CHAP. XV. 
A TliULY PITIABLE OBJECT. 
423 
two other nobles and the wife of one of the prince’s friends. 
The prince’s band also was there in waiting; it commenced 
playing as we approached, and preceded ns during the rest 
of the way. The prince ordered his bearers to keep his 
palanquin close to the side of mine, that we might talk to¬ 
gether as we passed along. 
We had not proceeded far before we approached the walls of 
a prison. On a low bank, on the opposite side of the road, a 
poor wretched-looking man was sitting, playing on a small 
lokanga, or native sort of guitar, and begging a handful of 
rice or other alms from the passers by. He appeared of 
middle age, and had a heavy iron ring riveted round his neck 
and another heavy iron ring round one of his. legs. The other 
leg was lacerated and torn, as if the flesh had been cut or 
worn away by a similar ring. Some of the by-standers seemed 
moved with pity towards the poor sufferer. As we ap¬ 
proached the prince said, “ Don’t look that way. I am 
ashamed. It is barbarous! ” I asked what was the man’s 
crime. He said he did not know exactly, but he believed it 
was slight, and that it grieved him to see such cruel punish¬ 
ments. I remarked that all such tortures characterised a 
barbarous people, and were only inflicted by governments 
ignorant of the best means of deterring from crime and of 
elevating the people, for all such inflictions and exhibitions 
of torture only tended to harden and brutalise the minds of 
the people. 
It was a bright beautiful afternoon; indeed, there was not 
a shower all the time that I was at the capital, and we conti¬ 
nued our way, conversing as we passed along, until we 
reached Amboipo, five miles from the capital, where it had 
been at first proposed that I should halt for the night: we 
all alighted on the plain in front of the village. The lady 
who had accompanied us presented me with a silk lamba, to 
take home as a memorial of my visit. The officers who had 
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