CONFESSIONS
OF
A THUG.
BY
CAPTAIN MEADOWS TAYLOR,
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF NORTH BERAR.
I have heard, have read bold fables of enormity,
Devised to make men wonder, but this hardness
Transcends all fiction.
LAW OF LOMBARDY.
[Illustration]
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1858.
PREFACE.
As nearly twenty years have elapsed since the original publication
of this Work, a revised edition might, but for the present absorbing
interest of Indian affairs, be considered unnecessary.
On its first appearance--received as an exciting romance--the
generality of readers little knew how much of melancholy and revolting
truth lay beneath the surface. At the present time it may deserve a
more attentive study; recent events will have too well prepared the
Reader's mind for implicit belief in all the systematic atrocities
narrated: they are true, and most of them found their first record
in legal and official documents brought under the notice of Captain
Taylor, who from an early age possessed the rare advantage of long
study and intimate knowledge of the languages, manners, and customs
of the natives, Mahomedans as well as Hindoo. In fact, it may safely
be affirmed, that the Reader will find no characters introduced, no
scenes delineated, nor customs and manners of the East described, which
have not been faithfully drawn from objects with which the writer was
perfectly familiar.
It will scarcely fail to be remarked, with what consummate art such
numerous bodies of men were organized, and for a long time kept
absolutely unknown, while committing acts of cruelty and rapine hardly
conceivable; countenanced too, and secretly supported, by men in
authority, and even by Priests, Brahmins, and Fakeers, eager to share
in their unhallowed gains.
The Reader is particularly requested to peruse Captain Taylor's
Introduction, as affording a valuable key to the subsequent narrative.
It may also furnish some clue to the successful concealment of a
rebellion, in the existence of which many of our oldest and most
experienced officers, and men high in authority, absolutely withheld
belief, till too late and too cruelly convinced of their fatal error.
Whatever can help us to arrive at a full and precise knowledge of the
causes and the extent of this singular conspiracy, which must have
resulted in the destruction of our Eastern Empire, had it not been
upheld by constancy and heroism yet more extraordinary, is of the
utmost value, and merits a deeper interest and more serious attention
than any romance can claim.
P. M. T.
INTRODUCTION.
The tale of crime which forms the subject of the following pages is,
alas! almost all true; what there is of fiction has been supplied
only to connect the events, and make the adventures of Ameer Ali as
interesting as the nature of his horrible profession would permit me.
I became acquainted with this person in 1832. He was one of the
approvers or informers who were sent to the Nizam's territories from
Saugor, and whose appalling disclosures caused an excitement in the
country which can never be forgotten. I have listened to them with
fearful interest, such as I can scarcely hope to excite in the minds of
my readers; and I can only add, in corroboration of the ensuing story,
that, by his own confessions, which were in every particular confirmed
by those of his brother informers, and are upon official record, he had
been directly concerned in the murder of seven hundred and nineteen
persons. He once said to me, "Ah! Sir, if I had not been in prison
twelve years, the number would have been a thousand!"
How the system of Thuggee could have become so prevalent, unknown to
and unsuspected by the people of India, among whom the professors
of it were living in constant association, must, to the majority of
the English public not conversant with the peculiar construction of
Oriental society, be a subject of extreme wonder. It will be difficult
to make this understood within my present limits, and yet it is so
necessary that I cannot pass it by.
In a vast continent like India, which from the earliest periods has
been portioned out into territories, the possessions of many princes
and chieftains, each with supreme and irresponsible power in his
own dominions, having most lax and inefficient governments, and at
enmity with or jealous of all his neighbours, it may be conceived that
no security could exist for the traveller upon the principal roads
throughout the continent; no general league was ever entered into for
his security; nor could any government, however vigorous, or system of
police, however vigilant it might be in one state, possibly extend to
all.
When it is also considered that no public conveyances have ever existed
in India (the want of roads, and the habits and customs of the natives
being alike opposed to their use)--that journeys, however long, have
to be undertaken on foot or on horseback--that parties, previously
unknown to each other, associate together for mutual security and
companionship--that even the principal roads (except those constructed
for military purposes by the Company's government) are only tracks
made by the constant passage of people over them, often intersecting
forests, jungles, and mountainous and uncultivated tracts, where there
are but few villages and a scanty population--and that there are
never any habitations between the different villages, which are often
some miles apart,--it will readily be allowed, that every temptation
and opportunity exists for plunderers of all descriptions to make
travellers their prey. Accordingly freebooters have always existed,
under many denominations, employing various modes of operation to
attain their ends; some effecting them by open and violent attacks with
weapons, others by petty thefts and by means of disguises. Beyond all,
however, the Thugs have of late years been discovered to be the most
numerous, the most united, the most secret in their horrible work, and
consequently the most dangerous and destructive.
