122 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
who can implicitly resign their reason to a thraldom 
so odious and besotted. 
Such is the utter moral aberration of these wretched 
beings,, that they do not appear conscious of any real 
degradation being attached to their savage profession. 
Their usual reply to those who ask them how they 
can be guilty of so outrageous a crime as that of 
shedding human blood, is, — “ My father and mother 
were Phansigars, and I must pursue that to which 
they brought me up. How should I live, if I did 
not follow the business with which I am best ac- 
quainted V* They do not for a moment admit that it 
is a greater sin to put to death a human being than 
a dumb animal ; and being generally predestinarians, 
if they happen to be taken, they express not the 
slightest dread of execution, conceiving their time is 
come, and therefore the best thing they can do is to 
make up their minds to meet death with fortitude, 
especially since they cannot obviate the fixed course 
of destiny by shrinking from a doom which, in some 
form or other, is the common lot of man. 
If you ask a Phansigar, when apprehended, how he 
has obtained his livelihood, he will not hesitate to tell 
you, nor blush to confess the number of murders he 
has committed ; he will also recount, with savage 
delight, his celebrity among the tribe of which he was 
a member for his dexterous application of the fatal 
noose. 
