358 THE LAND OF THE LION 
to the orders and penalties of his white overlord, but how 
can he understand when the fines his white overlord has 
imposed on him are handed back to him at the bidding 
of some distant and quite unknown power? Moreover, 
almost surely in his own conscience he knew the fines 
to be just. Itisa strange muddle! 
An illustration of how badly this Indian code works 
arose quite lately; there was trouble among a certain 
tribe because witch doctors had poisoned, as they often 
do, some of their enemies. The natives thought matters 
had gone far enough, so they put two of the witch doctors 
through the ordeal. One was burned in his hut; the 
other pegged down under a cow skin in the sun. It was 
the rainy season. If the rain came, the moistened skin 
would not hurt the man, if the sun shone he would be 
suffocated. He was suffocated. Five natives implicated 
in the affair were tried for their lives. Three of them 
were sentenced to be hanged. 
Now, imagine the confusion in the minds of these 
most unfortunate men. They had followed nothing but 
the tribal custom. Done nothing but what their fathers 
had done. That custom must, of course, be stopped, 
but it must be by a policy of fair play all around, not a 
policy that left the murdering witch doctor untouched 
while it visited with condign punishment those who, 
after the manner of their people, sought to limit and 
restrain its power. The Indian penal code knows noth- 
ing of the intricate matter of witch doctoring. 
The Protectorate is indeed a land of problems and 
the native question is not the last of them; there remains 
still a difficult one to face 
How about the Hindi? How far shall he come? 
Shall the land be ruled and financed in his favour? He 
is of the Empire. English fair-mindedness demands 
that he should have a chance in this new land to make 