Travellers seldom hold any communication with the towns through which
they pass, more than for the purchase of the day's provisions: they
sometimes enter them, but pitch their tents or lie under the trees
which surround them; to gain any intelligence of a person's progress
from village to village is therefore almost impossible. The greatest
facilities of disguise among thieves and Thugs exist in the endless
divisions of the people into tribes, castes, and professions; and
remittances to an immense amount are known to be constantly made from
one part of the country to another in gold and silver, to save the
rate of exchange; jewels also and precious stones are often sent to
distant parts, under the charge of persons who purposely assume a
mean and wretched appearance, and every one is obliged to carry money
upon his person for the daily expenses of travelling. It is also next
to impossible to conceal anything carried, from the unlimited power
of search possessed by the officers of customs in the territories of
native princes, or to guard against the information their subordinates
may supply to Thugs, or robbers of any description.
It has been ascertained, by recent investigation, that in every part
of India many of the hereditary landholders and the chief officers
of villages have had private connexion with Thugs for generations,
affording them facilities for murder by allowing their atrocious acts
to pass with impunity, and sheltering the offenders when in danger;
whilst in return for these services they received portions of their
gains, or laid a tax upon their houses, which the Thugs cheerfully
paid. To almost every village (and at towns they are in a greater
proportion) several hermits, Fakeers, and religious mendicants have
attached themselves. The huts and houses of these people, which are
outside the walls, and always surrounded by a grove or a garden, have
afforded the Thugs places of rendezvous or concealment; while the
Fakeers, under their sanctimonious garb, have enticed travellers to
their gardens by the apparently disinterested offers of shade and good
water. The facilities I have enumerated, and hundreds of others which
would be almost unintelligible by description, but which are intimately
connected with, and grow out of, the habits of the people, have caused
Thuggee to be everywhere spread and practised throughout India.
The origin of Thuggee is entirely lost in fable and obscurity. Colonel
Sleeman conjectures that it owed its existence to the vagrant tribes
of Mahomedans which continued to plunder the country long after the
invasion of India by the Moghuls and Tartars. The Hindoos claim for it
a divine origin in their goddess Bhowanee; and certainly the fact that
both Mahomedans and Hindoos believe in her power, and observe Hindee
ceremonies, would go far to prove that the practice of Thuggee was of
Hindoo origin. Though very remote traditions of it exist, there are
no records of its having been discovered in any of the histories of
India until the reign of Akbur, when many of its votaries were seized
and put to death. From that time till 1810, although native princes
now and then discovered and executed the perpetrators,--I believe it
was unknown to the British government or authorities. In that year the
disappearance of many men of the army, proceeding to and from their
homes, induced the Commander-in-Chief to issue an order warning the
soldiers against Thugs. In 1812, after the murder by Thugs of Lieut.
Monsell, Mr. Halhed, accompanied by a strong detachment, proceeded to
the village where the murderers were known to reside, and was resisted.
The Thugs were discovered to be occupying many villages in the
pergunnahs of Sindousé, and to have paid, for generations, large sums
annually to Sindia's Government for protection. At this time it was
computed that upwards of nine hundred were in those villages alone. The
resistance offered by the Thugs to Mr. Halhed's detachment caused their
ultimate dispersion, and no doubt they carried the practice of their
profession into distant parts of the country, where perhaps it had been
unknown before.
It appears strange, that as early as 1816 no measures for the
suppression of Thuggee were adopted; for that the practices of the
Thugs were well known, we have the strongest evidence in a paper
written by Doctor Sherwood, which appeared in the "Literary Journal"
of Madras, and which is admirably correct in the description of the
ceremonies and practice of the Thugs of Southern India. One would
suppose that they were then considered too monstrous for belief,
and were discredited or unnoticed; but it is certain that from that
time up to 1830, in almost every part of India, but particularly in
Bundelkund and Western Malwa, large gangs of Thugs were apprehended
by Major Borthwick, and Captains Wardlow and Henley. Many were tried
and executed for the murder of travellers, but without exciting more
than a passing share of public attention. No blow was ever aimed at the
_system_, if indeed its complete and extensive organization was ever
suspected, or, if suspected, believed.
