Several generations passed before Thuggee became practised as a profession—­probably for the same reason that a sportsman allows game to accumulate—­but in due time it was abundantly exercised.  Thus, according to the creed of the Thug, did their order arise, and thus originated their mode of operation.

The profession of a Thug, like almost everything in India, became hereditary, the fraternity, however, receiving occasional reinforcements from strangers, but these were admitted with great caution, and seldom after they had attained mature age.  The Thugs were usually men seemingly occupied in most respectable and often in most responsible positions.  Annually these outwardly respectable citizens and tradesmen would take the road, and sacrifice a multitude of victims for the sake of their religion and pecuniary gain.  The Thug bands would assemble at fixed places of rendezvous, and before commencing their expeditions much strange ceremony had to be gone through.  A sacred pickaxe was the emblem of their faith:  its fashioning was wrought with quaint rites and its custody was a matter of great moment.  Its point was supposed to indicate the line of route propitious to the disciples of the goddess, and it was credited with other powers equally marvellous.  The brute creation afforded a vast fund of instruction upon every proceeding.  The ass, jackal, wolf, deer, hare, dog, cat, owl, kite, crow, partridge, jay, and lizard, all served to furnish good or bad omens to a Thug on the war-path.  For the first week of the expedition fasting and general discomfort were insisted on, unless the first murder took place within that period.  Women were never murdered unless their slaughter was unavoidable (i.e. when they were thought to suspect the cause of the disappearance of their men-folk).  Children of the murdered were often adopted by the Thugs, and the boys were initiated in due course in the horrid rites of Thuggee.  Men skilled in the practice of digging and concealing graves were always attached to each Thug gang.  These were able to prepare graves in anticipation of a murder, and to effectually conceal all trace of the crime after they were occupied.  To assist the grave-diggers in this duty all roads used by Thugs had selected places upon them at which murders were always carried out if possible.  The Thugs would speak of such places with the same affection and enthusiasm as other men would of the most delightful scenes of their early life.  It was these people, versed in deceit and surrounded by a thousand obstacles to conviction, that General Sir W. H. Sleeman so nobly set out to exterminate.  Within seven years of his first commencing the suppression of Thuggee it had practically ceased to exist as a religion; and he had the privilege of seeing it entirely suppressed as such before giving up this work for the Residentship at Lucknow.

He was described when taking over the latter appointment as follows:  ’He had served in India nearly forty years.  His work had been of the best.  He had done more than any one to suppress ‘Thuggee’ finally, and had a knowledge of the Indian character and language possessed by very few.  He was personally popular with all classes of Indians, and respected, feared, and trusted by all.’