The fact that the Thugs considered themselves to be directed by
the deity, reinforced by their numerous superstitious beliefs and
observances, has led to the suggestion by one writer that they were
originally a religious sect, whose principal tenet was the prohibition
of the shedding of blood. There is, however, no evidence in support
of this view in the accounts of Colonel Sleeman, incomparably the
best authority. Their method of strangulation was, as has been seen,
simply the safest and most convenient means of murder: it enabled
them to dispense with arms, by the sight of which the apprehensions
of their victims would have been aroused, and left no traces on the
site of the crime to be observed by other travellers. On occasion
also they did not scruple to employ weapons; as in the murder of seven
treasure-bearers near Hindoria in Damoh, who would not probably have
allowed the Thugs to approach them, and in consequence were openly
attacked and killed with swords. [700] Other instances are given in
Colonel Sleeman's narrative, and they were also accustomed to cut
and slash about the bodies of their victims after death. The belief
that they were guided by the divine will may probably have arisen as
a means of excusing their own misdeeds to themselves and allaying
their fear of such retribution as being haunted by the ghosts of
their victims. Similar instances of religious beliefs and practices
are given in the accounts of other criminals, such as the Badhaks and
Sansias. And the more strict and serious observances of the Thugs may
be accounted for by the more atrocious character of their crimes and
the more urgent necessity of finding some palliative.
The veneration paid to the pickaxe, which will shortly be described,
merely arises from the common animistic belief that tools and
implements generally achieve the results obtained from them by their
inherent virtue and of their own volition, and not from the human hand
which guides them and the human brain which fashioned them to serve
their ends. Members of practically all castes worship the implements
of their profession and thus afford evidence of the same belief,
the most familiar instance of which is perhaps, 'The pestilence
that walketh in the darkness and the arrow that flieth by noonday';
where the writer intended no metaphor but actually thought that the
pestilence walked and the arrow flew of their own volition.