abundant and excellent, and the strawberries, which
ripen in March, rival the European fruit in size, though
hardly in flavour.
During the few days spent at Mirzapore, in the
house of my friend C. Hamilton, Esq., I was surprised
to find the temperature of the day cooler by nearly 4°
than that of the hills above, or of the upper part of
the Soane valley; while on the other hand the nights
were decidedly warmer. The atmosphere was extremely
dry and electrical, the hair constantly crackling when
combed. Further west, where the climate becomes
still drier, the electricity of the air is even greater;
Mr. Griffith mentions in his journal that in filling
barometer tubes hr Affghanistan, he constantly experienced
a shock.
Here I had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant
Ward, one of the suppressors of Thuggee (Thuggee, in
Hindostán, signifies a deceiver; fraud, not open force,
being employed). This gentleman kindly showed me
the approvers or king’s evidence of his establishment,
belonging to those three classes of human scourges,
the Thug, Dakoit, and Poisoner. Of these the first
was the Thug, a mild-looking man, who had been bom
and bred to the profession: he had committed many
murders, saw no harm in them, and felt neither shame
nor remorse. His organs of observation and destructiveness
were large, and the cerebellum small. He
explained to me how the gang waylay the unwary
traveller, enter into conversation with him, and have
him suddenly seized, when the superior throws his own
girdle round the victim’s neck and strangles him, pressing
the knuckles against the spine. Taking off his own
girdle, he passed it round my arm, and showed me the
turn as coolly as a sailor once taught me the hangmans
knot. The Thug is of any caste, and from any part of
India. The profession have particular stations, which
they generally select for murder, throwing the body of
their victim into a well.
The Dakoit (dakhee, a robber) belongs to a class who
rob in gangs, but never commit murder—arson and
housebreaking also forming part of their profession.
These are all high-class Rajpoots, originally from
Guzerat; who, on being conquered, vowed vengeance
on mankind. They speak both Hindostanee and the
otherwise extinct Guzerat language; this is guttural in
the extreme, and very singular in sound. They are a
very remarkable and cowardly people, found throughout
India, and called by various names; their women dress
peculiarly, and are utterly devoid of modesty. The
man I examined was a short, square, but far from
powerful Nepalese, with high arched eyebrows, and no
organs of observation.
The Poisoners all belong to one caste, of Pasie, or
dealers in toddy: they go singly or in gangs, haunting
the travellers’ resting-places, where they drop half a
rupee weight of pounded or whole Datura seeds into
his food, producing a twenty-hours’ intoxication, during
which he is robbed, and left to recover or sink under
the stupifying effects of the narcotic. The one whom I
saw told me that the Datura seed is gathered without
ceremony, and at any time, place, or age of the plant.
He was a dirty, ill-conditioned looking fellow, with no