THE GODDESS KARLE.
My dear Children--In the preceding chapter I spoke of Karle. She, as I
there mentioned, is the wife of Siva, and, like her husband, has the
power of destruction. From the images made of her, it would appear that
she is a female, of a black or dark blue color. She has four arms. In
one hand she holds a sword, and in another a human head. Her hair is
dishevelled, reaching down to her feet. Her countenance is most
ferocious. Her tongue comes out of her mouth, and hangs over her chin.
She has three eyes, red and fiery. Her lips and eyebrows are streaked
with blood. She has two dead bodies for ear-rings, and wears a girdle
around her loins--a girdle made of bloody hands, which she cut off from
the bodies of her enemies. She has a necklace of skulls, which she took
from the bodies of the giants and others killed by her.
[Illustration]
Of all the Hindoo divinities, this goddess is the most cruel and
revengeful. Such is her thirst for blood, that being unable at one time
to procure any giants for her prey, in order to quench her thirst, she
cut her own throat, that the blood issuing thence might spout into her
mouth. Different acts of worship are performed to appease her. If, for
example, a devotee should burn his body, by applying a burning lamp to
it, it would be very pleasing to her. If he should draw some of his
blood and give it to her, or if he should cut off a piece of his flesh
and offer it as a burnt-offering, she would be still move pleased. If he
should present _whole_ burnt-offerings upon the altar, saying, "Hrang,
brang, Karle, Karle! O, horrid-toothed goddess, eat, eat; destroy all
the malignant: cut with this axe; bind, bind; seize, seize; drink this
blood; spheng, spheng; secure, secure; salutation to Karle," she would
be much delighted. It is said that she will be pleased for three months,
if the people offer her the blood of a crocodile--for a thousand years,
if they offer her the blood of one man, and a hundred thousand years, if
they offer her the blood of three.
This goddess is the patroness of thieves. To her they pay their
devotions, to obtain help to carry on their wicked delights. Gangs meet
together, and, after having offered bloody sacrifices, and worshipped
their weapons, and having drunk some intoxicating liquor, and rubbed
their bodies with oil, they go forth to rob. They have a prayer, which
they offer when they worship their weapons. It is as follows: "O,
instrument formed by the goddess, Karle commands thee to cut a passage
into the house, to cut through stones, bones, bricks, wood, the earth,
and mountains, and cause the dust thereof to be carried away by the
wind." Scattered throughout India, there is a lawless set of men whose
profession it is to get their food by murder. They are called
Phansiagars, or Thugs. They owe their origin and laws to Karle. They say
that she told them to become murderers and plunderers. They are called
Phansiagars, from the name of the instrument which they use when they
murder people. Phansiagar means a strangler, and they use a phansi, or
noose, which they throw over the necks of those whom they intend to
plunder, and strangle them. These Phansiagars are composed of all
castes, Hindoos, Mahommedans, pariahs, and chandellars. This arises from
the circumstance that they never destroy the children of those whom they
rob and murder. These children they take care of, and bring up to their
own horrible mode of life. They always murder those whom they rob,
acting upon the maxim that "dead men tell no tales." A gang of these
robbers varies from a dozen to sixty or seventy persons. These divide
into small parties. Those whom they murder are travellers, whom they
happen to meet on the road. Sometimes two or three of a gang will take
up their station in a choultry, or place where the traveller stops, and
while he sleeps, they rouse him from his sleep, and cast the noose over
his head and kill him. It takes two persons to kill a man. One casts the
noose over his head, and immediately tightens it with all his strength;
the other strikes him on the joint of his knees as he rises, which
causes him to fall forwards. After he has fallen, they kick him on the
temples till he dies, which is usually in a minute. They never commit a
murder until they have taken every precaution not to be found out. They
will follow a traveller for weeks, if necessary, before they destroy
him. After they have murdered him, they gash the body all over and bury
it. They gash it, that it may not swell, and cause cracks to take place
in the ground, which might cause the jackals to dig down to the body,
and thus expose their guilt. If a dog accompanies the person, they
always kill it, lest the faithful creature should lead to the discovery
of his master. They think it to be a very good act to give a part of the
plunder, which they get when they murder a person, to their goddess. If
they fail to put him to death according to their rules, they suppose
that they have made her angry, and they make offerings to her, that she
may be appeased. Thus, you see that their religion teaches them to
commit the blackest of crimes.
