These murderers looked on all travellers as their legitimate prey,
as sportsmen regard game. On one occasion the noted Thug, Feringia,
[686] with his gang were cooking their dinners under some trees on
the road when five travellers came by, but could not be persuaded
to stop and partake of the meal, saying they wished to sleep at a
place called Hirora that night, and had yet eight miles to go. The
Thugs afterwards followed, but found no traces of the travellers at
Hirora. Feringia therefore concluded that they must have fallen into
the hands of another gang, and suddenly recollected having passed an
encampment of Banjaras (pack-carriers) not far from the town. On the
following morning he accordingly went back with a few of his comrades,
and at once recognised a horse and pony which he had observed in
the possession of the travellers. So he asked the Banjaras, "What
have you done with the five travellers, my good friends? You have
taken from us our _banij_ (merchandise)." They apologised for what
they had done, pleading ignorance of the lien of the other Thugs,
and offered to share the booty; but Feringia declined, as none of
his party had been present at the _loading._ They were accustomed to
distinguish their most important exploits by the number of persons
who were killed. Thus one murder in the Jubbulpore District was known
as the 'Sathrup,' or 'Sixty soul affair,' and another in Bilaspur
as the 'Chalisrup,' or 'Murder of forty.' At this time (1807) the
road between northern and southern India through the Nerbudda valley
had been rendered so unsafe by the incursions of the Pindaris that
travellers preferred to go through Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur to the
Ganges. This route, passing for long distances through dense forest,
offered great advantages to the Thugs, and was soon infested by
them. In 1806, owing to the success [687] of previous expeditions,
it was determined that all the Thugs of northern India should work on
this road; accordingly after the Dasahra festival six hundred of them,
under forty Jemadars or leaders of note, set out from their homes,
and having worshipped in the temple of Devi at Bindhyachal, met at
Ratanpur in Bilaspur. The gangs split up, and after several murders
sixty of them came to Lanji in Balaghat, and here in two days' time
fell in with a party of thirty-one men, seven women and two girls on
their way to the Ganges. The Jemadars soon became intimate with the
principal men of the party, pretended to be going to the same part of
India and won their confidence; and next day they all set out and in
four days reached Ratanpur, where they met 160 Thugs returning from
the murder of a wealthy widow and her escort. Shortly afterwards
another 200 men who had heard of the travellers near Nagpur also
came up, but all the different bodies pretended to be strangers to
each other. They detached sixty men to return to Nagpur, leaving 360
to deal with the forty travellers. From Ratanpur they all journeyed
to Chura (Chhuri?), and here scouts were sent on to select a proper
place for the murder. This was chosen in a long stretch of forest,
and two men were despatched to the village of Sutranja, farther on
the road, to see that no one was coming in the opposite direction,
while another picket remained behind to prevent interruption from
the rear. By the time they reached the appointed place, the Bhurtots
(stranglers) and Shamsias (holders) had all on some pretext or other
got close to the side of the persons whom they were appointed to kill;
and on reaching the spot the signal was given in several places at
the same time; and thirty-eight out of forty were immediately seized
and strangled. One of the girls was a very handsome young woman, and
Pancham, a Jemadar, wished to preserve her as a wife for his son. But
when she saw her father and mother strangled she screamed and beat
her head against the ground and tried to kill herself. Pancham tried
in vain to quiet her, and promised to take great care of her and
marry her to his own son, who would be a great chief; but all to no
effect. She continued to scream, and at last Pancham put the _rumal_
(handkerchief) round her neck and strangled her. One little girl
of three years old was preserved by another Jemadar and married to
his son, and when she grew up often heard the story of the affair
narrated. The bodies were buried in a ravine and the booty amounted
to Rs. 17,000. The Thugs then decided to return home, and arrived
without mishap, except that the Jemadar, Pancham, died on the way.