182 ARAB PUNISHMENTS.
perty made over to the relatives of the murdered
person, and the eyes of the murderer gouged, or he
is thrown over the precipice below the palace. If a
husband comes upon a case of adultery, he is permitted
to kill the offender on the spot. Unnatural
crimes they regard with horror, but these are said to
be known only amongst the “ wseroo” or slaves; so
that the Karague laws are as strict as our own, and,
without statistics, I believe there is far less crime.
The punishments at Muscat and Zanzibar, under Arab
government, were described to me by Frij, and are
barbarous in comparison with the code at Karague.
For theft, the hand is cut off; if the property is recovered,
the thief at Zanzibar is buried in the seashore
up to his neck, to allow the tide to reach him—
a mode of punishment that wdll remind the reader of
the case of the alleged Wigtown martyrs. Some
silver and clothes were stolen from the sultan of Zanzibar,
and the thieves being detected were pulled up
to the top of a flagstaff and thrown to the ground.
At Muscat the tongue of the thief is cut off, and
owing to this severe punishment there are few cases
of theft; The Arabs are hard masters, and train their
servants (several of whom were with us) in a system
of rigorous discipline. To enforce despatch, a master
will spit on the ground, and say to his servant, “ If
that dries, up before you return with an answer to
my message, you’ll get flogged.”
Musical instruments were in greater variety in
Karague than we had previously met with, and the
little plaintive native airs could be picked up and
hummed, they were so sweet and pleasing to the ear.
There was stringed, wind, and drum music. Their most
musical instruments. 183
perfect instrument was the “ nanga,” of seven or eight
strings; it may be called national. In one of these,
played by an old woman, six of the seven notes were
a perfect scale, the seventh being the only faulty
string. In another, played by a man, three strings
were a full harmonious chord. These facts show that
the people are capable of cultivation. The “ nanga”
was formed of heavy dark wood, the shape of a tray,
22 by 9 inches or 30 by 8, with three open crosses
in the bottom, and laced with one string seven or eight
times over bridges at either end; sometimes a gourd,
as sounding-board, was tied on to the back. Prince
M’nanagee, at my request, sent the best player he
knew. The man boldly entered without introduction,
dressed in the usual Wanyambo costume, and
looked a wild, excited creature. After resting his
spear against the roof of the hut, he took a nanga
from under his arm and commenced. As he sat upon
a mat with his head averted from me, never smiling,
he sang something of his having been sent to me, and
of the favourite dog Keeromba. The wild yet gentle
music and words attracted a crowd of admirers, who
sang the dog-song for days afterwards, as we had it
encored several times. Another player was an old
woman, calling herself “ Keeleeanyagga.” As she
played while standing in front of me, all the song she
. could produce was “ sh,” “ sh,” screwing her mouth,
rolling her body, and raising her feet from the ground;
it was a miserable performance, and not repeated.
Of wind instruments we had the fife and horn.
The fife is more common with the Uganda than the
Karague people. I t is an 18-inch-long hollowed reed,
about the thickness of a German flute, is held like a