The reason why this people gash and bury the bodies of those whom they
murder, is as follows. They say that the goddess used to save them the
trouble of burying the corpses of their victims by eating them, thus
screening the murderers from all chance of being found out. Once, after
the murder of a traveller, the body was, as usual, left unburied. One of
the Phansiagars employed, unguardedly looking behind him, saw the
goddess in the act of feasting upon it. This made her so angry, that she
vowed never again to devour a body slaughtered by them; they having, by
this one act of curiosity, forfeited her favor. However, as an
equivalent for withdrawing her patronage, she plucked one of the fangs
from her jaw, and gave it to them, saying that they might use it as a
pickaxe, which would never wear out. She then opened her side and pulled
out one of her ribs, which she gave them for a knife, whose edge nothing
could blunt. Having done this, she stooped down and tore off the hem of
her garment, which she gave to them for a noose, declaring that it
would never fail to strangle any person about whose throat it might be
cast. She moreover commanded them to gash and bury the bodies of those
whom they destroyed.
The Phansiagars bring up their children to their own profession. To
learn this, the boy is placed under the care of a tutor. Sometimes his
father is his teacher. By him he is taught that it is just as proper to
murder a man, as it is to kill a snake which lies in his path and would
bite him as he passes. He is not permitted at first to see the murders,
but merely a dead body; his mind being gradually prepared for the sight.
After this, the dreadful secret of his trade is, by degrees, told him.
When he expresses a wish to be engaged in this horrid business, they
tell him all about it. In the meantime he is allowed a small part of the
plunder, in order that his desire to commit these murders may be
increased; since it is only by murder that the plunder is obtained. He
is from time to time allowed to assist in some things, while the murder
is taking place, or allowed to be present to see how the business is
managed. It is not, however, until he becomes a man, that he is
permitted to apply the noose. To attain this privilege, he usually
devotes eight or ten years. Before he can commit a murder, his tutor
must present him with a noose. This sets him loose upon the world, as a
licensed murderer. When the tutor is about to give him the noose, he
takes him apart, and solemnly enjoins it upon him to use it with skill,
as it is to be the means of his earning his food, and as his safety will
depend upon the skill with which it is used. After he receives it, he
tries his skill in strangling a person the first opportunity that
offers.
By the course of education which the Phansiagars undergo, they become so
fond of their dreadful occupation, that nothing can induce them to quit
it. Some who have been employed in the East India Company's service,
have always returned to their business when an opportunity offered of a
successful enterprise.
When the Phansiagars become old, they do not quit the service, but act
as watchers, and decoy the traveller, by some false tale of distress,
into some distant place, where he is murdered.
Women are sometimes admitted to the society of these plunderers, and,
on some occasions, are allowed to apply the noose. They select a
handsome girl, and place her in a convenient spot, where, by her beauty,
or by a false story of distress, she may decoy some unsuspecting
traveller, and be the means of his destruction. Should he be on
horseback, she will induce him to take her up behind him; after which,
when an opportunity offers, she throws the noose over his head, leaps
from the horse, drags him to the ground, and strangles him. I will
mention an instance. It happened that a horseman of Coorg, in the Madras
presidency, was passing by a spot where one of these interesting-looking
girls was stationed. She told him a piteous story of having been robbed
and badly treated, and begged him to assist her. Feeling sorry for her,
he offered to take her behind him, on his horse, and thus assist her a
few miles on her journey. She expressed much gratitude for his kindness,
and mounted. Soon afterwards she suddenly passed a noose over his head,
and, drawing it with all her might, endeavored to pull him from his
saddle. At this moment, a number of Phansiagars started from the
neighboring thicket and surrounded him. The murderess then slipped from
the horse; but the Coorg striking his heels into the horse's sides, it
threw out its hind legs with great violence, and struck to the ground
the girl, who immediately let go the cord. He then drew his sword, and,
cutting his way through the robbers, effected his escape. He wounded two
of them severely. These men were shortly afterwards taken, and, through
their means, twelve others fell into the hands of the judicial officers
of the king of Coorg, including the girl who attempted the murder. They
were all put to death.
And is it possible that such persons can go to heaven? How could such
ever relish its pure joys? What would they do, could they be admitted
there? My dear children, it is a charity which has no foundation, to
suppose that the heathen can go to heaven. I have preached the Gospel to
tens of thousands of them, but I never saw one who had the least atom of
a qualification for that holy place. "They have all gone out of the
way." Every crime which the apostle Paul speaks of in the latter part of
the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans, they commit, and crimes
of so dreadful a nature that I cannot mention them--crimes which, should
they be written in the Bible, would cause the Bible to be a sealed book
for ever.