The Washington bee., 1899-05-27
A CURIOUS CUSTOM.
PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS THxr WAS
FORMERLY IN VOGUE IN EuScPE.

They Were Sometimes Put to the Rack in
Order to Extort Confession-In Other In
stances They Were Buried Alive-Pigs
Hanged or Burned for Murder.
Beasts were often condemned to be
burned alive, and, strangely enough, it
was in the latter half of the seven
teenth century, an age of comparative
enlightenment. that this cruel penalty
was most frequently inflicted Occasi-
onally a merciful judge adhered to the
letter of the law by sentencing the cul-
prit to be slightly Singed, and then TO
be strangled before being burned.
Sometimes they were condemned to be
buried alive. Such was the fate suf-
fered by two pigs in 1856, ION the vigil
of the holy virgin" at Oppenheim-On-
the Rhine. for killing child. Animals
were even put to the rack in order to
eXtort confession. 1t is not to be sup
posed that the judge had the
slightest expectation that any con-
fesSion would be made; he wished
simply to observe all forms pre-
scribed by the law, and to set in
motion the whole machinery of justice
before pronounciIg judgment. 1.-The
question:" which IN such cases would
seem to be only wantOn and super
tiuOus act Of cruelty, was nevertheless
an important element in determining
the final decision, since the death SEN
tence could be commuted into Danish
ment provided the criminal had not
confessed under torture. The use of
the rack was therefore a means of eS-
Gaping the gallows. Appeals were
sometimes made to higher tribunals.
and the judments of the lower courts
annulled or modified. In one instance
a SOW and a She-aSs were condemned
to be hanged; on appeal and after Il
new trial they were sentenced to be
simply Knocked on the head. In an
other instance an appeal led to the ac-
quittal of the accused.
In i266, at Fontenay aux Roses, near
Paris pig, convicted of having eaten
Il child. was publicly burned by order
of the monks of Sainte- e-Genevieve. In
1886 the tribunal Of FalaiSe sentenced
n SOW to be mangled and MANNED in
the head and leg, and then to be hang
ed for having torn the face and arm
of n child and caused its death. Here
we have strict application of the lex
tallOniS. The SOW was dressed in mans
clothes and executed in the public
square, near the city hall. at the eX-
pense to the state of ten sous and ten
deniers, besides Il pair of gloves to the
hangman.
The eXecutioner was provided with
new gloves in order that he might
=. -. 4
with clean hands. thus indicating that
as Il minister of justice he incurred no
guilt in shedding blood. He was not
a common butcher of swine, but pub
lie functionary, a 'maSter of high
works (maitre des hautes oeuvreS1
as he was officially styled. In 1894 n
pig was found guilty of having killed
and murdered j child in the parish of
ROumaygne. in the county of MOrtaing,
for which deed said pig was condem-
ned to be drawn and hanged by .Iehan
Petit. lieutenant of the bailiff.'
There is also eXtant an order issued
by the magiStracy of GiSOrS in 1405.
commanding payment TO be made to
the carpenter who had erected the
Scaffold on which an OK had been exc
cuted "for it's demeritS."
On the 9th of June, 1876 at Schwein-
furt. in Franconia. SOW which had
bitten off the ear and torn the hand of
Il child was given in custody to the
hangman, who without furtherauthor-
ity. took it to the gallows green and
there hanged it publicly. to the dis
grace and detriment of the city"
On the 10th Of January, 1851. sow
was convicted of murder. committed
on the person of an infant name Jehan
Martin of Savigny. and sentenced to be
hanged. Her six sucklings were also
included in the Indictment as accompli-
ceS. but in default of positive proof
that they had assisted in mangling the
deceased, they were restored to their
owner. on condition that he should
give bail for their appearance should
further evidence he forthcoming to
prove their completely in their mothers
crime"
Tie Knowing shark.
A painful moment on board ship at
sea is that when some poor mortal.
who has died on the voyage. has to be
laid away in the bosom of the deep
with the simple ceremonies of an ocean
burial.
vessel carrying a dead body and
passing through waters frequented by
sharks is almost sure to be followed by
one or more of those fishes if it does
not out-speed them.
Rather than bury corpse while
sharks are following the vessel the
captain will sometimes have body
placed in the ice chamber and full
steam put on the engines until the
hungry fishes have dropped astern
completely
In cne case at ica=t body was actu-
ally cremated on board by the can
tain'S orders because of the sharks.
But sharks are not often obstacles to
prompt burial. and, generally speaking,
when death occurs at sea the body is
slipped into the water at night with
none to witness the proceeding but q
couple of the crew and the captain.
who reads an abridgment of the serv-
ice from the Prayer Book