The Sun. — 1839-08-01 (London, England)

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 immolate 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 supplication. The greater part of the gangs who have engaged 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 taking 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 individuals ; 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 facilities 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 custom 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 murdering indigent parents for the sake of their children, who are still at large ; together with their age, caste, connections, and their respective districts ; and a note appended 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 successful 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.