Retold tales

The man in the mosquito net.- Tale told to us by Geri

                An academic friend of mine had an uncle who had his own ways of solving problems in life. His house had a menace of mosquitos all times of the day and night. This had got worse, with the culture of throw-away plastic wrappings. These were an ideal receptacle for rain water, which collected here and were ideal breeding grounds for mosquitos. The menace of the mosquitos was worse at night just as he was falling asleep. The jet like buzz of mosquitos near his ear, was  the worst to bear.

                This gentleman used to sleep under a mosquito net which had seen better days. There were holes in the nets here and there and the mosquitos would get into the net after he went to sleep and start tormenting him. This was worse in the early part of the night. He devised a plan. He would get under the net with the holes and wait there. About a half an hour was sufficient to get hordes of mosquitos going through the holes in the net to attack him. At the end of half an hour he would quietly lift a side of the net and slip out. The mosquitos trapped inside the net were easily killed by squashing the net. Then he would sleep outside with a lesser number of mosquitos left alive in the room whose doors and windows were already closed. He swore that this way the mosquito disturbance to his sleep was minimized.

'Hung by his pubic hair'

          In our third year at medical college, Forensic Medicine was one of the more entertaining subjects. The fire-arms on exhibit and the knowledge of their workings was one I studied avidly. The book on Forensic Medicine by Sir Sydney Smith was voluminous and was a classic. We used as a text book a smaller text by Keith Simpson. Sir Sydney Smith was already known in Ceylon as a person who appeared as an expert witness in the Sathasivam murder case. Sathasivam was an ex captain of the Cricket team of Ceylon. His wife from whom he was separated was found murdered one day. Sir Sydney Smith's evidence indicated that the servant in the house-hold was responsible. He had subsequently written a book called 'Mostly murder" which came out as a paper-back and which we all read, as part of our syllabus

Bending the knee.

          One of our lecturers cited to us a case of rape. In this case the only evidence was a pubic hair found at the site of the crime. This pubic hair, matched that of the accused, who was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to death. Our lecturer concluded that the "suspect was hung, by his pubic hair". These were the days before DNA matching.

          There was another case of rape cited in the lectures where, a big made tall woman accused a shortish man of raping her. At the cross-examination she was asked how the sex act was done. She replied 'standing'. Then she was asked how it was possible, with her being so tall. She replied 'I bent a little at the knees'. The case was dismissed.