The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-04-08
THUGS OF INDIA
SKILLED IN MURDER
They First Began Staying as
Religious Practice
REIGN OF POWER IS ENDED
Picturesque Strangers Flourlshed for
Many Years, Waylayine Mer-
chants on Highways-A
Famous Member

From the Los Angeles Times.
1t was a happy inspiration that led to
the adoption of the word thug as
synonym for ferocious criminal. Its
very sound is suggestive of silent and
sudden murder. 1t echoes the thug of
slung shot.
This, of course, is mere coincidence;
the word is not English. in spite of its
sound. 1t is Hindustanee and came TO
this country by way of England. There
1t has no newspaper currency. but re-
tains its historical meaning, a caste of
Indian strangers
In becoming popular the term has suf-
fered some degradation, for the thugs of
India were no vulgar sluggers and muir
ders. They were religious devotees and
artists in crime. De Quincy would have
given them high rank among the prac-
titioners Of Murder Considered as a Fine
Art"
The Thugs, indeed were under VOWS to
Kali Devil the black proved consort Of
silva the Destroyer She is that terrible
parsonage who appears in the Hindu Pan
theon as a fierce but beautiful woman,
stained idol, garanded with skulls. Band
ed together as caste brothers the Thugs
hunted men to offer them TO the deity OF
destruction, and because she required
bloodless sacrifice they killed their vic
tins by suffocation.
Began Robbng Victims.
The Thugs not being cannibals. could
!
their victims and divided the spoiIs be-
tween themselves and the temples of Kali
As a religious body they were protected
/ by the Brahmins and by pous but in
pecunious' Rajahs. who licensed and
! taxed them. II was an easy way for
ruler TO increase his revenue and the vic
/ Tins We're travelling merchants who would
not be missed.
During the many centuries of war and
anarchy in India Thuggee fiourished
nightly. Under Aurungzebe, to whom
as a Moslem Kali was an abhorred idol,
j. suffered a check. Hindu fanaticism
supported it, The Nawab of Surat had
captured a band of Thugs and was about
to release them for a ransom offered by
certain Banans. who hoped to acquire
religious merit" by the act. The EN-
peror ordered the Thugs 10 be strung up
by the left hands in the jungle and left
there 10 ole. the Bai11anS, prototypes or
the sentimentalists who present notorious
criminals with bouquets. hanqueted the
strangers before the execution.
These terrors of the Indian highway are
now extinct like the sabre toothed tiger.
About sixty years ago many hundreds
were executed and the remainder trans
ported or put 10 work at tent making ard
other peaceful trades, in strict confine-
ment.
It was the writer's privilege a few years
back to visit one of the last of these
world famous strangers. lie had been
captured young and sentenced To i'm
prsonment for life in a central Indian
jail.
/ In a cool corridor that overlooked the
F, sunlit garden a venerable old man was
weaving the pattern of Persian carpet.
Tall and erect, with snowy mustache and
high caste of features, he might have
passed in uniform for British colonel
bronzed by years of service He showed
not single one of the criterions of the
type of criminal as described by Lom-
broso.