اله
358
it is clear that he believed
been committed with
a murder had
very great premeditation
------
and that it was not
not a case in which the prisoner had been struck and in a passion had retaliated. He disbelieved the statement of the accused that it was a quarrel in which he had been first the women had
struck and that one
of the
struck him with a sickle, and the other
(the deceased) with a stone on the head.
3.
Qudge
In his
dwelt on
charge
to the Jury the
the fact that in one
point the only witness who described the
vceurrenel
had varied in her tes
her testimony,
that is, on the question of her improper intimacy with the
with the prisoner. The Judge
added that some allowance should be
-made for her false swearing
on
that
point,
as the Chinese attach great importance to the virtue of their widows. He appeared to give
entire credence to her more material statements that she had left her sickle at her house and that the accused was not struck on the head with a stone. The Judge
- pointed out to me how completely this
witness had accounted.
the wound on
for the prisoner's forehead by showing (in the witness box) how the Chopper turned
in the
prisoner's hand and cut him; the Judge adding that it was
extremely sharp.
4.
Immediately before ebarging
the Jury, the Judge recalled this witness and again put the question to her
-