United States or Tokelau ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
For 200 years they have had intercourse with Europeans, who, though slavers, would certainly neither enjoy nor encourage these profitless horrors; yet no savages show more brutality in torture, more frenzied delight in bloodshed, than they do. A few of their pleasant practices are The administration of Esere, or poison-bean; "Egbo floggings" of the utmost severity, equalling the knout;
In the one case a pot was filled with palm oil which was brought to the boil. The stuff was poured over the hands of the prisoner, and if the skin became blistered he was adjudged to be guilty and punished. In the other case the esere bean the product of a vine was pounded and mixed with water and drunk: if the body ejected the poison it was a sign of innocence.
"I think you'd better do it," she rejoined; "the boy's father has some wood of his own, of which he was going to make a door like mine, and he is willing to use it for the purpose." They proceeded to the yard to obtain measurements, and as they entered Mary caught sight of some esere beans lying on the pounding stone. She shivered. What could she do! She returned to her hut.
I have had a murder, an esere case, a suicide, a man for branding his slave- wife all over her face and body; a man with a gun who has shot four persons it is all horrible!" Here are three specimen charges, and the results, in her own writing: O. I. Found guilty of brawling in market and taking by force 8 rods from a woman's basket. One month's hard labour.
When Mary had grasped the situation she ridiculed the attitude of the chief, scolded him unmercifully, and at last secured his promise not to carry out his threat. As a guarantee of his good faith she claimed possession of the esere beans. He denied that he had any.
Word Of The Day