Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/225

Rh direct contravention of the treaty made at Mangalore in 1784, he did not scruple to retain in captivity considerable numbers of Europeans. Many of these, particularly young and good-looking boys, were forcibly circumcised, married haphazard to girls who had been captured in the Coromandel districts, and drafted into the ranks of the army, or compelled to sing and dance for the amusement of the sovereign.

It must be admitted that the times were barbarous, and that the most atrocious punishments were frequently inflicted on malefactors. Even impaling was occasionally resorted to, and it would be unjust to attribute to Tipú alone the commission of crimes which were characteristic of the period. It has been mentioned that those who conspired against him were put in a cage. This was an imitation of Haidar's treatment of Khande Ráo. The unhappy victims were allowed half a pound of rice a day, with salt, but no water, so they soon expired under this frightful ordeal. There were other punishments nearly equally dreadful, such as making men bestride a wooden horse on a saddle studded with sharp spikes. On a spring being touched the horse of torture reared, and the spikes penetrated the unfortunate wretches. A more common mode of punishment was to bind tightly the hands