TORTURING A MONGWATO 
353 
immediately afterwards. The king was infuriated at this 
brutality, and insisted on punishing the perpetrator of this cruel 
act on the principle of curing the cause by a similar dose of his 
own prescription. The king and two of his young men tied the 
man up, and were already going to light the wood they built 
up round him, while the miserable Mongwato begged that 
they would only burn him a little, not enough to take his 
life, as he had only intended to scorch his victim, but that the 
fire got the better of him and killed the child in spite of his 
efforts. Stremboom interfered at this juncture, and, kicking the 
collected faggots away, insisted that the king should not punish 
the offender by burning, but if it was necessary to kill him, 
to which he had no objection, then, kill him outright at once 
by shooting or hanging. The king, who was cooling down a 
little, told Stremboom to shoot him himself as he had inter¬ 
fered, a diversion Stremboom of course refused to comply with, 
saying he was not an executioner. ‘ Well then,’ said the king, 
‘ I know another way; we will put his fire out by water.’ So they 
took the man in canoes to the middle of the river Taugche, 
flowing close by, and catching hold of his legs, held him head 
first down in the water until he was nearly drowned. Then 
reviving him, till he could speak, they repeated the experiment 
several times, till Stremboom, sick at the sight, again interfered, 
and told the king to kill him outright or leave him alone. 
‘Wait a bit,’ said the king, ‘you can now take the man and look 
after him for a bit, but mind he does not run away, for we have 
not done with him yet.’ Moremi sent for three horses, which 
were swum over the Taugche, and then he and two others, 
with long sjamboks- in their hands, mounted, and told 
Stremboom to turn out the man, who by this had some¬ 
what recovered from the rough handling he had experi¬ 
enced in the morning. They put him on the Mongwato 
road, with two hundred yards ‘law,’ and then started after 
him with their whips, slashing and flogging the unfortunate 
being, till tired out themselves they returned home, quite 
satisfied that the demands of justice were fulfilled. Moremi’s 
z 
