Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/125

 A tax-gatherer, liang pan (糧班), or his sons, may enter the literary examinations, but not the other yamen underlings.

The hu pan (戶班), or local runner, knows every person in his district and is used in making arrests.

The p‘u pan (捕班) are the chief jailor's runners, for catching robbers, and the tsao pan (皁班), or hou pan (吼班), are the "black band" with tall hats, who run shouting before the magistrate's chair, when he goes out on public business.

There are various other bands, messengers, door-keepers, etc., etc.

There is an apprenticeship to this work and often the apprentice suffers for his master's mistakes. If he is beaten, the ling pan gives him 400 cash; if he is condemned to the cage he gets 100 per day and 300 cash on release; if he suffers capital punishment, the ling pan supports his widow. Many become yamen runners to escape the result of crime, thus eluding the law a little longer. An official can put runners to death and thinks very lightly of doing it.

In some districts there are women thus employed.

Judicial Cases.

A black clothes case, ch‘ing i an (靑衣案), is one where execution is certain as soon as the evidence has been given; generally robbery with violence.

A red clothes case, hung i an (紅衣案), is a difficult case, perhaps of murder; if the accused is clever he may, after years of imprisonment, gain his liberty. If the knife used in a murder cannot be produced the accused cannot be condemned.

Disputes about estates or marriages are called chêng an (正案). Petty quarrels are often pursued in the courts till a family is ruined in seeking justice or revenge.

Cases of rebellion or where human relationships are violated; a wife killing a husband, son killing a father, etc., are seldom dealt with in an open, regular way; they are settled in private, the criminal being done to death by the family clan.