fire being now kindled with dried cow-dung and mango, or byr-wood, all these articles were thrown into it, excepting the cocoa-nut. So soon as the flames blazed high and bright, the priest, holding the axe in both hands, passed it through them seven times. Then, stripping off the rough outer coat of the cocoa-nut, he placed the fruit on the ground, and taking up the axe by the point, asked of the assembled Thugs, "Shall I strike?" All having replied in the affirmative, he struck the nut with the butt-end of the axe, and usually shivered it into fragments. The whole of the shell and some of the kernel being thrown into the fire, the axe was wrapt in a clean white cloth and laid on the ground, pointing to the west, the Thugs facing the same quarter of the heavens and worshipping. This act of adoration done, they all partook of the cocoa-nut, and collecting the fragments, threw them into the pit. Should the Thibaoo now be heard, all was duly performed, and the axe was a holy thing--no longer a _kodalee_, but a _kussee_. But if the Pilhaoo first smote upon their ears, or the priest failed to crack the nut at a blow, the ceremonies must be repeated--all had been done in vain. On the march, the sacred _kussee_ was always intrusted to a Thug of approved sobriety and steadiness, who carried it in his waist-belt. While encamped it was buried in a secure place, with the point turned towards the direction intended to be pursued. If a better road could be taken, the axe would be found pointing that way. No human foot was allowed to tread the ground beneath which it reposed; nor should the touch of any unclean man or thing ever pollute its purity. If a well happened to be near, it was thrown into it, instead of being buried; and when the gang was ready to set out, being duly summoned, it came of its own accord to its bearer. Nay, more, if a dozen _kussees_ were thrown into the same well, each would fly unerringly to its proper guardian. When this startling assertion was made, Captain Sleeman suggested it was a clever piece of jugglery; whereupon an approver indignantly exclaimed: "What! shall not a hundred generations of Thugs be able to distinguish the tricks of man from the miracles of God? Is there not the difference of heaven and earth between them! Is not one a mere trick, and the other a miracle, witnessed by hundreds assembled at the same time?" Another approver capped his rhetorical friend, by declaring that he had seen with his own eyes this miracle performed in favour of the Arcottee Thugs, as the reward of their superior piety and strict observance of omens.