found the divine origin of their sect. They believe that, in the
earliest ages of the world, a gigantic demon infested the earth, and
devoured mankind as soon as they were created. He was of so tall a
stature, that when he strode through the most unfathomable depths of the
great sea, the waves, even in tempest, could not reach above his middle.
His insatiable appetite for human flesh almost unpeopled the world,
until Bhawanee, Kalee, or Davee, the goddess of the Thugs, determined to
save mankind by the destruction of the monster. Nerving herself for the
encounter, she armed herself with an immense sword; and, meeting with
the demon, she ran him through the body. His blood flowed in torrents
as he fell dead at her feet; but from every drop there sprang up another
monster, as rapacious and as terrible as the first. Again the goddess
upraised her massive sword, and hewed down the hellish brood by
hundreds; but the more she slew, the more numerous they became. Every
drop of their blood generated a demon; and, although the goddess
endeavoured to lap up the blood ere it sprang into life, they increased
upon her so rapidly, that the labour of killing became too great for
endurance. The perspiration rolled down her arms in large drops, and she
was compelled to think of some other mode of exterminating them. In this
emergency, she created two men out of the perspiration of her body,
to whom she confided the holy task of delivering the earth from the
monsters. To each of the men she gave a handkerchief, and showed them
how to kill without shedding blood. From her they learned to tie the
fatal noose; and they became, under her tuition, such expert stranglers,
that, in a very short space of time, the race of demons became extinct.
When there were no more to slay, the two men sought the great goddess,
in order to return the handkerchiefs. The grateful Bhawanee desired that
they would retain them, as memorials of their heroic deeds; and in order
that they might never lose the dexterity that they had acquired in using
them, she commanded that, from thenceforward, they should strangle
men. These were the two first Thugs, and from them the whole race
have descended. To the early Thugs the goddess was more direct in her
favours, than she has been to their successors. At first, she undertook
to bury the bodies of all the men they slew and plundered, upon the
condition that they should never look back to see what she was doing.
The command was religiously observed for many ages, and the Thugs relied
with implicit faith upon the promise of Bhawanee; but as men became
more corrupt, the ungovernable curiosity of a young Thug offended the
goddess, and led to the withdrawal of a portion of her favour. This
youth, burning with a desire to see how she made her graves, looked
back, and beheld her in the act, not of burying, but of devouring, the
body of a man just strangled. Half of the still palpitating remains was
dangling over her lips. She was so highly displeased that she condemned
the Thugs, from that time forward, to bury their victims themselves.
Another account states that the goddess was merely tossing the body in
the air; and that, being naked, her anger was aggravated by the gaze
of mortal eyes upon her charms. Before taking a final leave of her
devotees, she presented them with one of her teeth for a pickaxe, one
of her ribs for a knife, and the hem of her garment for a noose. She has
not since appeared to human eyes.
The original tooth having been lost in the lapse of ages, new pickaxes
have been constructed, with great care and many ceremonies, by each
considerable gang of Thugs, to be used in making the graves of strangled
travellers. The pickaxe is looked upon with the utmost veneration by
the tribe. A short account of the process of making it, and the rites
performed, may be interesting, as showing still further their gloomy
superstition. In the first place, it is necessary to fix upon a lucky
day. The chief Thug then instructs a smith to forge the holy instrument:
no other eye is permitted to see the operation. The smith must engage
in no other occupation until it is completed, and the chief Thug never
quits his side during the process. When the instrument is formed, it
becomes necessary to consecrate it to the especial service of Bhawnee.
Another lucky day is chosen for this ceremony, care being had in the
mean time that the shadow of no earthly thing fall upon the pickaxe, as
its efficacy would be for ever destroyed. A learned Thug then sits down;
and turning his face to the west, receives the pickaxe in a brass
dish. After muttering some incantation, he throws it into a pit already
prepared for it, where it is washed in clear water. It is then taken
out, and washed again three times; the first time in sugar and water,
the second in sour milk, and the third in spirits. It is then dried,
and marked from the head to the point with seven red spots. This is the
first part of the ceremony: the second consists in its purification
by fire. The pickaxe is again placed upon the brass dish, along with a
cocoa-nut, some sugar, cloves, white sandal-wood, and other articles. A
fire of the mango tree, mixed with dried cow-dung, is then kindled;
and the officiating Thug, taking the pickaxe with both hands, passes it
seven times through the flames.
