Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/232

 ensued would cause them to enlarge, so as to force up the soil, and lead to detection.

One should have thought, that the first object of the Thugs would be to fly from the place of blood; but, no: they often encamp over the very graves, cook their food, eat and sleep upon the spot, and thus efface all trace of their crimes. There are as many grades of distinction in a band of Thugs, as in a troop of disciplined soldiers. None but the most expert,whose hands are stiff with the blood of a hundred victims, or whose address in the art of decoying has shone forth pre-eminent, dare aspire to the honour of commanding a gang; in point of rank to the chief, come the stranglers, or decoyers; while those who have never had the prowess to put a human being to death, are condemned to perform all menial offices; to cook, act as scouts, dig the graves, and complete the burial. The Thug considers his trade quite as legitimate, in his own estimation, as that of any other calling; he practices it with as little compunction as a butcher or a gamekeeper; offers sacrifices to the goddess of destruction, Kali, to grant him success;and dedicates a fixed portion of his plunder to her altar, in gratitude for her protection. He venerates his profession, as the means of providing for the comfort and happiness of himself and family;pity or compassion has no hold upon his mental faculties,—horror no power