cried so bitterly and made so much moaning, that a ruffian seized him by the legs, swung him round, and dashed out his brains against a stone. The dead body was carelessly left lying on the ground, till a fisherman, passing that way, happened to see it, and went and reported the circumstance to the Thakoor Burjore Sing, of Powae. Guided by this clue, the Thakoor discovered the bodies of all the victims, and, collecting as many men as possible, gave chase to the murderers. Following their fresh traces he came up with them while washing themselves in a stream near the village of Tigura. Forming into a compact body, the Thugs retired upon the village, being repeatedly charged by the Thakoor's party, who ran one of them through the chest with a spear and sabred another. The villagers, however, expecting a share of the booty, turned out to the rescue of the Thugs and repulsed their assailants. Next morning they escorted them to the neighbouring village of Simareea, where they received the like sympathy and protection. This was no extraordinary occurrence, for the natives generally regarded the Thugs as a fraternity especially favoured by heaven. They would as soon have thought of destroying a snake or a wolf, or of opposing in any other way the decrees of Providence. The police, to save themselves trouble, and partly also from a secret dread of these mysterious and ruthless beings, used to declare that the dead bodies occasionally found in ravines, wells, and dry watercourses had been killed by tigers, and would burn them in all haste lest the marks of strangulation should be detected by their superiors. In the Deccan the task of suppression was rendered doubly difficult by the sullen opposition of the native chiefs, who sometimes even ventured to maltreat the police officers of the British Government. The Zemindars, or landowners, were always ready to give any amount of security for Thugs, against whom there was no sufficient evidence to justify their punishment. "They knew us very well," said an approver, "but they had then confidence in us; they thought we should keep our own secrets, and, if we did so, no one else would be able to convict us, and get them into trouble. Yes, there was then something like religion and good faith among us, and we found friends everywhere. Where could we find them now?" The Zemindars eagerly afforded them protection, because of the enormous rent they were wont to pay for their lands and villages. Valuable presents, also, were frequently made to them, at the same time that the Thugs engaged not to compromise their patrons by committing murder too near home. The Khyrooa chief once stood a siege from his lord, the Rajah of Jhansee, before he would surrender some eight or ten villains who had thrown themselves on his protection. And the Maharajah of Gwalior was obliged to send two guns and a small army against the Zemindar, or "laird," of Bahmanpora, to make him give up some Thugs whom he patronised; the firing lasted for some hours, and several lives were lost on both sides. Even those who affected to punish the miscreants, seldom touched their persons except to extort from them their ill-got treasures. They would seize one or two of the youngest, tie them up, and flog them till they confessed, or until the gang, in pity for their sufferings, pledged themselves to make up a certain sum, leaving two or three of their number as hostages. They were then released, and allowed to pursue their profession as before.

In the year 1812, soon after the murder of Lieutenant Monsell, a number of Thugs were arrested by certain Zemindars and grievously beaten, in the hope of making them bid high for their release. Their excessive cupidity, however, defeated its own ends. During their thirteen months imprisonment, forty of the Thugs perished from the dampness of their dungeon, combined with the ill-treatment they endured. The survivors insisted that their comrades were tortured to death by a demon, who entered the prison every night during the wet season. "I saw him," said one of them, "only once myself. I was awake while all the rest were asleep; he came in at the door, and seemed to swell as he came in till his head touched the roof, and the roof was very high, and his bulk became enormous. I prostrated myself, and told him that 'he was our Purmesur (great God), and we poor helpless mortals depending entirely upon his will.' This pleased him, and he passed by me; but took such a grasp at the man Mungulee, who slept by my side, that he was seized with spasms all over, from the nape of the neck to the sole of his foot." Of the Zemindars, who caused this atrocious suffering, he added, "not a soul of their families is now left to pour the libation at their funeral obsequies." How like is this to the glorious old Grecian idea of the avenging Nemesis! In truth, this was the only sort of justice administered in India during the supremacy of its native rulers—the golden age, according to the gentlemen of the Manchester school.

The Thugs made use of a peculiar dialect, called Ramasee, which was understood by the members of the fraternity throughout Hindostan, at Mooltan as at Arcot. The signification of the word Thug itself is "a deceiver;" they were likewise called Phanseegars, from the Hindostanee word Phansee, "a handkerchief." One Thug could always recognise another by his salutation Aulae Khan, Salam, if addressed to a Mussulmaun; or Aulae Bhae, Ram, Ram, if addressed to a Hindoo, equivalent to "Peace be with thee, friend!" A few specimens of their phraseology, selected from Captain Sleeman's Thug vocabulary, may be not altogether devoid of interest.

