Working in a two-man team, on opposite sides of the animal, packers sling a pair of manty-wrapped loads to the sides of a mule's aparejo and lay a 12-15-metre (40-50ft) lash rope gently across his creature's back.

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And Tampa, like so many communities across our country, has felt the lash of shuttered businesses and lost jobs and home foreclosures and vanished or dwindling savings.

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"The cane was rife and it wasn't just a lash on the back of someone's trousers - nine times out of 10 it was six across your knuckles that would make them bleed and, if you flinched or removed your hand, you would get six more, " he said.

BBC: Suffolk