In that year however, and for some years previously, Thuggee seemed
to have reached a fearful height of audacity, and the government
could no longer remain indifferent to an evil of such enormous
and increasing magnitude. The attention of several distinguished
civil officers--Messrs. Stockwell, Smith, Wilkinson, Borthwick, and
others,--had become attracted with great interest to the subject. Some
of the Thugs who had been seized were allowed life on the condition of
denouncing their associates, and among others Feringhea, a leader of
great notoriety.
The appalling disclosures of this man, so utterly unexpected by
Captain (now Colonel) Sleeman, the political agent in the provinces
bordering upon the Nerbudda river, were almost discredited by that able
officer; but by the exhumation in the very grove where he happened
to be encamped of no less than thirteen bodies in various states of
decay,--and the offer being made to him of opening other graves in and
near the same spot,--the approver's tale was too surely confirmed; his
information was acted upon, and large gangs, which had assembled in
Rajpootana for the purpose of going out on Thuggee, were apprehended
and brought to trial.
From this period, the system for the suppression of Thuggee may be
said to have commenced in earnest; from almost every gang one or
more informers were admitted; and when they found that their only
chance of life lay in giving correct information, they unequivocally
denounced their associates, and their statements were confirmed by the
disinterment of their victims in the spots pointed out.
In this manner Thuggee was found to be in active practice all over
India. The knowledge of its existence was at first confined to the
central provinces, but as men were apprehended from a distance, they
gave information of others beyond them in the almost daily commission
of murder: the circle gradually widened till it spread over the whole
continent--and from the foot of the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, from
Cutch to Assam, there was hardly a province in the whole of India where
Thuggee had not been practised--where the statements of the informers
were not confirmed by the disinterment of the dead!
Few who were in India at that period (1831-32) will ever forget the
excitement which the discovery occasioned in every part of the country:
it was utterly discredited by the magistrates of many districts, who
could not be brought to believe that this silently destructive system
could have worked without their knowledge. I quote the following
passage from Colonel Sleeman's introduction to his own most curious and
able work:--
"While I was in civil charge of the district of Nursingpoor, in the
valley of the Nerbudda, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824, no ordinary
robbery or theft could be committed without my becoming acquainted
with it, nor was there a robber or thief of the ordinary kind in the
district, with whose character I had not become acquainted in the
discharge of my duty as a magistrate; and if any man had then told
me that a gang of assassins by profession resided in the village of
Kundélee, not four hundred yards from my court, and that the extensive
groves of the village of Mundésur, only one stage from me on the road
to Saugor and Bhopal, was one of the greatest bhils, or places of
murder, in all India; that large gangs from Hindostan and the Dukhun
used to rendezvous in these groves, remain in them for days together
every year, and carry on their dreadful trade all along the lines of
road that pass by and branch off from them, with the knowledge and
connivance of the two landholders by whose ancestors these groves had
been planted, I should have thought him a fool or a madman; and yet
nothing could have been more true; the bodies of a _hundred travellers_
lie buried in and among the groves of Mundésur, and a gang of assassins
lived in and about the village of Kundélee, while I was magistrate of
the district, and extended their depredations to the cities of Poona
and Hyderabad."
Similar to the preceding, as showing the daring character of the
Thuggee operations, was the fact, that at the cantonment of Hingolee,
the leader of the Thugs of that district, Hurree Singh, was a
respectable merchant of the place, one with whom I myself, in common
with many others, have had dealings. On one occasion he applied to the
officer in civil charge of the district, Captain Reynolds, for a pass
to bring some _cloths_ from Bombay, which he knew were on their way
accompanied by their owner, a merchant of a town not far from Hingolee:
he murdered this person, his attendants, and cattle-drivers, brought
the merchandise up to Hingolee under the pass he had obtained, and sold
it openly in the cantonment; nor would this have ever been discovered,
had he not confessed it after his apprehension, and gloried in it as
a good joke. By this man too and his gang many persons were murdered
_in the very bazar of the cantonment_, within one hundred yards of the
main guard, and were buried hardly five hundred yards from the line
of sentries! I was myself present at the opening of several of these
unblessed graves, (each containing several bodies,) which were pointed
out by the approvers, one by one, in the coolest manner, to those
who were assembled, till we were sickened and gave up further search
in disgust. The place was the dry channel of a small watercourse,
communicating with the river, not broader or deeper than a ditch;
it was close to the road to a neighbouring village, one of the main
outlets from the cantonment to the country.
