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their unhappy victim, the old man; sometimes they would strip him naked, and paint him all over with various sorts of colours, which they extracted, or made from herbs and roots; at other times, they would pluck the white hairs from his venerable beard, and tauntingly tell him, he was a fool for living so long, and that they would shew him kindness in putting him out of the world; to all which the poor creature could but vent his sighs, his tears, his moans, and entreaties, that, to my affrighted imagination, were enough to penetrate a heart of adamant, and soften the most obdinate savage. In vain, alas! were all his tears, for daily did they tire themselves with the various means they tried to torment him--sometimes tying him to a tree, and whipping him; at others, scorching his furrowed cheeks coals, coals with red-hot coals and burning his legs, quite to the knees; but the good old man, instead of repining, or wickedly arraigning the divine justice, like many others in such cases, even in the greatest agonies, incessantly offered up his prayers to the Almighty, with the most fervent thanksgivings for his former mercies, and hoping the flames, then surrounding and burning his aged limbs, would soon send him to the blessful mansions of the juşt, to be a partaker of blessings there. And during suck his pious ejaculations, his infernal plages would come round him, mimicking