story, that, by his own confessions, which were in every particular confirmed by those of his brother informers, and are upon official record, he had been directly concerned in the murder of seven hundred and nineteen persons. He once said to me, "Ah! Sir, if I had not been in prison twelve years, the number would have been a thousand!"
How the system of Thuggee[1] could have become so prevalent,—remain unknown to, and unsuspected by, the people of India, among whom the professors of it were living in constant association,—must, to the majority of the English public, who are not conversant with the peculiar construction of Oriental society, be a subject of extreme wonder. It will be difficult to make this understood within my present limits, and yet it is so necessary that I cannot pass it by.
In a vast continent like India, which from the earliest periods has been portioned out into territories, the possessions of many princes and
- ↑ The word Thug means a deceiver, from the Hindee verb Thugna, to deceive;—it is pronounced Tug, slightly aspirated.