Aulae, or Bora, signified a Thug; Beetoo, or Kuj, everybody not a Thug; Bagh, Phool, a rendezvous; Boj' ha, the Thug who carried the bodies to the grave; Bhukote, or Bhurtote, the strangler; Beyl, site for murder; Bykureea, the scout of river Thugs; Beyl' ha, one who chose the place of murder; Bunij, literally merchandize—technically a traveller; Bunij Ladhna, "to load goods," i.e., to murder; Bhara and Ghurt' ha, dead bodies of victims; Bisul purna, to be awkwardly handled—to have the roomal caught on the face or head, instead of being slipped round the neck—the contrary of soosul purna: a Thug who was frequently guilty of bungling in this manner, was deposed from the honourable post of strangler; Chookadena, or Thibaedena, to get travellers to sit down and look up, by pointing out some star or object in the air, so that, the chin being raised, the handkerchief might be more easily passed round the throat; Chumoseea, or Shumsheea, the Thug whose duty it was to seize the victim's hands; Chumeea, the Thug who held down the struggling victim; Chandoo, an expert Thug; Cheesa, a blessing from heaven, a rich traveller; Dhonkee, or Ronkee, a policeman or guard; Dul, weight; Duller, the head; Doonr, the shrieks of a victim; Jywaloo, left for dead, but afterwards recovering, which occasionally happened when there was not time to bury the bodies, or when it was judged imprudent to stab and slash them after being strangled; Kuboola, a tyro—the opposite of Borka—an adept. The latter could always gather together a band, for he was acquainted with the rites of initiation and the signification of omens, of which a Kuboola was generally quite ignorant. It was, consequently, found unnecessary to sentence the latter to perpetual imprisonment, as they could do little harm without the guidance of a Borka. A Kuboola, of the old Sindouse stock, once attempted to form a gang, into which he admitted all sorts of vagabonds, weavers, braziers, bracelet-makers, &c., who killed men and women indiscriminately, and neglected the most ordinary precautions. The natural consequence was, that they were soon detected, seized, and punished. On the other hand, one of the most noted Thugs on record was Sheikh Ahmed, of Arcot, whose gang consisted of sixty Borkas, disguised as recruits. This able leader had picked up the English words of command, with some knowledge of the Company's drill, and could even express himself intelligibly in English. He never displayed his wealth, which was considerable, or travelled in an ostentatious manner. On the contrary, when sixty years old and able to command the services of a hundred men, he would wander about for months with his wife, cooking his own food, going on foot, and living like a very poor man. His riches were concealed in various caches, regardless of the Horatian maxim, that silver shines only with reflected light from a temperate and judicious use. However, he escaped apprehension, and added, every year, with impunity, to his long catalogue of crime. But to return to the vocabulary—Koojaoo, an informer, or one who extorted hush-money from Thugs; Khullee, a Thug who, from ignoble care-giving impecuniosity, concealed himself on his return home to avoid his creditors—for the natives of Hindostan enjoy many of the blessings of an ancient and refined civilization; Khomusna, to rush in upon travellers when there was not sufficient time for the ordinary preparations; Kanthuna, or Kanth dalna, to stab when no opportunity was afforded for strangling—a very exceptional case—or to slash the suffocated victim, either to prevent revival, or the swelling of the body when buried, owing to the evolved gases finding no vent for escape. This gaseous inflation of the corpse was apt to cause the imposed earth to crack and open, when the horrid effluvia attracted jackals to the spot, who, by digging up the bodies, might discover the fact of a murder having been committed, and so lead to the detection of the murderers; Kathee kurna, to inveigle travellers, or to consult secretly as to the mode of doing away with them; Kharoo, a gang of Thugs; Khuruk, the sound of the consecrated pick-axe in making a grave, supposed to be audible only to the initiated; Kurwa, a square, or oblong grave, for one corpse or for many; Gobba, a circular grave, with a small pillar of earth left in the middle—it was believed to crack less than the ordinary grave, and was therefore preferred when the dead bodies were very numerous; Kuthowa, the Thug whose office it was to cut and stab the dead bodies; Lugha, the grave-digger; Lutkuneea, a very small purse, used exclusively by Thugs and professional thieves; Maulee, or Phoola, the Thug entrusted with the duty of taking to the village the money sent by the absent gang for the maintenance of their wives and families; Nawureea, a novice on his first expedition—sometimes they were compelled to kick the first murdered man five times on the back; Nissar, safe, as applied to any suitable place for lodging at, murdering, or dividing spoil—opposed to tikkur, unsafe; Paoo, an accomplice of Thugs; Pehloo, or Sikka, or Roomal, the handkerchief. This was, rather, a turban unfolded, or the long narrow cloth, or sash, worn round the waist. It was doubled to the length of about thirty inches, with a knot formed at the doubled extremity, and about eighteen inches from that a slip knot. The distance between these two knots was regulated by preparing the fatal instrument on the knee, which was made to do temporary duty for a neck. The use of the two knots was to give a firm hold. When the victim was fairly prostrated, the strangler adroitly loosened the slip knot, and made another fold of the cloth round his throat. Then placing his foot upon the back of his victim's neck, he drew the cloth tightly, as if—to use the informant's own words—he were "packing a bundle of straw." Pehloo dena, to instal as a strangler, of which more hereafter; Phank, a useless thing, a traveller without property; Pungoo, or Bungoo, a river Thug of Bengal, who murdered on board his kuntee or boat; Phur, same as Beyl, also a spot for dividing the plunder; Phurjhana, to clean the murder-spot—after a nocturnal murder, some of the gang were generally left behind to remove any signs of the crime that might be visible by daylight; Phuruck dena, to wave a cloth as signal of danger; Pusur, the direction of an expedition; Ruhna, a temporary grave; Soon, a Thug by birth, but not yet initiated; Saur, one who escaped from Thugs; Sotha, the inveigler; Tome, an article of extraordinary value; Tilha, a spy; Thap, a night encampment; Tuppul, a bye-path into which they often inveigled their unsuspecting travelling companions, as more convenient for their purposes. A rich traveller was called "a delicacy;" a poor one "a stick;" an old man "a barber's drum." Some of their signals, too, were quaint. The necessity of caution was inculcated by drawing the back of the hand along the chin, from the throat outwards; the open hand placed over the mouth and drawn gently downwards, implied the absence of danger. "Sweep the place," signified to look out; "bring firewood," take your places—that is, the place assigned to each Thug preparatory to action; "take out the handkerchief with the beetel," get the roomal ready, as already described; "eat beetel," or "hand the beetel," despatch him—this was called the Jhirnee, or signal to fall on; "look after the straw," get the body ready for burial; "the straw is come out," jackals have dug up the body. Another form of the Jhirnee was Ae ho to ghyree chulo, "if you are come, pray descend." When the scouts wished to report that all was safe, they called out as if to a comrade, "Bajeed Khan," or "Deo," or "Deoseyn." If the scouts saw any danger at hand, or a traveller coming along, they would call out "Sheikh Jee," or "Sheikh Mahommed," if they were Mussulmauns; and "Luchmun Sing," or "Luchee Ram," or "Gunga Ram," if they were Hindoos. Sometimes the advanced guard of a gang, with victims in their power, would meet with a party of travellers, of whom they considered their friends in the rear were capable of disposing. In which case they sent some one back to tell Bajeed Khan, or Deoseyn, to make haste and overtake them. The others receiving this message understood that the coast was clear in front, and on meeting the travellers, lost no time in putting them to death. If a gang happened from any cause to get separated, they rallied with the cry, Bukh, Bukh, Bukh, "come, come, come." When the leader judged that the time was at hand for selecting a beyl, or site for murder, he would say to the Thug on whom that duty devolved, Jao, kutoree manj lao, "go and clean the brass cup." When he desired every one to repair to his post, he gave the khokee, that is, he made a great noise of hawking up phlegm from his throat; if anything then occurred to cause the suspension of operations, he gave the thokee, or spit out the phlegm. Otherwise, he exclaimed aloud "Surbulund Khan," or "Dulur Khan," or "Surmust Khan," whereupon the stranglers made ready and only awaited the jhirnee. Then the fatal words were pronounced, Tombako kha lo, or pee lo, "eat," or "drink (i.e., smoke) your tobacco"—or one of the other formulÆ was used—and the next instant the roomal was round the throat of the ill-fated wretch.

In order to avoid the suspicions likely to be engendered by very large bands of men travelling together, the Thugs used to break up into small parties of from three or four to a dozen or so, communicating with one another by a series of telegraphic signs, which enabled them to concentrate at any given point with amazing celerity. Thus, on coming to cross-roads, the leading files drew their feet along the dust in the direction they had taken. If they wished their comrades to follow quickly, they piled up some dust along the toe-line of their footmarks, on which they sometimes impressed their heel. Where there was no dust easily procurable, they left two stones, one upon the other, or strewed a few leaves to indicate the right path: if haste was needful, they would dispose the leaves in a long line.

Great as was the veneration entertained for the roomal, still greater was that accorded to the kussee, or pick-axe. It was consecrated with peculiar rites. On a day pronounced by the Pundit to be propitious, the leader betook him to a blacksmith—of course a member of his own fraternity—and closing the door, constrained him to relinquish all other work until the axe had been duly fabricated. One of the four auspicious days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday, was then selected for the dhoop, or offering of incense, which took place within a house or tent, the shadow of no living thing being allowed to fall upon the axe. A Thug, renowned for his ceremonial lore, being appointed to officiate, the consecration was attempted—attempted, for it did not always succeed at the first trial. The officiating minister having taken his seat facing the west, received from the leader the pick-axe on a lordly brazen dish. A pit was then dug, over which the axe was held, and washed with water, and afterwards in succession with a mixture of sugar and water, sour milk, and ardent spirits, care being taken that the various liquids should flow into the pit. The next proceeding was to mark the axe from head to point with seven spots of red lead, and again place it on the brazen dish, together with a cocoa-nut, some cloves, paun leaves, gogul gum, inderjon, sessamum seeds, white sandal wood, and sugar. Ghee, or clarified butter, was also put into a small brass cup, standing by the side of the dish. A fire being now kindled with dried cow-dung and mango, or byr-wood, all these articles were thrown into it, excepting the cocoa-nut. So soon as the flames blazed high and bright, the priest, holding the axe in both hands, passed it through them seven times. Then, stripping off the rough outer coat of the cocoa-nut, he placed the fruit on the ground, and taking up the axe by the point, asked of the assembled Thugs, "Shall I strike?" All having replied in the affirmative, he struck the nut with the butt-end of the axe, and usually shivered it into fragments. The whole of the shell and some of the kernel being thrown into the fire, the axe was wrapt in a clean white cloth and laid on the ground, pointing to the west, the Thugs facing the same quarter of the heavens and worshipping. This act of adoration done, they all partook of the cocoa-nut, and collecting the fragments, threw them into the pit. Should the Thibaoo now be heard, all was duly performed, and the axe was a holy thing—no longer a kodalee, but a kussee. But if the Pilhaoo first smote upon their ears, or the priest failed to crack the nut at a blow, the ceremonies must be repeated—all had been done in vain.