It now remains to be ascertained whether the goddess is favourable to
her followers. For this purpose, the cocoa-nut is taken from the
dish and placed upon the ground. The officiating Thug, turning to the
spectators, and holding the axe uplifted, asks, "Shall I strike?" Assent
being given, he strikes the nut with the but-end of the axe, exclaiming,
"All hail! mighty Davee! great mother of us all!" The spectators
respond, "All hail! mighty Davee! and prosper thy children, the Thugs!"
If the nut is severed at the first blow, the goddess is favourable;
if not, she is unpropitious: all their labour is thrown away, and the
ceremony must be repeated upon some more fitting occasion. But if the
sign be favourable, the axe is tied carefully in a white cloth and
turned towards the west, all the spectators prostrating themselves
before it. It is then buried in the earth, with its point turned in the
direction the gang wishes to take on their approaching expedition. If
the goddess desires to warn them that they will be unsuccessful, or that
they have not chosen the right track, the Thugs believe that the point
of the axe will veer round, and point to the better way. During an
expedition, it is entrusted to the most prudent and exemplary Thug of
the party: it is his care to hold it fast. If by any chance he should
let it fall, consternation spreads through the gang: the goddess is
thought to be offended; the enterprise is at once abandoned; and the
Thugs return home in humiliation and sorrow, to sacrifice to their
gloomy deity, and win back her estranged favour. So great is the
reverence in which they hold the sacred axe, that a Thug will never
break an oath that he has taken upon it. He fears that, should he
perjure himself, his neck would be so twisted by the offended Bhawanee
as to make his face turn to his back; and that, in the course of a few
days, he would expire in the most excruciating agonies.
The Thugs are diligent observers of signs and omens. No expedition
is ever undertaken before the auspices are solemnly taken. Upon this
subject Captain Sleeman says, "Even the most sensible approvers, who
have been with me for many years, as well Hindoos as Mussulmans, believe
that their good or ill success depended upon the skill with which the
omens were discovered and interpreted, and the strictness with which
they were observed and obeyed. One of the old Sindouse stock told me,
in presence of twelve others, from Hydrabad, Behar, the Dooah, Oude,
Rajpootana, and Bundelcund, that, had they not attended to these omens,
they never could have thrived as they did. In ordinary cases of murder,
other men seldom escaped punishment, while they and their families had,
for ten generations, thrived, although they had murdered hundreds of
people. 'This,' said the Thug,' could never have been the case had we
not attended to omens, and had not omens been intended for us. There
were always signs around us to guide us to rich booty, and warn us of
danger, had we been always wise enough to discern them and religious
enough to attend to them.' Every Thug present concurred with him from
his soul."
A Thug, of polished manners and great eloquence, being asked by a native
gentleman, in the presence of Captain Sleeman, whether he never felt
compunction in murdering innocent people, replied with a smile that he
did not. "Does any man," said he, "feel compunction in following his
trade? and are not all our trades assigned us by Providence?" He was
then asked how many people he had killed with his own hands in the
course of his life? "I have killed none," was the reply. "What! and
have you not been describing a number of murders in which you were
concerned?" "True; but do you suppose that I committed them? Is any man
killed by man's killing? Is it not the hand of God that kills, and are
we not the mere instruments in the hands of God?"
Upon another occasion, Sahib, an approver, being asked if he had never
felt any pity or compunction at murdering old men or young children,
or persons with whom he had sat and conversed, and who had told him,
perchance, of their private affairs--their hopes and their fears, their
wives and their little ones? replied unhesitatingly that he never did.
From the time that the omens were favourable, the Thugs considered all
the travellers they met as victims thrown into their hands by their
divinity to be killed. The Thugs were the mere instruments in the hands
of Bhawanee to destroy them. "If we did not kill them," said Sahib, "the
goddess would never again be propitious to us, and we and our families
would be involved in misery and want. If we see or hear a bad omen, it
is the order of the goddess not to kill the travellers we are in pursuit
of, and we dare not disobey."
