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. It is a 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 

 othef 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 