On the march, the sacred kussee was always intrusted to a Thug of approved sobriety and steadiness, who carried it in his waist-belt. While encamped it was buried in a secure place, with the point turned towards the direction intended to be pursued. If a better road could be taken, the axe would be found pointing that way. No human foot was allowed to tread the ground beneath which it reposed; nor should the touch of any unclean man or thing ever pollute its purity. If a well happened to be near, it was thrown into it, instead of being buried; and when the gang was ready to set out, being duly summoned, it came of its own accord to its bearer. Nay, more, if a dozen kussees were thrown into the same well, each would fly unerringly to its proper guardian. When this startling assertion was made, Captain Sleeman suggested it was a clever piece of jugglery; whereupon an approver indignantly exclaimed: "What! shall not a hundred generations of Thugs be able to distinguish the tricks of man from the miracles of God? Is there not the difference of heaven and earth between them! Is not one a mere trick, and the other a miracle, witnessed by hundreds assembled at the same time?" Another approver capped his rhetorical friend, by declaring that he had seen with his own eyes this miracle performed in favour of the Arcottee Thugs, as the reward of their superior piety and strict observance of omens.

The burnt-offerings were repeated on all holy days, and after any unusual interval between murders. After being used, it was washed with solemn rites. There was no more binding oath than to swear by the kussee. If the axe itself were not procurable, it sufficed to make an effigy of it in cloth or clay. The person attested, held it in his hand as he swore, and then drank the water in which it had been previously bathed. A perjurer died an awful death within six days after his guilt, his head gradually turning round till his face stood over his back. After all, this is not more strange than the old Hebrew trial of jealousy, as described in the fifth chapter of the Book of Numbers; nor more ridiculous than any ordeal in which supernatural effects were expected from simple and natural causes. If the kussee fell from the hand of its bearer, his death was certain to ensue within twelve months, or else some dire calamity befel the gang. The immediate results of the untoward accident were his deposition from his high office, a change of route, and a fresh consecration of the axe. It has been before remarked, that no one but a Thug could hear the sound of the kussee, when used in digging graves. It had likewise another virtue, in common with the roomal. "Are you never afraid," asked Captain Sleeman, one day, of some of the approvers, "of the spirits of the persons you murder?"

"Never," they replied, "they cannot trouble us."

"Why? Do they not trouble other men when they commit murder?"

"Of course they do. The man who commits a murder is always haunted by spirits. He has sometimes fifty at a time upon him, and they drive him mad."

"And how do they not trouble you?"

"Are not the people we kill, killed by the orders of Davey? Do not all whom we kill, go to Paradise, and why should their spirits stay to trouble us?... A good deal of our security from spirits is to be attributed to the roomal, with which we strangle."

"I did not know that there was any virtue in the roomal."

"Is it not our sikka (ensign), as the pick-axe is our nishan (standard)?... More is attributable to the pick-axe. Do we not worship it every seventh day? Is it not our standard? Is its sound ever heard when digging the grave of any but a Thug? And can any man ever swear to a falsehood upon it?"

Next to the leader of the gang, the most important personages were the stranglers. Before a Thug could hope to attain this honourable distinction, he must have served on several expeditions, and given proof of courage and impassibility. The usual gradations were, employment as a scout, then as a grave-digger, afterwards as a holder of hands, and finally he might become a strangler. So soon as his mind was inflamed with this ambition, he had recourse to one of the oldest and most famous of the brotherhood, and besought him to act as gooroo, or spiritual preceptor, and to accept him as his cheyla, or disciple. If his request were granted, the gooroo led him into a field, with three or four experienced Thugs, and all placed themselves facing the direction in which the gang was about to move. Then the gooroo lifted up his voice, and prayed aloud:—"O Kalee, Kunkalee, Bhudkalee! O Kalee, Mahakalee, Calcutta Walee! if it seemeth to thee fit that the traveller now at our lodging should die by the hands of this thy slave, vouchsafe us the Thibaoo." Should the auspicious omen be refused, the candidate must wait until another opportunity. But if the goddess smiled upon his vows, the party returned to their quarters, and the gooroo, taking a handkerchief, and looking towards the west, tied a knot in one end of it, inserting therein a rupee or other silver coin. This knot was called goor ghaut, or the classic knot, and was a very artistic performance, the end of the roomal being skilfully folded inwards. The disciple thereupon respectfully took the handkerchief in his right hand, and went and stood over his sleeping victim—for a feeble person, and one asleep, was generally chosen for the maiden trial of skill. When all was ready, the Shumsheea, or hand-holder, suddenly awakened the sleeper with the cry that a snake or a scorpion was under or beside him. As he started up, bewildered with sleep and terror, the roomal was slipped over his neck, and in a few seconds he had ceased to fear either reptiles or baser men. The deed being satisfactorily accomplished, the cheyla bowed lowly before his preceptor, and touched his feet with both hands, a compliment he also paid to all the gooroo's relatives and friends there present. After the Thibaoo had again been heard, he untied the knot, and presented the coin, with whatever silver he possessed, to his teacher, who added to it whatever money he happened to have upon his own person. Of this amount half a crown was expended in the purchase of goor, or coarse sugar, and the rest in sweetmeats. The Tapoonee feast was then held under a neem, mango, or byr-tree, the cheyla sitting with the Bhurtotes, or stranglers, and receiving a like share of the consecrated goor. At the conclusion of the expedition, the tyro entertained his preceptor's family, and gave to him and his wife a present of new clothes. The entertainment was returned by the gooroo, between whom and his pupil an indissoluble connection existed ever afterwards unto death.

The Tapoonee, to which allusion has just been made, was a sacrifice offered to Bhowanee after every murder. A half-crown's worth of coarse sugar having been procured through the instrumentality of one of their most plausible members—for the purchase of so large a quantity at a time might have excited strange surmises—it was placed on a blanket, or sheet, spread upon a clear spot of ground. The kussee, or sacred pickaxe, and a silver coin—by way of roop dursun, or silver offering—were also laid upon the sheet, beside the pile of sugar. The most experienced of the leaders there present then seated himself on the edge of the sheet, facing to the west, and on either side of him were ranged as many Bhurtotes as could be accommodated on the carpet, but taking care that they should make an even number. The others sat behind these. The leader next made a hole in the ground, and dropping into it a pinch of the goor, raised his eyes to the sky, and, with clasped hands, devoutly prayed aloud:—"Great goddess! as thou didst vouchsafe one lakh and 62,000 rupees (£16,200) to Jora Naick and Koduk Bunwaree in their need, so, we pray thee, fulfil our desires!" These words were repeated by the entire assembly; after which the leader sprinkled a little water over the pit and the kussee, and placed some goor on the hand of every Thug seated on the blanket. Some one then uttered the jhirnee, or signal for strangulation, and the goor was eaten in solemn silence. Not a word was spoken until the whole of the consecrated pile had disappeared, and been washed down with a draught of pure water. If any crumbs fell on the ground they were carefully picked up and thrown into the hole; for should any beast of the field, or bird of the air, partake of the holy offering, the wrath of the goddess would burn for years. The silver coin being restored to its owner, the unconsumed sugar was distributed among the lower and junior grades of the association. But if any one of the uninitiated, by chance or design, tasted of that to which the stranglers only were entitled, he was straightway irresistibly impelled to Thuggee, and never could the charm that bound him be broken or counteracted.

