A Popular Account of Thugs and Dacoits, the Hereditary Garotters and Gang-Robbers of India

A Popular Account of Thugs and Dacoits, the Hereditary Garotters and Gang-Robbers of India

They who reverence ancient descent, and a long line of ancestors, are bound to regard the Thugs with peculiar veneration. Perhaps, neither in Asia nor in Europe are there any other families that can date their origin from such remote antiquity. They are said to be sprung from the Sagartii, who contributed 8,000 horse to the army of Xerxes, and are thus described by Herodotus, in the Seventh Book of his History: "These people lead a pastoral life, were originally of Persian descent, and use the Persian language; their dress is something betwixt the Persian and the Pactyan; they have no offensive weapons, either of iron or brass, except their daggers; their principal dependence in action is on cords, made of twisted leather, which they use in this manner: when they engage an enemy, they throw out these cords, having a noose at the extremity: if they entangle in these either[Pg 6] horse or man, they without difficulty put them to death." There is some reason to believe, that in later times the descendants of these Sagartii accompanied one of the Mahommedan invaders of India, and settled in the neighbourhood of Delhi. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, Thevenot makes mention of a strange denomination of robbers, who infested the road between that city and Agra, and used "a certain rope, with a running noose, which they can cast with so much sleight about a man's neck, when they are within reach of him, that they never fail, so that they strangle him in a trice." These vagrant plunderers were divided into seven clans or families, called Bahleem, Bhyns, Bhursote, Kachunee, Huttar, Ganoo, and Tundil, the parent stock of all the subsequent ramifications. According to tradition, they were expelled from Delhi by one of the emperors of the house of Gouree, on account of the murder of a favourite slave. Their victim had long been aware of their practices, and had connived at them, for the sake of the handsome gratuities presented as the price of his silence. But, abusing his power, and making exorbitant demands, he quickly experienced the fate of those in whose plunder he had so freely participated.[Pg 7] The murderers were therefore driven from the neighbourhood, after being branded on their posteriors with the current copper coin of the empire. Five of the clans removed to Agra, whence their descendants were afterwards called Agureea. A large body of them appear to have travelled to Arcot, and there founded the proudest and most punctilious branch of the fraternity. These Arcottee Thugs used to wear checkered loongees, and short jackets, like the Company's Sepoys; they also carried a knapsack on their back, a light cane in their hand, and generally a small bag of beetel nut and paun. Their leaders, or jemadars, frequently assumed the garb and bearing of wealthy merchants, and had four or five attendants to cook for them, hand the hookah, clean their pony, and do other menial offices, while the rest of the gang followed in small parties, not to excite suspicion, but closed up rapidly when the signal was passed along. The true Hindostanee Thugs, however, professed to look down upon those of Arcot, and refused to intermarry with them. The latter retorted, that the others could have no pretensions to high birth, for at their marriages the matrons, as they threw down the toolsee, were wont to exclaim, "Here's to the spirits of those (Qulunders), who once led[Pg 8] bears and monkeys; to those who drove bullocks, and marked with the godnee (kunjurs, or gipsies); and to those who made baskets for the head." But this was explained by the necessity of assuming disguises, in the first place, to escape from Delhi, and afterwards for carrying on their terrible vocation. There was certainly one very low Hindoo class, the Sooseeas, but calling themselves Naeks and Thories, with whom the others associated with reluctance. These chiefly confined themselves to Malwa and Rajpootana, travelling as merchants, with their leader indulging in a hackery or palanquin. Sometimes they disguised themselves as Sepoys, or as treasure-bearers. The most exclusive clan were the Chingurees, or Mooltanee Thugs, who practised female infanticide to a frightful extent. They preserved alive only a sufficient number to provide wives for the members of their own clan. They were allowed to be an ancient tribe, and were much respected by the inferior associations with whom they had nothing in common, except the dialect peculiar to all Thugs. They usually travelled with their families as Brinjarees, with bullocks and cows laden with goods, and strangled their victims with a bullock's rope. A colony of about one hundred families was settled at Hingolee.[Pg 9] A very clever and staunch tribe, known as the Jumaldehee Thugs, settled in Oude, who prudently kept their wives in ignorance of the true nature of their pursuits, nor did they initiate their sons till they had reached the age of puberty. When they sallied forth on their expeditions, they left a certain number of their men at home, to take care of the women and children, and to these they allotted a full share of their spoils. The Brinjaree Thugs were especially fortunate in escaping detection, or even suspicion, by reason of their nomade habits, which rendered it extremely difficult to trace any particular crime to them. They were consequently enabled to amass considerable riches, though they seldom renounced their wandering life. A Thug approver told the late Major-General Sleeman, that on one occasion he and his party fell in with a company of merchants from the westward, who were encamped near Jyepore, and wore exceedingly high turbans. "What enormous turbans these men wear!" he remarked to a comrade, using their slang term, aghasee. The chief man among the strangers thereupon stepped forward, and requested the travellers to sit down with them, adding, at the same time, "My good friends, we are of your[Pg 10] fraternity, though our aghasees are not the same." It turned out that these supposed merchants were a gang of Brinjaree Thugs, who, having become wealthy, had given up strangulation, but were not the less glad to welcome those who still laboured at the pious crime. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 60503
Author: Hutton, James
Release Date: Oct 15, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English