As soon as an expedition has been planned, the goddess is consulted. On
the day chosen for starting, which is never during the unlucky months of
July, September, and December, nor on a Wednesday or Thursday; the chief
Thug of the party fills a brass jug with water, which he carries in
his right hand by his side. With his left, he holds upon his breast
the sacred pickaxe, wrapped carefully in a white cloth, along with five
knots of turmeric, two copper, and one silver coin. He then moves slowly
on, followed by the whole of the gang, to some field or retired place,
where halting, with his countenance turned in the direction they wish
to pursue, he lifts up his eyes to heaven, saying, "Great goddess!
universal mother! if this, our meditated expedition, be fitting in thy
sight, vouchsafe to help us, and give us the signs of thy approbation."
All the Thugs present solemnly repeat the prayer after their leader, and
wait in silence for the omen. If within half an hour they see Pilhaoo,
or good omen on the left, it signifies that the goddess has taken them
by the left hand to lead them on; if they see the Thibaoo, or omen on
the right, it signifies that she has taken them by the right hand also.
The leader then places the brazen pitcher on the ground and sits down
beside it, with his face turned in the same direction for seven hours,
during which time his followers make all the necessary preparations
for the journey. If, during this interval, no unfavourable signs are
observed, the expedition advances slowly, until it arrives at the bank
of the nearest stream, when they all sit down and eat of the goor, or
consecrated sugar. Any evil omens that are perceived after this ceremony
may be averted by sacrifices; but any evil omens before, would at once
put an end to the expedition.
Among the evil omens are the following:--If the brazen pitcher drops
from the hand of the Jemadar or leader, it threatens great evil either
to him or to the gang--sometimes to both. If they meet a funeral
procession, a blind man, a lame man, an oil-vender, a carpenter, a
potter, or a dancing-master, the expedition will be dangerous. In like
manner it is unlucky to sneeze, to meet a woman with an empty pail, a
couple of jackals, or a hare. The crossing of their path by the latter
is considered peculiarly inauspicious. Its cry at night on the left is
sometimes a good omen, but if they hear it on the right it is very bad;
a warning sent to them from Bhawanee that there is danger if they kill.
Should they disregard this warning, and led on by the hope of gain,
strangle any traveller, they would either find no booty on him, or such
booty as would eventually lead to the ruin and dispersion of the gang.
Bhawanee would be wroth with her children; and causing them to perish in
the jungle, would send the hares to drink water out of their skulls.
The good omens are quite as numerous as the evil. It promises a
fortunate expedition, if, on the first day, they pass through a village
where there is a fair. It is also deemed fortunate, if they hear wailing
for the dead in any village but their own. To meet a woman with a
pitcher full of water upon her head, bodes a prosperous journey and a
safe return. The omen is still more favourable if she be in a state of
pregnancy. It is said of the Thugs of the Jumaldehee and Lodaha tribes,
that they always make the youngest Thug of the party kick the body of
the first person they strangle, five times on the back, thinking that
it will bring them good luck. This practice, however, is not general. If
they hear an ass bray on the left at the commencement of an expedition,
and an another soon afterwards on the right, they believe that they
shall be supereminently successful, that they shall strangle a multitude
of travellers, and find great booty.
After every murder a solemn sacrifice, called the Tuponee, is performed
by all the gang. The goor, or consecrated sugar, is placed upon a large
cloth or blanket, which is spread upon the grass. Beside it is deposited
the sacred pickaxe, and a piece of silver for an offering. The Jemadar,
or chief of the party, together with all the oldest and most prudent
Thugs, take their places upon the cloth, and turn their faces to the
west. Those inferior Thugs who cannot find room upon the privileged
cloth, sit round as close to it as possible. A pit is then dug, into
which the Jemadar pours a small quantity of the goor, praying at
the same time that the goddess will always reward her followers with
abundant spoils. All the Thugs repeat the prayer after him. He then
sprinkles water upon the pickaxe, and puts a little of the goor upon
the head of every one who has obtained a seat beside him on the cloth.
A short pause ensues, when the signal for strangling is given, as if a
murder were actually about to be committed, and each Thug eats his
goor in solemn silence. So powerful is the impression made upon their
imagination by this ceremony, that it almost drives them frantic with
enthusiasm. Captain Sleeman relates, that when he reproached a Thug for
his share in a murder of great atrocity, and asked him whether he never
felt pity; the man replied, "We all feel pity sometimes; but the goor of
the Tuponee changes our nature; it would change the nature of a horse.