When necessity, or the weariness of inactivity, or the fascination of their terrible calling, urged them to leave their tranquil homes, their wives and families; the leader of the gang, accompanied by four of his ablest followers, would seat themselves on a blanket around a long-experienced and venerable sage; while the vulgar herd sat down surrounding this group at a little distance. In front of the pundit was placed a brass plate containing a few grains of wheat and rice, and two copper coins. The leader having respectfully inquired on what day they should set out, and in what direction, the pundit went through various ceremonies, too trivial to be particularized, and then indicated the day, the hour, and the route. When the appointed period had arrived—it could not be a Wednesday, or a Thursday, or in the months of July, September, or December—the leader filled a lotah, or brass vessel, with water, and carried it with his right hand over its mouth and holding it by his side. Some turmeric, two copper coins and one of silver, together with the head of the pickaxe, were next tied up separately in a clean white handkerchief, which the leader pressed against his breast in his left hand. Then turning to the heaven-selected direction he slowly moved with all the gang to a field outside the village, where finding a suitable spot, and still preserving the same attitude, he paused, and in seeming abstraction, prayed: "Great goddess! Universal Mother! If this our meditated expedition be good in thy sight, vouchsafe unto us help, and the signs of thy approbation!" The other Thugs repeated his words, and praised their patron, Bhowanee. Within half an hour afterwards the Pilhaoo ought to be heard on the left and the Thibaoo on the right hand. Then, and not till then, the leader relaxed from his statue-like attitude, and putting the lotah on the ground, himself sat down, still looking in the same direction. Thus he remained seven hours communing with himself, his abstraction being finally interrupted by his followers bringing him food and informing him that all things were ready. The silver and copper coins and the turmeric he carefully preserved throughout the expedition, and on his return presented them to some poor Brahman, unless great good fortune had attended his party, in which case they were kept for the opening of the next expedition. If the lotah had fallen from his hand before the omens were given, he would assuredly have died within twelve, or at the latest, within twenty-four months. The preparations being completed, the gang struck off in the direction indicated by the pundit; but after taking a few steps they could turn aside as circumstances might seem to recommend.

During the first seven days after their departure the females of their respective families held no intercourse with those belonging to another gang, lest the victims intended for their own friends should fall into the power of the others. The Thugs, themselves, for the like period abstained from animal food, and even from their favourite ghee, and partook of no other food than fish, goor, and dal (a kind of pulse). Nor did they shave or allow their clothes to be washed, or indulge in alms'-giving—which, with personal abstinence, constitutes the Hindoo notion of practical religion. On the seventh day they had a grand feast, in which green vegetables of some kind made a prominent figure. If a victim, however, were obtained within these seven days of probation, all restraints were at once cancelled and abandoned. Should the expedition last no longer than one year, they frequently denied themselves the taste of milk throughout, and likewise refrained from brushing their teeth. Any bad omens encountered prior to the second halt sufficed to break off the expedition; after that point they could be averted by expiatory rites. It was considered unfortunate to hear any one lamenting the dead as they started, or to meet an inhabitant of their own village, or an oil-vender, carpenter, potter, dancing-master, a maimed or lame person, a fakir (Mussulmaun religious mendicant) with a brown waist-band, or a jogee (Hindoo religious mendicant) with long interwoven hair. But it promised well to fall in with a fair in any other village than their own, or a corpse, or to see a party of female friends weeping round a bride as she left her parents' house to go to her husband's.

As a general rule, the different divisions of a gang used to encamp near each other at the various halting grounds, and were always in frequent communication with one another. No sooner had one of them fallen in with a party of travellers than the intelligence was conveyed to all the others, and every one was on the alert. Their leaders, travelling as merchants, gentlemen, soldiers, or peasants, usually succeeded by their plausible manners in ingratiating themselves with the strangers. And there was nothing formidable or repulsive in their outward appearance. On the contrary, they are described as being mild and benevolent of aspect, and peculiarly courteous, gentle, and obliging. Unlike most of the natives of India, they travelled unarmed, with the exception of two or three who carried daggers. It was therefore an apparently reasonable request on their part to be allowed to proceed under the protection of those who made a grand display of their swords and spears and fire-arms.

This request being usually accorded, the united parties journeyed on together, chatting and prattling with the volubility and easy familiarity of orientals. Sometimes days would elapse before a favourable opportunity occurred. There is an instance mentioned of a gang having accompanied a family of eleven persons for twenty days, during which they had traversed upwards of 200 miles, and then murdered the whole of them, though the head of the family had only one arm, and ought therefore to have been spared. Another gang accomplished 160 miles in twelve days, in company with a party of sixty—men, women and a child—before they found an eligible occasion. They preferred committing murder in the evening, when the travellers would be seated on the ground, mingled with themselves, talking, smoking, singing, and playing the sitar. Where it could be done without suspicion, three Thugs were allotted to every victim. So soon as the fatal signal was given, one seized hold of his hands, the second grasped his legs and held him down, while the strangler tightened the roomal round his neck, and only relaxed the strain when life was extinct. Then the bearers of the daggers slashed the dead bodies, the grave-diggers quickly excavated a deep trench, the corpses were stripped and thrown in, the earth was hastily shovelled in and trampled down, and in an incredibly short space of time all traces were completely effaced of the terrible tragedy. When the ground was too hard to admit of a grave being dug, or any other cause intervened to prevent the burial, the bodies were flung into a ravine, or well, or water course, or concealed in the jungle. Not unfrequently it happened that no convenient opportunity was presented for murdering the travellers while seated. In this case, an experienced Thug would be sent forward to select a beyl, or suitable spot, on arriving at which, if the scouts reported a clear coast, the gang would close upon their unsuspecting companions and speedily put them to death. It was more difficult when the travellers were mounted, though the fleetest charger could not avail to save his rider. A horseman was always attacked by three men; one walked at his horse's head, a second a little way in the rear, and a third by his side, pleasantly conversing with him until the signal was given, when he suddenly dragged him out of the saddle and, with the assistance of his comrade, strangled him before he could recover his self-possession. It was thought a subject for just pride when a Thug pulled a traveller from his horse and murdered him without aid. Such an exploit was a patent of nobility, and conferred credit upon the third and fourth generation. The Thugs, even as approvers, used to glory in the recollection of their past achievements, and spoke of them with as much animation as a sportsman exhibits in describing a good day's shooting or a capital run with the hounds. To avoid confusion, they would distinguish the grand murders by the number of victims they had killed. Thus, in the chaleesrooh, or forty-soul affair, thirty-one men, seven women and two girls were murdered by a collective force of 360 Thugs, who divided among themselves £1,700 worth of plunder. A few days previously 160 of this gang had disposed of a party consisting of a widow, a slave-girl and twelve armed followers. The Sartrooh, or sixty-soul affair, is an excellent illustration of their ordinary mode of operations. The Thugs travelled with this numerous party, consisting of fifty-two men, seven women, and a Brahman boy, about four years old, for twenty days before they consummated their purpose. At Sehora they persuaded their companions to quit the high road and take one that led through the jungles. However, they patiently went on with them, gaining more and more upon their confidence, till they had come to Chittakote. "There," said one of them to Captain Sleeman, "we sent on people as usual to select a place for the murder, and they found one about five miles distant, in a very extensive jungle, without a human habitation for many miles on either side. We persuaded the party to set out soon after midnight; and as they went along, we managed to take our appointed places, two Thugs by every traveller, and the rest in parties of reserve at different intervals along the line, every two managing to keep the person they were appointed to kill, in conversation. On reaching the place chosen, the signal was given at several different places, beginning with the rear party, and passing on to that in front; and all were seized and strangled except the boy. It was now near morning, and too late to admit of the bodies being securely buried; we made a temporary grave for them in the bed of the river, covered them over with sand, and went on with the boy and the booty to Chittakote, intending to send back a large party the next night and have the bodies securely buried. The rains had begun to set in, and after the murders it rained very heavily all the day. The party, however, went back, but found that the river had risen and washed away all the bodies, except two or three, which they found exposed, and pushed into the stream to follow the rest."