Once awakened to the necessity of suppressing, by the most vigorous
measures, the dreadful system only just detected in its operation,
the officers who were first appointed to investigate the reports and
accusations of the informers, used their utmost efforts to arouse in
the Supreme Government a corresponding interest, and happily succeeded.
The matter was taken up most warmly by the Governor-General, Lord
William Bentinck, and the Supreme Council; and highly intelligent
officers were appointed to superintend the execution of measures in
those districts where Thuggee was discovered to be in practice. Most of
the native princes gave up claims upon such of their subjects as should
be apprehended upon charges of Thuggee, or who should be denounced by
the informers; and although in many parts the landholders and Potails
of villages protected the Thugs, and resisted their apprehension, yet
the plans for the suppression of the system were eminently successful.
As suspicion was aroused, no body of men could traverse the country
in any direction without being subject to the strictest scrutiny by
the police, and by informers who were stationed with them upon all the
great thoroughfares and in the principal towns.
The success of these measures will be more evident from the following
table, which was kindly supplied to me by Captain Reynolds, the general
superintendent of the department.
From 1831 to 1837, inclusive, there were:--
Transported to Penang, &c. 1,059
Hanged 412
Imprisoned for life with hard labour 87
Imprisoned in default of security 21
Imprisoned for various periods 69
Released after trial 32
Escaped from jail 11
Died in jail 36
-----
1,727
Made approvers 483
Convicted but not sentenced 120
In jail in various parts not yet tried 936
-----
3,266
Added to the above, Captain Reynolds mentioned that, at the time he
wrote, upwards of 1,800 notorious Thugs were at large in various parts
of India, whose names were known; how many besides existed, it is
impossible to conjecture.
How enormous therefore must have been the destruction of human
life and property in India before Thuggee was known to exist or
was only partially checked! How many thousands must annually have
perished by the hands of these remorseless assassins! Awful indeed
is the contemplation; for, during the whole of the troublous times
of the Mahratta and Pindharee wars, their trade flourished; nor
was it till 1831 that their wholesale system of murder received
any serious check: and after its general discovery, the countless
and affecting applications from families to the officers of the
department to endeavour to procure them some knowledge of the places
where their missing relatives had been destroyed, that they might
have the miserable satisfaction of performing the ceremonies for the
dead--showed how deeply the evil had affected society.
And not only as described in the following pages has Thuggee existed:
since they were written, it has been discovered under several other
forms and been found to be extensively practised on the Ganges by men
who live in boats, and murder those passengers whom they are able to
entice into their company in their voyages up and down the river. But
the most refined in guilt are those who murder parents for the sake of
their children, to sell them as household slaves, or to dancing women,
to be brought up to prostitution.
Throughout the whole of India, including all territories of native
princes, only eighteen officers are employed as superintendents
and agents for the suppression of Thuggee; many of whom, besides
the labour of this office, which is excessive, have other civil
and political duties to fulfil. By a reference to any map, it will
at once be seen what enormous provinces or divisions of India fall
to the superintendence of each person. Whether it is possible for
each to extend to every part of that under his charge the extreme
attention and scrutiny which are so imperatively necessary to put an
end to this destructive system (for there is no doubt that wherever
one well-initiated Thug exists, he will among the idle and dissolute
characters which everywhere abound in the Indian population, find
numbers to join him), must be best known to the Government of India. It
is only sincerely to be hoped that _economical_ considerations do not
prevent the appointment of others, if necessary.
The confessions I have recorded are not published to gratify a morbid
taste in any one for tales of horror and of crime; they were written to
expose, as fully as I was able, the practices of the Thugs, and to make
the public of England more conversant with the subject than they can
be at present, notwithstanding that some notice has been attracted to
the subject by an able article in the "Edinburgh Review" upon Colonel
Sleeman's valuable and interesting work.
I hope, however, that the form of the present work may be found more
attractive and more generally interesting than an account of the
superstitions and customs only of the Thugs; while for the accuracy
of the pictures of the manners and habits of the natives, and the
descriptions of places and scenes, I can only pledge the experience
of fifteen years' residence in India, and a constant and intimate
association with its inhabitants.
