placed her skin of oil on it to
rest herself and on that day her oil never decreased, and when she
had finished selling in the market she had all her oil as well as
the money. Her husband suspected her of evil practices, but, when
next day her mother-in-law laid a skinful of oil on the image and
the same thing happened, it was seen that the god had made himself
manifest to her, and a temple was built and named after her and the
image enshrined in it. Similarly the image of Mahadeo at Pithampur in
Bilaspur was seen buried by a Teli in a dream, and he dug it up and
made a shrine to it and was cured of dysentery. So an annual fair is
held and many people go there to be healed of their diseases.

Thug

[This article is based almost entirely on Colonel (Sir William)
Sleeman's _Ramaseeana or Vocabulary of the Thugs_ (1835). A small
work, Hutton's _Thugs and Dacoits_, has been quoted for convenience,
but it is compiled entirely from Colonel Sleeman's Reports. Another
book by Colonel Sleeman, _Reports on the Depredations of the Thug
Gangs_, is mainly a series of accounts of the journeys of different
gangs and contains only a very brief general notice.]

List of Paragraphs

1. _Historical notice_.
2. _Thuggee depicted in the caves of Ellora_.
3. _Origin of the Thugs_.
4. _Methods of assassination_.
5. _Account of certain murders_.
6. _Special incidents (continued)_.
7. _Disguises of the Thugs_.
8. _Secrecy of their operations_.
9. _Support of landholders and villagers_.
10. _Murder of sepoys_.
11. _Callous nature of the Thugs_.
12. _Belief in divine support_.
13. _Theory of Thuggee as a religious sect_.
14. _Worship of Kali_.
15. _The sacred pickaxe_.
16. _The sacred gur (sugar)_.
17. _Worship of ancestors_.
18. _Fasting_.
19. _Initiation of a novice_.
20. _Prohibition of murder of women_.
21. _Other classes of persons not killed_.
22. _Belief in omens_.
23. _Omens and taboos_.
24. _Nature of the belief in omens_.
25. _Suppression of Thuggee_.

1. Historical notice

_Thug, Phansigar._--The famous community of murderers who were
accustomed to infest the high-roads and strangle travellers for
their property. The Thugs are, of course, now extinct, having been
finally suppressed by measures taken under the direction of Colonel
Sleeman between 1825 and 1850. The only existing traces of them