Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/169

 bestial habits of this man, whose mental disease was intensified by his misery and by the disgusting character of his environment, imported a new horror into Talib's life; but he himself was fast sinking into the stolid, animal existence of his right-hand neighbour. I saw him, precisely as I have described him. and learned his story, in April, 1895, and since the state in which he was awaiting his lingering death was at that time independent, I was, of course, powerless to effect his deliverance. Of his end I know nothing, but his future held no prospect of release, and the best that one could hope for him was an early death, or failing that, a speedy arrival at the happy condition which is locally called kâleh. To add to the horror of it all, there were two women and one small child confined in the cages at the time of my visit, but upon their sufferings I have refrained from dwelling.

Readers of this true tale will perhaps realize how it comes to pass that some of us men of the outskirts—who have seen things, not merely heard of them—are apt to become rather strong "imperialists," and to find it at times difficult to endure with patience those ardent defenders of the Rights of Man, who bleet their comfortable aphorisms in the British House of Commons, and cry shame upon our "hungry acquisitiveness."