nsible coolie, working
by Government orders in Government quarries, breaks a stone from the
white bosom of the goddess. The unhappy stone-breaker hears the cry and
trembles, and his heart is torn between the expectations of a dreadful
punishment from the bloodthirsty goddess and the fear of his implacably
exacting inspector in case he disobeys his orders.

Kali is the owner of the Marble Rocks, but she is the patroness of the
ex-Thugs as well. Many a lonely traveler has shuddered on hearing this
name; many a bloodless sacrifice has been offered on the marble altar
of Kali. The country is full of horrible tales about the achievements
of the Thugs, accomplished in the honor of this goddess. These tales
are too recent and too fresh in the popular memory to become as yet
mere highly-colored legends. They are mostly true, and many of them are
proved by official documents of the law courts and inquest commissions.

If England ever leaves India, the perfect suppression of Thugism will be
one of the good memories that will linger in the country long after
her departure. Under this name was practised in India during two long
centuries the craftiest and the worst kind of homicide. Only after 1840
was it discovered that its aim was simply robbery and brigandage.
The falsely interpreted symbolical meaning of Kali was nothing but a
pretext, otherwise there would not have been so many Mussulmans amongst
her devotees. When they were caught at last, and had to answer before
justice, most of these knights of the rumal--the handkerchief with which
the operation of strangling was performed--proved to be Mussulmans. The
most illustrious of their leaders were not Hindus, but followers of the
Prophet, the celebrated Ahmed, for instance. Out of thirty-seven Thugs
caught by the police there were twenty-two Mahometans. This proves
perfectly clearly that their religion, having nothing in common with the
Hindu gods, had nothing to do with their cruel profession; the reason
and cause was robbery.

It is true though that the final initiation rite was performed in some
deserted forest before an idol of Bhavani, or Kali, wearing a necklace
of human skulls. Before this final initiation the candidates had to
undergo a course of schooling, the most difficult part of which was
a certain trick of throwing the rumal on the neck of the unsuspecting
victim and strangling him, so that death might be instantaneous. In
the initiation the part of the goddess w