PRIMITIVE MODES OF JUSTICE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 27, 4 July 1891, Page 128

PRIMITIVE MODES OF JUSTICE.

A RETVRXED missionary, who spent a number of years lal>ouring among the heathen in Afghanistan, talking of the summary punishment recently inflicted upon the Italian bandits in New Orleans, said :

‘ That affair recalls vividly a scene I witnessed in a village called I’utka. in Central Afghanistan, some time ago. It seems that some fellow murdered an enemy, and in turn was atoned to death by the outraged [>opulace. ‘ < fne morning as I was about to leave my house I saw a yelling mob rushing from all directions toward a large square in the centre of the town, picking up clubs and stones as they ran. I followed, under the belief that rival factions contemplated a battle. When I reached one end of the square a man came running forward followed by a mob of a thousand men, women and children. They hurled stones at him as they ran, and the victim, who probably knew that escape was impossible, ran up ami dropped on his kneesat my feet. The mob closed around him and pushed me back, A shower of stones were hurled u]>on him and he fell forward on the

ground crushed and bleeding. The mob continued their fusillade until the remains bad been covered with a cairn of rocks four feet high. * I afterward learned that the unfortunate, in a moment of anger, had slain a woman, and that the people had taken the law into their own hands and executed him according to their ideas of right.’ The missionary concluded by saying that the stones over the body were never removed, and that the remains were allowed to stay as they bad fallen.