Sahib.—Yes; and the greater part of the Thugs of the south are Mussulmauns.
Sleeman.—And you still marry, inherit, pray, eat, and drink, according to the Koran? and your Paradise is to be the Paradise promised by Mahommed?
Sahib.—Yes. All, all.
Sleeman.—Has Bhowanee been anywhere named in the Koran?
Sahib.—Nowhere.
It was then explained that Bhowanee was supposed to be another name for Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, and wife of Ali. Sahib acknowledged that Bhowanee had no power to admit her votaries into Paradise, nor any influence over the future state, but maintained that she directed the destinies of Thugs in this world, and that God would never punish any one for obedience to her commands. Sleeman's Mahommedan officers indignantly protested against the idea that Fatima and the Hindoo goddess were identical, and professed an entire disbelief in the divinity of Kalee. But they were somewhat disconcerted when the Thugs asked how they reconciled this want of faith with their presence at Kalee's festivals: they could not say that they were merely spectators, led thither by an idle curiosity. The Thugs then adduced, as a proof of the divine origin of their calling, the fact that they had pursued it with impunity for nearly two centuries. Captain Sleeman having declared that neither he nor his native officers cared one jot for their goddess, and that they were determined to put down her worship in this form, one of them replied, "They may say so, but they all know that no man's family can survive a murder committed in any other way; and yet Thugs have thrived through a long series of generations. We have all children like other men, and we are never visited with any extraordinary affliction."
It may be here parenthetically stated, that of the Oude Thugs nine-tenths were Mahommedans; in the Doab, one-fifth; south of the Nerbudda, three-fourths; in Rajpootana, one fourth; and in Bengal, Behar, Orissa, Bundlecund and Saugor, about one-half.
Kalee, the goddess who presided over Thuggee, was worshipped also under the names of Bhowanee, Devey, and Davey. She was the wife of Mahadeo, or Siva, and first appeared on earth on the banks of the Hooghly, at a spot afterwards called, in memory of the event, Kalee Ghaut, now Calcutta. Here stands her most honoured temple, and here is still celebrated with the most solemn rites her chief festival, the Doorga Pooja. They who address her with the greatest reverence style her Kunkalee, or the "man-eater," and represent her as quaffing huge draughts of blood from men and demons. When alone, she is depicted as black and hideous of aspect; but in company with her husband, she is ever fair and beautiful. Once on a time the world was infested with a monstrous demon named Rukut Beej-dana, who devoured mankind as fast as they were created. So gigantic was his stature, that the deepest pools of the ocean reached no higher than his waist. This horrid prodigy Kalee cut in twain with her resistless sword, but from every drop of blood that fell to the ground there sprung up a new demon. For some time she went on destroying them, till the hellish brood multiplied so fast that she waxed hot and weary with her endless task. So she paused for a while, and from the sweat, brushed off one of her arms, she created two men, to whom she gave a roomal, or handkerchief, and commanded them to strangle the demons. When they had slain them all, they offered to return the roomal, but the goddess bade them keep it and transmit it to their posterity, with the injunction to destroy all men who were not of their kindred. There were many exemptions, however, from this rule. The murder of women, for instance, was positively prohibited, and this prohibition was seldom or never violated in Bengal, Behar, or Orissa. To the south of the Nerbudda old women did not always escape, or even young women, when it was found impossible to separate them from a tempting prize. Between the Nerbudda, the Indus, and the Jumna, the Thugs had few scruples of any kind. It was likewise unlawful to murder a Brahman or a Kaet (member of the writer caste), or a religious mendicant of any kind, or oilman, potter, carpenter, blacksmith, goldsmith, elephant-driver, musician, dancing-master, or any one having a domestic animal with him, or carrying a parent's bones to the