THUGS AWAITING TRIAL AT ALLAHABAD.
"One day, in the year 1829, a native came to Colonel Sleeman, an officer of the English Government, and confessed that he was the leader of a gang of Thugs in the neighborhood, and showed where many of the victims had been buried. An investigation proved the correctness of his statement, and the members of the gang were arrested; one discovery followed another, till it was known that the organization extended through all the provinces of India, and that the different gangs had their jemadars or leaders, garus or teachers, sothas or entrappers, bhuttotes or stranglers, and lughaees or grave-diggers. They worshipped the goddess Kali, and always consulted her before starting on an expedition, and if the omens were wrong they abandoned their plans.
"They went in the disguise of merchants or pilgrims; robbery was the object of the murders they committed, and the proceeds were divided as follows: one third to the goddess, one third to the widows and orphans of the sect, and the remaining third to the assassins themselves. The teachers or spies learned the route of an intended victim, and informed the entrappers, who lured him away from the road or to a secluded place, where at a moment when he suspected no danger the stranglers killed him by suddenly throwing a handkerchief around his neck and twisting it tightly. Then the grave-diggers performed their share of the business, and after it was over the party went to the temple, divided the spoil in the manner I have mentioned, and partook of a sacrament by way of purification.
"They did not kill Europeans, for fear of detection, and they also exempted women and old men from their operations. After the existence of the order was discovered arrests were made all over India, and some thousands of the murderers were taken. Many were executed for their crimes; the least guilty of them were colonized near Jubbulpoor, with the women and children of the organization, where they were kept separate from others, and still remain under Government supervision and employment."
There was not a great deal to be seen at Allahabad besides the festival at the junction of the rivers, as the fort contains nothing remarkable, and there are no public buildings of consequence. The train for Bombay left in the evening, and Doctor Bronson and the boys went by it for a direct ride of 845 miles, which they accomplished in forty hours.
The Doctor had originally intended to stop on the way to visit the Caves of Ellora; but circumstances made it inconvenient to do so, and the plan was abandoned. He told the boys that the caves ranked next to the Pyramids of Egypt as works of human labor, and were far superior to them in artistic character.
"You have seen," said he, "toys made in Switzerland and other countries where the side of a block of wood is cut into, and the wood slowly chipped away so as to leave figures of men, trees, or other things standing inside of a hollow space?"
Both the boys remembered that they had seen toys of this description.
"Now," he continued, "imagine that the block of wood is a rock 600 feet high, and two miles long, rising, with very steep sides, from a level plain."