The Democratic advocate., 1883-10-13
Appalling Punishments.


dalize civilization even at the present day,
it would be unfair to judge the people By
any standard common to the civilized races.
Something must be allowed for the habits
Of Orientals, who, for generations past, have
known the worst barbarities. Something, |
too, must be allowed for that contempt of
death which an Oriental, whether he be
Hindoo, Mohammedan or Buddhist, has
had instiIled into him from his earliest
days. The extraordinary punishments at
one time current all over the East, and
still in vogue in places which have not
come under the influence of a more or less
enlighted Western power, are traceable to
that same contempt of death and to certain
familiarity with death. Tyrants found
that by ordinary methods of execution they
could inspire no terror. A man accepted
death complacently as his fate, which, if it
did not come later, might Just as well come
sooner. He did not consider that year
or two in the long cycles of eternity made
much difference one way or another. His
mind projected far beyond the three-score
years and ten allotted toman by the Psalmist
Therefore, the tyrannical rulers, in order to
make themselves feared and felt, were
compelled to superadd tortures to the pen
atty of death.
The practice of suttee, or widow-burn-
ing, is a striking example of the fearless
ness Of the Hindoo for death. Forty years
ago Young woman, whose husband had
died, would joyfully mount the pyre and
fire the wood herself, so that she might
the sooner rejoin her lord in paradise. The
holocaust of Chittore is one of the most
remarkable deeds Of female resolution and
courage ever recorded. When the Mogul
invaders entered Rajpootana, the Rajpoot
warriors were defeated. Then three hun
dred Rajpoot ladies solemnly vowed that
they would never fall into the possession of
any Mohammedan. They proceeded to the
tall tower of Chittore, which stands
blackened but venerated mark to this day,
and locked themselves within it. Then
when the Mogul army appeared before its
gates, they sang a song of triumph and
defiance, and set the tower on fire, perishing
thus gallantly before the eyes of the aston
ished Mohammedan warriors. Twas talk
ing once with an old Anglo-Indian resident
about the apparent cruelty of Burmese ex-
ecutions | mentioned the public crucifix
ions | had often seen in Mandalay and the
number of deaths which would be ordered
pte please the whim of a tyrant
- perhaps to do honor to such brute as
: the so-called white elephant. He replied
that he lived in native state of Hindostan
many years ago, when it was customary to
put persons to death with accompaniments
of the most revolving cruelty. Sufocation
by crowding masses of human beings in a
small dungeon, as was done in the famous
case Of the Black Hole of Calcutta, was
common enough, but ingenuity of the
most diabolical description was called into
requisition to produce death and torture.
In all parts of India the cactus, or prick
" pear bush, is common. 1t is very thick,
and literally covered with thorny spines.
Years ago, before the British became pre-
dominant in Hindostan, maharajahs and
rajahs discovered in the cactus an excellent
instrument of death and torture Strip
ping their victim naked, they would cast
him clear into the middle Of clump of
cactus, and leave him there. You would
think he could easily scramble out and
escape. Impossible. The moment he was
cast into the fatal bed, the spines or thorns
enter him in a thousand directions, and
every effort he made to free himself only
sank him deeper into the relentless cactus
clump. Meanwhile the blazing sun beats
down upon the miserable wretch, whose
groans and screams are passed unheeded by
every soul who hears them. Paralysis
evidently sets in.
Another Hindoo mode of punishment
mentioned by my old Anglo-Indian friend
was equally horrible You are probably
acquainted with the fact that the bamboo
plant grows with wonderful rapidity in
tropical climate This fact did not escape
the notice of Hindoo tyrants. Sharpening
bamboo shoot, and planting it in the
earth with the sharp end upward, they
would order the victim 20 be led to it.
Looking around, he would see no instru-
ment of death near by, and feel relieved,
perhaps, that his life was to be spared.
His torturers would congratulate him, and
ask nlul W De SceOcu OH Tic edTIH. he
would obey. They would place his body
Immediately above the concealed bamboo
shoot and then tie him down by stakes so
that he could not move. As night wore
on the victim would realize his fate. He
would find that slowly, but with terrible
certainty, the bamboo was growing up into
his body. He was generally left to his
fate Growing at the rate of two or three
inches night the sharp-pointed shoot
would finally put an end to his suferings
by penetrating a vital part. But before
that took place what an eternity of agony
the wretch must have passed through 1t
is impossible to conceive what the sufferings
of such wretch must have been, with that
bamboo shoot slowly and inexorably grow
ing through his living body Fortunately,
before the end came, complete insanity
generally obscured the consciousness of the
sufferer.
Death by being trampled under foot by
elephants used to bea common punishment
in the East, and there are parts of it yet
which still employ that means of destruc-
ton. A chain is wound around the ele-
plants hind leg and the victims body.
Then the elephant is bounded on to his
clumsy amble by torches dashed in his face
or frecrackers exploded beneath his body
Wildly, furiously, he plunges along, drag
ging the prisoner with him, at every lurch
breaking bone in the victims body,
crushing his face to the ground, or tearing
the flesh from the bones A few hours of
this-sometimes less time, because the
tormented animal, feeling the obstacle at
its heels, turns round and either puts its
foot through the man or pounds him to
Jelly with its trunk-sufices to kill the
victim, who expires while the plaudits of
spectators are still mingling in the at
mosphere with his last agonizing breath.
Here, in Burmah, such punishment has
been often seen of late, but, in the arena
of the Gaekwar of Baroda, in the presidency
of Bombay, there is scarcely stone left
unspattered by the blood of poor crushed
and mangled Mahrattas and Guzerattees
whose death at one time-not so very long
ago-furnished Hindoo holiday. Thank
God such atrocities have now passed away
in British Hindostan, and before many
years they may have even become obsolete
in conservative countries like Independent