"He had a piteous story to tell. He said that his name was John Potts,
that be belonged to Southampton, and had been in India a year. He had
come to Agra to look out for employ as a servant, and had been caught by
the Thugs. They offered to spare his life if he would join them.
According to him they always make this offer. If it had only been
himself that was concerned he said that he would have died a hundred
times rather than have accepted; but his little boy was with him, and to
save his life he consented, hoping that somehow or other he might
escape. They then received him with some horrible ceremonies, and marked
on his arm and on the arm of his son, on the inner part of the right
elbow, the name of Bowhani in Hindu characters. Potts showed me his arm
and that of his son in proof of this.

"He had been with them, according to his own account, about three
months, and his life had been one continuous horror. He had picked up
enough of their language to conjecture to some extent the nature of
their belief, which, he asserted, would be most important information
for the Government. The Thugs had treated him very kindly, for they
looked upon him as one of themselves, and they are all very humane and
affectionate to one another. His worst fear had been that they would
compel him to do murder; and he would have died, he declared, rather
than consent; but, fortunately, he was spared. The reason of this, he
said, was because they always do their murder by strangling, since the
shedding of blood is not acceptable to their divinity. He could not do
this, for it requires great dexterity. Almost all their strangling is
done by a thin, strong cord, curiously twisted, about six feet in
length, with a weight at one end, generally carved so as to represent
the face of Bowhani. This they throw with a peculiar jerk around the
neck of their victim. The weight swings the cord round and round, while