When the tutor is about to give him the noose, he
takes him apart, and solemnly enjoins it upon him to use it with skill,
as it is to be the means of his earning his food, and as his safety will
depend upon the skill with which it is used. After he receives it, he
tries his skill in strangling a person the first opportunity that
offers.
By the course of education which the Phansiagars undergo, they become so
fond of their dreadful occupation, that nothing can induce them to quit
it. Some who have been employed in the East India Company's service,
have always returned to their business when an opportunity offered of a
successful enterprise.
When the Phansiagars become old, they do not quit the service, but act
as watchers, and decoy the traveller, by some false tale of distress,
into some distant place, where he is murdered.
Women are sometimes admitted to the society of these plunderers, and,
on some occasions, are allowed to apply the noose. They select a
handsome girl, and place her in a convenient spot, where, by her beauty,
or by a false story of distress, she may decoy some unsuspecting
traveller, and be the means of his destruction.
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