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PERSIAN TOMBS.

IN Mr. Moriers's interesting Second Journey through Persia, the annexed are figured as specimens of the tombs of persons of distinction or note aruong the Persians. Their tombs generally are much like those of the Armenians, but with inscriptions in Persian and Arabic. Those of the poorer sort of people are built with bricks, with a small piece of marble at the head for the epitaph: the poorest have only a piece of broken stone at the end of the graves.

Stone lions and rams, rudely sculptured, are very frequently seen in Persian burialgrounds, and are placed over the tombs of soldiers, or those famed for their courage.

The rich, over their tombs, have small cupolas, which rest upon four pilasters. The largest and most considerable are built over the remains of holy and learned men. In a burial-ground in the district of Takht Roulad. is the tomb of a famous dervish, which is much resorted to by the people of Ispahan on holidays, and particularly on the eve of Jumah, (Friday,) as a place of worship.

Around this and similar monuments are, in general, to be seen collections of minor tombs; for it is a received opinion, that' those who are buried in the vicinity of an holy personage will

meet with his support at the day of resurrection. The Persians do not, however, take the same care of their dead as the Turks.

Retrospective Gleanings.

ERASMUS IN ENGLAND.

[IT is well known, that Erasmus, in the reign of Henry VIII., spent a considerable time in England, of which and of its inhabitants we find frequent mention scattered through his writings. Of these notices we select a translated specimen.

First is his description of England, written to the physician of Cardinal Wolsey.]

In the

I often grieve and wonder how it happens, that Britain has now for so many years been afflicted with a continual plague, and chiefly with the sweating sickness, which is a malady that seems almost peculiar to the country. We have read of a state being delivered from a long continued pestilence by changing the style of building, upon the advice of a philosopher. If I am not deceived, England may be freed in a similar manner. first place the English have no regard to what quarter of the heavens their windows or doors are turned; in the next, their sitting rooms are generally so constructed, as to be incapable of being ventilated, which is a thing that Galen particularly recommends. Furthermore, a great part of the wall is made transparent by glass plates (or squares) which adınit the light, but exclude the wind; and yet through the small crevices they admit the air to be strained, which becomes somewhat more pestilent by staying there a long time. The streets too are generally covered with clay and rushes, which are so seldom renewed, that the covering sometimes remains twenty years, concealing beneath, a mass of all descriptions of filth, not fit to mention. Hence, upon a change in the atmosphere, a certain vapour is exhaled, in my opinion not at all wholesome for the human body. Added to this, England is not only surrounded by the sea on every side, but is also, in many places, marshy, and intersected by salt streams, to say nothing at present of the salt food, of which the common people are amazingly fond.

"It is my firm opinion, that the island would become much more wholesome, if the spreading of rushes on the ground were not used, and if the chambers were so built as to be exposed to the heavens on two or three sides, the windows of glass being so made as to open altogether, and close in the same way, and to shut so as not to admit noxious winds through the crevices. Since, as it is sometimes wholesome to admit the air, so it is sometimes as much so to keep it out. The common people laugh if a person complain of the cloudy sky. If, even twenty years ago, I had entered into a chamber which had been uninhabited for some months I was immediately seized with a fever. would contribute to this object, (to render

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the island more healthy) if more sparing diet could be more generally recommended, and a more moderate use of salt provisions; and if certain public officers were commissioned to keep the roads more free from nuisances. Those parts too should be looked to more particularly, which are in the neighbourhood of a town. You will laugh at my having time to trouble myself about these matters. I love the country which has for so long a time given me an hospitable abode, and in it, should circumstances allow, I would willingly spend what remains of life.

I have no doubt from your character for wisdom, that you know these matters better than myself; I resolved, however, to mention them to you, that you may, if my opinion coincides with yours, recommend these hints to the notice of the great. For in former days, kings were wont to interest themselves in such things, &c. &c.-Epist. 432

A curious notice of an obsolete custom.] to in England have made some small improvement. That Erasmus, whom you know, is now almost a good hunter, not the worst horseman, no unskilful courtier; he salutes with a little more grace, and smiles more agreeably, and all this he does without any natural talent for it-how are my affairs; you will ask, they go on pretty well.-You too, if you are wise, will fly hither.-Why should you who are a man of such nice taste choose to grow old in the midst of Gallic filth ?-But your gout prevents you: I wish it was at the devil provided you did not go with it.