If this volume in any way contribute to awaken public vigilance in
the suppression of Thuggee, or if from the perusal of it, any one in
authority rises with a determination to lend his exertions in this good
cause of humanity, my time will not have been occupied in vain.
LONDON, _July, 1839_.
M. T.
CONFESSIONS OF A THUG.
CHAPTER I.
You ask me, Sahib, for an account of my life: my relation of it will be
understood by you, as you are acquainted with the peculiar habits of my
countrymen; and if, as you say, you intend it for the information of
your own, I have no hesitation in relating the whole; for though I have
accepted the service of Europeans, in my case one of bondage, I cannot
help looking back with pride and exultation on the many daring feats I
have performed. Often indeed does my spirit rise at the recollection
of them, and often do I again wish myself the leader of a band of
gallant spirits, such as once obeyed me, to roam with them wherever my
inclination or the hope of booty prompted.
But the time is past. Life, Sahib, is dear to every one; to preserve
mine, which was forfeited to your laws, I have bound myself to your
service, by the fearful tenure of denouncing all my old confederates,
and you well know how that service is performed by me. Of all the
members of my band, and of those with whom chance has even casually
connected me, but few now remain at large; many have been sacrificed at
the shrine of justice, and of those who now wander, broken, and pursued
from haunt to haunt, you have such intelligence as will lead to their
speedy apprehension.
Yet Thuggee, capable of exciting the mind so strongly, will not, cannot
be annihilated! Look at the hundreds, I might say thousands, who
have suffered for its profession; does the number of your prisoners
decrease? No! on the contrary, they increase, and from every Thug
who accepts the alternative of perpetual imprisonment to dying on a
gallows, you learn of others whom even I knew not of, and of Thuggee
being carried on in parts of the country where it is least suspected,
and has never been discovered till lately.
It is indeed too true, Ameer Ali, said I; your old vocation seems to
be as flourishing as ever, but it cannot last. Men will get tired
of exposing themselves to the chance of being hunted down like wild
beasts, and hanged when they are caught; or what is perhaps worse to
many, of being sent over the Kala-Panee (transported); and so heartily
does the Government pursue Thugs wherever they are known to exist, that
there will no longer be a spot of ground in India where your profession
can be practised.
You err, Sahib; you know not the high and stirring excitement of a
Thug's occupation. To my perception it appears, that so long as one
exists, he will gather others around him; and from the relation of
what I will tell you of my own life, you will estimate how true is
my assertion. How many of you English are passionately devoted to
sporting! Your days and months are passed in its excitement. A tiger,
a panther, a buffalo, or a hog, rouses your utmost energies for its
destruction--you even risk your lives in its pursuit. How much higher
game is a Thug's! His is man: against his fellow-creatures in every
degree, from infancy to old age, he has sworn relentless, unerring
destruction!
Ah! you are a horrible set of miscreants, said I; I have indeed the
experience, from the records of murders which are daily being unfolded
to me, of knowing this at least of you. But you must begin your story;
I am prepared to listen to details worse than I can imagine human
beings to have ever perpetrated.
It will even be as you think, said Ameer Ali, and I will conceal
nothing; of course you wish me to begin my tale from as early a period
as I can recollect.
Certainly; I am writing your life for the information of those in
England, who would no doubt like to have every particular of so
renowned a person as yourself.
Well, then, Sahib, to begin; the earliest remembrance I have of
anything, and until a few years ago it was very indistinct, is of a
village in the territories of Holkar, where I was born. Who my parents
were I know not; I suppose them to have been respectable, from the
circumstances of my always wearing gold and silver ornaments, and
having servants about me. I have an indistinct recollection of a tall
fair lady whom I used to call mother, and of an old woman who always
attended me, and who I suppose was my nurse; also of a sister who
was younger than myself, but of whom I was passionately fond. I can
remember no other particulars, until the event occurred which made me
what I am, and which is vividly impressed on my mind.
