The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-05-07
MOHAMMEDAN JUSTICE.
etoning 10 Death 5tin Practioed
Among the Afghana
The Herribas Punishment Melted Out *
Criminal-Pelted with Stones
by . Bowling and Pfti-
Hess Mob.

IAN eye for an eye and tooth for .
topth." The dictum Of the old law
still holds good in Afghanistan. In
fact, the manners, customs and sur
roundings Of the Afghans Of to-day
might be prototyped in the pages Of the
Old Testament as faithfully as the life
Of the Tsraelftes
The Afghans are Mohammedans, it Is
true, but their religion Is built on old
law lines, and their social life Is as
simple and patriarchal as when the
great iawgfver, Moses, ruled the des-
tinies Of the people of Israel
For In Afghanistan Of to-day oxen
tread out the corn and plow the fields,
and the piow itself is a counterpart Of
the Mosaical instrument. Corn is
ground In hand mills, and goatskin
serves as water bottle"
Household and farming utensils have
changed nothing during the centuries
that have elapsed since the Israelites
tramped the desert by the Red sea. In
short, you could find series Of
''tableaux vivants" in the surroundings
OF Afghanistan to-day to fill up chapter
by chapter the scenes depicted In the
Old Testament.
1t is said that the Afghans are Of the
lost tribes, and certainly as far as q
dogged adherence to Israelitish customs
is concerned, they might be.
There is no mistaking the Mosaical
parallel as far as the social customs
present themselves; but I was aston
ished one evening, says writer in the
Sheffield Telegraph, during the Russian
scare, when was on the Afghan
frontier, to see the very similitude of the
old law punishment of stoning to death
put in practice.
A yelling mob Of people came rush.
ing from all directions towards the out
skirts OF the village Of Puckta, picking
up pieces OF stone by the way and pill
ing them up in little heaps by their feet.
thought at the time they were going to
have pitched battle with stones as
missiles. But shortly man came
rushing forward, followed by splitting,
hooting mob, shouting: 'Sag! Sagl"
(dog! dogD
The unfortunate runaway evidently
knew his fate, for his long, earnest ap-
peal to Heaven as he stopped short and
threw his arms up was but the prelimi-
nary to his fateful fate-his final appeal
for mercy on his soul, for from that
bowling mob he well knew he need ex-
pect none.
The man had scarcely time to finish
his invocation, when from all direc-
tions a literal shower of stones fell on
him. For moment he swayed to and
fro under the onslaught. Soon the ter
rible shower had battered him into q
jellied, blood-bespattered mass, his
very clothes showing rents through
which the blood found vent and spurted
freely. He wavered for moment, with
his chin bobbing his chest, and then,
after doubling up at the knees and mid
die, fell in heap dead. 80.
Still the bowling mob continued their
terrible fusillade Of stones until around
the already lifeless body cairn was
formed, completely covering in the
corpse. And then the mob clapped
their hands, crowed, and went their
way.
''That dog is done for" said they.
Done forl Yes, it was terrible do
ing; for there, under the heap of stones,
the mans nerves and muscles still vi
brated in their post-death struggle,
causing the stone heap to rise and fall
as if in labor with thing Of life; rose
and fell in their horrible parturition
for a few moments until the twitching
of nerve and muscle ceased, and all
was still, "consummatum est" The
murderer Of Afghanistan has breathed
his last, and his hic jacet is written
around the tombstone In those blood
marks that bespatter the ground about
his orra NO m i...a