The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-03-27
THE ~STRANGLERS OF INDIA.
MEN WHO MADE MURDER A REau-
LAR BUSIN Ess.
The Thugs and Their Methods Of
Killing PeopIc-Guidcd by Good
and had Omens,

Gals was accidently detected in the act
of dividing what turned out to be the
clothes and other property of some muir
dered travellers, and by laboriously fol
lowing this clue that great mystery of
lnlquity = Thuggee was eventually
dragged into the light.
Some years later DR.. Sherwood, an old
resident in India, published a pamphlet
about the Thugs which sent a thrill of
horror both through the A~nglo-Indian
and the British public. According to
him the sect seems to have originated
ages ago in the north of India, where its
members were called Thugs, or Deceivers,
and thence spread south under the name
OF Phansigars or Strangers.
Thuggee was not only a profession, but
a religion as well, and so close and secret
were its principles that little was really
known of it even among the natives
themselves. To speak of the Thugs, or
even to think of them, was held to be
unlucky. No good could, and much
harm might, come of it.
The profession of Thuggec was kept
strictly in the Thug families, descending
from father to SON.. If a stranger wished
to enter, he had to get some holy old
Thug to agree to become his gooroo, or
spiritual parent. After years of appren-
ticcship. and having passed creditably
through the inferior offices of scout,
grave-digger, and holder of hands of
shamshea, he was fit to CLINT to the top
OF the professional tree as a bhurtote or
stranger. Having been ordered to purify
himself by prayer and fasting. and to
have as much silver money about him as
possible, the candidate and his gooroo,
with a shamshea, started off disguised
as ordinary travellers. If possible, they
Joined company with ome solitary, poor
wayfarer, and waited patiently for the
time when, after the midday meal, he lay
down to sleep in the shade; but, before
proceeding to actual business, it was nee
essary to withdraw and watch for a good
omen. If it came shortly they turned
their faces westward, and the gooroo,
taking the handkerchief, tied at one end
the goor khat or holy knot, with a rupee
inside it. He then delivered it to the
disciple, who, leaving the gooroo to pray
to Davee, the goddess from whom they
claimed to have sOrung, crept s%tealthily
with the shamshea to the uncon-
scious slumberer, whom they awoke,
and in an instant his hands were
%pinioned, the fatal moose passed around
his neck; then Games stiled cry, a chok-
ing gurgle, a convulsive struggle and the
sleep of the grave settled on his ewes for
ever! This work being done, the muir
derers, leaving the corpse to the grave
diggers, who were not far off, returned
to their friends, to whom the gooroo
presented his sen in triumph as a full
blown bhurtote or stranger. He then
took back his own rupee as well as get
ting all his sons money, o rthe purchase
of what was wanted for the solemn feast,
to which all friends were invited, and
the chief dainty Of which was the dish
of goor or holy sugar.
A sleeper, said the Thug informers,
was always aroused before being stran-
gled, because their religion expressly
forbade the killing of one who slept.
The reason of this probably was a fear
lest an attempt to slip the moose around
the neck of a person lying down might
be a failure, and result in an alarm and
detection.
In winter Thugs pretend to follow diff
ferent occupations, and in summer set
out on their strangling expeditions.
Sometimes they travelled in small parties,
and at other times in bands of a hundred
or even two hundred strong. If a soil
tary passenger was overtaken his fate
was sealed. Several Thugs would creep
up behind him, seize his arms and legs,
twist the handkerchief round his neck,
and throw him to the ground a corpse.
They often disguised themselves as
merchants, artisans, soldiers and pill
grims. Their scouts, going on in ad-
vance, entered the towns, and learned
what travellers were on the road, their
numbers, apparent wealth, and whether
armed or otherwise. With them the
Thugs would mingle like harmless way
%farers; gradually, and without exciting
suspicion, each traveller would be placed
between a shamshea and a bhurtote, who,
at a given signal, would seize upon the
victim and draw tight the deadly moose.
Not in~frequently a company of thirty or
forty persons, men, women and children,
who had banded together for mutual
safety, has been thus in a few minutes
destroyed.
In burying the dead, the Thugs first
broke all the joints and then ripped open
'AS pOu'CSJ thSSO, ~ oNCll'HS SuOulu
crack the earth above, and be scented
out by the jackals. If possible, they
dug the graves in the jungle; but, if the
ground was open, they would encamp
and light fires to dry the damp, freshly
turned earth. Nothing was ever left to
chance. The travellers graves were often
dug beforehand in some lonely Jungle.
AT the beginning of the present century
there were supposed to be ten thousand
Thugs in all India who annually murdered
thirty thousand people. Between the
years 1886 and 1887 more than nineteen
hundred were hanged or imprisoned in
Bombay, Madras and Bengal. Thuggee
is considered then 10 have become within
ten years afterward quite extinct.
But ancient customs die hard in the
East, and it is not impossible that 10 the
remote parts of India, especially in the
native principalities, it may linger aver
yet.
OF the thousands of persons who dis
appear annually in India, there are many
of whom their friends only know that
they were and are not. Wild beasts
fhau aunnOsa hava Aactroval tha,n. Int