sacred river. But, in later times, these restrictions were either totally evaded or confined to the first day of the expedition. To the neglect of these and such-like regulations, the approvers ascribed the decay of the "time-honoured craft." Davey used to protect them, they said with a sigh, when they "had some regard for religion." She never forsook them till they neglected her. They were merely instruments in the hands of God. "No man is ever killed by man's killing," but through the will of the Deity. Many "incursions" had been made at different times against Thuggee, but never on such a scale as that instituted by the company's officers. "The Company's Ikbal (genius, or good fortune) is such, that before the sound of your drums, sorcerers, witches, and demons take flight, and how can Thuggee stand?" In the early ages of the "institution," Bhowanee used to dispose of the dead bodies and efface all signs of the murder, but she distinctly warned her votaries against looking back after they had again taken to the road. Curiosity, however, at length proved too strong for the sons of Eve, and one day it came to pass that a Thug looked over his shoulder and beheld the goddess playing at ball with the corpses, throwing them up into the air and catching them as they fell; or, according to another account, she had a dead body in her mouth, the extremities projecting on either side. After this discovery of her favourite pastimes, Kalee refused to have anything more to do with their victims, and left it to themselves to conceal the tokens of their "piety." But she did not altogether abandon them. Even in her wrath she was gracious to those who held her name in honour. She accordingly bestowed upon them one of her teeth for a pick-axe, a rib for a knife, and the hem of her garment for a noose: yellow and white being the colours she most affected, such were frequently the hues of the roomal. To the last she "everywhere protected the Thugs, so long as they attended religiously to their duties." Even when through inattention to the omens she sent for their guidance, any of them were apprehended and punished, her vengeance was sure to overtake their oppressors. "Was not Nanha," said an approver, "the Raja of Jhalone, made leprous by Davey for putting to death Bodhoo and his brother Khumoolee, two of the most noted Thugs of their day? He had them trampled under the feet of elephants, but the leprosy broke out upon his body the very next day." Nanha was so sensible of his guiltiness, that he did all in his power to appease Davey. "Bodhoo had begun a well in Jhalone; the Raja built it up in a magnificent style; he had a Chubootra (tomb) raised to their name, fed Brahmans, consecrated it, had worship instituted upon it, but all in vain; the disease was incurable, and the Raja died in a few months a miserable death.... When Madhajee Scindiah caused seventy Thugs to be executed at Mathura, was he not warned in a dream by Davey that he should release them? And did he not, the very day after their execution, begin to spit blood? And did he not die within three months?... When Dureear, the Rathore, and Komere and Patore, the Kuchwaha Rajpoots, Zemindars, arrested eighty of the Thugs who had settled at Nodha, after the murder of Lieutenant Monsell, they had many warnings to let them go, but they persisted and kept them till some thirty died. They collected 10,000 rupees, at the rate of 125 rupees from every Thug. What became of their families? Have they not all perished? They have not a child left. Rao Sing Havildar, the Gwalior Soobah of Nodha, took the money, but that very day his only son and the best horse in his stable died, and he was himself taken ill and died soon after a miserable death.... The Raja of Kundul, some ninety coss (180 miles) east from Hyderabad, arrested all the Thugs in his Raj for some murders they had committed. For three successive nights the voice of Davey was heard from the top of every temple in the capital, warning the Raja to release them. The whole town heard her, and urged the Raja to comply. He was obstinate, and the third night the bed on which he and his Ranee were sleeping was taken up by Davey, and dashed violently against the ground." They were dreadfully bruised and frightened, and lost no time in releasing their heaven-protected prisoners.
