66 GANGES VALLEY. Chap. III. 



Taking off his own, he passed it round my arm, and 

 showed me the turn as coolly as a sailor once taught me 

 the hangman s knot. The Thug is of any caste, and from 

 any part of India. The profession have particular stations, 

 which they generally select for murder, throwing the body 

 of their victim into a well. 



The Dakoit {dahhee, a robber) belongs to a class 

 who rob in gangs, but never commit murder — arson and 

 housebreaking also forming part of their profession. 

 These are all high-class Rajpoots, originally from Guzerat ; 

 who, on being conquered, vowed vengeance on man- 

 kind. They speak both Hindostanee and the otherwise 

 extinct Guzerat language ; this is guttural in the extreme, 

 and very singular in sound. They are a very re- 

 markable people, found throughout India, and called by 

 various names ; their women dress peculiarly, and are 

 utterly devoid of modesty. The man I examined was a 

 short, square, but far from powerful Nepalese, with high 

 arched eyebrows, and no organs of observation. These 

 people are great cowards. 



The Poisoners all belong to one caste, of Pasie, or dealers 

 in toddy : they go singly or in gangs, haunting the 

 travellers' resting-places, where they drop half a rupee 

 weight of pounded or whole Datura seeds into his food, 

 producing a twenty-hours' intoxication, during which he is 

 robbed, and left to recover or sink under the stupifying 

 effects of the narcotic. He told me that the Datura seed 

 is gathered without ceremony, and at any time, place, or 

 age of the plant. He was a dirty, ill-conditioned look- 

 ing fellow, with no bumps behind his ears, or promi- 

 nence of eyebrow region, but a remarkable cerebellum. 



Though now all but extinct (except in Cuttack), through 

 ten or fifteen years of unceasing vigilance on the part of 