From an unusual bustle in the house, and the packing up of articles
of clothing and other necessaries, I supposed we were on the eve of
departure from our home. I was right in my conjecture, for we left it
the next morning. My mother and myself travelled in a dooly, old Chumpa
was mounted on my pony, and my father rode his large horse. Several of
the sons of our neighbours accompanied us; they were all armed, and I
suppose were our escort. On the third or fourth day after we left our
village, after our march of the day, we as usual put up in an empty
shop in the bazaar of the town we rested at. My father left us to go
about on his own business, and my mother, who could not show herself
outside, after repeated injunctions that I was not to stray away, lay
down in an inner room and went to sleep. Finding myself at liberty,
as Chumpa was busy cooking and the Juwans were all out of the way, I
speedily forgot all my mother's orders, and betook myself to play with
some other children in the street. We were all at high romps, when a
good-looking man of middle age addressed me, and asked me who I was--I
must have been remarkable from the rest of the ragged urchins about me,
as I was well dressed, and had some silver and gold ornaments on my
person. I told him that my father's name was Yoosuf Khan, and that he
and my mother and myself were going to Indoor.
"Ah, then," said he, "you are the party I met yesterday on the road:
your mother rides on a bullock, does she not?"
"No, indeed!" retorted I, angrily, "she rides in a palankeen, and I
go with her, and father rides a large horse, and we have Chumpa and
several Juwans with us. Do you think a Pathan like my father would let
my mother ride on a bullock, like the wife of a ploughman?"
"Well, my fine little fellow, it shall be as you say, and you shall
ride a large horse too, one of these days, and wear a sword and shield
like me. But would you not like some sweetmeat? See how tempting those
julabees look at the Hulwaee's; come with me, and we will buy some."
The temptation was too strong to be withstood by a child, and after a
fearful look towards the shop where we stayed, I accompanied the man
to the Hulwaee's. He bought me a load of sweetmeats, and told me to
go home and eat them; I tied them up in a handkerchief I wore round
my waist, and proceeded homewards. This transaction had attracted the
notice of some of the ragged urchins I had been playing with, and who
had longingly eyed the julabees I had been treated to; and as soon
as the man who had given them to me had gone a short distance, they
attacked me with stones and dirt, till one more bold than the rest
seized me, and endeavoured to get my prize from me. I struggled and
fought as well as I could; but the others having fairly surrounded
me, I was mobbed, and obliged to deliver up my treasure. Not content
with this, one big boy made a snatch at the necklace I wore, on which
I began to bellow with all my might. The noise I made attracted the
notice of my acquaintance, who, running up, soon put the troop of boys
to flight, and taking me under his charge, led me to our abode, where
he delivered me up to Chumpa; at the same time telling her of the
scuffle, and cautioning her not to let me out of her sight again.
I was crying bitterly, and my mother hearing a strange voice, called me
to her. Asking me what had happened, I told my story, and said that the
person who had saved me was speaking to Chumpa. She addressed him from
behind the cloth, which had been put up as a screen, and thanked him;
and added, that my father was absent, but that if he would call again
in an hour or two, he would find him at home, and she was sure he would
also be glad to thank the person who had protected his child. The man
said he would come in the evening, and went away. My father returned
soon afterwards, and I received an admonition in the shape of a sound
beating, for which I was consoled by my mother by a quantity of the
sweetmeats from the Hulwaee's, which had been the cause of my trouble,
and I may add also of my present condition. You see, Sahib, how fate
works its ends out of trifling circumstances.
Towards evening my acquaintance, accompanied by another man, came. I
was a good deal the subject of their conversation; but it passed on to
other matters, among which I remember the word Thug to have been first
used. I understood too from their discourse that there were many on the
road between where we were and Indoor, and that they were cautioning my
father against them. The men said that they were soldiers, who had been
sent out on some business from Indoor; and as there were a good many of
their men with them, they offered to make part of our escort. My friend
was very kind to me, allowed me to play with his weapons, and promised
me a ride before him on his horse the next day. I was delighted at the
prospect, and with him for his kind and winning manner; but I did not
like the appearance of the other, who was an ill-looking fellow--I
shall have to tell you much more of him hereafter.
We started the next morning: our two acquaintances and their men joined
us at a mango-grove outside the village, where they had been encamped,
and we proceeded on our journey. In this manner we travelled for two
days, and my friend performed his promise of taking me up before him on
his horse; he would even dismount, and lead him, allowing me to remain
on the saddle; and as the animal was a quiet one, I used to enjoy my
ride till the sun became hot, when I was put into the dooly with my
mother. On the third day I remember my friend saying to my father, as
they rode side by side.
"Yoosuf Khan, why should you take those poor lads of yours on to Indoor
with you? why not send them back from the stage we are now approaching?
