People of all castes and callings take to this trade, some casually, others for life, and others derive it from their parents or teachers.  They assume all manner of disguises to suit their purposes; and the habits of cooking, eating, and sleeping on the side of the road, and smoking with strangers of seemingly the same caste, greatly facilitate their designs upon travellers.  The small parties are unconnected with each other, and two parties never unite in the same cruise.  The members of one party may be sometimes convicted and punished, but their conviction is accidental, for the system which has enabled us to put down the Thug associations cannot be applied, with any fair prospect of success, to the suppression of these pests to society.[16]

The Thugs went on their adventures in large gangs, and two or more were commonly united in the course of an expedition in the perpetration of many murders.  Every man shared in the booty according to the rank he held in the gang, or the part he took in the murders; and the rank of every man and the part he took generally, or in any particular murder, were generally well known to all.  From among these gangs, when arrested, we found the evidence we required for their conviction—­or the means of tracing it—­among the families and friends of their victims, or with persons to whom the property taken had been disposed of, and in the graves to which the victims had been consigned.

To give an idea of the system by which the Government of India has been enabled to effect so great a good for the people as the suppression of these associations, I will suppose that two sporting gentlemen, A at Delhi, and B in Calcutta, had both described the killing of a tiger in an island in the Ganges, near Hardwar[17] and mentioned the names of the persons engaged with them.  Among the persons thus named were C, who had since returned to America, D, who had retired to New South Wales, E to England, and F to Scotland.  There were four other persons named who were still in India, but they are deeply interested in A and B’s story not being believed.  A says that B got the skin of the tiger, and B states that he gave it to C, who cut out two of the claws.  Application is made to C, D, E, and F, and without the possibility of any collusion, or even communication between them, their statements correspond precisely with those of A and B, as to the time, place, circumstances, and persons engaged.  Their statements are sworn to before magistrates in presence of witnesses, and duly attested.  C states that he got the skin from B, and gave it to the Nawab of Rampur[18] for a hookah carpet, but that he took from the left forefoot two of the claws, and gave them to the minister of the King of Oudh for a charm for his sick child.