Then the King or Chief is heard, as are others, each
according to his precedence in age, or in nobility, or in warlike renown,
or in eloquence; and the influence of every speaker proceeds rather from
his ability to persuade than from any authority to command. If the
proposition displease, they reject it by an inarticulate murmur: if it be
pleasing, they brandish their javelins. The most honourable manner of
signifying their assent, is to express their applause by the sound of
their arms.
In the assembly it is allowed to present accusations, and to prosecute
capital offences. Punishments vary according to the quality of the crime.
Traitors and deserters they hang upon trees. Cowards, and sluggards, and
unnatural prostitutes they smother in mud and bogs under an heap of
hurdles. Such diversity in their executions has this view, that in
punishing of glaring iniquities, it behoves likewise to display them to
sight: but effeminacy and pollution must be buried and concealed. In
lighter transgressions too the penalty is measured by the fault, and the
delinquents upon conviction are condemned to pay a certain number of
horses or cattle.
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