American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1856-11-08

ed to. There was no farmer in Eng
land that did not care more for his stock
than the East India Company did for
these human beings intrusted to their
charge.
The various modes of torture resort
ed to are thus described in the Edin-
burg Review: .f
. The tortures which the Commission
ers find to have been employed are of
various kinds and of different degrees
Of severity. Some of them arc SO light
as to amount to little more than me-
mace. Some of them are SO severe as
to cause not only extreme present pain,
but permanent injuries, mutilation, &
even, not unfrequcntly death. Some
of them exhibit an amount of diaboli-
Cal ingenuity on the part Of the tortur-
er, and a degree of moral abasement
and degradation on the victim, of which
our western minds can hardly form
conception; some, in fine, are so loath-
some and indecent, and at the same
time SO excrutiating, that although
they arc set down nakedly in the Re-
port, we must abstain from any specific
allusion to their nature.
The two most common forms of tor
turc appear to be the Kittec Tin Teloo-
goo called Checreta, and the annundal
which IN the same language is called
Gingeri.
The kittce corresponds with the
thumb screw of the European torture.
1t is u wooden instrument somewhat
like monsqueczer, between the plates
Of which the hands, the thighs, (in wo-
men also the Breasts the ears, and O.
ther more sensitive parts of the body
are squeezed to the last point of endu-
rance, often to fainting, and even to
permanent disablement. In many pla-
ces the kittee has been superseded by
the more simple plan of violently COM
pressing the hands under fat board,
on which heavy pressure is laid
some times by the poems standing upon
it; or of compelling the sufferer to in
terlacc his fingers, and delivering him
over to the iron gripe Of the poems (or
policemen,) who sometimes rub their
hands with sand, in order to give them
a firmer grippe. In other cases the fin
gers are bent back until the pain be-
comes uncomfortable. aat n
The ani,andal is more purely cas-
tern torture. 1t consists in tying the
victim in a STOPPING or otherwise pain
ful and unnatural position, generally
with the head forcibly bent down to the
feet, by arope or cloth passed round
the neck and under the toes. The tor
ture, however, is varied at the caprice
of the eXecutioner. Sometimes the
poor wretch is made to stand on one
leg, the other being forcibly tied up to
his neck. Sometimes the arms & legs
are curiously intcrlaccd, and the frame
thus violently distorted, is kept bound
up for hours, in condition little short
of dislocation. Sometimes % heavy
stone is laid upon the back, while thus
bent; and it often happens that the pc
ons amusc themselves by sitting astride
upon the unhappy sufferer who is an
dergoing annundal. More than one of
the witnesses depose TO the inaiction of
this torture under the fierce India sun
upon a number of defauters placed to-.
gcther in rows for two, three, four, and
even six hours; and this is in the imme-
diato vicinity Of the cutchcrry OF rev.
cnuc Office, and in the presence of the
tahsildcr, or native collector, and Of the
assembled villagers. ..
| Occasionally q man is held aloft
from tho ground by the cars, by the
hair, and even by the mustachio; and
the latter torture, in some instances, is
applied as savagcly as to tear away
the mustaChio by the roots. Some
times q sort Of bastinado is inflicted,
sometimes violent blows on the shin,
the ancle, the elbows, or other highly
sensitive points or parts. Prolonged
immersion in the water tanks or the
river, ,forcible compression of the arms,
the thighs, and even the body, by ty-
ing coil of coir rope around them, &
. then applying cold water SO as to cause
it to contract and sink into the flesh,
burning it with hot iron; hanging hca-
Wy stones around the neck; the stocks;
tying two or moro individuals together
by the hair, so that every movement is
attended with pain; placing a necklace
| of bones or other disgusting or degra-
ding materials round the neck; these
are few of the minor in1ictions de vi
sed by these masters of the oriental
school of torture. Jf we add to these
q few practices like those used at home
by amateurs of the turf or the ring, for
the purpose Of "rcducing aesh;" such
as starvation, prolonged deprivation of