Decapitee

Wicker has not been used at all this season, but his great work of the last two years seems to preclude the posibility^([sic]) of Bob’s being the decapitee.

The most interesting (and clearest) was one of a decapitation carried out in the presence of a mandarin and an appreciative crowd of villagers. The utility of the queue was noteworthy. The decapitee was kneeling.

For, observe: “Ko-Ko” reels off a “little list” of eligible victims (regardless of his subsequent statement that “flirting is the only crime punishable with decapitation”), and then apparently forgets all about it when “Pooh-Bah” and “Pish-Tush” assure him that he himself is the obvious decapitee.

Moreover, instead of murder, the act of decapitation contains no malice or evil intent. It is a purely impersonal mater—except to the decapitee.

Pilgrims may still visit her head, along with the skulls of many other holy men and virgins in the church of the classic decapitee, John the Baptist, at Lumiar.