[Marie by H. Rider Haggard]@TWC D-Link bookMarie CHAPTER XIII 25/26
Also, here is tobacco for you.
Come to the bush; let us talk." So we went, and when Hans was a little composed I told him all that I had observed about the habits of the aasvogel in the air, and he told me all that he had observed about their habits on the ground, which, as I might not shoot them sitting, did not interest me.
Still, he agreed with me that the right moment to fire would be just before they pounced. Whilst we were still talking we heard a sound of shouts, and, looking over the brow of the hill that faced towards Umgungundhlovu, we saw a melancholy sight.
Being driven up the slope towards us by three executioners and a guard of seven or eight soldiers, their hands tied behind their backs, were three men, one very old, one of about fifty years of age, and one a lad, who did not look more than eighteen.
As I soon heard, they were of a single family, the grandfather, the father, and the eldest son, who had been seized upon some ridiculous charge of witchcraft, but really in order that the king might take their cattle. Having been tried and condemned by the Nyangas, or witch-doctors, these poor wretches were now doomed to die.
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