PHANSIGARS. 
115 
sight, in order to take immediate advantage of any 
casualty that may occur favourable to their san- 
guinary purposes. They then instantly unite, and 
from their numbers easily hush their victim or vic- 
tims in everlasting silence. None of the parties into 
which the main body divides on these occasions ever 
keep far asunder : thus, if one division requires a re- 
inforcement, it is soon obtained, and they have a sort 
of telegraphic mode of communication, known only to 
themselves, by which their chief is soon apprized how 
they are going on. 
These parties frequently meet at small towns and 
villages as if by accident, where they unite as occasion 
may require ; but their murders are usually committed 
in places distant from public resort, as they are little 
likely to be interrupted. Having with them a num- 
ber of children of different ages, they escape sus- 
picion. The children who accompany them being 
always ignorant of their practices, can never betray 
them by any unguarded prattle, and their artlessness 
is generally a presumptive guarantee to the traveller 
of his own safety. Before a party of Phansigars com- 
mit a murder they remove their youthful companions 
from the scene. 
Two or three of them will sometimes take up their 
station in a choultry, and when a victim appears their 
companions are instantly apprized ; these latter then 
drop in under the guise of travellers, engage in casual 
conversation as if strangers to their own party, and 
having lulled the unsuspecting traveller into perfect 
security, accomplish their purpose while he sleeps ; or 
