was unable, on account of the tsetse-fly in the neighbourhood, to bring his cattle with him; some large herds belonging to one of the chieftains aroused his envy, and the owner was soon a doomed man. He was brought to judgment and condemned, but evacuating the poison, he escaped; he was brought to trial again with the same result; the third time he was not permitted to get off, but his body, by private orders, was exposed to the fire till he was dead. On another occasion, after I left Sesheke, the wife of the chief Mokoro was sentenced to death; the poison test declared her innocent, but the executioner informed her that he was commissioned by the king to burn her alive next day all the same. To avoid her fate the wretched woman flung herself into the river, where a huge crocodile seized her and mangled her body frightfully before carrying it to the bottom.
But to resume my account of the victim in the wood. When the clamour around him ceased a little, and the accusers grew tired of reviling him, the two old doctors came forward and twisted him round and round, to make the poison, as they said, work itself into his system. They then made him resume his old position on the scaffold, where all the hubbub of the sympathizers and enemies was again renewed, the impatience of both parties continually increasing till they saw whether the poison would act as an emetic or a narcotic. Their curiosity was not set at rest for half an hour, when the man at last fell senseless to the ground. This was the signal for the executioner’s deputies to proceed to business; without losing an instant they pounced upon the
Y 2
