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Kipling mentions the Thugs, in a curious mixture of religious, racial and occupational types in the poem "The Masque of Plenty". He spells the word as thag and in the glossary of my oldest edition of Departmental Ditties (Thacker, London, 9th Ed. 1897) this is explained as "a highway robber, garotter". The latter is the killing method I have always understood to have been used and not simple suffocation. The OED also gives thag as the Hindi derivation, with strangling as the sect's method of murder Brian Payne Norwich, UK. >From: Jane Keskar <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Jane Keskar <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Kipling on a sect which uses poison. >Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 19:59:53 +0100 > >A correspondent asks if Kipling wrote about the Thugs, or another sect >which uses poison. Can any one help? All that comes to mind is John Masters >The Deceivers. >Many thanks, >Jane Keskar > _________________________________________________________________ On the move? Get Hotmail on your mobile phone http://www.msn.co.uk/mobile