Page:Pearl of Asia (Child JT, 1892).pdf/154

Rh necks. The feeling of the crowd now became intense and all eagerly awaited the appearance of the executioners. The victims seemed more composed than the spectators; the head dacoit, a man about fifty years old, asked for a bogee, a Siamese cigar, which one of the attendants lighted for him and he smoked it as coolly as if he felt no terror of the fate that hung over him, that his stay on this earth was encompassed but by a few minutes; another, a magnificent young half-cast Chinaman, smiled placidly and leaned over and inhaled the perfume of the flowers placed in front of him, the other evinced some feeling. It was a strange spectacle to see those men squatting on the ground with bowed heads inside a cordon of soldiers and immediately behind them a mass of people eagerly awaiting the coming of the executioners. In about ten minutes after the prisoners were brought on the ground I observed a slight commotion among the crowd and upon looking up noticed three men enter the circle dressed in scarlet with gold fringe trimmings on their coats, each bearing a heavy shining sword; they advanced dancing and saluting with their weapons until they were immediately behind the prisoners when with a sudden whirl they struck, you heard a simultaneous thud and then saw the blood spurt upward as three bodies rose upright and fell forward, being held in place by the crosses. It seems as if death was instantaneous. As soon as the blows were struck the executioners disappeared and then a man came forward with a large knife and severed the small piece of skin that held the heads to the bodies and stuck them on small bamboo poles about six feet high. The eyes opened repeatedly and the jaws closed and opened