Let any man once taste of that goor, and he will be a Thug, though he
know all the trades and have all the wealth in the world. I never was in
want of food; my mother's family was opulent, and her relations high
in office. I have been high in office myself, and became so great a
favourite wherever I went that I was sure of promotion; yet I was always
miserable when absent from my gang, and obliged to return to Thuggee. My
father made me taste of that fatal goor, when I was yet a mere boy; and
if I were to live a thousand years I should never be able to follow any
other trade."
The possession of wealth, station in society, and the esteem of his
fellows, could not keep this man from murder. From his extraordinary
confession we may judge of the extreme difficulty of exterminating a
sect who are impelled to their horrid practises, not only by the motives
of self-interest which govern mankind in general, but by a fanaticism
which fills up the measure of their whole existence. Even severity
seems thrown away upon the followers of this brutalizing creed. To them,
punishment is no example; they have no sympathy for a brother Thug who
is hung at his own door by the British Government, nor have they any
dread of his fate. Their invariable idea is, that their goddess
only suffers those Thugs to fall into the hands of the law, who have
contravened the peculiar observances of Thuggee, and who have neglected
the omens she sent them for their guidance.
To their neglect of the warnings of the goddess they attribute all the
reverses which have of late years befallen their sect. It is expressly
forbidden, in the creed of the old Thugs, to murder women or cripples.
The modern Thugs have become unscrupulous upon this point, murdering
women, and even children, with unrelenting barbarity. Captain Sleeman
reports several conversations upon this subject, which he held at
different times with Thugs, who had been taken prisoners, or who had
turned approvers. One of them, named Zolfukar, said, in reply to the
Captain, who accused him of murdering women, "Yes, and was not the
greater part of Feringeea's and my gang seized, after we had murdered
the two women and the little girl, at Manora, in 1830? and were we not
ourselves both seized soon after? How could we survive things like that?
Our ancestors never did such things." Lalmun, another Thug, in reply to
a similar question, said, "Most of our misfortunes have come upon us for
the murder of women. We all knew that they would come upon us some day,
for this and other great sins. We were often admonished, but we did not
take warning; and we deserve our fates." In speaking of the supposed
protection which their goddess had extended to them in former times,
Zolfukar said:--"Ah! we had some regard for religion then! We have lost
it since. All kinds of men have been made Thugs, and all classes of
people murdered, without distinction; and little attention has been paid
to omens. How, after this, could we think to escape? * * * * Davee never
forsook us till we neglected her!"
It might be imagined that men who spoke in this manner of the anger of
the goddess, and who, even in custody, showed so much veneration for
their unhappy calling, would hesitate before they turned informers, and
laid bare the secrets and exposed the haunts of their fellows:--among
the more civilized ruffians of Europe, we often find the one chivalrous
trait of character, which makes them scorn a reward that must be earned
by the blood of their accomplices: but in India there is no honour among
thieves. When the approvers are asked, if they, who still believe in
the power of the terrible goddess Davee, are not afraid to incur her
displeasure by informing of their fellows, they reply, that Davee
has done her worst in abandoning them. She can inflict no severer
punishment, and therefore gives herself no further concern about her
degenerate children. This cowardly doctrine is, however, of advantage
to the Government that seeks to put an end to the sect, and has thrown
a light upon their practices, which could never have been obtained from
other sources.
Another branch of the Thug abomination has more recently been discovered
by the indefatigable Captain Sleeman. The followers of this sect are
called MEGPUNNAS, and they murder travellers, not to rob them of their
wealth, but of their children, whom they afterwards sell into slavery.
They entertain the same religious opinions as the Thugs, and have
carried on their hideous practices, and entertained their dismal
superstition, for about a dozen years with impunity. The report of
Captain Sleeman states, that the crime prevails almost exclusively
in Delhi and the native principalities, or Rajpootana of Ulwar and
Bhurtpore; and that it first spread extensively after the siege of
Bhurtpore in 1826.
