The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Third: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Ceylon and India; With Descriptions of Borneo, the Philippine Islands and BurmahKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Third: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Ceylon and India; With Descriptions of Borneo, the Philippine Islands and Burmah
Knox, Thomas Wallace
East Indies -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
"One day, in the year 1829, a native came to Colonel Sleeman, an officer
of the English Government, and confessed that he was the leader of a
gang of Thugs in the neighborhood, and showed where many of the victims
had been buried. An investigation proved the correctness of his
statement, and the members of the gang were arrested; one discovery
followed another, till it was known that the organization extended
through all the provinces of India, and that the different gangs had
their _jemadars_ or leaders, _garus_ or teachers, _sothas_ or
entrappers, _bhuttotes_ or stranglers, and _lughaees_ or grave-diggers.
They worshipped the goddess _Kali_, and always consulted her before
starting on an expedition, and if the omens were wrong they abandoned
their plans.
"They went in the disguise of merchants or pilgrims; robbery was the
object of the murders they committed, and the proceeds were divided as
follows: one third to the goddess, one third to the widows and orphans
of the sect, and the remaining third to the assassins themselves. The
teachers or spies learned the route of an intended victim, and informed
the entrappers, who lured him away from the road or to a secluded place,
where at a moment when he suspected no danger the stranglers killed him
by suddenly throwing a handkerchief around his neck and twisting it
tightly. Then the grave-diggers performed their share of the business,
and after it was over the party went to the temple, divided the spoil in
the manner I have mentioned, and partook of a sacrament by way of
purification.
"They did not kill Europeans, for fear of detection, and they also
exempted women and old men from their operations. After the existence of
the order was discovered arrests were made all over India, and some
thousands of the murderers were taken. Many were executed for their
crimes; the least guilty of them were colonized near Jubbulpoor, with
the women and children of the organization, where they were kept
separate from others, and still remain under Government supervision and
employment."
There was not a great deal to be seen at Allahabad besides the festival
at the junction of the rivers, as the fort contains nothing remarkable,
and there are no public buildings of consequence. The train for Bombay
left in the evening, and Doctor Bronson and the boys went by it for a
direct ride of 845 miles, which they accomplished in forty hours.
The Doctor had originally intended to stop on the way to visit the Caves
of Ellora; but circumstances made it inconvenient to do so, and the plan
was abandoned. He told the boys that the caves ranked next to the
Pyramids of Egypt as works of human labor, and were far superior to them
in artistic character.
"You have seen," said he, "toys made in Switzerland and other countries
where the side of a block of wood is cut into, and the wood slowly
chipped away so as to leave figures of men, trees, or other things
standing inside of a hollow space?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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