Customs and practices of the Thugs. 



[July 



sons, whose appearance they must have the tact of putting en. They 

 parade the bazars of the town, near which their associates are 

 encamped, and endeavour to pick up intelligence of the intended dis- 

 patch, or expected arrival, of goods, of which intimation is forth- 

 with given to the gang, who send out a party to intercept them. 

 ^Enquiry is also made for any party of travellers, who may have 

 arrived, and put up in the Chowtie, or elsewhere. Every art 

 is brought into practice to scrape an acquaintance with these 

 people. They are given to understand that the Tillaee is travel- 

 ling the same road. An opportunity is taken to throw out hints 

 regarding the unsafeness of the road, and the frequency of murders, 

 and robberies. An acquaintance with some of the friends or relatives 

 of the travellers is feigned, and an invitation given to partake of the 

 repast, that has been prepared at the place where the Tillaee puts up, the 

 conveniences of which, and the superiority of the water, are abundant- 

 ly praised. The result is, that the travellers are inveigled into joining 

 the party of Thugs, and they are feasted and treated with every polite- 

 ness and consideration, by the very wretches who are also plotting their 

 murder, and calculating the share they shall acquire in the division of 

 their property. 



"What mast be the feelings of men, who are actuated by motives so 

 entirely opposed to their pretended civility of behaviour, it must be 

 difficult to imagine, and I know not whether most to wonder at the du- 

 plicity with which they contrive to conceal their murderous intentions, 

 or to detest the infernal apathy with which they can eat out of the 

 same dish, and drink of the very cup, that is partaken of by the vie* 

 tims they nave fixed upon to destroy. 



It is on the perfection which they have attained in the art of acting 

 as Tillaees, that the Thugs particularly pride themselves, and it is fre- 

 quently boasted of by them, that only one opportunity of conversing 

 w T ith a traveller is necessary, to enable them to mark him as an easy 

 victim, whenever they choose to murder him. 



Instances sometimes occur, where a party of Thugs find their victims 

 too numerous for them to master, while they remain in a body, and they 

 are seldom at a loss for expedients to create dissensions, and a conse- 

 quent division among them. If all their arts of intrigue and cajolery, fail 

 in producing the desired result, an occasion is taken advantage of to ply 

 the traveller with intoxicating liquors, a quarrel is got up, and from 

 words they proceed to blows, which end in the dispersion of the com- 

 pany, who, proceeding in different roads, fall an easy prey to their 

 remorseless destroyers. 



Having enticed the travellers into the snare they have laid for them, 

 the next object of the Thugs is to choose a convenient spot whereon to 

 murder them. This, in the technical language in use among them, is 

 denominated a Dhil, and it is usual to fi:: upon a place a short distance 



