21. Rations served out early this morning.

I have forgotten to mention before that there are about six hundred prisoners in this room, divided into squads of twenty.

One man draws the rations for the twenty and cuts it up.

Each man has a number from one to twenty.

The twenty rations are put out separately on the floor, and one turns his back and the sergeant points to a ration and says, "Who takes this ?"

and the man with his back turned to the ration says- "one," "two," "five" or "ten," as the case may be, on up till the twenty are served.

This is done to prevent the sergeant from showing any favor to any particular one.