Note 6 — Chapter XXXVI · THE PENAL COLONY OF KARA.

Thus the prisoners make laws for themselves and invest their seniors with a good deal of power. In this matter there is “honour among thieves.” I was told, for instance, that east of Tomsk the sentinels ask an oath of the prisoners that they will not attempt to escape, and then give them certain liberties. My informant said that he had sometimes met gangs of prisoners alone, their sentinels having stayed behind to drink at a public-house. When a general promise has been thus given, should one dare to run away, he is pursued by the others, and when caught is thrashed, or loaded, according to M. Andreoli, with a sack of earth tied on his back. I have even heard of a gang of exiles sentencing one of their number to death for the breach of some law of their own making, the sentence being carried out of course unknown to the authorities—such cases, I presume, being very rare.