Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/122

 108 LAWS. but if such be killed, otherwise than in satisfaction for murder, althougli his family have no claim, the prince of the country is entitled to a certain com- pensation, all outlaws being nominally his property, like other wild animals." * Banishment was a punishment frequently inflict- ed by the Javanese, and was known to the people of Achin and Bali. These two last deported their criminals to unfrequented islets ; the Javanese sent them to forests and unhealthy places, which the superstition of the people led them to consider in- habited by hobgoblins or evil genii. The punishment of death, as already stated, is too wantonly inflicted. The modes in which exe- cution is effected illustrate the character of the people. Strangulation, by suspending the body from the neck, as among us, or decapitation, as so frequent with the greater nations of Asia, are never practised. State criminals are sometimes privately executed, as in Turkey, by the bowstring. This is literally denominated stringing, Qaleni.') The most familiar mode of violent death among them is stabbing with the A'm, and this they transfer to their leiral executions. In Java, and it is a cir- cumstance full of meaning, the office of public- exe- cutioner is not one of infamy or discredit, but ra- ther of distinction. There are, by custom, two of 6
 * History of Sumalirt, p. 24G.