I and my men are ample protection to you; and as you will belong to the
same service as myself, there can be no harm in your trusting yourself
and family to my protection for the rest of the journey; besides, the
dangerous part of the road, the jungle in which we have been for the
last two days, is passed, and the country before us is open. The only
fear of Thugs and thieves existed in them, and they are now far behind."
"It is well said," replied my father; "I dare say the lads will be
thankful to me for sparing them a part of the long march back, and they
have already accompanied us some fifty or sixty coss."
On our arrival at the stage, my father told the lads they must return,
at which they were highly pleased; and on their departure about noon,
I gave many kind messages to my old companions and playfellows. I
remember too giving an old battered rupee to be delivered to my little
sister, and saying she was to hang it with the other charms and coins
about her neck, to remind her of me. I found it again, Sahib; but, ah!
under what circumstances!
At this period of his narrative, Ameer Ali seemed to shudder; a strong
spasm shot through his frame, and it was some time before he spoke: at
last he resumed:
Tell a servant to bring me some water, Sahib--I am thirsty with having
spoken too much.
No, said I, you are not thirsty, but you shall have the water.
It was brought, but he scarcely tasted it--the shudder again passed
through him. He got up and walked across the room, his irons clanking
as he moved. It was horrible to see the workings of his face. At last
he said, Sahib, this is weakness. I could not conceal it; I little
thought I should have been thus moved at so early a period of my story;
but recollections crowded on me so fast that I felt confused, and very
sick. It is over now--I will proceed.
Do so, said I.
The Juwans had been gone some hours, and it was now evening. My
friend came to our abode, and told my father that the next were two
short stages, and if he liked they might be made in one, as it would
shorten the distance to Indoor; but that we should be obliged to start
very early, long before daylight, and that the bearers who carried
the dooly could easily be persuaded to make the march by promise of
a sheep, which the potail of the village he proposed going to would
supply free of cost, as he was a friend of his. My father seemed to be
rather indignant at the idea of his taking a sheep for nothing, and
said that he had plenty of money, not only to pay for a sheep, but to
give them a present if they carried us quickly.
"Well," said my friend, "so much the better, for we sipahees have
rarely much about us but our arms."
"True," returned my father; "but you know that I have sold all my
property at my village, and have brought the money to aid me in our
service. Indeed, it is a good round sum." And my father chuckled at the
idea.
"What! have you a thousand rupees?" I asked, my ideas of wealth going
no further.
"And what if it should be more?" said he, and the matter dropped; but
even now I think I can remember that my friend exchanged significant
glances with his companion.
It was then arranged that we should start with the rising of the moon,
about the middle of the night. We were roused from our sleep at the
hour proposed; and after the men had had a pipe all round, we set off.
I was in the dooly with my mother. The moon had risen; but, as well as
I can remember, there was but little light, and a slight rain falling,
which obliged us to travel very slowly. After we had proceeded a few
coss, the bearers of the dooly put it down, saying that they could not
get on in the dark and the mud, and proposed to wait till daylight.
My father had a violent altercation with them; and as I was now wide
awake, and it had ceased to rain, I begged to be taken out of the
dooly, and allowed to ride with my friend. He did not assent as readily
as usual; yet he took me up when the bearers had been scolded into
going on. I remarked to him that some of the soldiers, as I thought
them, were absent. My remark attracted my father's notice to the
circumstance, and he asked our companion where they were. He replied
carelessly, that they were gone on in advance, as we had travelled as
yet so slowly, and that we should soon overtake them.
We proceeded. We came at last to the deep bed of a river, on the sides
of which there was some thick jungle, when my friend dismounted, as he
said, to drink water, and told me the horse would carry me over safely.
I guided him on as well as I could; but before I had got well across
the stream, I heard a cry, and the noise as if of a sudden scuffle. It
alarmed me; and in looking back to see from whence it proceeded, I lost
my balance on the horse, and fell heavily on the stones in the bed of
the river, which cut my forehead severely. I bear the mark now.
I lay for a short time, and raising myself up, saw all the men, who I
thought were far on before us, engaged in plundering the dooly. I now
began to scream with all my might. One of them ran up to me, and I
saw it was the ill-looking one I have before mentioned. "Ah! we have
forgotten you, you little devil," cried he; and throwing a handkerchief
round my neck, he nearly choked me. Another man came up hastily,--it
was my friend. "He must not be touched," he cried angrily to the other,
and seized his hands; they had a violent quarrel, and drew their
swords. I can remember no more; for I was so much frightened that I
lost all consciousness, and, as I suppose, fainted.
