At once that enclosure became a cage of
wild beasts. The gaolers took their dole at the outset. Little more of
the "aseeda"--that moist and pounded cake of dhurra which was the staple
diet of the town--than was sufficient to support life was allowed to
reach the prisoners, and even for that the strong fought with the weak,
and the group of four did battle with the group of three. From every
corner men gaunt and thin as skeletons hopped and leaped as quickly as
the weight of their chains would allow them towards the entrance. Here
one weak with starvation tripped and fell, and once fallen lay prone in
a stolid despair, knowing that for him there would be no meal that day.
Others seized upon the messengers who brought the food, and tore it from
their hands, though the whips of the gaolers laid their backs open.
There were thirty gaolers to guard that enclosure, each armed with his
rhinoceros-hide courbatch, but this was the one moment in each day when
the courbatch was neither feared, nor, as it seemed, felt.
Among the food-bearers a boy sheltered himself behind the rest and gazed
irresolutely about the zareeba. It was not long, however, before he was
detected.
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