58 PUNISHMENT OF MURDERERS. 



made to kneel clown by her savage oppressor, 

 her head being cut off with almost the for- 

 mality of a judicial execution, the bystanders 

 evidently considering it as such, and never 

 attempting to interfere. Strange and almost 

 incredible are some of the instances on record 

 of these mm^ders. The man, as above stated, 

 generally escaped ; but if at any future period 

 he fell into the hands of the tribe whose honour 

 had been insulted, they made no hesitation in 

 murdering him, unless he was able to pm-chase 

 his life with money, or by presenting a daugh- 

 ter or other female relative in exchange for the 

 unfortunate woman who had been murdered on 

 his account. But, if the tribe were bent on 

 blood, no lajise of time was sufficient to prevent 

 their gratifying their revenge ; and a case is 

 on record of a man having been murdered on 

 account of a sujoposed intrigue with the mother 

 of one of the murderers about twenty years 

 previously. 



The practice of wife-murder was carried out 

 as savagely by the Hindoos as by the Mahome- 

 dans; the Hindoo population of Shikarj^oor 

 being alone, I believe, an exception to this 

 rule. The women of that city are proverbially 