So recently as 1830 Bhowanee was believed to have saved her votaries the trouble of burying their victims. A gang after wandering about Loodhiana, Sirhind, and Umballah, came to Goolchutter, where they performed their ablutions in the sacred tank and rested three days. "Having then proceeded two miles towards Kurnal, they overtook two travellers from Mooltan on their way to Muttra, mounted on ponies. They were in appearance very poor." So poor, indeed, that it was judged they would not pay for the trouble of killing them, and they had nearly escaped until a speculative Thug offered to give £10 for whatever might be found upon them. "Their death was accordingly determined on, and they were conducted by the Thugs to Turowlee where they rested in the Serai ('accommodation for man and beast'), and Cheyne Jemadar invited the poor wretches to partake of a repast." The travellers, being religious mendicants, had many anecdotes to tell of their adventures and travels, and pleasantly beguiled the early hours of darkness. Next morning they all set out together and had not gone very far before the jhirnee was given, and the mendicants ceased to beg and to breathe. But while their grave was being dug, the neighing of horses was heard coming along the road, which caused the Thugs to flee to a place of concealment, leaving the corpses on the ground. The horsemen passed on, and saw or suspected nothing. Then the Thugs came out from their hiding places, but lo! the bodies had disappeared—but not so their property which amounted to the value of several hundred pounds. It is true religious mendicants were exempted from strangulation, but this was clearly an exceptional case, for Bhowanee had positively commanded their death by sending favourable omens; she had, besides, rewarded her worshippers with a rich booty, and even disposed of the dead bodies, whose souls had gone straight to Paradise.

They were not, however, always equally fortunate. A gang once learnt from the spies that four travellers with property were trudging along the road towards Baroda. Instantly, twenty fine stout fellows set out after them, and after a long chase came up with the travellers and murdered them. "To the great disappointment and chagrin of us all," bewailed one of the gang, "no property was found upon them, for they turned out to be common stone-cutters, and their tools tied in bundles, which they carried over their shoulders, deceived the spies into the supposition that they were carrying treasure." At another time a gang fell in with two Ganges-water carriers, two tailors, and a woman, and next day they were joined by two very poor travellers, of whom they tried in vain to disembarrass themselves. They would start at night without awakening them, but somehow the others would hear their preparations and insist upon accompanying them. The Thugs then appointed four of their brethren to detach these unconscious suicides from the rest of the party and keep them on the high road while the others struck off down a byepath. This device also failed, for they became frightened and could be satisfied with nothing less than a junction with the main body. Their obstinacy sealed their fate. Half a dozen of the Thugs went on with them in advance, and strangling them, found upon them only one rupee—worth about two shillings. The others soon shared the fate of the two poor travellers, but turned out a more profitable prize, as they yielded among them twenty pounds. A smaller sum, however, than one shilling will often times tempt a Hindoo to commit murder, even though he have nothing to do with Thuggee. What value the latter attached to life may be inferred from the testimony of one of themselves. "I have never strangled any one," said he, "but have aided in throwing bodies into wells. Eight annas (one shilling) is a very good remuneration for murdering a man. We often strangle a victim who is suspected of having two pice (one farthing)." But it seldom happened that a murder produced less than two pounds; the average being probably about fifteen pounds. It is almost comical to read that these dread beings were sometimes robbed at night by vulgar pilferers, though they usually set a watch. The same sort of retribution is observable in the fate of twenty-seven Dacoits, or gang-robbers, who had in their possession at the time above £1,300 worth of money, gold ornaments, gems, and shawls. A gang of one hundred and twenty-five Thugs having met with them, begged to be allowed to travel under their protection. The Dacoits carelessly assented, and were shortly afterwards all put to death.

Eager as they were for booty the Thugs appear to have been courteous and forbearing towards one another, and equitable in the division of their spoils. Feringeea and twenty-six of his gang were one day cooking their dinners under some trees by the road-side when five travellers came bye, but could not be persuaded to stop and partake of their meal, saying they intended to sleep at Hirora that night, and they had yet eight miles to go. The Thugs followed after them, and also reached Hirora, but could discover no traces of the travellers. Feringeea, therefore, inferred that they must have fallen into the hands of another gang, and suddenly recollected having passed an encampment of Brinjarees (bullock-drivers) not far from the town. On the following morning he accordingly went back with a few of his comrades, and at once recognised a horse and a pony which he had observed in the possession of the travellers. "What have you done with the five travellers, my good friends?" he said. "You have taken from us our merchandize." They apologised for what they had done, pleading ignorance, and offered to share the booty; but this Feringeea declined, saying that he had no claim to a share, as none of his party was present at the loading.

The division of the spoils was regulated with great nicety. The leaders were usually entitled to every tenth article, and to one anna in the rupee (one sixteenth) of actual money, besides their share as individuals. If the gang consisted of twenty, including the Jemadar, the booty was divided into twenty-one equal parts, of which the Jemadar received two. Five per cent. was then set aside for the stranglers, and the rest divided into three equal heaps, corresponding to as many equal sections of the gang. Each section marked a cowree (a shell), and the three were put into a man's hand without his knowing to which either belonged, who then placed one on each pile. The sections afterwards divided among themselves each its own lot.

A feast was sometimes held in honour of Davee, in the course of an expedition. If the expenses were defrayed by subscription, as was most customary, it was called a Punchaetee Kotee, and was usually celebrated during the Hooley or Dusserah festivals. Occasionally a single member provided the feast; but, to be entitled to do so, he must have been a strangler, or at least a Thug in the third generation. The feast was in this wise. Having procured some goats, of whom two must be perfectly black, without speck or blemish, and a sufficient quantity of rice, ghee, spices, and spirits, they assembled in a room the doors and windows of which could be closed, so as to prevent any prying eyes from seeing what was passing within. The floor being carefully swept and plastered with cow-dung, a square space, measuring a cubit each way, was drawn in the middle of the apartment, with a mixture of turmeric and lime. On this square was spread a clean white sheet, whereon was placed some boiled rice, and on the top of that the half of a cocoa-nut shell filled with ghee, in which floated two cotton wicks lying across each other, so as to give four lights. If a cocoa-nut was not procurable, a vessel of the same form was shapened in dough. Upon the sheet were then laid the sacred pickaxe, the dagger of the gang (the misericorde), and the spirits. The two black goats were next washed and thoroughly wetted, and placed with their faces to the westward. If one, or both of them shook off the wet with lusty vigour, it was a sign that the sacrifice was acceptable; otherwise, the rice and spirits alone were consumed, and without any further ceremony. But in the former case, if Mahommedans, they chaunted a sort of grace as they cut the throats of the whole of the animals; if Hindoos, they struck off their heads at a blow. The skins, bones, and offal were thrown into a pit dug for the purpose. When every man's appetite was satiated, they washed their face and hands over the pit, and filled it up and levelled it with the ground. Should any profane eye witness any part of the preparations, or a spark fall on the sheet and burn a hole, or any animal touch the offal, the leader must expect to die within a year and all his companions would come to grief.

