Accompanied by the man’s scream of anguish, an assistant picks the severed limb out of the mud and tosses it out into the crowd. The fingers and hand of an executed criminal bring good luck—the thumb in particular promises protection from the law when a theft is undertaken, and thieves are both numerous and superstitious. The hand will be cut up and sold by the street urchin who manages to wriggle out of the grasp of his competitors.
