If a man was found slain near a village, but with no actual evidence as to the slayer, the village was held responsible for the killing and the Kotla placed a collective penalty on the village. A certain amount of danger lay in discovering a slain person at any distance from human habitations, as the finding often brought a charge of killing as its reward. In a case where there was actually no proof, witch-doctors were called in, and some wretched person who had fallen foul of the witch-doctor or even of some of the relatives of the deceased, generally got fined, however innocent he might really be. All cases of homicide are now adjudicated upon at proper Courts of Justice, duly approved of by the High Commissioner of South Africa. Theft was punished frequently, more severely than homicide, but in a country where lock and bolts were unknown, this was probably inevitable. The guilty party had all his possessions seized by the aggrieved party and a clay pot was smashed, portions of it were made red hot with fire and the thief was seized and his fist tightly closed round one of the red hot pieces and firmly held there. This generally resulted in his being maimed for life, as the burnt hand festered and rotted away in most cases, while, even if it were looked after well enough to heal, the flesh and sinews of the hand were so burnt as to prevent the hand ever resuming its normal state and condition. A kleptomaniac or an incorrigible thief was promptly helped into the next world. A first offence, if the value of the stolen property was very minute, was occasionally let off with a fine, but a second offence always brought the punishment of burning of the right hand. Theft cases are now tried by the Courts of Administration.