The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-01 00:00:00

MEGPUNN AISM.

We copy the following account of a horrible &vision
or branch of the crime of Thuggism, from The Friend
of India, April 11 : _ _

MAJOR SLEEMAN'S REPORT ON MEGPUNNAISM.
We now redeem our pledge of giving an abstract of
the valuable Report which has just been sent into
Government, on the subject of Mcgpunnaism. This
barbarous term refers to a division of the crime of
Thuggee, out of which it grew, after the siege of
Bhurtpore, in 1826. While the Thugs murder their
victims to obtain their wealth, the Megpunnas immo-
late travellers to obtain their children, whom they
afterwards sell into slavery. The:great founder of this
system, Kheata Jemadar, was considered so holy a
man, that after his, arrest he was entreated by the
villagers to extinguish a fire which had broken out in
a village ; and by a singular coincidence, the fire qeased
as his hands were extended to heaven in supplica-
tion. The greater part of the gangs who have en-
gaged in this revolting system of murder sustain the
character of religious mendicants ; and the system
itself is firmply believed to be under the patronage of
the goddess Kalee. In common with the Thugs, they
have a slang language, common to all the initiated.
Unlike the Thugs, however, they always take their
families with them on these murderous expeditions ;
the females assist in inveigling travellers, and in tak-
ing charge of the children, till they can be disposed
of. Their victims are generally chosen from the more
indigent elasses, the disappearance of whom is less
likely to excite suspicion than that of more wealthy in-
dividuals ; and they find that it is more lucrative, as
well as more safe, to murder the poor for the sake of
their children, than the opulent for their wealth. The
Brinjarras, who are widely scattered throughout the
upper provinces, are ever ready to receive the children
of the murdered parents ; and they enjoy many facili-
ties for subsequently distributing them among the
brothels of the principal cities, or disposing of them to
men of wealth and consideration. Suspicion may be at
once lulled by the declaration, that the children were
purchased from indigent parents, who had no longer
the means of supporting them. The system is of so
recent an origin, that it has not as yet spread farther
than the Upper Dooab, the Delhi territories, and the
Rajpootana and Alwar States ; and the number of the
initiated does not exceed three or four hundred. The
conviction of offenders is rendered difficult, by the cus-
tom they adopt of throwing the bodies of their victims
into the nearest river, and by the distance to which the
children are carried, and the obstacles which are fountl
in tracing and identifying them.
The present Report consists of the confessions of some
of the principal offenders, and the depositions which
were taken in cases brought to light by the exertions
of the officers in the Thuggee department.
The Report closes with a list of two hundred and
twenty-three Thugs employed in the system of murder-
ing indigent parents for the sake of their children, who
are still at large ; together with their age, caste, con-
nections, and their respective districts ; and a note ap-
pended to it says—" A gang of forty-four of the above
prisoners has been arrested by Lieut. Mills since this
list was preferred ; and with them seven more children
of murdered parents have been recovered."
It is to be hoped that the energetic measures adopted
by Major Sleeman and his assistants have been suc-
cessful in arresting the progress of this crime, if not of
extinguishing it altogether. Without such vigorous
exertions there can be little doubt that it would, like
its parent crime, have spread to the utmost limits of
this empire, marking its progress with desolation and
death.