hurling it into the air, and yelling
with an awful imprecation while so doing, that he would wager a gold
mohur to five rupees, that he could, with his tulwa, strike off the
child's right arm at the elbow without touching any other part of the
body. This was accepted at once by half-a-dozen voices; the wretch
immediately raised his tulwa and, as the infant descended, made a sharp,
quick, upper cut, and ere it reached the ground its little arm was
disjointed, as though by the knife of an experienced surgeon. A groan of
horror burst from the lips of the agonized parents, and a convulsive
shudder ran through the remainder of the unhappy party; but this past
unheeded by their captors, being drowned by the yells of fiendish
delight and approval that broke forth from the throats of these hell
hounds, as the mutilated body of the child lay wreathing in agony at
their feet, absorbing for the moment all other feeling. "I will double
the stakes," cried another, "that I take off the head of a second of
these young imps close to the shoulder without making wound or scar on
any other part." "Done, and done again!" shouted several voices,
throwing up their weapons in the air, and re-catching them again, so
delighted were they at the idea of another spectacle so much in unison
with their blood-thirsty and relentless passions. A powerful ruffian now
dismounted, and catching up a second babe, a pretty little thing
scarcely two years old, hurled it with his utmost strength high into the
air. On gaining its greatest altitude, it turned completely, and was
descending, head downwards. When within six feet of the ground, the
brutal villain, with one lightning stroke of his tulwa, severed the head
from its shoulders, amid the shouts and gesticulations of the assembled
miscreants. By some, the wretch was pronounced a winner, but on
examining the body, the skin of one shoulder was found to be grazed or
cut. Many maintained it was done by the sword; others asserted that it
was caused by falling on a stone or some such substance. The dispute ran
high, and possible might have come to blows, but for the interference of
another of the party, who appeared to be a sort of leader among them,
shouting out "Come! No more of this fooling; too much time has been
already wasted on this Tumahsha. Give the cursed feringees a volley from
your carbines, loot the garries, and then make off with all speed, or
the cursed Kaffirs may get wind of the affair and follo