very tomb in the province of Oudh, where the majority of the
worshippers of the goddess Kali were to be found. The written
descriptions that accompanied the map were particularly interesting,
for--like Swift, when he enumerated the benefits that would accrue to
the starving Irish people if they killed their children like sheep and
ate them instead of mutton--Captain Paton felt himself compelled to
record the glorious deeds of some of the most valiant of the Thugs. He
gave details which would have rejoiced the imagination of a de Quincey
or an Edgar Allan Poe. About 5200 murders had been committed by a
company of forty people, all highly thought of and commanding general
respect. At their head was the venerable Buhram, who laid claim to 931
assassinations during his forty years of religious activity in the
province of Oudh. The second in merit, one Ramson, had strangled 608
people. The third, it is true, could only claim about 500, but he had
reached this figure in thirty years, and had made a record of 25
murders in one year. Others had to their credit 377, 340 and 264
assassinations respectively, after which one dropped from these heights
to figures of twenty, ten or even only five annual murders in honour of
Kali. This record undoubtedly represented the supreme flower of the
religion of this goddess, who not only taught her followers the art of
strangulation, but also succeeded in hiding their deeds from the
suspicious eyes of unbelievers.

Murders followed thick and fast, one upon another, but though thousands
of Hindus, rich and poor, young and old, were known to disappear, their
terrified families scarcely dared to complain. English statisticians
go so far as to say that from thirty to fifty thousand human lives were
sacrificed every year on the altar of this fatal goddess, who, desiring
to thwart the growth of the too prolific life-principle in the
universe, incited her worshippers to the suppression and destruction of
human beings. But while using her power to shelter her followers from
suspicion and discovery, Kali expected them, for their part, to take
care that none witnessed the performance of her duties. One day
misfortune fell upon them. A novice of the cult had the daring to spy
upon the goddess while she was occupied in destroying the traces of her
rite, and Kali's divine modesty being wounded, she declared that in
future she would no longer watch over the earthly safety of her
followers, but