THUGS. 51 



period had not been long established in our Anglo-Indian 

 dominions. To quote the words of a writer on Indian affairs 

 "That thousands of practised murderers, organized into 

 a brotherhood, and bound to each other by mysterious, but 

 indissoluble ties, and who held a language only known to 

 themselves, should be congregated at all seasons and in 

 every class of society, and so well initiated in their bloody 

 calling, that however far apart the residence of two Thugs 

 might be, yet they no sooner encountered each other than 

 immediate recognition should follow, was indeed little 

 suspected, since such a state of things could not enter the 

 imagination of persons living under an efficient government." 

 The only means of detecting and bringing to justice these 

 monsters was through the treachery and cowardice of their 

 own sect, who, upon the first danger of discovery, rushed 

 which should be the first in the field to come forward and 

 turn approver, or give evidence against their comrades, by 

 which they escaped the penalty of hanging, which was in 

 every case inflicted on a convicted Thug ; and so concise 

 and complete in all the details was this evidence, and so 

 thoroughly established by subsequent proofs, such as finding 

 bodies or skeletons in the exact spots where they were 

 stated to have been murdered, that no doubt could exist of 

 its credibility. 



Thuggism in Bengal has been so well described by Captain 

 Meadows Taylor, that I shall simply confine myself to the 

 evidence produced before Captain Sheriff as to the manner 

 it was carried on in this part of the Deccan. It not only 

 embraced every class of society, but every age and sex, 

 from old age to almost infancy. Every member of this 

 diabolical fraternity was liable to be summoned at any 

 period, night or day, to assist or join in a conspiracy for 

 the sake of plunder and murder; and as the Phansigars 

 represented all classes and callings in society, such oppor- 



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