I've just finished reading "Surgeon in Nepal," by British army surgeon Peter Pitt. I found the book to be very interesting, with numerous references to khukuris. For example, according to Dr. Pitt, local villages allow three different types of punishment for adultery. In the first, the seducer, unarmed, is given a twenty-five-yard headstart before being chased by the wronged husband, who is armed with his favorite khukuri. If the husband catches the man, the husband may dispense whatever bodily harm he is physically capable of, including beheading. Other villages give the guilty party a fifty-yard headstart, and he has to be caught by sundown; if he survies till then he is a free man. The third form of punishment allows the adulterer only a mere one-yard headstart. However, he must be caught and brought down within a hundred-yards, and the husband, if he catches the offender, is allowed only one swing of the khukuri, but the blow can be directed at any portion of the adulterer's anatomy. Dr. Pitt did point out that these practices are technically illegal in Nepal, but that many remote villages still adhere only to their own law. And I have to mention, too, that this book is about 25 years old. Incidentally, Dr. Pitt wrote that in every instance, adulterous women are simply banished, and usually end up working in the cities in "houses of ill-repute."
I guess the lesson to be learned here is that if you're planning on committing adultery in a remote Nepalese village, you'd better be in real good shape and be able to run like Hell!
[This message has been edited by Steven F (edited 30 December 1999).]
I guess the lesson to be learned here is that if you're planning on committing adultery in a remote Nepalese village, you'd better be in real good shape and be able to run like Hell!
[This message has been edited by Steven F (edited 30 December 1999).]
