“Amān Agha!” “Mercy, Lord!” “Oh, hakim-bashi!” “Oh, merciless Jews!” “Oh, Mussulmans!” “Oh, doctor, sahib!” “Oh, Lord, without mercy!” “Oh, rascal Jews!” “Sons of dog fathers!” “Mer—cy!”
The hakim-bashi now addressed them—“Rascals, do you know now that you are not to oppress the king’s subjects?”
“Ah,” replied one man, “but Jews—” He had better have been silent, for the hakim-bashi raised his hand, and the beating recommenced. I now interceded, and the men were led off, limping.
I asked the doctor if such beatings would not lame the men.
He replied, “Not in the least; they will be all right in two days, if a little tender to-morrow. I have myself had quite as bad a beating from my achōn (schoolmaster) when a boy. There is no degradation in the punishment; all are liable to it, from the Prime Minister downwards. What you have seen is merely a warning; one and two thousand sticks are often given—I mean to say fairly broken over the soles of the feet—and thicker sticks than mine; say, six thousand blows.”
I asked what was the result of such beating.
“Well,” said the doctor, “I have known them fatal; but it is very rare, and only in the case of the victim being old or diseased.”
I was told that it is really very much a matter of bribing the farrashes (carpet-spreaders) who administer the punishment. As a rule, a severe beating, such as is given by the king’s farrashes, keeps a man in bed for weeks or months. Culprits much prefer it to a fine. Here the doctor called one of his servants.
“Which would you prefer,” said he, “to lose a month’s pay or take such a beating as those soldiers had?”
“The beating, of course,” replied the man.