“Sir,—I was yesterday present at the execution of eleven Thugs, who had been seized in the neighbourhood of Bhilsa, convicted of the murder of thirty-five travellers, (whose bodies were disinterred as evidence against them at the different places along the lines of road between Bhopaul and Saugor, where they had been strangled and buried,) and sentenced to death by the agent to the Governor-general, Mr. Smith.

“As the sun rose, the eleven men were brought out from the jail, decorated with chaplets of flowers, and marched up to the front of the drop, where they arranged themselves in line with infinite self-possession.

“When arranged, each opposite the noose that best pleased him, they lifted up their hands and shouted, ‘Bindachul ka jae! Bhawānī ka jae!’ i.e. ‘Glory to Bindachul! Bhawānī’s glory!’ every one making use of precisely the same invocation, though four were Mahomedans, one a Brahman, and the rest Rajpoots, and other castes of Hindoos; they all ascended the steps, and took their position upon the platform with great composure, then, taking the noose in both hands, made the same invocation to Bhawānī, after which they placed them over their heads and adjusted them to their necks; some of the younger ones laughing at the observations of the crowd around them.

“One of the youngest, a Mahomedan, impatient of the delay, stooped down so as to tighten the rope, and, stepping deliberately over the platform, hung himself as coolly as one would step over a rock to take a swim in the sea! This man was known to have assisted in strangling a party of six travellers at Omurpatan, in the Rewah Rajah’s territories, in December last, and closely pursued—to have gone off, joined another gang, and, in less than a month, to have assisted in strangling thirty more in Bhopaul; he was taken at Bhilsa, the last scene of his murders. Omurpatan is 100 miles east of Jubulpore; and the place in which the Thug assisted in strangling in the Bhopaul territories, a month afterwards, is 200 miles west of Jubulpore. Such is the rapidity with which these murderers change the scene of their operations, when conscious of keen pursuit! He was taken at Bhilsa by the very man whom he found upon his trail at Omurpatan, 300 miles distant.

“On being asked whether they had any wish to express to the magistrate, they prayed that for every man hung, five convicts might be released from jail, and that they might have a little money to be distributed in charity.

“Their invocation of Bhawānī at the drop, was a confession of their guilt, for no one in such a situation invokes Bhawānī but a Thug, and he invokes no other deity in any situation, whatever may be his religion or sect. She is worshipped under her four names, Devi, Kalee, Doorga, and Bhawānī, and her temple at Bindachun, a few miles west of Mirzapore on the Ganges, is constantly filled with murderers from every quarter of India, who go there to offer up a share of the booty acquired from their strangled victims in their annual excursions.

“This accounts for the invocation—‘jae Bindachul!’ made use of by these men in approaching and ascending the drop. These pilgrimages to the temple are made generally at the latter end of the rainy season, and whilst on their road from their homes to the temple, nothing can ever tempt them to commit a robbery. They are not, however, so scrupulous on their way back.

“The priests promise the Thugs impunity and wealth, provided a due share be offered to the goddess. If they die by the sword in the execution of murders, she promises them paradise in all its most exquisite delights; if taken and executed, it must arise from her displeasure, incurred by some neglect of the duties they owe her, and they must, as disturbed spirits, inhabit mid-air until her wrath be appeased. After they have propitiated the goddess by offering up a share of the preceding year, and received the priest’s suggestions on the subject, they prepare for the next year’s expedition.

“The different members who form the gang assemble at the village of the leader at a certain day, and, after determining the scene of operations, they proceed to consecrate their kodalee, or small pickaxe, which they use to dig the graves of their victims, and which they consider as their standard. They believe that no spirit can ever rise to trouble their repose from a grave dug by this instrument, provided it be duly consecrated, and they are fearfully scrupulous in the observance of every ceremony enjoined in the consecration, and never allow the earth to be turned with any other instrument. It is a neatly made pickaxe of about four or five pounds’ weight, six or eight inches long, and with one point.

“They sacrifice a goat, and offer it up, with a cocoa-nut, to Bhawānī; they then make a mixture of sandal and other scented woods, spirits, sugar, flour, and butter, and boil it in a cauldron.

“The kodalee, having been carefully washed, is put upon a spot cleared away for the purpose, and plastered with cow dung, and the mixture is poured over it with certain prayers and ceremonies.

“It is now wiped and folded in a clean white cloth by the priest, and the whole gang proceed some distance from the village upon the road they intend to take, and stand until they hear a partridge call, the priest having in his mind some one as the bearer of the sacred deposit. If the partridge call on the right, he places it in the hands of that individual, and in a solemn manner impresses upon him the responsibility of the charge. If a partridge call on the left, or one do not call until the sun is high, they all return, and wait until the next morning, when they proceed to another spot, and the priest fixes his mind upon some other individual; and so every morning, until the deity has signified her approbation of the choice by the calling of the partridge on the right.

“If the kodalee should fall to the ground at any time, the gang consider it as an evil omen, leave that part of the country without delay, and select another standard-bearer. If no accident happen, the man first elected bears it the whole season; but a new election must take place for the next. The man who bears it carries it in his waistband, but never sleeps with it on his person, nor lets any man see where he conceals it during the night, or whilst he takes his rest.

