[Footnote 157: Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 45. Stewart, in _Jour. As. Soc. Bengal_, xxiv. p. 627.] [Footnote 158: Griffith, _ibid._ vi. 332.] [Footnote 159: Distant, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ iii. 6.] [Footnote 160: Laing, _Travels_, p. 365.] [Footnote 161: Tucker, _Expedition to Explore the River Zaire_, p. 383.] [Footnote 162: Bosman, _op. cit._ p. 331.] [Footnote 163: New, _op. cit._ p. 111.] [Footnote 164: Beverley, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 215.] [Footnote 165: Lang, _ibid._ p. 259.] [Footnote 166: Casalis, _op. cit._ p. 228.] [Footnote 167: Maclean, _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_, p. 35 _sq._] Nor, as it seems, is savage justice fond of torturing its victims before they are killed. The Maoris exclaimed loudly against the English method of executing criminals, first telling them that they are to die, then letting them lie for days and nights in prison, and finally leading them slowly to the gallows. "If a man commits a crime worthy of death," they said, "we shoot him, or chop off his head; but we do not tell him first that we are going to do so."[168] Dr. Codrington gives the following description of the cases of burning persons alive which have occasionally happened in Pentecost Island:--"In fighting time there, if a great man were very angry with the hostile party, he would burn a wounded enemy. When peace had been made and the chiefs had ordered all to behave well that the country might settle down in quiet, if any one committed such a crime as would break up the peace, such as adultery, they would tie him to a tree, heap fire-wood round him, and burn him alive, a proof to the opposite party of their detestation of his wickedness. This was not done coolly as a matter of course in the execution of a law, but as a horrible thing to do, and done for the horror of it; a horror renewed in the voice and face of the native who told me of the roaring flames and shrieks of agony."[169] This story is not without interest when compared with the cold-blooded burning of female criminals and women suspected of witchcraft in Christian Europe. [Footnote 168: Yate, _Account of New Zealand_, p. 105.] [Footnote 169: Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 347.] There is sufficient evidence to show that the severe punishments adopted by peoples of a higher culture have been regarded by them as beneficial to society. The legislators themselves often refer to the deterrent effects of punishment.