Besides the land Thugs there was a bold and skilful clan calling themselves Bungoos, or Pungoos, who practised the same vocation on the Hooghly river, going up as far as Benares or even Cawnpore, but chiefly infesting the Burdwan district. Their system and dialect differed considerably from those of their land brethren. Their leaders assumed the appearance of the proprietor or captain of a passenger boat, while some of his gang bent to the oars or towed the vessel along the bank, and the others, dressed as pilgrims or shopkeepers, took their seat on deck; these were the stranglers and their assistants. A few of the most plausible and insinuating members were employed as Sothas, or inveiglers. These wandered on the roads leading to the various Ghauts, or landing places, and contrived to get into conversation with the travellers who seemed bound for the river. On arriving at the Ghaut they would see a clean tidy boat, already partially filled with passengers and ready to swing off. They naturally hastened on board, rejoicing at not being detained. The river Thugs always faced their victims, sitting in a row on one side of the deck opposite to them. So soon as an opportunity presented itself, the look-out man smote the deck three times with his hand. Then the helmsman gave the jhirnee, by exclaiming Bhugna ko paun do, "give my sister's son some paun." Up sprang the pretended voyagers, and throwing the roomal round the neck of their victims pressed it tightly in front, bending their head backwards, while their assistants held their feet and hands. Though sometimes one Thug would almost suffice for the purpose, nine of them have been known to strangle seven men stronger than themselves, and twelve have overpowered ten. When the convulsive writhings had ceased, they made certainty doubly sure by breaking the backbone and violently kicking or punching their victims with their elbows. The bodies were then pushed into the river through a window made in either side of the boat, immediately above the water-mark. The greatest care was taken to avoid shedding any blood, which by discolouring the stream might lead to suspicion and detection. If a drop were spilt, they returned home and offered up expiatory sacrifices. Women were invariably permitted to escape, and all property of a suspicious character was at once destroyed. Their proceedings, however, were no secret to the river police, whose silence was secured by rich presents. Their very existence was thus kept from the knowledge of the European magistrates until the year 1836, but in little more than twelve months afterwards 161 of the miscreants had been arrested, and the names obtained of thirty-eight others. There were usually about fourteen to each boat, and there were eighteen boats regularly occupied in this dreadful business, besides several engaged for occasional service. The hot and wet seasons were deemed equally unfavourable, as few travellers were then abroad; the most productive months being November, December, January, and February. A party of river Thugs, occupying two boats, contrived to become acquainted with the Manjee, or commander of a boat laden with tobacco and hemp, and persuaded him and his crew to stop with them at a chur, or sand-bank, and cook their dinners together. After the repast the Thug leader asked the others to join his party in fulfilling a vow he had made to the god Hurry Sote. So they all sang the song of Hurry Sote, when the leader suddenly exclaimed, "Now, Hurry, give us our plunder!" Five Thugs instantly leaped on the throats of the Manjee and his crew, threw them back upon the sand and strangled them. Then their comrades fell upon the lifeless corpses, broke their backbones, punched them on the ribs with their fists and elbows, and dragging them into the deep running water let them float down the stream.

Perhaps a better idea than has yet been given of the nature and extent of Thuggee, may be derived from Captain Sleeman's Official Report of an Expedition into Malwa, Guzerat, Kandeish, and Berar, by gangs from Gwalior, Bundlecund, and the Saugor districts, in 1827-28. The leader was our old friend Feringeea, who started from Gorha with twenty-five Thugs and proceeded to Moghul ka Serai, where he fell in with two Mahrattas. These were put to death about three miles further on. Arriving at Tuppa, in Indore, the gang was then joined by eleven more Thugs, who all went on together to Raghooghur, where they met two Mahrattas and a Marwaree on their way from Saugor to Indore. Here Soper Sing and fifteen Thugs came up with them, escorting a bird-catcher and two shopkeepers journeying from Indore to Patna. All six were strangled in the night and buried in one grave. Next morning Feringeea's party, with five of Soper Sing's crossed the Nerbudda at the Puglana Ghaut, and at Samneer murdered three Sipahees, in search of service, at mid-day, and left their bodies by the road side. The next stage was Kurajgow Kuringee, whence they accompanied a traveller, who was going towards the south, for sixteen miles, where they killed him and buried his corpse beneath the walls of a small Hindoo temple. Thence they passed through Omrowtee to Larun Kurnajee, and in their camp in a grove killed a traveller whom they had brought on with them from Bam; and also a thief found skulking among some tombs, who had one hundred and ten pounds worth of stolen goods in his possession. At Busum their numbers were swelled by a reinforcement of fifty Thugs under four leaders. Going on together in one body they encamped near Nandair, and there murdered five travellers. Some of the new arrivals having again left them, the others held on to Rovegow, where they overtook nine persons, whom they accompanied about three miles and strangled just before daybreak. At Hyderabad they lodged near the bridge over the Hoosa Nuddee, where they killed and buried a Brahman and two Rajpoots with whom they had scraped an acquaintance in the Bhegan Bazar. Wandering on to Gungakhera they fell in with three Marwarees, whom they escorted a stage on the Holwa road. One of the travellers being accidentally thrown from his horse, was instantly strangled, and his companions of course shared the same fate. As they had not reached the appointed Beyl, they left the bodies upon the ground, a prey to jackals and carnivorous birds. Their next encampment was at Purureea, in Holwa, where they murdered a Soobahdar (native commissioned officer), five sepoys, and a woman. At Doregow they met three Pundits and with them a Byragee (Hindoo ascetic), mounted on a pony, plastered over with sugar and covered with flies. Driving away the mendicant, they killed and buried the Pundits. On leaving Doregow the Byragee again joined them and went on in their company to Raojana, where they overtook six cloth-merchants travelling from Bombay to Nagpore. As the mendicant was much in their way, they pelted him with stones, and having thus got rid of him they killed the merchants, burying their bodies in the grove. The next day the Byragee again joined them and proceeded with them to Mana, where they fell in with two bearers and a sepoy. Shaking off their troublesome companion, they hastened on to the spot selected for the contemplated murder, where the mendicant once more came up with them. Their patience being exhausted, they offered one of the gang ten shillings extra to kill him and take the sin upon himself. All four were then strangled, and, to their astonishment, the Byragee proved the most valuable prize of all; for upon him and his pony they found many pounds weight of coral, 350 strings of small pearls, fifteen strings of large pearls, and a gilded necklace. Soon after they arrived at Omrowtee, between which and Nadgow they got hold of two men, whom they murdered at their encampment. They were treasure bearers and had with them £400 worth of silver. These are a peculiar class of men, excessively poor, but famed for their honesty. They were never known to betray their trust, and would rather yield their life than surrender their charge. They bore no weapons, chiefly relying on the poverty of their garb and external appearance. The Bombay and Surat merchants used to employ them in conveying specie through Kandeish and Surat to Indore and Rajpootana, and they generally succeeded in escaping the notice of mere marauders; but it was a different thing with the Thugs who took life officially and professionally, content with a farthing but oftener reaping a fruitful harvest.

From Nadgow the band proceeded to Kuragow, and soon afterwards in passing through a small dry ravine fell in with four men driving two bullocks laden with copper pice. The men were instantly put to death, and their bodies slightly covered with stones and rubbish. After this affair two of their leaders with their respective followers returned home, while the others strolled onwards through Burhanpore to Indore, where they received an accession of strength by the junction of three leaders with sixty Thugs.

