72 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
offenders in the kingdom. Nearly eight thousand 
heads were brought to Koolboorga from different 
parts, and were piled up in heaps near the city, as 
examples of the royal justice.” 
Unfortunately these terrible warnings no longer 
exist, which circumstance may possibly account for 
the audacity of the Dekkan marauders of the present 
day ; for certain it is that the whole province, and 
more especially the northern borders, with Elichpoor 
and the mountainous country round about it, are 
thickly infested with hordes of dukhaits , thugs , and 
other murderous desperadoes ; and although Euro- 
peans may travel with comparative safety, it is not 
so even with the highest and wealthiest classes of 
the natives. It is only lately that the diabolical 
system of thuggi has been fully exposed, and now 
vigorous measures have been adopted by the British 
government for its complete suppression. The con - 
fessions of some of the perpetrators who have been 
brought to justice, are almost too appalling to be 
credited. I subjoin the following facts, which I 
have taken from Captain Sleeman s report of a case 
that occurred at Elichpoor ; they form a fair speci- 
men of the system, though by no means so horror- 
fraught as some others which have transpired. The 
deponent was a celebrated thug , named ; Sheik 
Inaent : his confession is freely translated : — 
u It was on my return from the first expedition 
which I made with my father to the Dekkan, when 
