tised assassin, entertains his gooroo at a feast as magnificent as his circumstances will afford. If he have the means of defray ing the expense, not only the immediate members of the gooroo's family, but all his relatives, are invited, and the grateful murderer equips his tutor, from head to foot, with a complete array of new vestments. The same compliment is paid to the gooroo's lady, and sometimes to all his relatives. Soon after this feast, the gooroo invites his pupil to an entertainment. The connection between them is henceforward indissoluble; and the most intimate and sacred relations of nature are considered as nothing, in comparison with it. A Thug will rather betray his father than the gooroo by whom he has been introduced to the honors of his profession.

A Thug riding in a Palanquin to a Feast prepared by his Gooroo.

The dignity and sanctity with which murder is invested by the creed of the Thugs afford lamentable proof of the inseparable connection subsisting between the corruption of religion and the corruption of morals. To obliterate all religious feeling from the heart of man is a difficult, if not an impossible task; to substitute superstitious belief for reasonable faith is, unhappily, a very easy one; and sound morals invariably disappear with sound religion. Indeed, between false religion and false morals there is a mutual action and reaction. The wayward desires of man lead him to indulge in that which true religion forbids: he therefore seeks shelter in a false one. Again; superstition sanctions, and even commands, practices against which pure morality revolts: hence the moral judgment is depraved, the restraints of conscience abolished, and that feeling which should conduct men to all that is good, and pure, and excellent, becomes the pilot to every vice, and the prompter of the most horrible crimes.

The effect of the consecrated sugar, or goor, is believed to be irresistible. Captain Sleeman, having reproached some of the fraternity on account of a murder marked by many ferocious and unmanly features, one of the party replied, "We all feel pity sometimes; but the goor of the taponee changes our nature: it would change the nature of a horse. Let any man once taste of that goor, and he will be a Thug, though he know all the trades, and have all the wealth, in the world. I never wanted food. My mother's family was opulent; her relations high in office. I have been high in office myself, and became so great a favorite, wherever I went, that I was sure of promotion; yet I was always miserable when absent from my gang, and obliged to return to Thuggee. My father made me taste of that fatal goor when I was yet a mere boy; and if I were to live a thousand years, I should never be able to follow any other trade."

The superstitions of the Thugs are all of Hindoo origin; yet Mahometans adopt them with a belief equally implicit, and a devotion equally ardent. They pay divine honors to Kalee, the

impersonation of destruction, which, in the eyes of all sound Mahometans, must be idolatry - a crime severely denounced in the Koran, and held by all good Mussulmans in abhorrence.

Their mode of escaping the difficulties in which they are involved, by the inconsistency of their creed with their practice, is illustrated by a conversation held by Captain Sleeman with some Mahometan Thugs.

Capt. S.
Sahib.

Has Bhowanee been any where named in the Koran?
Nowhere.

"Here," (says Captain Sleeman,) "a Mussulman Thug interposed, and said he thought Bhowanee, and Fatima, the daughter of Mahomet, were one and the same person; and that it was Fatima who invented the use of the roomal, to strangle the great demon Rukut-beejdana. This led to a discussion between him and some of my Mussulman native officers, who did not like to find the amiable Fatima made a goddess of Thuggee."

Capt. S. Then has Bhowanee any thing to do with your Paradise?

Sahib. Nothing.

Capt. S. She has no influence upon your future state?

Sahib. None.

Capt. S. Does Mahomet, your prophet, any where sanction crimes like yours; the murder in cold blood of your fellow-creatures, for the sake of their money?

Sahib. No.

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Capt. S. Does he not say that such crimes will be punished by God in the next world?

Sahib. Yes.

Capt. S. Then do you never feel any dread of punishment hereafter?

Sahib. Never. We never murder unless the omens are favorable; and we consider favorable omens as the mandates of the deity.

Capt. S. What deity?

Sahib. Bhowanee.

Capt. S. But Bhowanee, you say, has no influence upon the welfare, or otherwise, of your soul hereafter.

Sahib. None, we believe; but she influences our fates in this world; and what she orders, in this world, we believe that God will not punish in the next.

The conjoint adoration of the deities of different and discord

ant creeds is neither new nor uncommon in the East. In the Old Testament many instances are recorded, in which nations, as well as individuals, paid a divided homage to the true God and to a multiplicity of idols; and, in various parts of India, the Mahometans, from having long been surrounded by a Hindoo population, have been led to adopt many of their opinions and practices.

In another interview, one of the Thug witnesses was askedCapt. Sleeman. And do you never feel sympathy for the persons murdered, -never pity or compunction?

Sahib. Never.

Capt. S. How can you murder old men and young children without some emotions of pity, calmly and deliberately, as they sit with you, and converse with you, and tell you of their private affairs?

Sahib. From the time that the omens have been favorable

we consider them as victims thrown into our hands by he deity, to be killed, and that we are the mere instrument in her hands to destroy them; that if we do not kill them, she will never be again propitious to us, and we and our families will be involved in misery and want.

Capt. S. And you can sleep as soundly, by the bodies or over the graves of those you have murdered, and eat your meals with as much appetite, as ever?

Sahib. Just the same. We sleep and eat just the same, unless we are afraid of being discovered.

Capt. S. And when you see or hear a bad omen, you think it is the order of the deity not to kill the travellers you have with you, or are in pursuit of?

Sahib. Yes it is the order not to kill them, and we dare not disobey.

Some Thugs let very poor travellers escape, in hope of finding better game: others regard forbearance, in such a case, as an act of abominable impiety. A further extract will show the respective views of these conflicting sects, and the reasoning by which they are supported.

Capt. S. When you have a poor traveller with you, or a party of travellers who appear to have, little property about them, and you hear or see a very good omen, do you not let them go, in the hope that the return of the omen will guide you to better prey?

Dorgha, (Mussulman.) Let them go? Never, never!

Nasir, (Mussulman of Telingana.) How could we let them go? Is not the good omen the order from Heaven to kill them? and would it not be disobedience to let them go? If we did not kill them, should we ever get any more travellers?

Feringeea, (Brahman.) I have known the experiment tried with good effect. I have known travellers, who promised little, let go; and the virtue of the omen brought better.

Inaent, (Mussulman.) Yes; the virtue of the omen remains; and the traveller who has little should be let go; for you are sure to get a better.

Sahib Khan, (of Telingana.) Never, never! This is one of your Hindoostanee heresies. You could never let him go, without losing all the fruits of your expedition. You might get property, but it would never do you any good. No success could result from your disobedience.

Morlee, (Rajpoot.) Certainly not. The travellers who are in