The other men, on their examination, acknowledged having murdered a bearer, on whom they found four rupees. They also met with twelve seapoys; eight of the soldiers took one road, and the other four another. The Thugs, therefore, divided into two parties, overtook the seapoys, and killed them all.
One Thug said, that on a certain day eleven men were killed and buried. The other Thug said, that on the same day only seven were strangled: on re-examination he replied, “Yes, it is true I only mentioned seven—there might have been eleven, or more, I cannot remember; we strangled people so constantly, that I took little account of the numbers buried, I only know on that day about seven or eleven were buried.”
The Thugs never attack Europeans.
CHAPTER XIV.
RESIDENCE AT CAWNPORE.
1830.—The iron-shod lāthī—Coins of Sekunder al Sāni—Hindostanī Song—The first Thermantidote—Dāk to Cawnpore—The Barkandāz—The Station Sand-storm—Indian method of washing the hair—Pukka houses and bungalows—The Ayha’s revenge—Horses poisoned—The Isle of France—The visionary old man—Influence of women in India—Gambling—Eating the air—The Ayha’s trowsers—Darzees—Refuge of the distressed—Signet-rings—The Durwān—Ganges water—Small-pox—Grass-cutters—Beauty of a night in India—Forgery—Qui hy?—Winged ants and bugs—The moon—A set-to—Revenge of a sā’īs—Soldiers in hospital—Arrak—The Chārpāī—A new servant—Unpopularity of the Governor-general.
1830, March.—The natives use a very dangerous weapon, which they have been forbidden by the Government to carry. I took one as a curiosity, which had been seized on a man in a fight in a village. It is a very heavy lāthī, a solid male bamboo, five feet five inches long, headed with iron in a most formidable manner. The man was brought before the judge for murder, and this lāthī was the weapon with which two men were supposed to have lost their lives. There are six jagged semicircular irons at the top, each two inches in length, one in height; and it is shod with iron bands sixteen inches deep from the top; diameter of the iron ornament on the top, six inches. Sticks headed with brass put on in the same fashion, are often carried by the native servants for protection when returning to their homes at night[52].
During my stay at the house of the judge at Futtehpore, he allowed me to purchase some coins from the office, which are very curious. I took four of them; they are of fine silver, rather larger and heavier than the common rupee. About 125 of these coins were found by some children in a field five miles from Kurrah, in August, 1829, buried in an earthen pot. The letters are in the Arabic character, and the date corresponds with A.D. 1313, being 516 years ago. The greater part of the coins are perfectly bright, and look quite new; between the letters, the spaces are filled with the fine white sand in which they were buried.
On one side of the coin is written in Arabic,—fig 2,