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Although the stranglers are termed Phansigars, from phansee, a noose of cord, yet in practice they scarcely ever use a cord, which if it were found upon them would at once betray and convict them; they employ instead, to effect their murderous purpose, the roomal, a strip of cloth which appears innocent and harmless enough it might be a turban or a waist cloth but which in their expert and practised hands is equally effectual.
The hem of her sacred garment was yellow-and-white, and the roomal that they strangle with is yellow-and-white. They are thugs, Sahib, and we are decoits." "A fine distinction, sir," and Barlow laughed. "Proceed," Hodson commanded. "We were told by the Dewan to go to the camp of the Pindaris and bring back the head of Amir Khan." "Lovely!"
"'At last these two requirements were satisfied. We were now three to one, just the proper proportion a strangler to use the roomal, a holder of legs, and a holder of arms, three thugs for each man to be sacrificed, so that there could be no mistake, no outcry for help, no possibility of escape for our victims.
And little did the destined victims of Bowani dream that behind each of them now was an accomplished strangler, with the roomal ready to his hands, while on either side squatted a holder of legs and a holder of arms. "'Then there happened a thing that will explain, O kadi, why I have come to you this day to tell my story.
Did you make Tupounee after you used your roomal on Aaron Norman?" Hokar gave a guttural cry and gasped. Tupounee is the sacrifice made by the Thugs after a successful crime, and roomal the handkerchief with which they strangled their victims. All this was information culled from Colonel Meadow Taylor's book by the accomplished detective.
There was an hour of social talk; many times Hunsa fingered the roomal that was about his waist; the yellow-and-white strangling cloth with which Bhowanee had commanded her disciples, the thugs, to kill their victims. In one corner of it was tied a silver rupee for luck.
To a worshiper of the goddess there is a joy in a cleverly contrived plan and in casting the roomal round the neck of the victim, that can never die. Often in my young days, when perhaps twelve of us were on the road in a party, we made less than we could have done by labor, but none minded.
And as to the matter of a thug or a decoit, half our men have been taught the art of the strangler. With these," and extending his massive arms he closed his coarse hands in a gnarled grip, "with these I would, with one sharp in-turn on the roomal, crack the neck of the merchant and he would be dead in the taking of a breath. And, Ajeet, if this that is the manner of men causes you fear "
Hunsa, with the death-grip still on the roomal, planted a knee between the victim's shoulder-blades, and jerked the head upward still the spine did not snap; and slowly tightening the pressure of the cloth he smothered the man beneath his knee till he felt the muscles go slack and the body lie limp dead!
But Bootea's clear voice hushed the rising clamour: "No, Commander, the sahibs know not the thug trick of the roomal, and few thugs could have overcome the Chief." "Who then killed him speak quick, and with the truth," Kassim commanded. He was interrupted by one of Hunsa's guards, crying: "Here, where go you you had not leave!"
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