It is the vara the Indians respect, not the man who carries it.
No supreme court in any civilised community is so highly respected and so implicitly obeyed as were the simple, grave men sitting in front of the crumbling adobe wall and holding on to their canes with a solemnity that would have been ridiculous, if it had not been sublime.
Four "soldiers" formed a line on each side.

There was nothing to distinguish them from ordinary civilians, except their "lances," or bamboo sticks to which bayonet points had been fastened.

These lances they planted in the ground and seated themselves.

Presently the two culprits, a man and a woman, came forward, with never a suggestion in their placid faces that they were the chief actors in the drama about to be enacted.

They seated themselves in front of the judges, while the witnesses took their places behind them.