ld the
hot iron on the ground. I saw him take a musket from the hands of
one of the soldiers standing by. He placed this against my
forehead and discharged it upwards, giving me a severe shock,
though nothing worse. Handing back the discharged weapon to the
soldier, the _Pombo_ seized a long two-handed sword and came at
me. He swung it from side to side, all the time foaming from his
mouth. This foaming, I believe, was produced artificially. He
then motioned to the man who all this time held me by the hair of
my head to bend my neck. I resisted with all my might to keep my
head erect. Then the _Pombo_ touched my neck with the sharp blade
of his sword as if to measure the distance for a clean, effective
stroke. Then he raised the sword and made a blow at me with all
his might. The sword passed disagreeably close to my neck, but
did not touch me. I did not flinch; and my cool indifferent
demeanour seemed to impress him, so much so that he seemed
reluctant to continue his diabolical performance, but the _posse_
of Lamas urged him on by gesticulations and vociferous shouts.
Thereupon he went through the same performance on the other side
of my neck. This time the blade passed so near that I felt that
the blow had not been more than half an inch from my neck. This
terminated the sword exercise, much to the disgust of the Lamas,
who still continued to urge the swordsman on. Then they held an
excited consultation. About this time my coolie, Man Sing, who
had frequently fallen off his bare-backed pony, arrived. The
person who held my hair then relinquished his hold, and another
person came up and gave me a forcible push, which gave me a nasty
fall on my back, straining all the tendons of my legs. Then my
servant Man Sing was brought forward and tied by his legs to the
same log of wood to which I was fastened. Then they made it
appear that they were going to behead Man Sing. I was pushed up
into a sitting posture and a cloth thrown over my head and face,
so that I could not see what was being enacted. I heard Man Sing
groan, and I concluded he had been despatched. I was left in this
terrible suspense for about a quarter of an hour. Then the cloth
was removed, and I beheld my servant lying before me bound to the
log. We both asked for food. This seemed t