The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-05
TORTURE IN THE EAST.
How Captain Riviere and His Men Suffered
Death-Chinese Methods of Torture.

IN THE EAST
How Captain Rivere and His Men Suffered
Death-Chinese Methods of Torture.
A cable dispatch gives the frightful intel
ligence that Captain Riviere, the commander
of the French forces occupying Fort Hanoi,
in Cochin China, being captured in a Skin
mish with the Annamites, with fifteen of his
men, was executed on the following day with
the rest of the prisoners. The Paris Gaulols
claims that the unfortunate men suffered
death from implement, mode of death so
cruel and revolving that in case the report of
the Gaulois should be confirmed, this outrage
would doubtless call down on its infamous
perpetrators the indignation of the whole civ
ilized world. The impaling of persons SEN
fenced to death for great crimes has been
practced in the East for many centuries In
Turkey, where this punishment was most fire.
quently inflicted, asssssins, whose crimes were
of an aggravated character, were always con-
demned to die on the pole; and the traveller
who penetrates into the interior of Asia
Minor will now and then, even in our times,
ride past slender posts erected along the road
side, on which the skeletons of the unfortu-
mates are hanging who have been put to
death in this horrible manner.
Saint Edine in his DictonEaire de la
Penaltie describes the manner in which this
punishment is inflicted as follows;
THE unfortunate man who is to suffer
death by implement is laid fiat on the
ground, face downward. His hands are tied
OIL MS back, and one of the executioner's as
sistants sits down on his back, so that the
victim cannot move. second assistant
holds the culprit's head firmly to the
ground, and a third assistant seizes his
legs, which he holds SO that he cannot
approaches with the instrument
OF Death long stake or pole, which he
pushes into the body from behind. The pole
tapers almost to point, but is rounded off
somewhat at the end so that it will not PEN
citrate the entrals all at once The eXecu-
toner pushes this pole into the flesh as far
as he can with his hands, whereupon fourth
assistant drives it in still further with a
mallet. Now the pole, which has penetra-
ted deeply into the body of the doomed
man, is set upright into the ground and the
victim is left to die upon it. The weight of
the body presses it further down upon the
stake every moment, and the point finally
protrudes from the breast or side of the cul-
prit. Some Of those upon whom this horri-
BILE punishment has been inflicted died
quickly, and their suffering was over, but
others are said to have suffered untold agony
for hours and even days before death put an
end to their torments."
Implement, horrible as it is, is not the
cruelest punishment inflicted in oriental
countries Particularly the Chinese and the
inhabitants of AMMAN, Cochin China and
Siam seem to have exhausted all their pow
ers OF invention in devising new and insult
ferable torments for criminals or persons
who had incurred the hatred of the rulers of
those countries In China rebels and traitors
are literally cut into thousand pieces. The
execurioner who is to carry out this dreadful
sentence fastens the prisoner, who is tied
hand and foot with chain to post and
makes an incision over the forehead OF his
victim. He pulls the skin of the forehead
over the eyes OF tine sufferer so that he can
no longer see. large basket with small
knives is now placed beside the executioner,
who shakes them up several times
and then takes them up, one
by one. On each knife is written the name
of part of the human body, which the fend
who takes the instrument of torture from
the basket proceeds to lacerate slowly. Little
pieces OF flesh and skin are cut from the
struggling wretch, and when the executioner
has cut and slashed one part in his opinion,
sufficiently. be takes another knife from the
basket and proceeds as before until at last
all the knives have been taken from the bas-
ket But while the victim suffers horrible
torments the executioner operates on him
with such skill that no vital parts are touch
ed, and death does not come to the relief of
the sufferer And when all the numbers OF
bleeding body of the unfortunate man is
thrown to ravenous dogs, who, more merci-
full than their masters, soon put an end to the
the agonies of the doomed man.
Another punishment, said to have been in
fcted in China on great criminals, consisted
in being brushed to death" The instru-
ment employed in this torture was a wire
brush, with which the executioner brushed
or rather scraped off the flesh of the ulprit,
proceeding which naturally consumed a
great deal OF time. The tormentor with con-
summate skill, brushed around all great
veins and arteries to prevent the victim from
bleeding to death, and kept him alive for a
long time.
In Siam the death penalty was inflicted on
rebels by having them trampled to death by
elephants. Others had a small cocoanut
forced into their mouth, so that they had to
starve.
Other horrible pnnshments have been in
1cted by Oriental despots, and many OF
them have taken particular pains to vary
the pains, changing the mode of their tor
ment with every sufferer But the above in
stances will suffice to show what cruelties
re practiced in those countries.