THUGS AND DACOITS.
A
POPULAR ACCOUNT
OF THE
THUGS AND DACOITS,
THE
HEREDITARY GAROTTERS
AND
GANG-ROBBERS
OF
INDIA.
BY
JAMES HUTTON.
LONDON:
WM. H. ALLEN AND CO., 7, LEADENHALL STREET.
——
1857.
LONDON:
W. LEWIS AND SON, PRINTERS, 21, FINCH LANE, CORNHILL.
Thugs and Thuggee.
They who reverence ancient descent, and a long line of ancestors, arebound to regard the Thugs with peculiar veneration. Perhaps, neitherin Asia nor in Europe are there any other families that can date theirorigin from such remote antiquity. They are said to be sprung from theSagartii, who contributed 8,000 horse to the army of Xerxes, and arethus 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 thePersian and the Pactyan; they have no offensive weapons, either of ironor brass, except their daggers; their principal dependence in action ison cords, made of twisted leather, which they use in this manner: whenthey engage an enemy, they throw out these cords, having a noose at theextremity: if they entangle in these either[Pg 6] horse or man, they withoutdifficulty put them to death."
There is some reason to believe, that in later times the descendantsof these Sagartii accompanied one of the Mahommedan invaders of India,and settled in the neighbourhood of Delhi. In the latter part of theseventeenth century, Thevenot makes mention of a strange denominationof 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 muchsleight about a man's neck, when they are within reach of him, thatthey never fail, so that they strangle him in a trice." These vagrantplunderers were divided into seven clans or families, called Bahleem,Bhyns, Bhursote, Kachunee, Huttar, Ganoo, and Tundil, the parent stockof all the subsequent ramifications. According to tradition, they wereexpelled from Delhi by one of the emperors of the house of Gouree, onaccount of the murder of a favourite slave. Their victim had long beenaware of their practices, and had connived at them, for the sake of thehandsome gratuities presented as the price of his silence. But, abusinghis power, and making exorbitant demands, he quickly experienced thefate of those in whose plunder he had so freely participated.[Pg 7] Themurderers were therefore driven from the neighbourhood, after beingbranded on their posteriors with the current copper coin of theempire. Five of the clans removed to Agra, whence their descendantswere afterwards called Agureea. A large body of them appear to havetravelled to Arcot, and there founded the proudest and most punctiliousbranch of the fraternity. These Arcottee Thugs used to wear checkeredloongees, and short jackets, like the Company's Sepoys; they alsocarried a knapsack on their back, a light cane in their hand, andgenerally a small bag of beetel nut and paun. Th