The Thugs or Phansigars of India:

Scarce American printed publication expanding on the previous works by Sir William Henry Sleeman (1788-1856) on the 'Thugs'. The second volume is made up almost entirely of the Appendix, which reproduces Sleeman's vocabulary of 'Thuggee' as well as over a hundred pages of fresh criminal trials involving Thugs.

This was released the same year as Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor, a sensationalist crime novel based on some of Sleeman's depositions which gripped Victorian society and perpetuated many of the stereotypes of the 'Thugs' including the use of the word in English vernacular.

Sleeman was one of the main opponents of 'Thuggee', becoming head of the commission for suppressing thuggee and dacoity 1839-41, and heading the Suppression Acts of 1839 and 1843. In his period of leadership the Thuggee and Dacoity Department hanged or imprisoned over 1400 'Thuggees' and by 1848 the large tribes had been thoroughly broken up.

First edition; 2 vols, small 8vo (19 x 12 cm); ownership stamp to pastedowns, slight worming to first few leaves of vol. 1 repaired; publisher's original embossed cloth, printed labels to spines a little worn, a little sunning, stain to lower board of vol. 2 and inner hinges reinforced, still a very good copy; 227; 228 pp.