224 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
were prefent, to witnefs, as he termed it, what they might 
expert to fuffer if they failed in their fidelity. The execu- 
tioner allowed them time only to utter fome fhort prayer, when 
he plunged the knife in the neck of the oldeft of them, exactly 
in the fame manner as they kill a fheep. The operation too is 
marked by the fame term [dhebbah). He fell and ftruggled for 
fome time : the reft fuffered in their turn. The three laft were 
much agitated, and the youngeft wept. The two firft had 
borne their fate with becoming firmnefs. The crowd, that 
had affembled, had fcarcely fatiated itfelf with the fpedacle of 
their convulfive motions, while proftrate in the duft, when the 
flaves of the executioner coolly brought a fmall block of wood, 
and began mangling their feet with an axe. I was furprized at 
this among Mohammedans, whofe decency in all that concerns 
the dead is generally worthy of applaufe. Nor did it diminifli 
my aftonifhment, that having at length cut off their feet, they 
took away the fetters, which had been worn by the criminals, 
in themfelves of very inconfiderable value, and left the bodies 
where they were. Private humanity, and not public order, 
afterwards afforded them fepulture. 
It happened this year that fome exceffes had been committed 
by perfons in a ftate of inebriation, and the Sultan having had 
cognizance of the fad:, could find a remedy only in force. He 
ordered fearch to be made in all houfes throughout the country 
for the utenfils for making menfe ; direded that thofe who 
(hould be found in a ftate of intoxication fhould be capitally 
punifhed ; and the women who made it fhould have their heads 
fliaved, be fined feverely, and expofed to all pollible ignominy. 
The 
