VALLEY OF THE SOANE. 163 
enter into conversation with him, and have him suddenly seized, when 
the superior whips off his own linen girdle, throws it round the victim's 
neck and strangles him, pressing the knuckles against the spine. 
Taking off his own cummerbund, he passed it round my arm (not neck) 
and showed me the turn as coolly as a sailor once taught me the Zang- 
man’s knot. "The Thug is of any caste, and belongs to any part of 
India. The profession have partieular stations, where they generally 
murder, throwing the body into a well. The Dakoit (dakhee, a rob- 
ber) is one of a class who rob in gangs, but never .commit murder,— 
arson and housebreaking are also their profession. These are all high- 
class Rajpoots, originally from Guzerat, who, on being conquered, 
vowed vengeance on mankind. They talk both Hindostanee and the 
otherwise extinct Guzerat language. This latter the Dakoit spoke to 
me: it was guttural in the extreme, and very singular in sound. 
These are a very remarkable people, found all over India, and called by 
various names, as Buddacks (butchers), Sear Marwa, or Shighal Khor 
(jackall-eaters in pure Persian, i.¢., a barbarian with no prejudice against 
the unclean). The women dress peculiarly, and are utterly devoid of 
modesty. The specimen I examined was a short, square, but far from 
rupee weight of pounded or whole PADET into his food, pro- 
told me that the Datura seed is gathered at any time, place, or age of 
the plant. He was a dirty, ill-conditioned looking fellow, with no 
bumps behind his ears, or prominence of eyebrow region, but an 
undeniable cerebellum. 
As you may care to hear more of these celebrated Thugs, I will 
give you what information I picked up. (All this and better, too, you 
find in Sleeman's Reports). "Though now all but extinct (except 
in Cuttack), through ten or fifteen years of increasing vigilance on the 
part of our Government, and incredible activity and acuteness on the 
officers employed, they were till then a wonderfully numerous body, 
who abstained from their vocation solely in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of their own villages. These villages, however, were not exempt 
Y2 