Kalee not only protected the Thugs, but sent them numerous omens as encouragement or warning. An omen was, in fact, a positive command to slay the travellers in their power, or to allow them to go unharmed. If they did not attend to these omens, they became guilty of disobedience, and had no longer any claim upon the goddess for protection. On Captain Sleeman inquiring if any evil would befall them if they used the roomal without reference to the divine signals, Sahib at once answered in the affirmative, adding, "No man's family ever survives a murder: it becomes extinct. A Thug who murders in this way loses the children he has, and is never blessed with more. He cannot escape punishment." "But how," said Captain Sleeman, "how can you murder old men and young children without some emotions of pity—calmly and deliberately as they sit with you and converse with you, and tell you of their private affairs—of their hopes and fears—and of the wives and children they are going to meet after years of absence, toil, and suffering?" The answer was such as might almost have been made by an ancient Hebrew, had any one asked him if he felt no pity for the wretched Canaanites he so ruthlessly murdered. "From the time that the omens have been favourable, we consider them as victims thrown into our hands by the Deity to be killed; and that we are the mere instrument in her hands to destroy them: that if we do not kill them, she will never be again propitious to us, and we and our families will be involved in misery and want." In precisely such a spirit did Samuel hew in pieces before the Lord, Agag, king of the Amalekites. The Thugs were by no means insensible to domestic feelings, or even to the charms of social and friendly intercourse. At home their conduct was irreproachable. Their villages were usually models of cleanliness and neatness; their lands were industriously cultivated, their wives and children treated with all kindness and affection. When Laek, an approver, heard of his brother's arrest, he repeated with much feeling an Hindustani verse, which has been thus rendered into English:—"I was a pearl, once residing in comfort in the ocean. I surrendered myself, believing I should repose in peace on the bosom of some fair damsel—but, alas! they have pierced me and passed a string through my body, and have left me to dangle in constant pain as an ornament to her nose." Their wives frequently were quite unconscious that their husbands were murderers, though they may perchance have suspected them of being thieves and robbers. The sons also were kept in ignorance of the entire truth until they had completed their fourteenth or fifteenth year. In fact, they were gradually trained to the business. At first they were taken out as if for a pleasant excursion, and had generally a pony to ride. Presents, too, were given them after each murder, though they were not made acquainted with the source whence those gifts were derived. However, before they returned home they had usually a shrewd suspicion that their treasured prize had not been honestly come by. Next year they were plainly told that their parents and relations were highway robbers; but by this time they had become too fond of the careless roving life and of their share of the easily-acquired plunder, to listen to the still small voice of conscience. And thus in the third year they were not horrified to learn that they were accomplices in murder. By such gentle transitions the best regulated mind may eventually be attuned to the most atrocious guilt. A comical reason was given to Captain Sleeman to account for the omission on the part of a Thug father to initiate his son. "His father," said the witness, "used to drink very hard, and in his fits of intoxication he used to neglect his prayers and his days of fast. All days were the same with him. This lad, Shumshera, was always sober and religiously disposed, and separated from his father, living always with his uncle Dondee, who was a very worthy, good man." He, too, was a Thug, but likewise refrained from removing the veil from the eyes of the lad. Another relative, however, proved less considerate, and flattered the young man's vanity by telling him that he belonged to a very high family of the Jumaldehee Thugs. A sad tale concerning another youngster was related by Feringeea, a noted leader, who turned king's evidence. One Aman Soobahdar went out upon an expedition, accompanied by his cousin Kurhora, aged scarcely fourteen, whom he gave in charge to Hursooka, his adopted son. After a time the gang fell in with a party of five Sikhs, whereupon Aman desired Hursooka to keep the boy well in the rear, so that he might not witness the contemplated murder. Kurhora, however, becoming frightened, broke away from his companion and galloped to the front to overtake the others. Just as he came in sight, the signal was given. In an instant the fatal noose was applied, a few shrill cries rent the air, and five writhing human bodies lay convulsively distorted on the ground. At the horrid spectacle Kurhora "was seized with a trembling, and fell from his pony; he became immediately delirious, was dreadfully alarmed at the sight of the turbans of the murdered men, and when any one touched or spoke to him, talked about the murders and screamed exactly like a boy talks in his sleep, and trembled violently if any one spoke to him or touched him." Three or four of the party remained with the poor lad, for he was a great favourite with them all, but he never recovered his senses, and died before the evening. Hursooka took his death so much to heart that he retired from the world, turned Byragee (an ascetic), and passed the remainder of his days in serving at a temple on the Nerbudda.