The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-12-22
MURDER THEIR PROFESSION.

MURDER THEIR PROFESSION.
The Thugs of India Made the Taking Of
IA Life . Fine Art.
Murder has ceased only recently to
be recognized profession in India"
said an Oriental traveller to a Star
writer. "A few years ago those who
practiced the business were divided into
three classes, most important of which
was that of the thugs They originated
about two hundred years ago. and were
extremely numerous at the time when
the British first gained foothold in
that country. Some notion may be got
of the scale on which they worked from
the fact that one of them. captured a
few years ago, confessed to having
taken part in 931 deliberate killings of
human beings They travelled in gangs,
ands inasmuch as the native govern
ments took no pains to put them down,
their vocation prospered. Each minor
organization in their association, con-
tanning often one hundred men, alb
stained from the practice of its industry
in its own immediate neighborhood,
which was none the less exposed to &C.
casional visits from other bands, so that
the slaughter went on continually
everywhere. One official of the East
India Company, who was for three years
in charge of a district on the Nerbudda
river, testified in his reports that dur
ing that period 100 people were muir
dered within less than a quarter of a
mile of his residence.
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that the thugs were mere brutal crimi-
nails with an appetite for blood. On the
contrary, many Of them belonged to the
most intelligent and respectable classes.
They loved their profession, regarded
the killing of people as legitimate sport
and even considered themselves ennis
saries of divinity, so that they were
never troubled with pangs of conscience
on account of their deeds. They were
organized as regular army, rising
through various grades according to
merit. The lowest rank was composed
of scouts the second of Sections the
third of men whose duty it was to hold
the hands of the victims while the latter
were chol1ed to death by the strangers,
who formed the fourth and highest
rank. They worshiped the pickax,
which was symbolical of their profess
sion, and an oath sworn on it was never
broken. In the district of Dude alone,
which is 10 miles long by 100 miles
broad, there were 274 regular stations
maintained for committing murders.
Fifty years ago the Gauges river be-
tween Benares and Calcutta was in
tested during five months Of every year
with no less than $50 boats which made
. pretense of transporting religious pill
grims. When passengers had been taken
on board at given signal the crew
rushed upon them, strangled them or
broke their backs and threw them into
the stream, where floating corpses are
too numerous at all times of the year to
excite any remark, such being to this
day the ordinary method of disposing of
the dead adopted by poor people who
cannot afford to bury them. Other
plans practiced were to inveigle travel
ers to the murder stations or to capture
them in darkness ON the roads, the
night time being commonly chosen in
India for making journeys on account
of the heat of the day. Owing to the
extraordinary notions of fate held by
the natives of the Orient, this wholesale
destruction of human life occasioned
very little remark. If a person died it
was the will of the Deity, and so there
could be no use in stirring up an inves-
, tigation of the matter.
'The motive of the thugs in their
! business of slaughter was two-fold. 1t
was a highly stimulating sport to them,
with certain amount of religious SEN
timent in it, and it was productive OF
gain in the shape of plumber. In one
instance on record the killing of six
!. persons yielded $40. 900. Because the
thugs confined their attention to the
native people, who made no complaint,
a long time passed before the British
authorities took any active measures
for putting down the evil; but when the
work of suppressing it was once begun
it was carried on with such activity and
effectiveness that the gangs were soon
wiped out. OF one society that included
600 assassins all save seventy were cap
tured in ten years Between 1926 and
1885, 1862 thugs were arrested, of whom
3s2 were hanged and 909 were trans
ported. A part of the code of Thuggee
was never to practice unnecessary cru
city, nor in any case to rob victim
before killing him. Infants were al.
ways spared and were trained to the
profession. The murder of women was
not countenanced, though certain gangs
adopted the practice. Most commonly
thug would engage an unwary trav-
eler in conversation, when the superior
stranger would throw his own linen
girdle around the unfortunate's neck
and choke him to death by pressing the
knuckles against his spine.
Besides the thugs, there were in
India the prisoners and the robbers
The former all belonged to one class Of
dealers in toddy. They went singly OF
in gangs, haunting the stopping places
of travellers, where they would take ad.
vantage of any opportunity to drop a
small quantity of pounded 'datura
, seeds into the wayfarer's food. Then
they would rob him and leave him to
take his chances of recovering from the
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