“All oaths of the members of the gang are administered upon this instrument, folded in a clean white cloth, and placed on ground cleared away and plastered with cow dung: I have heard the oldest of them declare, that they believe any man who should make a false oath upon it would be immediately punished by some fatal disease. If any man be suspected of treachery, they make him swear in this manner.

“The standard-bearer, immediately after his election, proceeds across the first running stream in the direction of the country to which the gang intend to proceed, accompanied by only one witness, to wait for a favourable omen. When they come to the Nurbudda, Jumna, or any other river of this class, the whole gang must accompany him. A deer on the right of the road is a good omen, especially if single, according to the verse—

“If a wolf is seen to cross the road, either before or behind them, they must return, and take another road. If they hear a jackal call during the day, or a partridge during the night, they leave that part of the country forthwith. An old man once told me, in proof of the faith to be placed in these signs, that he was, in his youth, one of a gang of fifty, who were sleeping under some date-trees, between Indore and Ojeya, when a partridge was heard to call out of one of them about two in the morning. They got up in great alarm, moved off instantly, but about daylight met a party of horse going from Ojeya to Indore. Some dispute took place between them, and they were taken back to Indore.

“They had murdered the gooroo (or chief priest) of the Holcar family and his followers; and their leader taking a liking to a parrot of his, had brought it with them.

“On arriving at Indore the parrot began to talk, and was almost immediately recognized by one of Holcar’s family as the parrot of the gooroo who had gone off for Ojeya some days before. One of the youngest of them was immediately tied up and flogged, and after a couple of dozen, he confessed the robbery and murder. The bodies were taken up and recognized, and five-and-forty Thugs were blown off at once from the mouths of cannon. He was one of the five who were pardoned on account of their youth, and taken into service.

“The handle of the kodalee is made and put on when it is required, and thrown away the moment the work is done, so that it forms no essential part of the consecrated instrument.

“The investiture of the roomal (or handkerchief) is the next religious ceremony performed. No man can strangle until he has been regularly invested by the priest with the cloth with which it is performed. Cords and nooses are no longer used. A common handkerchief or cummerbund is all that men north of the Nurbudda will now use, though it is said, that in some parts of the Peninsula the cord and noose are still in use, owing to the Thugs there being less liable to be searched.

“After a man has passed through the different grades, and shown that he has sufficient dexterity, nerve, and resolution, which they call ‘hard breastedness,’ to strangle a victim himself, the priest, before all the gang assembled on a certain day, presents him with the roomal, and tells him how many of his family have signalized themselves by the use of it, how much his friends expect from his courage and conduct, and implores the goddess to vouchsafe her support to his laudable ambition and endeavours to distinguish himself in her service.

“The investiture of the roomal is knighthood to these monsters; it is the highest object of their ambition, not only because the man who strangles has so much a head over and above the share which falls to him in the division of the spoil, but because it implies the recognition, by his comrades, of the qualities of courage, strength, and dexterity, which all are anxious to be famed for.

“The ceremony costs the candidate about forty rupees; and is performed by a gooroo, or high priest of the gang, who is commonly an old Thug, no matter whether Musulmān or Hindoo, who has retired from service, and lives upon the contributions of his descendants and disciples, who look up to him with great reverence for advice and instruction, and refer to his decision all cases of doubt and dispute amongst themselves.

“Many attain this degree of knighthood before the age of twenty, having been taken out by their masters when young, and early accustomed to assist by holding the hands of the victims while the roomal-bearers strangle them; and a man must show good evidence of the ‘kura chatee,’ or hard breast, before he is admitted even to this office; some men never attain to this honour, particularly those who have adopted the profession late in life, and remain all their lives as decoys, watchmen, grave-diggers, and removers of bodies. An attempt has been made, and with some success, to impress Thugs with the belief that the souls of their victims attain paradise, as in the case of other human victims, offered in sacrifice to this goddess, and become the tutelar saints of those who strangle them.

“This is, however, somewhat at variance with their notion, that the spirits of those who have been buried with the consecrated pickaxe can never rise from their graves; but it reminds me of an opinion that prevails amongst the people in wild and mountainous parts of India, that the spirit of a man destroyed by a tiger, sometimes rides upon his head and guides him from his pursuers.

“The person invested with the roomal has long used it in play before the practised eye of his gooroo, and has been long accustomed to see others use it in earnest; but it is still thought necessary to select for him easy victims at first, and they do not employ him indiscriminately, like the others, until he has shown his powers in the death of two or three travellers of feeble form and timid bearing. The maxim that ‘dead men tell no tales’ is invariably acted upon by these people, and they never rob a man until they have murdered him.

“In the territories of the native chiefs of Bundelcund, and those of Scindia and Holcar, a Thug feels just as independent and free as an Englishman in a tavern, and they will probably begin to feel themselves just as much so in those of Nagpore, now that European superintendency has been withdrawn. But they are not confined to the territories of the native chiefs; they are becoming numerous in our own, and are often found most securely and comfortably situated in the very seats of our principal judicial establishments; and of late years they are known to have formed some settlements to the east of the Ganges, in parts that they formerly used merely to visit in the course of their annual excursions.

“I should mention that the cow being a form of Doorga, or Bhawānī, the Mahomedans must forego the use of beef the moment they enlist themselves under her banners; and though they may read their khoran, they are not suffered to invoke the name of Mahommed.

“The khoran is still their civil code, and they are governed by its laws in all matters of inheritance, marriage, &c.

“Your obedient servant,

“H.[62]”