Although, Faustus, if you well knew the advantages of Britain, truly you would hasten hither with wings to your feet, and if your gout would not permit, you would wish you possessed the art of Dædalus. For, just to touch on one thing out of many, here there are lasses with heavenly faces, kind, obliging; and you would far prefer them to all your muses. There is, besides, a practice never to be sufficiently commended. If you go to any place, you are received with a kiss by all; if you depart on a journey, you are dismissed with a kiss; you return, kisses are exchanged; they come to visit you, a kiss the first thing; they leave you, you kiss them all round: do they meet you any where? kisses in abundance: lastly, wherever move, there is nothing but kisses. And if you, Faustus, had but once tasted them, how soft they are, how fragrant, on my honour you would wish not to reside here for ten years only, but to take up your abode in England for life. We will enjoy the rest of our month together, for I shall see you, I hope, soon.- -Ep. 65, dated 1499.

you

[He gives but a very unpromising account of his Cambridge residence, where he was appointed Greek reader, and had apartments in Queen's College.

As for myself, I have been living in my study these many months, wrapt up in my books like an oyster in his shell. This is a dull place even at fullest, and at present it is almost entirely deserted, the fear of the plague having driven the inhabitants away. My expenses are enormous, and my emoluments next to nothing. As to accumulating it is absolutely out of the question. I have not been here five months, and my charges already amount to sixty nobles; while the only profit I have ever reaped from my lectures, is the offer of a single noble from certain of my audience, which, after many refusals, and with much unwillingness, I consented to accept. My case is becoming desperate. I must positively make a vigorous effort, this winter, to better my condition in some way or other. Should I succeed, I shall provide myself somewhere a comfortable place of retreat; at any rate, I am determined to leave Cambridge; for this is not a place which can even die in with comfort.

Cambridge, Nov. 28, 1511.-Ep. 131.

The Public Journals.

ON THE THUGS.*

(Received from an Officer in the service of his Highness the Nizam.)

THE Thugs form a perfectly distinct class of persons, who subsist almost entirely upon the produce of the murders they are in the habit of committing. They appear to have derived their denomination from the practice usually adopted by them of decoying the persons they fix upon to destroy, to join their party; and then, taking advantage of the confidence they endeavour to inspire, to strangle their unsuspecting victims. They are also known by the name of Phanseegurs; and in the north-eastern part of the Nizam's dominions, are usually called "Kockbunds." There are several peculiarities in the habits of the Thugs, in their mode of causing death, and in the precautions they adopt for the prevention of discovery, that distinguish them from every other class of delinquents; and it may be considered a general rule whereby to judge of them, that they affect to disclaim the practice of petty theft, housebreaking, and indeed every species of stealing that has not been preceded by the perpetration of murder.

The

The Thugs adopt no other method of killing but strangulation; and the implement made use of for this purpose is a handkerchief, or any other convenient strip of cloth. manner in which the deed is done will be described hereafter. They never attempt to rob a traveller until they h ve, in the first instance, deprived him of life: after the *Pronounced Túg, but 'th a slight aspirate.

commission of a murder, they invariably bury the body immediately, if time and opportunity serve, or otherwise conceal it; and never leave a corpse uninterred in the highway, unless they happen to be disturbed.* They usually move in large parties, often amounting to 100 or 200 persons, and resort to all sort of subterfuges for the purpose of concealing their real profession. If they are travelling southward, they represent themselves to be either proceeding in quest of service, or on their way to rejoin the regiments they belong to in this part of the country. When, on the contrary, their route lies towards the north, they represent them selves to be Sepoys from corps of the Bombay or Nizam's army, who are going on leave to Hindustan. The gangs do not always consist of persons who are Thugs by birth. It is customary for them to entice, by the promise of monthly pay or the hopes of amassing money that are held out, many persons, who are ignorant of the deeds of death that are to be perpetrated for the attainment of these objects, until made aware of the reality by seeing the victims of their cupidity fall under the hands of the stranglers; and the Thugs declare that novices have occasionally been so horrified at the sight, as to have effected their immediate escape. Others, more callous to the commission of crime, are not deterred from the pursuit of wealth by the frightful means adopted to obtain it, and remaining with the gang, too soon begin personally to assist in the perpetration of

murder.

