“Went through Aurungabad to Walagow; there met a Havildar of the barber caste and 5 sepoys (native soldiers); in the evening came to Jokur, and in the morning killed them near the place where the treasure-bearers were killed the year before.
“Between Jokur
and Dholeea met a sepoy of the shepherd caste; killed
him in the jungle.
“Passed through
Dholeea and lodged in a village; two miles beyond,
on the road to Indore,
met a Byragee (beggar-holy mendicant);
murdered him at the
Thapa.
“In the morning,
beyond the Thapa, fell in with 3 Marwarie
travelers; murdered
them.
“Near a village
on the banks of the Taptee met 4 travelers and
killed them.
“Between Choupra and Dhoreea met a Marwarie; murdered him.
“At Dhoreea met 3 Marwaries; took them two miles and murdered them.
“Two miles further
on, overtaken by three treasure-bearers; took
them two miles and murdered
them in the jungle.
“Came on to Khurgore
Bateesa in Indore, divided spoil, and
dispersed.
“A total of 27 men murdered on one expedition.”
Chotee (to save his neck) was informer, and furnished these facts. Several things are noticeable about his resume. 1. Business brevity; 2, absence of emotion; 3, smallness of the parties encountered by the 60; 4, variety in character and quality of the game captured; 5, Hindoo and Mohammedan chiefs in business together for Bhowanee; 6, the sacred caste of the Brahmins not respected by either; 7, nor yet the character of that mendicant, that Byragee.
A beggar is a holy creature, and some of the gangs spared him on that account, no matter how slack business might be; but other gangs slaughtered not only him, but even that sacredest of sacred creatures, the fakeer—that repulsive skin-and-bone thing that goes around naked and mats his bushy hair with dust and dirt, and so beflours his lean body with ashes that he looks like a specter. Sometimes a fakeer trusted a shade too far in the protection of his sacredness. In the middle of a tally-sheet of Feringhea’s, who had been out with forty Thugs, I find a case of the kind. After the killing of thirty-nine men and one woman, the fakeer appears on the scene:
“Approaching Doregow, met 3 pundits; also a fakeer, mounted on a pony; he was plastered over with sugar to collect flies, and was covered with them. Drove off the fakeer, and killed the other three.
“Leaving Doregow, the fakeer joined again, and went on in company to Raojana; met 6 Khutries on their way from Bombay to Nagpore. Drove off the fakeer with stones, and killed the 6 men in camp, and buried them in the grove.
“Next day the fakeer joined again; made him leave at Mana. Beyond there, fell in with two Kahars and a sepoy, and came on towards