130 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
who are about to enter into connubial engagements 
to inquire very scrupulously into the characters of 
those whom they intend to espouse. Among these 
robbers,, the wives are seldom ignorant of their 
husbands’ proceedings. Though they do not assist 
them in their atrocities, they not only feel no re- 
pugnance at them, but enjoy the fruits of those atro- 
cities with as keen a relish as if they had been the 
gains of an honest industry. These murderers rarely 
admit into their community persons of mature age ; 
and even when they do, it is after a long and severe 
trial of their fidelity. 
The most odious circumstance in the character of 
Phansigars is, that they often strangle their victims 
from the mere love of inhumanity, and for the sake 
of exercising dexterity in their horrible calling; in 
too many instances they cannot shield their crimes 
under the palliative, weak as it may be, of pecuniary 
temptation. One remarkable feature in these people 
is, the utter indifference they feel at being looked 
upon as human monsters. They do not hesitate to 
acknowledge that they are mere brutes endued with 
reason, which renders them the more formidable to 
society, against whom they wage a savage and per- 
petual war. They unblushingly compare themselves 
to tigers, maintaining, with a plausible logic every 
way worthy of their occupation, that as those fe- 
rocious beasts are impelled by irresistible necessity, 
and but fulfil the design of their creation in prey- 
ing upon other animals, so the proper victims of 
Phansigars are men, whom alone it is profitable to 
them to destroy, and who therefore are their na- 