Many of the most notorious Thugs are the adopted children of others of the same class. They make it a rule, when a murder is committed, never to spare the life of any one, either male or female, who is old enough to remember and relate the particulars of the deed. But in the event of their meeting with children of such a tender age as to make it impossible they should be enabled to relate the fact, they generally spare their * The Thugs were known in the time of the Emperor Akbar of Delhi, by whom many were executed. They were first known to the British Government in 1812, and then many were hung in Bundelkund. Again, in 1817, they attracted notice by their horrible acts, and twelve villages in Bundelkund, which were peopied almost entirely by them, were taken by a force sent against them. They were then dispersed but assembled in various parts in Sindhia's and the Nagpoor country, also in Holkar's dominions. From 1817 till 1831, they were not molested; and, in consequence, increased greatly in the latter year. Mea sures were taken to suppress them, which have been

attended with great success in this year. One hun dred and eleven have been executed at Jubbulpoor, and upwards of 400 transported for life to the eastern settlement of Pinang, and upwards of 600 are now in

jail at Sangor to take their trial at the next sessions at Jubbulpoor. Their apprehension, and their consequent disclosures, gave the means of those in this part of the country being pointed out. Mr. Reynolds the officer who has the work here, has apprehended more than 100 in less than six months, and is catching others almost daily.

lives, and, adopting them, bring them up to the trade of Thugs. These men of course eventually become acquainted with the fact of the murder of their fathers and mothers by the very persons with whom they have dwelt since their childhood, but are still not detered from following the same dreadful trade.

In every gang of Thugs there are to be found one or more jemadars, who appear to hold that rank not by the choice of their followers, but in consequence of their wealth and influence in their respective villages, and having assembled their immediate followers in the vicinity of their homes. The profits of a jemadar are of course greater than those of his followers; he receives six and a half or seven per cent. on all silver coin, and other property not hereafter specified, and then shares in the remainder in common with the other Thugs of the party. When gold is obtained in coin or in mass, the tenth part is taken by the jemadar previous to dividing it; and he has a tithe of all pearls, shawls, gold embroidered cloths, brass and copper pots, horses, &c. The jemadar acts as master of the ceremonies when the poojah is performed, and he assigns to every Thug the particular duty he is to undertake in the commission of every murder that is determined on. These duties are performed in succession by all the Thugs of the party, and to the regularity and system that exists among them is to be attributed the unparalleled success that has attended their proceedings. Next to the jemadar, the most important person is the bhuttoat, or strangler, who carries the handkerchief with which the Thugs usually murder their victims. This implement is merely a piece of fine, strong cotton cloth, about a yard long; at one end a knot is tied, and the cloth is slightly twisted, and kept ready for use in front of the waistcoat of the person carrying it. There is no doubt but that all Thugs are expert in the use of the handkerchief, which is called boomal, or paloo; but if they are to be believed, only particular persons are called upon, or permitted to perform this office. When a large gang is collected, the most able-bodied and alert of their number are fixed upon as bhuttoats, and they are made the bearers of the handkerchief only after the performance of various and often expensive ceremonies, and only on the observance of a favourable omen. The old and experienced Thugs are usually denominated gooroo bhow, and the junior Thugs make a merit of attending upon them, filling their hookahs, shampooing their bodies, and performing the most menial offices. They gradually become initiated into all the mysteries of the art, and if they prove to be powerful men, these disciples of the gooroo are made bhuttoats. The Thugs say, that if one of

their class was alone, and had never strangled a person, he would not presume to make use of the handkerchief until he observed a favourable omen.

