A PUNISHMENT PARADE. 



287 



tion. The intelligent members (?) at once found a 

 verdict of Guilty. By a slight deviation from the 

 method adopted at home of administering the law I 

 threw the responsibility of the sentence upon the 

 same august body. Among them was much diversity 

 of opinion, a hundred lashes with the jambock being 

 about the mildest award that any were disposed to 

 give for so heinous an offence. I pointed out — I 

 hope with becoming dignity — that justice ought to 

 be tempered with mercy, but in spite of my fervour 

 and eloquence it was a long time before I succeeded 

 in reducing the sentence to ten stripes. Then the 

 prisoner was led outside the camp, made fast to a 

 tree, the foreloper who was injured acting as execu- 

 tioner. When all was ready I lighted some aluminum 

 wire, the blaze from it threw a mysterious, thrilling, 

 but appropriate light upon the scene, and punishment 

 was ordered to commence. William's voice authori- 

 tatively counted the strokes correctly, and when the 

 last cut was <' alt, not a murmur escaped the lips of 

 the sufferer, although I am certain that the lashes 

 had been laid on with no gentle hand. Not one 

 person, even among his own people, commiserated 

 with the culprit, but, on the other hand, seemed to 

 think the whole affair one of the m»ost pleasant 

 incidents that they had ever witnessed. Half 

 an hour afterwards I discovered the flogged man 

 among a very noisy crowd, of which he appeared 

 the ringleader, stowing away enormous quantities of 

 half-cooked zebra flesh, with an appetite that an 

 alderman would have envied. Is he — such a creature 

 as had just been scourged— is he not a man and a 

 brother ? I have often heard philanthropists and 

 missionaries inquire. Do they really mean that this 

 should be answered in the affirmative } Well, perhaps 

 they do, but I would infinitely sooner that they esta- 

 blished the relationship than I did. 

 That night it was resolved to treck further to the 



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