Three Marwarees being here inveigled into a house occupied by a part of the gang, never again went forth into the road. They remained at Indore a whole day, but were not idle, for Feringeea prevailed upon four more Marwarees to accompany him to the encampment of the remainder of the gang, and they likewise were dismissed to Hades. Soon after leaving Indore they fell in with four travellers, whom they murdered in camp that evening. Feringeea's party then diverged from the main body and passed through Saugor to Chutterpore, where intelligence was received that a body of armed men were in pursuit of them. They, therefore, doubled back and came to Kondee, a short distance from which they murdered two travellers. At Raghooghur they were reinforced by twelve of their fraternity, and on the following day by thirty more under Sheikh Inaent: and at Dubohee, near Bhilsa, they were joined by two more leaders with twenty Thugs. Here they murdered two sepoys. After this affair fifty of them under Sheik Inaent went on to Baroda, where they all fell sick and were glad to return to Bheelpore. Their convalescence was celebrated by the murder of two Bearers. Encouraged by this success they journeyed to Oodeypore in the Dhar Pergunnah. Three sepoys and another man were strangled next morning about two miles from the town. A little further on they overtook an elephant driver, in the service of the Oodeypore Rajah, and him they murdered at night at a village called Amjhera. Passing through Mhow, to a village on the side of Raghooghur, they fell in with three Bearers, whom they strangled next morning. They then held on through Ashta till they encountered a Havildar (non-commissioned native officer), a sepoy, and another, of whom they disposed the following morning. Shortly afterwards a large portion of this gang returned home, whereon the Sheikh went off and rejoined Feringeea. Their junction had scarcely been effected before it was announced that the police were close upon their track. Many more of the Thugs then started off homewards, and others retreated to a stream near Peepala, where, notwithstanding their fears, they made away with two sepoys, another man, and a woman.

A village called Jhundawala was the scene of their next exploit—a Bearer their next victim. After that they came to Tuppa, and, as they were setting out next morning, were joined by a Havildar, a sepoy, and two women, whom they murdered on the following day. Arriving at Kenjarra they strangled two more sepoys, and four more a few days afterwards. The gang then broke up, and Feringeea returned to his home in Tehree. Since he last parted from his wife, unconscious of his crimes, he had been an accomplice in the murder of one hundred men and five women. Let not this appalling number appear incredible. In the kingdom of Oude, a fair sample of native government, there were 1406 miles of road infested by Thugs, and no fewer than two hundred and seventy-four Beyls, or sites of murder; that is, one in every five miles and a half. Twenty Thugs, admitted as Approvers, acknowledged that they were present, respectively, at 508, 931, 350, 377, 604, 119, 42, 103, 264, 203, 195, 294, 117, 322, 340, 28, 65, 81, 153, and twenty-four murders, the least experienced having witnessed twenty-four murders, and the most 931—thus giving an average of 256 murders to each of the twenty. The same Beyl was not unfrequently the scene of several murders. Captain Sleeman mentions a striking instance of this. When Feringeea was first brought before him a prisoner, in December 1830, he offered, if his life were spared, to give information that would lead to the arrest of some large gangs who had appointed to rendezvous at Jyepore in the following February. Some incredulity as to his power to do so having been expressed, he begged to be allowed to accompany the "Sahib" a short distance on his official tour of inspection, when he would afford ample evidence as to his knowledge of Thuggee. He promised no more than he was able to perform. Two stages from Saugor on the road to Seronge, Captain Sleeman encamped for the night in a small mango grove near the village of Selohda. At an early hour of the next morning Feringeea desired to see him, and pointing to three different spots declared they were so many graves. "A Pundit and six attendants, murdered in 1818, lay among the ropes of my sleeping tent, a Havildar and four Sipahees murdered in 1824, lay under my horses, and four Brahman carriers of Ganges-water and a woman, murdered soon after the Pundit, lay within my sleeping-tent. The sward had grown over the whole, and not the slightest sign of its ever having been broken was to be seen." All night long Mrs. Sleeman had tossed about in her sleep, tormented by horrible dreams, probably engendered by the foul air arising from so many graves—certainly not caused by the spirits of the departed, and, perhaps, many a ghost story may owe its origin to some similar cause. Still doubting, Captain Sleeman sent for the police and a posse of villagers, who after digging down about five feet came upon the skeletons of the Havildar and his comrades, and afterwards the others were discovered in succession. Feringeea then proposed to discover other graves in the neighbouring groves, but Captain Sleeman could stand no more of such horrors for that morning. It transpired that the Pundit's horse had been presented to the proprietor of the village, in which some of the gang actually resided, and that the others came thither every year and stopped some time "feasting, carousing and murdering," and yet neither the police nor the inhabitants appeared to have the slightest suspicion of the real nature of their pursuits. It must be remembered that they never murdered any but strangers and wayfarers, and that the villagers and their property would be perfectly secure. It would be an excess of charity, however, to suppose that the Zemindar had not a shrewd guess as to the means by which his horse was obtained. During the three years, 1822 to 1824, both inclusive, that Captain Sleeman was magistrate of the Nursingpore district in the Nerbuddah valley, and—as he imagined—cognizant of every crime and every bad character within its limits, he was perfectly unconscious that there was a Thug village only 400 yards from the Court-house, and that only a few miles distant the groves of Mundaisur contained fully one hundred dead bodies. These groves were a favourite place of rendezvous for gangs coming from Upper India and from the Deccan, with the connivance and under the protection of two respectable landholders, descendants of the pious individuals who had planted those trees to shelter the unhoused wanderer.

The destruction of life and property since the commencement even of the present century must have been enormous. It is known that in 1826-27, two hundred and five men and six women were murdered by different gangs in Malwah and Rajpootana. In 1827-28, three hundred and sixty-four males and twenty-one females were strangled in Kandeish, Berar, and Guzerat. In 1828-29, two hundred and twenty-six men and six women were thus disposed of in Malwah and Kandeish. In 1829-30, ninety-four men, four women, and a child perished in Baroda and Bundlecund. In 1830-31 the Bundlecund gangs destroyed fifty-seven males and one female. In 1830-31-32, one hundred and seventy males and five females were murdered in Rajpootana and Guzerat. And in 1832-33, forty-one males were strangled in the Gwalior district alone. It has been estimated that on an average more than ten distinct cases of murder occurred in every expedition, and that every Thug went upon at least ten expeditions, which would assign to each a guilty complicity in fully one hundred murders. The amount of property of which they despoiled the public must also have been very great, and occasionally individual prizes were of no trivial value. Thus in 1826 a party of fourteen were murdered by a gang of one hundred and fifty Thugs, and a booty secured worth £2,500. In 1827, seven men were murdered by three hundred and fifty Thugs, and robbed of £2,200. In 1828, the murder of nine persons by a gang of one hundred and twenty-five yielded £4,000; and in 1829, that of six persons produced £8,200, to be divided between one hundred and fifty Thugs.