When a murder is to be committed, the bhuttoat usually follows the particular person whom he has been nominated by the jemadar to strangle; and, on the preconcerted signal being given, the handkerchief is seized with the knot in the left hand, the right hand being about nine inches farther up, in which manner it is thrown over the head of the person to be strangled from behind; the two hands are crossed as the victim falls, and such is the certainty with which the deed is done, as the Thugs frequently declare, that before the body falls to the ground the eyes start out of the head, and life becomes extinct. Should the person to be strangled prove a powerful man, or the bhuttoat inexpert, another Thug lays hold of the end of the handkerchief, and the work is completed. The perfection of the act is said to be, when several persons are simultaneously murdered without any of them having time to utter a cry, or to be aware of the fate of their com

rades.

Favourable opportunities are given for bhuttoats to make their first essay in the art of strangling. When a single traveller is met with, a novice is instructed to make a trial of his skill; the party sets off during the night, and stops while it is still dark to drink water or to smoke. While seated for the purpose, the jemadar inquires what time of the night it may be, and the Thugs look up at the stars to ascertain. This being the preconcerted signal, the bhuttoat is immediately on the alert, and the unsuspecting traveller, on looking up at the heavens, in common with the rest of the party, offers his neck to the ready handkerchief, and becomes an easy prey to his murderer. The bhuttoat receives eight annas (half a rupee) extra for every murder that is committed, and if the plunder is great, some article of value is assigned to him over and above his share. The persons intended to be murdered are called by different names, according to their sect, profession, wealth, &c. &c.; a victim having much property is entitled " niamud;" and they are also often called bunj. To aid the bhuttoat in the preparation of a murder, another Thug is especially appointed under the denomination of samsecah. His business is to seize the person to be strangled by the wrists if he be on foot, and by one of his legs if he be on horseback, and so to pull him down. A samsecah is told off to each traveller, and he places himself in a convenient situation near him to be ready when required. In the event of the traveller being mounted on horseback, another Thug assists under the denomination of " bhugdurra;" his business is to lay hold of the horse's bridle, and

to check it as soon as the signal for murder is given.

One of the most necessary persons to a gang of Thugs is he who goes by the name of tilläee. The Thugs do not always depend upon chance for obtaining plunder, or roam about in the expectation of meeting travellers, but frequently take up their quarters in or near a large town, or some great thoroughfare, from whence they make expeditions, according to the information obtained by the tilläees. These men are chosen from among the most smooth-spoken and intelligent of their number, and their chief duty is to gain information. For this purpose they are decked out in the garb of respectable persons, whose appearance and manners they must have the art of assuming. They frequent the bazaars of the town near which their associates are encamped, and endeavour to pick up intelligence of the intended dispatch or expected arrival of goods or treasure, of which information is forthwith given to the gang, who send out a party to intercept them. Inquiry is also made for any party of travellers who may have arrived, and who put up in the suraee, or elsewhere. Every art is brought into practice to scrape an acquaintance with these people. They are given to understand that the tilläee is travelling the same road. An opportunity is taken to throw out hints regarding the unsafeness of the roads, and the frequency of murders and robberies; an acquaintance with some of the friends or relatives of the travellers is feigned, and an invitation from them to partake of the repast that has been prepared where the tilläee has put up,-the conveniences of which and the superiority of the water are abundantly praised. The result is, that the travellers are inveigled into joining the gang of Thugs, and they are feasted and treated with every politeness and consideration by the very wretches who are at the time plotting their murder, and calculating the share they shall acquire in the division of their property.

It is on the perfection which they have attained in the art of acting as tilläees that the Thugs pride themselves, and they frequently boast that it is only once necessary to have an opportunity of conversing with a traveller, to be able to mark him as an easy victim, whenever they choose to murder him.

