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Thuggee
(or Thagi) was a cult of ritual murder and robbery whose practitioners, both Hindu and Muslim, worshipped Kali, goddess of strife and destruction (in Confessions, the Thugs use various names for Kali, most often 'Bhowanee'). Thugs travelled in bands and preyed upon other travellers, often inveigling their way into the confidence of their victims with offers of mutual support and safety on the road. Their usual method of murder was strangulation; hence, they were sometimes also called 'phansigars' or stranglers. Their chief weapons were the yellow or white scarves that they called 'roomals', supposedly pieces of the hem of Kali's dress. One of their idols or fetishes was the sacred pickaxe or 'nishan', which they identified with Kali's tooth. Their victims, considered sacrifices to the goddess, were often disposed of in carefully chosen and concealed mass graves or 'bhils'. Each member of a Thug band had a specific role to play: as 'sotha', inveigler or con-man; as 'bhuttote', strangler; as 'lugha', grave-digger; and so forth. Thugs spoke a secret argot or language among themselves ('Ramasee'); they also paid close attention to omens, and practised various rituals in following their
cult.

-- from the Introduction to Philip Meadows Taylor's 1839 report of an interview with a captured cultist, Confessions of a Thug.
 

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