e who are to be killed. The executioner who is called a headsman
then walks forward approaching the chair from the rear. When he reaches
it he steps to the side of the victim and with a large, sharp,
long-bladed knife lops off the head of the criminal. The bodies of men
executed in this manner are buried in shallow holes dug about two feet
deep to receive their bodies.

The rank and file of the savage tribes believe explicitly [HW
correction: implicitly] in the supernatural powers of the witch doctor
and his decisions are not questioned. Not even the King of the tribe
raises a voice against him. The witch doctor is crafty enough not to
condemn any of the King's household or any one directly prominent in the
King's service. After an execution everything is quiet in a few hours
and the incident seems forgotten. The African Negroes attitude towards
the whole affair seems to be instinctive and as long as he escapes he
does not show any particular concern in his fellowman. His is of an
animal instinctive nature.

The males of the African tribes of savages have very little respect for
a woman but they demand a whole lot of courtesies from their wives,
beating them unmercifully when they feel proper respect has not been
shown them. The men hunt game and make war on other tribes and the women
do all the work. A savage warrior when not engaged in hunting or war,
sleeps a lot and smokes almost continuously during his waking hours.
Girls are bought from their parents while mere children by the payment
of so many cows, goats, etc. The King can take any woman of the tribe
whether married or single he desires to be his wife. The parents of
young girls taken to wife by the King of a tribe feel honored and fall
on their knees and thank the King for taking her.

The prince of a tribe is born a headsman and as soon as he is able to
wield a knife he is called upon to perform the duty of cutting off the
heads of criminals who are condemned to death by the King for general
crimes. Those condemned by the witch doctor for witchcraft are executed
by dismemberment or fire as described above.

* * * * *

My husband was a cannibal headsman and performed this duty of cutting
off persons heads when a boy and after being civilized in America this
feature of his early life bore so heavily upon his mind that it was
instrumental in driving him insane. By custom a prince was born a
headsman and it was compulsory that