to alarm him,—remorse never deprives him of an hour's sleep. He considers himself a superior being to a thief or a robber, and would not condescend to speak to such wretches; he values himself according to his dexterity in putting an end to his fellow-creatures; and dwells upon any act of unusual atrocity, with unbounded delight. When the laws of his country demand his life, as an expiation for his crimes, he mounts the scaffold with the air of a martyr, and, scornful of being contaminated by the touch of a common hangman, adjusts the fatal cord with his own hands, and launches himself into eternity.
I have dwelt so much upon Thuggee,because cases connected with it are not unfrequently submitted to the Civil Surgeon,in a medico-legal point of view. Lest the stranger should feel alarmed at the accounts of Thuggee, I may state for his consolation, that Europeans are not included amongst the prizes for plunder. They have,from fears of detection, and, perhaps, from fears of their means of self-defence, been hitherto unmolested
