86 



Customs and practices of the Thugs. 



[July 



indeed, every species of stealing, that has not been preceded by the 

 perpetration of murder. 



The Thugs adopt no other method of killing but strangulation ; and 

 the implement made use of, for this purpose, is a handkerchief, or any 

 other convenient strip of cloth. The manner in which the deed is 

 done will be described hereafter. They never attempt to rob a tra-r 

 Teller, until they have, in the first instance, deprived him of life. 

 After the commission of a murder they invariably bury the body imme- 

 diately, if time and opportunity serve, or, otherwise, conceal it, and 

 never abandon a corpse on the highway unless they happen to be 

 disturbed. 



To trace the origin of this practice would now be a matter of some 

 difficulty, for, if the assertions of the Thugs themselves are entitled to 

 any credit, it has been in vogue from time immemorial, and they pre- 

 tend that its institution is coeval with the creation of the world. Like 

 most other inhuman practices, the traditions regarding it are mixed up 

 with tales of superstition ; and the Thugs would wish to make 

 it appear, that, in immolating the numberless victims that yearly 

 fall by their hands, they are only obeying the injunctions of the deity 

 of their worship, to whom they say they are offering an acceptable 

 sacrifice. 



The object of the worship is the goddess Hulee or Bhowanee, and 

 there is a temple at Binderchul, near Mirzapoor, to which the Thugs 

 usually send considerable offerings, and the establishments of priests 

 at that shrine are entirely of their community. Bhowanee, it seems, 

 once formed the determination of extirpating the human race, and 

 sacrificed all but her own disciples. But she discovered to her 

 astonishment, that, through the intervention of the Creating power, 

 whenever human blood was shed, a fresh subject immediately started 

 into existence to supply the vacancy. She therefore formed an image, 

 into which she instilled the principle of life ; and, calling together her 

 disciples, instructed them in the art of depriving that being of life, by 

 strangling it with a handkerchief. 



This method was found on trial to be effectual, and the goddess 

 directed her worshippers to adopt it, and to murder, without distinc- 

 tion, all who should fall into their hands, promising herself to dispose 

 of the bodies of their victims, whose property she bestowed on her, 

 followers, and to be present to preside over and protect them on those 

 occasions, so that none should be able to prevail against them. 



Thus, say the Thugs, was our order established, and we originally 

 took no care of the bodies of those who fell by our hands, but 

 abandoned them wherever they were strangled, until one man, 

 more curious than the rest, ventured to watch the body he had 

 murdered, in expectation of seeing the manner in which it was 



