Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/231

 and benevolent system for the suppression of Thuggee, now in force, every high-road was infested by prowling gangs of merciless murderers: every traveller, whose appearance gave evidence of his being possessed of the value of a few rupees, was waylaid by one or more of the confederacy: his confidence was gained by well-disguised protestations of friendship, and ostensible acts of kindness;or his fears were imposed upon, so as to make him claim protection from those bent upon his destruction; secret retreats, for the perpetration of their deeds, were fixed like stages along a line of march; to one or other of these places of execution, the unsuspecting victims were conducted, and, on a pre-concerted signal being given by the leader of the band, each traveller was instantly seized by two, three, or more of the crew, and strangled.

The persons of the victims were plundered immediately after death; their bodies invariably stabbed in some vital place, the breast or the eyes, so as to destroy all chance of re-animation, and thrown into graves dug upon the spot where they were murdered—into wells,or deep pools, or into thickets, where they were devoured by tigers. In some parts of the country, where the soil is so shallow as not to admit of a grave deep enough, the bodies were cut to pieces and buried piecemeal; for, if buried entire, the decomposition that