Having enticed the travellers into the snare they have laid for them, the next object is to choose a convenient spot for their murder. This, in their technical language, is called a bhil, and is usually fixed upon some distance from a village on the hanks of a small stream, where the trees and underwood afford a shelter from the view of occasional passengers. The Thug who is sent on this duty is called a bhilla, and having fixed on the place, he either returns

to the encampment of his party, or meets
them on the way to report the result of his
inquiry. If the bhilla returns to the camp
with his report, the suggaees, or grave-
diggers, are sent out with him to prepare
a grave for the interment of the persons it is
intended to murder. Arrangements are pre-
viously made so that the party in company
with the travellers shall not arrive at the bhil
too soon.
At the particular spot agreed on,
the bhilla meets the party. The jemadar
calls out to him "Bhilla naujeh ?" (Have
you cleared out the hole?) The bhilla re-
plies "Naujeh,” on which the concerted
signal is given that serves as the death-
warrant of the unsuspecting travellers, who
are forthwith strangled. While some are
employed in rifling the bodies, others assist
in carrying them away to the ready-prepared
graves. The suggaees perform the office of
burying the dead, and the remainder of the
gang proceeds on its journey, having with
them a certain number of the tilläees or
watchmen on the look-out to prevent their
being disturbed. Should a casual passenger
appear, the tilläee gently throws a stone
among the suggaees, who immediately desist
and crouch on the ground until the danger
is averted.

conscience to prevent their enjoying the victuals prepared on a spot, the associations attendant on which might be considered too revolting for even a Thug to dwell on.

The peculiar designation by which they are known is a point in which the Thugs are particularly tenacious, and they attach an importance and even respectability to their profession, that they say no other class of delinquents is entitled to. The denomination of thief is one that is particularly obnoxious to them, and they never refrain from soliciting the erasure of the term, and the substitution of that of Thug, whenever it may occur in a paper regarding them, declaring that, so far from following so disgraceful a practice as theft, they scorn the name, and can prove themselves to be as honest and trustworthy as any one else, when occasion requires it.

It seems their ambition to be considered respectable persons; and with this view they expend much of their gains on their personal decoration. Even those who have been seized and admitted as approvers, or informers against their comrades, in fact, king's evidence, are more solicitous about their dress and decent appearance than anything else. They mostly seem to be men of mild and unobtrusive manners, possessing a cheerfulness of disposition entirely opposed to the violent passions and ferocious demeanour that are usually associated with the idea of a professed murderer.

It often happens that the arrangements and precautions above-mentioned cannot be entered into; that travellers are casually met with on the road, and hastily murdered, and as carelessly interred. In these cases, if the Such is the extent to which this dreadful opportunity is afforded them, the Thugs system has been carried that no idea can be always have some one to keep watch at the formed of the expenditure of human life to place; and, rather than run the risk of de- which it has given occasion, or the immentection, by the bodies being dug up by wild sity of the wealth that has been acquired by animals, they return, and re-inter them. If its adoption. When it is taken into consithe ground is strong, they never touch the deration that many of the Thugs already corpse; but if the soil is of that loose texture seized confess to their having, for the last as to render it probable that the bodies, in twenty-five and thirty years, annually made swelling, will burst the graves, they generally a tour with parties of more than a hundred transfix them with knives or spears, which men, and with no other object than that of effectually prevents that result. murder and rapine; that they boast of having successively put their tens and twenties to death daily; and that they say an enumeration of all the lives they have personally assisted to destroy would swell the catalogue to hundreds, and, as some declare, to thousands*-some conception of the horrid reality may be formed; of the amount of the property that they have yearly made away with, it must be impossible to form any calculation; for, independent of the thousands in ready money, jewels and bullion, the loads of valuable cloths, and every description of merchandise, that continually fall into their hands, the hoondies that they invariably destroy must amount to a considerable sum."

When the Thugs may choose to strangle their victims in some more exposed situation, -as in a garden near a village where they may have put up for the night,-they resort to further precautions to prevent discovery. The grave is on this occasion prepared on the spot, after the murder has been committed, and the corpse having been deposited therein, the superfluous soil is carried away in baskets, and strewn in the neighbouring fields; the place is watered and beaten down, and it is ultimately plastered over with wet cow-dung, and choolahs, or fireplaces for cooking, are made on the spot. If the party find it necessary to decamp, they light fires in the choolahs, that they may have the appearance of having been used to cook in. Should they determine on staying, they use the choolahs to cook their food in on the succeeding day, having few qualms of

Abridged from the New Monthly Mag.

this place, declares and glories in having been present

* Ameer Ali, an approver and noted Thug, now at

at the murder of 719 persons, whose property is esti mated at two lacs and a half of rupees ¦

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