It must seem incredible, but it is nevertheless the simple fact, that this terrible system of murder flourished for nearly two centuries under those native governments of whose excellence so much has been said in certain quarters. The division of the vast peninsula into many separate, independent, and jealous states, no doubt, encouraged the perpetration of crime by facilitating escape and rendering detection and apprehension almost impossible. So long as their own subjects or tenants were not molested, neither princes nor landed proprietors considered themselves bound to interfere with an institution of which they entertained a mysterious dread, and whence they derived goodly gifts and a handsome revenue. Superstition and cupidity were powerful allies in favour of the Thugs, who, besides, in their palmy days, exhibited admirable prudence and tact in avoiding whatever might be offensive to their patrons and injurious to themselves. They were especially careful not to touch any European, for they well knew that from such they were more likely to receive lead than gold, and that search would be made for the missing man; nor, indeed, was the like facility afforded for familiarity, owing, in a great measure, as Fuseli would say, to "de d—d ignorance of de language." All tell-tale property they quickly destroyed, and never committed a murder near home, or where they were known; nor after a murder did they ever proceed in the direction whence their victims had come, lest they should be betrayed by a horse, a bullock, or an ass, being anywhere recognised. The native custom of sending remittances in the form of jewels and precious metals without any armed escort, and of carrying considerable sums upon the person, increased the temptation of doing honour to Bhowanee. The vast population, too, was always in motion. Parties of travellers, or lonely wanderers, on foot, or on horseback, streamed along the roads and bye-paths, reposing in the intense heat of the day or during the moonless hours of the night beneath the hospitable shade of a grove of mangoes and other stately trees, or around the well that owed its origin to pious vanity. And the very terror felt for their unknown enemies made the travellers an easier prey, for in seeking to avoid the danger, they frequently ran into it by inviting the company of the mild, cheerful and intelligent companions, who were ever ready to converse with them, to walk with them, and—to murder them. Their existence was first known to the English in 1799, after the fall of Seringapatam, when a hundred Phanseegars, or Thugs, were taken prisoners at Bangalore, though even then they were not suspected of pursuing an hereditary profession. The first regular information concerning their habits was not obtained until 1807, when a gang of them was arrested between Chittore and Arcot. It had frequently been remarked, indeed, that very many sepoys never returned to their regiments on the expiration of their leave of absence, and they were struck off the rolls as deserters. But when the true cause of their absence was discovered, the Commander-in-Chief, Major-General St. Leger, issued a general order in 1810, warning the native troops against associating with chance companions on the road, and advising them to send their money to their homes by means of hoondees, or bills, and not to travel by night. The evil, however, was of too monstrous a growth to be thus easily checked. And there was likewise great difficulty experienced in bringing home any particular crime, even when the perpetrators happened to be in custody. The merchants and bankers whose property had been stolen were reluctant to appear in court to give evidence: it was looked upon as somewhat of an indignity, and the cautious delays of English jurisprudence caused a waste of time they could ill endure. Their money was gone, and there was an end of it. It was predestined that it should go in that manner. The thieves were merely instruments working out the will of Providence. Against them they bore no malice or vindictive feeling. Even the relatives of murdered men refused to come forward until they obtained a promise that they should not be summoned to appear in a distant court. And in the majority of cases it was impossible to ascertain who were the murdered persons, or whence they came. A few isolated cases of conviction did, indeed, occur, as in 1823, when Mr. Molony arrested a gang of 115 in the valley of the Nerbudda, and convicted the whole of them; and again in 1826, when a large gang was arrested in the same valley by Major Wardlaw, and their guilt proven. But these exceptions rather tended to make the Thugs more cautious than to induce them to relinquish their ancestral vocation. It was not until 1829-30 that the task of suppression was fairly commenced. The honour of the initiative was reserved for Lord William Bentinck, who passed certain acts rendering Thuggee the object of a special judicature, and giving a wider discretion to the officers employed in its suppression. His lordship was fortunate in his selection of the special officers. It is needless to do more than mention the names of the late Major General, then Captain, Sleeman, Major, now Colonel, Borthwick, Colonel Stewart, Captain Patton, Captain Malcolm, Captain G. Hollings, and Mr. F. C. Smith. The best proof of the ability and energy displayed by these gentlemen is the fact that by the year 1840 the committals amounted to 3,689. Of this number, 466 were hanged, 1,504 transported, 933 imprisoned for life, 81 confined for different periods, 86 called upon to give ample security for their future good conduct, 97 acquitted, and 56 admitted as approvers: 12 effected their escape, and 208 died a natural death before sentence was passed. The approvers were not absolutely pardoned, or even released from custody. Sentence was passed upon them in the usual manner, but respited as long as they showed signs of repentance and reformation. The utmost caution was used in sifting their evidence and in confronting them with the accused, but their testimony was so clear and so thoroughly substantiated that no reasonable man could entertain the slightest doubt as to their veracity. So complete was the success of the measures now adopted that on the 17th of August, 1840, Hoossain Dost Khan, a powerful Talooqdar (baronial lord) in the Nizam's dominions, previously an avowed opponent of the British, wrote a letter to Captain Malcolm, from which the following is an extract:—"Seeing that the best arrangements have been made in this matter, the whole of the inhabitants of the country, and travellers, have been emancipated from the fear of Thugs; day and night they raise their hands in prayer to state that in the days of kings bygone no such peace and comfort existed. Thanks to Almighty God, the power of conferring this great boon, a source of great renown has been reserved for you from the beginning of the world, in order that this matter should be so arranged. Where are the murdered men? How can there be any, when you do not even hear the slightest allusion to Thugs? The whole world are giving thanks for this." It must be confessed, however, that there was some slight exaggeration in the worthy Talooqdar's congratulations, for in the course of the next seven years 531 more Thugs were apprehended and committed for trial. Of these, 33 were hanged, 174 transported, 267 imprisoned for life and 27 for shorter periods, 5 called upon to put in bail, 125 acquitted, and 46 admitted as approvers: besides 11 who died, and 2 who made their escape. It was no easy matter to prevent the last contingency, so great was their patience and ingenuity. Towards the close of 1834, twenty-seven prisoners escaped from the Jubbulpore gaol, by cutting through their irons and the bars of their windows, with thread smeared with oil and then incrusted with finely-powdered stone. In 1848 also there were 120 committed, of whom 5 were hanged, 24 transported, 11 imprisoned for life and 31 for a limited period, 7 required to find substantial bail, 12 acquitted, and 9 admitted as approvers: 2 died, and 10 remained under trial. Since that year Thuggee appears to have quite died out. In 1853, indeed, some cases occurred in the Punjaub, but vigorous measures being at once adopted, under the superintendence of Captain Sleeman, whose happy lot it was to complete the good work inaugurated by his distinguished father, its final suppression was almost coincident with its revival.

The question that next presented itself for the anxious consideration of the Government was the means of providing for the families of the approvers. If left to their own devices, or the suggestions of want, there was too much reason to apprehend that the elder members, who had already witnessed the taking of human life, might be tempted to revert to the practices of their forefathers. Accordingly, in the year 1838, on the recommendation of Captain Charles Brown, a School of Industry was founded at Jubbulpore, for the purpose of teaching the sons of the approvers a trade or craft by which they might earn an honest livelihood. At first their parents were opposed to the idea, but soon joyfully acquiesced when they came to understand the benevolent motives of the Government. For a time the old Thugs continued to speak with animation of their past achievements, but, gradually weaned from their former habits and associations, they learned to look back with shame upon their antecedents and studiously avoided any further allusion to them. By the end of 1847 the school possessed 850 inmates, of whom 307 were employed as guards, brickmakers, builders, cleaners, &c., &c.; while the remaining 543 applied their superior ingenuity to the manufacture of lac dye, sealing-wax, blankets, satringees (a sort of strong drugget), fine cloth for trousers, dhotees, or body cloths, newar tape of sorts, cotton wicks, stockings, gloves, towels, tents, and carpeting. In that year the product of their labour amounted to 131 tents, 3324 yards of Kidderminster carpeting, forty-six woollen carpets, and a vast quantity of towels, tablecloths, plaids, checks, &c., which realised upwards of £3,500. Of this sum £500 were given to the Thugs as an encouragement, and to form a capital for such as were allowed after a time to establish themselves in Jubbulpore on their own account. And nearly £300 were paid to their wives for spinning thread for the factory. Much of the success of this institution has no doubt been due to the excellent and judicious superintendence of Mr. Williams, formerly a patrol of the Delhi Customs.

Let British supremacy in India cease when it will, the suppression of Thuggee will ever remain a glorious monument to the zeal, energy, and judgment of the civil and military servants of the East India Company. It is easy to direct epigram and innuendo against the idea of a body of merchants ruling a vast empire with enlightened and disinterested beneficence. But the impartial student of Anglo-Indian history can readily adduce many such examples as the preceding—for instance, the suppression of Suttee, human sacrifices, and infanticide; the repression of torture, gang robberies, and voluntary mutilation—in order to prove that these merchants were truly princes, these traffickers the honourable of the earth.