OBSEaYATIONS riEGA-RDING 



.. a"; r ^YQtcKionof T'heggy. The >miirders committed by thefe .peo^ 

 pie are efFeded by means firailar to ihafe pmSlifed by the ift dafs, 



3^ C/^/j-.— This clafs was formerly fettled in the pergonnalis af 

 :Sindoufe and Perhara, from whence they were expelled, and have fmce 

 taken up their refidence in MahraUa villages, on the confines of cur 

 territory, where the aumils of the -native Governments are faid to 

 derive a revenue from their depredations. From the examinations, 

 it would appear, that thefe Thegs are Muffelmins and Hindus of 

 various tribes. The murders committed by thefe gangs appear 

 to be perpetrated more openly than thofe committed by the firfl 

 i^wo claffes ; whole parties of travellers being deflroyed together, 

 and the bodies of thefe vidims being frequently found unburied 

 on the plains. The depradations of this clafs are faid to have formerly 

 extended over different parts of the Z)^^^, but latterly, to have been 

 directed to the country near Gwalior and to the diftri6t of Butideicand, 

 It does not appear that the crime of murder by Thegs was known in 

 ^UQ d\\in^ oi Bundelc and priov io iZi2i but, in confequence of the 

 difperlion of the Sindoufe Thegs, no lefs than 1 9 indances of the offence 

 were afcertained in 1813,10 which 35 bodies were found with marks of 

 the knife or cord» Very confiderable gangs of thefe people are faid to 

 beat prefent colle£led in the Makratta ftates. Mr. Wauchope, on the 

 21 (l indant, writes— ** But a few weeks havcelapfed fince a party of 42 

 ^^ Iraveilers (men, women and children,) were every one ftrangled hy a 

 ** large body of T'hegi, The travellers were coming from Jehhdpur 

 «* towards Purma^ and the muiders took place about the frontier be- 

 «* t%vecn the Nagpur and Purma country. Four of the mifcreanls were 

 " fei^ed by an officer of tlhe Purma Chief, &c. ^c/* 



It would appear from examinations m this office, that the pumOif 

 ment for this offence in forae of ihe MahratU ftstes, U by endowing 



