orcerers had not
injured the door, and that in future if he did not give the alarm when
they came he should be well whipped for neglect, and that in the meantime
I had a great mind to have him whipped for telling a story; I however
satisfied myself by giving him a severe lecture upon the crime of lying.
He defended himself upon this head by ingenious arguments, altogether
overlooking the abstract question of whether lying was a virtue or a
vice, and defending himself solely upon the plea of its general
usefulness and prevalence in the world. I got rather worsted in the
argument, and therefore, confining myself to admonitions and a few
common-place maxims, I departed.

PEERAT'S WIVES SURRENDERED. THEIR PUNISHMENT.

In the course of the forenoon Peerat presented himself at my window. The
tale he told was a very pitiful one. He had two wives, and to govern them
both required no ordinary ability; he assured me that he had beaten them
both soundly, but notwithstanding he could not induce them to come into
the settlement until, finally losing his temper, he had threatened to
spear them, and had thus induced them to follow him; he assured me that
he had done nothing but weep and lament since he had last seen me, at one
time for the loss of his son, and then again at the obstinacy and bad
temper of his wives, and as some recompense for his sufferings he begged
to be allowed to beat his wives himself.

I told him to bring them at once to the garden they had robbed, and then,
followed by several natives, I repaired to the appointed place. The
native women soon appeared, dreadfully cut and mangled from the beating
they had already suffered. One was a nice-looking girl, about fourteen,
but an incorrigible thief. Peerat threw back his skin to give his arm
fair play, and then, brandishing his meerro, was going to hit her a
tremendous blow upon the head, which must have laid it open. The poor
girl stood with her back towards her husband, trembling and crying
bitterly. I caught Peerat's arm, picked up a little switch from the
ground, and told him to beat her on the shoulders with that. He gave her
two slight blows, or rather taps, in order to know where it was I meant
him to strike; but the poor girl cried so bitterly from fear that I
stopped him, told her that for this time she should be pardoned, and then
called the other woman up, but she had already been severely beaten and
had at that moment a little child sitting on her shoulde