Show REPORT ON EAST INDIAS THUGS Updcr the title A Religion of Murder Mur-der the Quarterly Review treats of the old cult of Thugglym In India li seems that after a practical Immunity of many years from murders by the devotees of Bhowanee there has been n marked revival In the slaughters But the doers of these murders are but I a pitiful remnant of what was once a great religious sect I and instead of slaying the vlp tlms with the strangling string or In open bodily attack the degenerate AVhatoorea do their deadly work with wih poison In 1S95 three persons were concerned In Thuggee poisoning In 139C there were ten in 1897 there were twentyfive in 1898 there were but five perpetrators accused though eight persons per-sons were poisoned Later years arc not yet reported In 1S30 there were ton thousand devotees de-votees of Thuggism In India I was a sacred cult with ritual ceremonies prescribed doctrines and deeply religious gious traditions I nermeated all In din and had members In all walks of life Bands of the fraternity wandered over the country and traveled with parties of pilgrims or any other wayfarers way-farers and at opportune places would attack and kill the whole party burying bury-ing the bodies with their ceremonial which prescribed the depth of the grave how It should be concealed and what should be done with the loot I I was a very genuine religion its ad horonls were In deadly earnest each vtfis n priest In his authority to offer sacrifices no one of them doubts the divine origin of Thuggee they consider the persons murdered precisely In the light of victims offered up to tholr goddess Her name was Hail or Dcve or Bhowaneo according to the pagan custom of endowing the gods with separate names according to their different assumed functions She was originally the goddess of smallpox and was supposed to have personally led her followers until one of them disobeyed dis-obeyed her orders not to watch her and saw her swallowing the body of a vIctm Then she disappeared but was supposed to still watch over and protect pro-tect her followers The Thug says the Quarterly was simply n practical Godfearing man he would set out on his business with lie quiet earnestness of one who Is I merely doing his duty and brlnb1nG up his son to a good professional pro-fessional connection he would brutally murder twenty to thirty I victims not only with an easy conscience but with the calm selfapproval of a successful practitioner and If after years of bus Inesclee activity he fell Into lie meddling med-dling grasp British law he would go to his death with the cheerful smile of a religious man who had lived well and entertained no doubts of being munificently munifi-cently rewarded hereafter Nor was heat he-at all grasping In his dealings The celebrated Thug Shumsherah deposed that eight aunts n shilling is n very good remuneration for murdering a man we often strangle n victim who Is i suspected of having two pice three farthings1 Their organization was perfect In all Its details Absolute obedience the Jemadar who had charge of a district was required and given Whoever tasted tho sacred sugar goor was sure to become a Thug whoever being a Thug swore falsely on the sacred pickax pick-ax was sure to meet a horrible death within a specified time The Thugs had I their owm way of defining thing Tho slaying ot viutlms vaq not murder A Thug leader of polished manners and great eloquence asked whether ho felt compunction at murdcrlnglnnoccnt people replied with a smile Does any mull fcel compunction in following his trade And are not 1 our trades assigned as-signed to us by Providence Being asked how many people he had killed answered I have killed none Is any man killed from mans killing Is it not tho hand of God that kills him Art we not mere instruments In tho hands of God What do you account a murder askcdNSlceman who broke up Thuggism In India Murdering another Thug or killing any man outside out-side Thuggee replied Fcringcca the great Thug leader It was in 1S30 that Captain afterward after-ward Sir Willlrthn Sleeman began his warfare on Thuggism He pursued Its devotees relentlessly By IS 10 there had been no less than 3655 trials of which only 97 resulted In acquittals The Thugs were terrorized and tho old cult was broken up As said before but a straggling few were lefL In 1877 there were reckoned to be US Punjabi and 13S Hindustani Phanslgars traveling Thugs at large They arc not known to have committed any murders for many years Butt tho records of some of the old chiefs of the religion are amazing Thus Futty Khan was concerned con-cerned In 508 cases of murder and others as follows Buhram 931 Dhoo soo 350 Alayar 377 Ram an 604 Sheeoo deen 119 Slrdaj 12 Teja 103 Muckdoo nice 261 Sahir 203 Danlal 195 Buk Ihour 294 Khtinjun117 Hydcr 322 Imambux the Black 310 Rambux 2 Imambux1 the Tall 65 Buglvt SI Adhar 153 Ungnoo 21 A terrific record for twenty men Each Thug Is supposed to have killed an average of three men annually which made for the ten thousand thou-sand of them who wore in ithe active pursuit of their profession seventy years agO i yearly slaughter of thirty thousand persons And yet the people made no complaint but accepted the affliction with stoicism as they did the cholera or the plague Fortunately Sleeman was favored In his moves by good luck in getting hold of the great leader and on every hand he met with success and the revolting sect was ob Hterated But it was n terror in Its day |