ASSASSINATED BY THUGS.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 19, 11 December 1906, Page 2

ASSASSINATED BY THUGS.

The crimes of India are marked by a cruelty, treachery, and ferocity unknown in Europe or even to the .Red Indians of America—undiscovered even by, the torturers, of the Utyddle Ages. Only in Thugee can we find a counterpart of the insidiousness and treachery exhibited by the Sepoys. A Mogul officer, travelling from the Punj&ub to Oude by way, of Meerut and Bareilly, accompanied by his personal servant and groom, was accosted by six men, who saluted him respectfully, and wished to enter into conversation with him.- The officer, suspecting Thuggee, laid his hand on his sword, and warned the fellows off. The next day he met the same number of men, dressed as Mussulmans. They spoke of the dangers of the road, and claimed the officer’s protection. But the wily old man, brandishing his sabre, bade them be off. The fellows disappeared like those of the previous day. Towards evening of the same day, the wayfarer’s two servants met a third group of travellers, six in number, and entered into conversation with them. But the Mogul officer ordered the travellers to fall to his rear, and desired his servants to hold no intercourse with the strangers. On the third day the officer, continuing his journey, arrived at a desert plain. His servants were some way behind, when, all at once he found himself in the presence of six poor Mussulmans, who were weeping over the body of ode of their comrades, who had, they said, died on the roadside. The men described themselves as , soldiers of Lahore, returning, after a long absence, to Lucknbw, to visit their wives and children. Their fel- j low-soldier, they alleged, with seeming '» sorrow, had sunk under the fatigues of the journey, and they ' were about to deposit him in the ncwily-made grave, freshly dug with their hands. But, alas ! poor and unlettered as they were, there was ' not among them one capable of read- ! ing the prayers of the Koran. Would ' r the officer eternally oblige them by j so doing, and perform an act \ for which he would be rewarded in this world and the world to come? j He, distrustful hitherto, could not ; resist the appeal made to his religi- j ous feelings, and dismounted from : his noble steed. The body, mean- | while, had been already placed in the ! grave after the manner prescribed in ! the Koran, with the head turned to- ! wards Mecca. A carpet was im- j mediately spread before the Mogul 1 officer. He disemburdened himself of j aid his arms—of his sword, and of his pistols, which were placed aside. | Having washed his face and hands to purify himself, the officer commenced on bended knees the prayers, which were for a moment, sobbingly followed by two of the friends of the supposed deceased. Meanwhile, the four others, on a signal, attacked the officer, cutting him down at a stroke. The two servants were soon overpowered, tied to their master’s dead body, and I were buried alive in the grave, which j had been leisurely prepared for the ■ purpose. j

It is needless to say that the six travellers of the three days were identical. They all belonged to a band of Thugs, of the kingdom of Oude, and. finding it impossible to gain the confidence of the wary traveller by, honeyed speeches, they appealed to his religious feelings, having prepared the corpse for the nonce. Their crime, however, was soon discovered, and the just penalty of the Tribunal meted out to them.