What's The Purpose?

A British anthropologist was doing field research in an isolated African village, when a tribal chief asked if he would like to be his guest at a legal trial he was conducting later that day.

- "We have copied your country's legal procedures from what we have read in the accounts of many English trials in your newspapers, and incorporated them into our judicial system." proudly stated the chief.

- When the Brit arrived at the wooden courthouse, he was amazed to see how closely the African court officials tried to resemble those of England.
The counsels were suitably attired in long black robes and the traditional white powdered wigs worn by all British jurists. Each argued his case with eloquence and in proper judicial language.

- But he was puzzled by the occasional appearance of a bare-breasted native girl running through the crowd waving her arms frantically.

- After the trial, the anthropologist congratulated his host on what he had seen and then asked, "What native purpose does the semi-nude woman signify running through the courtroom during the trial?"

- "I really don't know", confessed the Chief, "but in all the accounts we read in the British papers about trials in the Royal Courts, there was invariably something mentioned about "an excited titter" running through the gallery".

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