I was recovered by some water being forced into my mouth; and the first
objects which met my eyes were the bodies of my father and mother, with
those of Chumpa and the palankeen-bearers all lying confusedly on the
ground. I cannot remember what my feelings were, but they must have
been horrible. I only recollect throwing myself on my dead mother,
whose face appeared dreadfully distorted, and again relapsing into
insensibility. Even after the lapse of thirty-five years, the hideous
appearance of my mother's face, and particularly of her eyes, comes
to my recollection; but I need not describe it, Sahib; she had been
strangled! She, my father, and the whole party had come to a miserable
and untimely end! I heard a narrative of the particulars of the event,
many years afterwards, from an old Thug; and I will relate them in
their proper place.
When I recovered my consciousness, I found myself once more before my
friend who had saved my life. He supported and almost carried me in
his arms, and I perceived that we were no longer on the road. We were
rapidly traversing the jungle, which extended as far as I could see in
every direction; but the pain of my neck was so great, that I could
scarcely hold up my head. My eyes seemed to be distended and bursting,
and were also very painful. With my consciousness, the remembrance
of the whole scene came to my recollection, and again I fell into
insensibility. I recovered and relapsed in this manner several times
during this journey; but it was only momentary, only sufficient to
allow me to observe that we still held on at a rapid pace, as the men
on foot were between running and walking. At last we stopped, and it
was now broad daylight; indeed, the sun had risen. I was taken off the
horse by one of the men, and laid under a tree on a cloth spread on the
ground, and after some time my friend came to me. Desolate as I was, I
could not help feeling that he must have had some concern in the death
of my parents; and in my childish anger I bitterly reproached him, and
bade him kill me. He tried to console me: but the more he endeavoured,
the more I persisted that he should put me to death. I was in dreadful
pain; my neck and eyes ached insufferably. I heaped all the abuse I
could think of upon him, and the noise I made attracted the notice of
the ill-looking man, whose name was Gunesha.
"What is that brat saying? Are you too turned woman," cried he
fiercely, addressing the other, whose name was Ismail, "that you do not
put the cloth about his neck and quiet him at once? Let me do it, if
you are afraid."
And he approached me. I was reckless, and poured forth a torrent of
vile abuse, and spat at him. He untied his waistband, and was about to
put an end to me, when Ismail again interfered, and saved me: they had
again a violent quarrel, but he succeeded in carrying me off to some
little distance to another tree, where some of the band were preparing
to cook their victuals; and setting me down among them, bidding them
take care of me, he went away. The men tried to make me speak, but
I was sullen and would not; the pain of my neck and eyes seemed to
increase, and I began to cry bitterly. I lay in this manner for some
hours, I suppose; and at last, completely tired out, fell asleep. I
woke towards evening; and when Ismail saw me sit up, he came to me,
soothed and caressed me, saying that I should henceforth be his child;
and that it was not he, but others, who had murdered my parents. I
remember begging him to do something for my neck, which was swelled and
still very painful. He examined it, and seemed to be struck with the
narrow escape I had had of my life.
He rubbed my neck with oil, and afterwards put upon it a warm plaster
of leaves, which relieved it greatly, and I felt easier for its
application. He remained with me; and some of the other men, sitting
down by us, began to sing and play to amuse me. I was given some milk
and rice to eat in the evening; but before it was time to sleep, Ismail
brought me some sherbet of sugar and water, which he said would make me
sleep. I suppose there was opium in it, for I remember nothing till the
next morning, when I found myself in his arms on horseback, and knew
that we were again travelling.
I pass over the journey, as I remember nothing of it, except that
Gunesha was no longer with us, which I was very glad of, for I hated
him, and could not bear his presence. Even in after-years, Sahib,
though we have been engaged together in Thuggee, I always bore a
deep-rooted aversion to him, which never changed to the last. Ismail
and seven men were all that remained of the band; and we proceeded, by
long and fatiguing marches, to a village in which he said he resided,
and where I was to be given up to the care of his wife. We arrived at
last, and I was introduced to a good-looking young woman as a child of
a relation, whom he had long ago adopted as a son, and had now brought
home to her: in fine, I was formally adopted by them as their own, and
my sufferings were speedily forgotten.