The original Thugs never or rarely travel with their wives; but the
Megpunnas invariably take their families with them, the women and
children being used to inveigle the victims. Poor travellers are always
chosen by the Megpunnas as the objects of their murderous traffic. The
females and children are sent on in advance to make acquaintance with
emigrants or beggars on the road, travelling with their families, whom
they entice to pass the night in some secluded place, where they are
afterwards set upon by the men, and strangled. The women take care of
the children. Such of them as are beautiful are sold at a high price
to the brothels of Delhi, or other large cities; while the boys and
ill-favoured girls are sold for servants at a more moderate rate. These
murders are perpetrated perhaps five hundred miles from the homes of
the unfortunate victims; and the children thus obtained, deprived of all
their relatives, are never inquired after. Even should any of their kin
be alive, they are too far off and too poor to institute inquiries. One
of the members, on being questioned, said the Megpunnas made more money
than the other Thugs; it was more profitable to kill poor people for the
sake of their children, than rich people for their wealth. Megpunnaism
is supposed by its votaries to be, like Thuggee, under the immediate
protection of the great goddess Davee, or Kalee, whose favour is to be
obtained before the commencement of every expedition, and whose omens,
whether of good or evil, are to be diligently sought on all occasions.
The first apostle to whom she communicated her commands for the
formation of the new sect, and the rules and ordinances by which it was
to be guided, was called Kheama Jemadar. He was considered so holy a
man, that the Thugs and Megpunnas considered it an extreme felicity
to gaze upon and touch him. At the moment of his arrest by the British
authorities, a fire was raging in the village, and the inhabitants
gathered round him and implored him to intercede with his god, that
the flames might be extinguished. The Megpunna, says the tradition,
stretched forth his hand to heaven, prayed, and the fire ceased
immediately.
There now only remain to be considered the exertions that have been made
to remove from the face of India this purulent and disgusting sore.
From the year 1807 until 1826, the proceedings against Thuggee were not
carried on with any extraordinary degree of vigour; but, in the
latter year, the Government seems to have begun to act upon a settled
determination to destroy it altogether. From 1826 to 1855, both
included, there were committed to prison, in the various Presidencies,
1562 persons accused of this crime. Of these, 328 were hanged; 999
transported; 77 imprisoned for life; 71 imprisoned for shorter periods;
21 held to bail; and only 21 acquitted. Of the remainder, 31 died in
prison, before they were brought to trial, 11 escaped, and 49 turned
approvers.
One Feringeea, a Thug leader of great notoriety, was delivered up to
justice in the year 1830, in consequence of the reward of five hundred
rupees offered for his apprehension by the Government. He was brought
before Captain Sleeman, at Sangir, in the December of that year, and
offered, if his life were spared, to give such information as would
lead to the arrest of several extensive gangs which had carried on their
murderous practices undetected for several years. He mentioned the place
of rendezvous, for the following February, of some well organized gangs,
who were to proceed into Guzerat and Candeish. Captain Sleeman appeared
to doubt his information; but accompanied the Thug to a mango grove, two
stages from Sangir, on the road to Seronage. They reached this place in
the evening, and in the morning Feringeea pointed out three places in
which he and his gang had, at different intervals, buried the bodies of
three parties of travellers whom they had murdered. The sward had grown
over all the spots, and not the slightest traces were to be seen that
it had ever been disturbed. Under the sod of Captain Sleeman's tent were
found the bodies of the first party, consisting of a pundit and his six
attendants, murdered in 1818. Another party of five, murdered in 1824,
were under the ground at the place where the Captain's horses had been
tied up for the night; and four Brahmin carriers of the Ganges water,
with a woman, were buried under his sleeping tent. Before the ground
was moved, Captain Sleeman expressed some doubts; but Feringeea, after
looking at the position of some neighbouring trees, said he would risk
his life on the accuracy of his remembrance. The workmen dug five feet
without discovering the bodies; but they were at length found a little
beyond that depth, exactly as the Thug had described them. With this
proof of his knowledge of the haunts of his brethren, Feringeea was
promised his liberty and pardon if he would aid in bringing to justice
the many large gangs to which he had belonged, and which were still
prowling over the country. They were arrested in the February following,
at the place of rendezvous pointed out by the approver, and most of them
condemned and executed.