The five years assigned as the duration of feminicide was simply a euphuism; it prevailed through a very much longer period. In 1816 a party of eighteen men and seven women were strangled near Shikarpore, but the Thugs spared two boys, one of whom, however, cried so bitterly and made so much moaning, that a ruffian seized him by the legs, swung him round, and dashed out his brains against a stone. The dead body was carelessly left lying on the ground, till a fisherman, passing that way, happened to see it, and went and reported the circumstance to the Thakoor Burjore Sing, of Powae. Guided by this clue, the Thakoor discovered the bodies of all the victims, and, collecting as many men as possible, gave chase to the murderers. Following their fresh traces he came up with them while washing themselves in a stream near the village of Tigura. Forming into a compact body, the Thugs retired upon the village, being repeatedly charged by the Thakoor's party, who ran one of them through the chest with a spear and sabred another. The villagers, however, expecting a share of the booty, turned out to the rescue of the Thugs and repulsed their assailants. Next morning they escorted them to the neighbouring village of Simareea, where they received the like sympathy and protection. This was no extraordinary occurrence, for the natives generally regarded the Thugs as a fraternity especially favoured by heaven. They would as soon have thought of destroying a snake or a wolf, or of opposing in any other way the decrees of Providence. The police, to save themselves trouble, and partly also from a secret dread of these mysterious and ruthless beings, used to declare that the dead bodies occasionally found in ravines, wells, and dry watercourses had been killed by tigers, and would burn them in all haste lest the marks of strangulation should be detected by their superiors. In the Deccan the task of suppression was rendered doubly difficult by the sullen opposition of the native chiefs, who sometimes even ventured to maltreat the police officers of the British Government. The Zemindars, or landowners, were always ready to give any amount of security for Thugs, against whom there was no sufficient evidence to justify their punishment. "They knew us very well," said an approver, "but they had then confidence in us; they thought we should keep our own secrets, and, if we did so, no one else would be able to convict us, and get them into trouble. Yes, there was then something like religion and good faith among us, and we found friends everywhere. Where could we find them now?" The Zemindars eagerly afforded them protection, because of the enormous rent they were wont to pay for their lands and villages. Valuable presents, also, were frequently made to them, at the same time that the Thugs engaged not to compromise their patrons by committing murder too near home. The Khyrooa chief once stood a siege from his lord, the Rajah