Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824Denham, Dixon
History
Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824
Denham, Dixon
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Africa, North
While I was waiting in the palace, in consequence of this accident,
a punishment took place, probably only equalled in severity by that of
the knout in Russia, and which, as is often the case in that country,
caused the death of the culprit before the morning. In this instance
the unfortunate man had been found, by the spies of the kadi (who are
always on the alert), slumbering in his amours, and was now to pay
the penalty of his carelessness. In the middle of the day, during
the Rhamadan, he had been seen asleep in his hut, and the wife of
another man (a merchant), who had been some time absent in Soudan,
stretched by his side; they were therefore, without any hesitation,
presumed guilty of having broken the Rhamadan. He was sentenced to
receive four hundred stripes, and his partner half that number. Her
head was first shaved, her dress and ear-rings, arm-lets, leg-lets,
&c. were given to the informer; she was taken up by four men, with
only a cloth round her middle, by means of which she was suspended,
in a manner not to be described, while a powerful negro inflicted the
full number of lashes she was condemned to receive. This took place
inside the court-yard of the palace: she was afterwards carried home
senseless. The man received his punishment in the dender, or square,
suspended in the same manner, but with eight men, instead of four,
to support him: an immense whip, of one thick thong cut off from the
skin of the hippopotamus, was first shown to him, which he was obliged
to kiss, and acknowledge the justness of his sentence. The fatah was
then said aloud, and two powerful slaves of the sheikh inflicted the
stripes, relieving each other every thirty or forty strokes: they
strike on the back, while the end of the whip, which has a knob or
head, winds round, and falls on the breast or upper stomach: this it
is that renders these punishments fatal. After the first two hundred,
blood flowed from him upwards and downwards, and in a few hours
after he had taken the whole four hundred, he was a corpse. The agas,
kashellas, and the kadis, attend on these occasions. I was assured
the man did not breathe even a sigh audibly. Another punishment
succeeded this, which, as it was for a minor offence, namely,
stealing ten camels and selling them, was trifling, as they only
gave him one hundred stripes, and with a far less terrific weapon.
June 16.—Every thing was now prepared for the expedition to
the eastern side of the Tchad, and Mr. Tyrwhitt determined on
accompanying me.
On the 17th of June we reached Angornou, and from thence the sheikh
despatched the ghrazzie, with Barca Gana, the chief, Ali Gana, the
second, and Tirab, the third in command. At an interview which I
had this morning, he called them all towards him, and said, “This
is the duty of you all, take care of these strangers: they wish to
go round by Kanem, which must be done, if possible: let them have
twenty horsemen, or more, if necessary.”
[Illustration: A LOGGUN LADY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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