A Popular Account of Thugs and Dacoits, the Hereditary Garotters and Gang-Robbers of IndiaHutton, James
History
A Popular Account of Thugs and Dacoits, the Hereditary Garotters and Gang-Robbers of India
Hutton, James
Dacoits; Thugs (Indic criminal group)
Like all barbarous tribes, and all persons addicted to criminal
practices, the Mangs were extremely superstitious. They never, for
instance, set out upon an expedition on a Friday. The new-born child
was bathed in a spot previously prepared for the purpose, and baptized
by the Brahman, in the name of the deity presiding over that particular
hour. In the family, however, and throughout life, the neophyte sinner
was known by some household name. Danger was encountered at an early
period of life. The mother and another woman stood on opposite sides of
the cradle, and the former tossed her child to the other, commending
it to the mercy of Jee Gopal, and waited to receive it back in like
manner, in the name of Jee Govind.
The Mangs usually married young in life. If a girl happened to hang
heavy on hand, she was married, at the age of puberty, to the deity.
In other words, she was attached as a prostitute to the temple of
the god Khundoba, or the goddess Yellania. Those belonging to the
service of the latter were wont, in the month of February, to parade
the streets in a state of utter nudity. It was customary, previous to
a secular marriage, for the parents of the bridegroom to ask for the
hand of the bride. A test of the aspirant's address was then demanded.
In one instance, the father of the maiden filled a silver vessel with
water up to the brim after carefully suspending it over his head in
bed, so that the slightest touch would be certain to splash the water
on to his face. The suitor, however, was not daunted by the difficulty
of the enterprise. Procuring some dry porous earth, he employed it as a
sponge, carefully applying it to the surface of the water. Having thus
reduced the level of the surface, he cut the strings, carried off the
vessel, and next morning claimed his bride. The marriage ceremonies
were by no means interesting, except when a bachelor wooed a widow.
In this case he was first united to the _asclepias gigantea_, which
was immediately transplanted. Withering away and dying, it left him at
liberty to marry the charming widow. If a lady survived the sorrow
caused by the death of two or three husbands, she could not again enter
the holy state unless she consented to be married with a fowl under her
armpit--the unfortunate bird being afterwards killed to appease the
manes of her former consorts.
Each family had its household god, but all agreed in the common worship
of Davee, as the tutelar deity of the tribe. Their chief festival was
the Dusserah, on which day they usually set out on their expeditions,
armed with sword and shield, and iron crowbar. Unhappily, the Mangs
must be spoken of in the past tense. The servants of the East India
Company, actuated, no doubt, by mercenary motives, have put an end
to their depredations and compelled them to resort to honest and
common-place industry. Thus are sentimentality and romance crushed at
the India House.
The Oothaeegeerahs
or
Professional Thieves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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