26 



UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



may, however, pass a sentence of death upon Waganda, and may 

 order such sentence to be carried out without reference to the 

 court at Bombay. Accordingly, three Waganda murderers were 

 hanged not very long ago. I was not called upon to be present 

 at the execution to pronounce whether life was extinct. One 

 of the young officials was entrusted with seeing that the 

 arrangements at the gallows were in order. He came to me 

 and w-anted me to tell him where the knot should be applied. 



A CHAIN-GANG AT KAMPALA. 



and what distance should be allowed for the drop. As 

 I have never been a hangman, and do not aspire to such 

 an office, I declined to discuss the subject ; but when I 

 was urged on the plea of humanity, I reluctantly told my 

 interrogator, to enable him to perform his unenviable work 

 expeditiously, what I had read or heard about this gruesome 

 subject. 



One of the forms of punishment made use of by the Govern- 

 ment is the " chain-gang," which means hard labour. 



