Ramaseeana, Or, A Vocabulary of the Peculiar Language Used by the Thugs |
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Ramaseeana: Or a Vocabulary of the Peculiar Language Used by the Thugs W. H. Sleeman Limited preview - 2011 |
Ramaseeana, Or, a Vocabulary of the Peculiar Language Used by the Thugs William Henry Sleeman No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
adopted alias apprehended approver arrested bad omen Bahadoor Benares Bhopaul boat bodies booty Bowlee Brahmin brother Buksh buried called Captain Sleeman Cast Cawn Cawnpore cloths cose coss Court Dead Deposition Died at home district Ditto Duckun Thugs Emam expedition Fauseegars Feringeea five four sons-1st gang Gwalior heard Hindoos horse hung at Jubulpore hung at Saugor Hydrabad Inaent Indore Jemadar Jubulpore Jubulpore Jail Khan killed Kurreem Laljoo leader Lodhee Madar Magistrate Mahomed Malwa Masulipatam Mohur Mosulman murder Nagpore Nalah never night Nurbudda omen party persons Phansigars plunder prisoners proceeded pulwar Purdil Khan Rajah Rajpoot Remarks by Captain Resident returned river road robbers roomal rupees Sahib Khan Saib Saugor Jail seized sent Sheikh Signed Sindouse Sing sons Sowars strangled stranglers Subahdar Surroop taken Term peculiar three sons-1st Thuggee Tobacco told took transported from Saugor travellers village W. H. SLEEMAN Zillah
Popular passages
Page 199 - Feringeea. All ! Every one of the operations is to be seen there. In one place, you see men strangling ; in another, burying the bodies ; in another, carrying them off to the graves. There is not an operation in Thuggee that is not exhibited in the caves of Ellora.
Page 153 - If any man swears to a falsehood upon a pick-axe properly consecrated, we will consent to be hung if he survives the time appointed/ Appoint one, two or three days when he swears, and we pledge ourselves that he does not live a moment beyond the time. He will die a horrid death ; his head will turn round, his face towards the back, and he will writhe in tortures till he dies.
Page 330 - ... down, apparently writhing with pain, in order to excite the pity of the intruding travellers and to detain them from the scene of murder. Such are the perseverance and caution of the Phansigars, that a convenient opportunity not offering, they will sometimes travel in company with, or pursue, persons whom they have devoted to destruction several days before they execute their intention. If circumstances favour them, they generally commit murder in a jungle or in an unfrequented part of the country,...
Page 10 - ... to come near one upon the road. The cunningest robbers in the world are in that country. They use a certain slip with a running noose, which they can cast with so much sleight about a man's neck, when they are within reach of him, that they never fail, so that they strangle him in a trice.
Page 207 - Bundoogur, which leads through very extensive tracts of jungle and uninhabited country. We went with them through all this country, however, without finding what we considered a fitting time and place, and reached Rewah, winning more and more upon their confidence every day. From Rewah we went to Simareea, and from that place to a small village half way to Chitterkote, called by us the Burwala Gow, from a large Indian fig-tree (Bur) that stood near it.
Page 329 - When they determine, after obtaining such information as they deem requisite, to attack a traveller, they usually propose to him, under the specious plea of mutual safety, or for the sake of society, to travel together ; or else they follow him at a little distance, and, on arriving at a convenient place, and a fit opportunity presenting for...
Page 147 - We could not get him on, and after burying the bodies, Aman and I, and a few others, sat by him while the gang went on : we were very fond of him, and tried all we could to tranquillize him, but he never recovered his senses, and before evening he died.
Page 144 - 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. Q. And you believe that if you were to murder without the observance of the omens and regulations, you would be punished both in this world and the next like other men? Sahib. Certainly; no man's family ever survives a murder: it becomes extinct. A Thug who...
Page 208 - We persuaded the party to set out soon after midnight, and as they went along we managed to take our appointed places, two Thugs by every traveller, and the rest in parties of reserve at different intervals along the line, every two managing to keep the person they were appointed to kill in conversation. On reaching the place chosen, the signal was given at several different places, beginning with the rear party, and passing on to that in front; and all were seized and strangled except the boy. It...
Page 347 - I believe that some of the Phansigars have been concerned in above two hundred murders: nor will this estimate appear extravagant, if it be remembered that murder was their profession — frequently their only means of gaining a subsistence. Every man of fifty years of age has probably been actively engaged, during twentyfive years of his life, in murder ; and, on the most moderate computation, it may be reckoned that he has made one excursion a year, and met, each time, with ten victims.