PHANSIGARS. 
119 
of a single particular in the regulations established 
among them for putting to death the object of their 
plunder, the Hindoo Phansigars consider they have 
committed an offence against the sanguinary deity to 
whom they tender their daily homage, and make an 
oblation as an offering of expiation. They esteem 
it a meritorious act to present to their dumb divinity 
a portion of the gains obtained by the death of a fel- 
low-creature ; and, in truth, it is not surprising that 
they should be so perfectly reconciled to the shedding 
of human blood, if they can persuade themselves that 
the deity whom they are taught to worship as the one 
great source of all things, can accept, as an act of 
grateful adoration, such abominable offerings. 
Thus we see that religion is made a sanction for the 
blackest crimes. With such perversion of mind, we 
can scarcely wonder at the extent of human depra- 
vity. 
The Phansigars, though they most commonly attack 
single travellers, have been known to destroy a whole 
party of eight or ten persons. Sometimes the booty 
they obtain during their excursions is very large, 
though at others it is so trifling as scarcely to supply 
them during these predatory journeys with the com- 
mon necessaries of life. When they have collected 
their plunder, a division is regularly made, the most 
valuable portion of it being set apart for the Polygars, 
or petty chiefs who connive at their depredations, 
and are thus liberally remunerated for their pro- 
tection. Another portion is appropriated to the ex- 
penses of religious offerings, which they never fail to 
make after a successful expedition ; and the priests, 
