EXECUTION SCENE. 
19 
speaking calmly, while the crowd, all crushing around, 
joked as if at a holiday rout. Another delay occurred ; 
no one had given the order. On being asked, " Might 
it commence VI replied, " Yes, certainly ; proceed." 
The executioner at once took his place, drew his 
sword, weighed it in his hand, threw up his sleeves, 
and slipped his feet out of his shoes, while the dense 
mass all seemed breathless. The executioner was a 
small man, respectably dressed, looking like an Indian 
"Nubbeebux." The prisoners sat three yards apart, 
one slightly in advance of the other. The foremost 
was then ordered to bend his head, when, with one 
stroke, the back of his neck was cut to the vertebrae ; 
he fell forward, and lay breathing steadily, with his 
right cheek in his own blood, without a sound or 
struggle. The executioner, after wiping his sword on 
the loin-cloth of the dying man, coolly felt its edge. 
The other victim had seen all, and never moved nor 
spoke. The same horrible scene was again enacted, 
but with a different result; the man jerked upwards 
from his squatting position, and fell back on his left 
side, with no sound nor after-struggle. Both appeared 
as if in a sweet sleep ; two chickens hopped on the 
still quivering bodies, and the cows in the open space 
lay undisturbed. I left the spot, hoping never to 
witness such another scene ; but I had the satisfac- 
tion of feeling that justice was carried out, and 
that had I not been present those murderers would 
have escaped punishment, owing to the effeminacy 
and timidity of the Sultan of Zanzibar. Their 
accomplices, each with a cleft log on his neck, 
were taken to witness the bodies : they were to 
