182 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
the imperial head-quarters. When it was announced 
to Hummaione that these pitiful truants were at his 
mercy, it happened to he Saturday, when, according 
to custom, being robed in ireful crimson, and seated 
upon the terrible guddi of judgment, he was occu- 
pied in passing sentence upon those who had been 
convicted of offence against the law. The nature of 
their crime having been declared, all these miserable 
men were immediately condemned to suffer punish- 
ment ; the judge exercising in their sentences a cruelty 
of which there are few instances in the history of his 
government. Some were ordered to be trampled to 
death by elephants, some to lose their heads, others 
their feet or hands, others their eyes and tongues, 
while some, more fortunate, were permitted to escape 
with the loss of a few less important members, such 
as half-a-dozen toes or fingers, or perchance a nose 
and ears. But while the monarch was thus engaged 
in directing his vengeance against those who had 
dared to disregard his authority, the hour of evening 
prayer arrived ; and the officiating Moolla, who was 
not particularly distinguished for his powers of 
discrimination, in the course of the first rukkhat , 
(general genuflexion,) unfortunately selected for the 
service that portion of the Khoran, entitled the 
Chapter of Elephants ; relating to that circumstance 
in the history of Arabia, in which the tyrant Abraha, 
from Yemen, having despatched an army, accom- 
panied by an extraordinary elephant, for the purpose 
