ck for a few miles and slept the night,
making a fresh start in the morning, and this was considered equivalent
to beginning a new journey after getting rid of the contamination. If
any member of the party sneezed on setting out on an expedition or on
the day's march, it was a bad omen and required expiatory sacrifices;
and if they had travellers with them when this omen occurred, these
must be allowed to escape and could not be put to death. Omens were
also taken from the turban, without which no Thug, except perhaps in
Bengal, would travel. [710] If a turban caught fire a great evil was
portended, and the gang must, if near home, return and wait for seven
days. But if they had travelled for some distance an offering of _gur_
(sugar) was made, and the owner of the turban alone returned home. If a
man's turban fell off it was also considered a very bad omen, requiring
expiatory sacrifices. The turban is important as being the covering
of the head, which many primitive people consider to contain the life
or soul (_Golden Bough_). A shower of rain falling at any time except
during the monsoon period from June to September was also a bad omen
which must be averted by sacrifices. Prior to the commencement [711]
of an expedition a Brahman was employed to select a propitious day
and hour for the start and for the direction in which the gang should
proceed. After this the auspices were taken with great solemnity and,
if favourable omens were obtained, the party set out and made a few
steps in the direction indicated; after this they might turn to the
right or left as impediments or incentives presented themselves. If
they heard any one weeping for a death as they left the village,
it threatened great evil; and so, too, if they met the corpse of any
one belonging to their own village, but not that of a stranger. And
it was also a bad omen to meet an oil-vendor, a carpenter, a potter,
a dancing-master, a blind or lame man, a Fakir (beggar) with a brown
waistband or a Jogi (mendicant) with long matted hair. Most of these
were included in the class of persons who might not be killed.

24. Nature of the belief in omens

The custom of the Thugs, and in a less degree of ignorant and primitive
races generally, of being guided in their every action by the chance
indications afforded from the voices and movements of birds and animals
appears to the civilised mind extremely foolish. But its explanation
is not difficult when the ch