Kalee not only protected the Thugs, but sent them numerous omens as encouragement or warning. An omen was, in fact, a positive command to slay the travellers in their power, or to allow them to go unharmed. If they did not attend to these omens, they became guilty of disobedience, and had no longer any claim upon the goddess for protection. On Captain Sleeman inquiring if any evil would befall them if they used the _roomal_ without reference to the divine signals, Sahib at once answered in the affirmative, adding, "No man's family ever survives a murder: it becomes extinct. A Thug who murders in this way loses the children he has, and is never blessed with more. He cannot escape punishment." "But how," said Captain Sleeman, "how can you murder old men and young children without some emotions of pity--calmly and deliberately as they sit with you and converse with you, and tell you of their private affairs--of their hopes and fears--and of the wives and children they are going to meet after years of absence, toil, and suffering?" The answer was such as might almost have been made by an ancient Hebrew, had any one asked him if he felt no pity for the wretched Canaanites he so ruthlessly murdered. "From the time that the omens have been favourable, we consider them as victims thrown into our hands by the Deity to be killed; and that we are the mere instrument in her hands to destroy them: that if we do not kill them, she will never be again propitious to us, and we and our families will be involved in misery and want." In precisely such a spirit did Samuel hew in pieces before the Lord, Agag, king of the Amalekites. The Thugs were by no means insensible to domestic feelings, or even to the charms of social and friendly intercourse. At home their conduct was irreproachable. Their villages were usually models of cleanliness and neatness; their lands were industriously cultivated, their wives and children treated with all kindness and affection. When Laek, an approver, heard of his brother's arrest, he repeated with much feeling an Hindustani verse, which has been thus rendered into English:--"I was a pearl, once residing in comfort in the ocean. I surrendered myself, believing I should repose in peace on the bosom of some fair damsel--but, alas! they have pierced me and passed a string through my body, and have left me to dangle in constant pain as an ornament to her nose." Their wives frequently were quite unconscious that their husbands were murderers, though they may perchance have suspected them of being thieves and robbers. The sons also were kept in ignorance of the entire truth until they had completed their fourteenth or fifteenth year. In fact, they were gradually trained to the business. At first they were taken out as if for a pleasant excursion, and had generally a pony to ride. Presents, too, were given them after each murder, though they were not made acquainted with the source whence those gifts were derived. However, before they returned home they had usually a shrewd suspicion that their treasured prize had not been honestly come by. Next year they were plainly told that their parents and relations were highway robbers; but by this time they had become too fond of the careless roving life and of their share of the easily-acquired plunder, to listen to the still small voice of conscience. And thus in the third year they were not horrified to learn that they were accomplices in murder. By such gentle transitions the best regulated mind may eventually be attuned to the most atrocious guilt. A comical reason was given to Captain Sleeman to account for the omission on the part of a Thug father to initiate his son. "His father," said the witness, "used to drink very hard, and in his fits of intoxication he used to neglect his prayers and his days of fast. All days were the same with him. This lad, Shumshera, was always sober and religiously disposed, and separated from his father, living always with his uncle Dondee, who was a very worthy, good man." He, too, was a Thug, but likewise refrained from removing the veil from the eyes of the lad. Another relative, however, proved less considerate, and flattered the young man's vanity by telling him that he belonged to a very high family of the Jumaldehee Thugs. A sad tale concerning another youngster was related by Feringeea, a noted leader, who turned king's evidence. One Aman Soobahdar went out upon an expedition, accompanied by his cousin Kurhora, aged scarcely fourteen, whom he gave in charge to Hursooka, his adopted son. After a time the gang fell in with a party of five Sikhs, whereupon Aman desired Hursooka to keep the boy well in the rear, so that he might not witness the contemplated murder.