This goddess is the patroness of thieves.  To her they pay their devotions, to obtain help to carry on their wicked delights.  Gangs meet together, and, after having offered bloody sacrifices, and worshipped their weapons, and having drunk some intoxicating liquor, and rubbed their bodies with oil, they go forth to rob.  They have a prayer, which they offer when they worship their weapons.  It is as follows:  “O, instrument formed by the goddess, Karle commands thee to cut a passage into the house, to cut through stones, bones, bricks, wood, the earth, and mountains, and cause the dust thereof to be carried away by the wind.”  Scattered throughout India, there is a lawless set of men whose profession it is to get their food by murder.  They are called Phansiagars, or Thugs.  They owe their origin and laws to Karle.  They say that she told them to become murderers and plunderers.  They are called Phansiagars, from the name of the instrument which they use when they murder people.  Phansiagar means a strangler, and they use a phansi, or noose, which they throw over the necks of those whom they intend to plunder, and strangle them.  These Phansiagars are composed of all castes, Hindoos, Mahommedans, pariahs, and chandellars.  This arises from the circumstance that they never destroy the children of those whom they rob and murder.  These children they take care of, and bring up to their own horrible mode of life.  They always murder those whom they rob, acting upon the maxim that “dead men tell no tales.”  A gang of these robbers varies from a dozen to sixty or seventy persons.  These divide into small parties.  Those whom they murder are travellers, whom they happen to meet on the road.  Sometimes two or three of a gang will take up their station in a choultry, or place where the traveller stops, and while he sleeps, they rouse him from his sleep, and cast the noose over his head and kill him.  It takes two persons to kill a man.  One casts the noose over his head, and immediately tightens it with all his strength; the other strikes him on the joint of his knees as he rises, which causes him to fall forwards.  After he has fallen, they kick him on the temples till he dies, which is usually in a minute.  They never commit a murder until they have taken every precaution not to be found out.  They will follow a traveller for weeks, if necessary, before they destroy him.  After they have murdered him, they gash the body all over and bury it.  They gash it, that it may not swell, and cause cracks to take place in the ground, which might cause the jackals to dig down to the body, and thus expose their guilt.  If a dog accompanies the person, they always kill it, lest the faithful creature should lead to the discovery of his master.  They think it to be a very good act to give a part of the plunder, which they get when they murder a person, to their goddess.  If they fail to put him to death according to their rules, they suppose that they have made her angry, and they make offerings to her, that she may be appeased.  Thus, you see that their religion teaches them to commit the blackest of crimes.