1895.] 
p. C. Mitra— Indian Bobber Folk-Lore . 
25 
North Indian Folk-Lore about Thieves and Bobbers.—By Qarat Cafdra 
Mitra, Corresponding Member of the Anthropological Society of 
Bombay. 
[Read July 1894.] 
Every profession, not excepting even that of the light-fingered 
gentry, has its gods and goddesses, to whom the persons following that 
profession pay their homage for success. The vegetable-sellers of Bihar 
have their gods. The Kahars ( ) or palankeen-bearers, and 
the Mallahs ( ), or boatmen of Bihar, also worship particular 
deities who, they believe, watch over their welfare and safety. Indian 
thieves and robbers, and the rest of the marauding fraternity, have also 
particular goddesses whom they worship in the belief that success or 
otherwise in their pilfering expeditions depends on the favors or frowns 
of those female deities. To this end, they take care to propitiate the 
said goddesses by offering up pujd in the shape of sweets, cereals, and, 
sometimes even animal sacrifices, before starting on their expeditions. 
Curiously enough, a female deity is invariably found to be the tutelary 
patroness of tire Indian robbers and thieves. She is known in different 
parts of Northern India, as the goddess Devi or Kail in her vari¬ 
ous forms and under various names. In Bengal, thieves and 
robbers are supposed to enjoy the special protection of Kali. In the 
North-Western Provinces and the Panjab, she is also worshipped by the 
light-fingered gentry under the name of Devi, or Mata. The Thags, 
who raised the profession of robbery by throttling and strangulation 
into a semi-religious cult, also worshipped this Devi or Mata, to 
whom they invariably paid their devotions before starting on their 
marauding expeditions, and from whom they drew omens portending 
the success or otherwise of their undertaking. Colonel Sleeman, well- 
known as the Superintendent of the operations for the Suppression 
of Thagi and Dakaiti in India, has given detailed information of the 
various rites practised by the Thags, and of their superstitions, in 
his work entitled “ Bamaseeana , or the Secret Language of the ThugsF 
The curious enquirer may also find additional information on the 
J. I. 4 
