52 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



tunities were very frequent, as they easily obtained the 

 knowledge of intended j ourneys of persons on business, and 

 who were likely to carry money or valuables with them, 

 met them on the road, or at caravanserais, and managed to 

 keep company with their victims until their party was suffi- 

 ciently large to enable them to achieve their bloody work 

 with security. 



The Phansigar always added murder to robbery. It 

 formed an imperative item of his creed. The female, for 

 the sake of her bangles or armlets, or the poor child, for 

 its brass lotah or water- vessel, were alike pitilessly strangled, 

 and buried or concealed in the most convenient spot. They 

 were, however, most cautious in their proceedings, and 

 always selected the most secluded and unfrequented places 

 for the scenes of their atrocities. 



When a party was to be attacked en masse, the number 

 of Thugs was generally about equal to the travellers, when, 

 by a given signal* and at a favourable part of the road, 

 and whilst apparently in friendly conversation and com- 

 panionship, each Phansigar, great and small, selected a 

 victim, by adroitly throwing a noose round his or her neck, 

 and the work of murder was soon finished, either by strangu- 

 lation, or the knife; but they preferred the former mode. 

 The bodies, after being despoiled, were immediately buried 

 in the most secluded spot they could find. 



As I before stated, the police had every reason to believe 

 that a large party of these assassins were haunting Jaulnah 

 and its immediate vicinity, and steps were taken in con- 

 sequence to discover them. 



An old, and rather mysterious personage, apparently a 

 Marhatta of high caste, and who occupied the position of a 

 shroff, or money-dealer in the Jaulnah bazaar, and, indeed, 

 had even had some transactions in that way with some of 

 the officers of the camp, somehow or other fell under the 



