As a result, eight of the villagers were compelled to carry the two
fire-finders to a certain spot on the bank of a nearby stream. Here
the two fragments of pyrites were thrown, under orders, into the
water; so that the eight villagers might know just why the whole
thing was being done. Next the two men, still unconscious, were
buried up to their necks. Their heads, lolling helplessly, were all
that was exposed. So it was to be the Head Out punishment--imprisonment
of one day with their bodies rigidly held by the soil: acute torture
to an aborigine. But was this all?
One of the villagers was driven to the nearest hut, where he was
forced to secure two large stone axes. Bringing these back to the
"torture-place," as the spot was called, the man was compelled to
wield one of the clumsy tools while a companion used the other; and
between them they cut down the tree whose branches had been waving
over the prisoners' heads. Then the villagers were forced to drag
the tree away.
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