Year: 1860

Wife and ParamOrr Punished by the


BOwstring and YataGhan.


The Levant Herald of March I, has the an
nexed account of an execution at Constanti-
nople;


On Sunday morning, the wife and para
niour, tile murderer of the late Ferik Ibrahim
Pasha, suffered the last penalty of the law at
the Stamboul end of Karakeui Bridge. As
the sentence of the condemned couple had
been confirmed several days before by the
Sultan, it would have been Immediately car
ried into effect but for the difficulty of find
ing an executioner, the popular feeling as to
such services being now widely different
from what it was in the good old times"
when the bowstring and the scimetar were
seldom day unused. AT last, however, the
(considered) high wages of FIVE hundred
piasters induced gipsey to undertake the
job, and on Sunday morning, accordingly,
this now unusual tragedy was performed in
the area in front Of the fowl-shops beyond
= Shortly after FIVE o'clock (Frahk time) the
prisoners were brought from the Zaptieh
prison, under guard of soldiers and can
vasses--the man on foot, with his hands tied
behind him, and the woman in sedan chair
On arriving at the end of the bridge, the
guard formed into half-circle, shutting out
the crowd of fifty or sixty people who had
gathered behind them on the way from the
Zaptieh. The woman was then handed out
of the chair, and, from the sudden tremor
which seized on her. after catching sight Of
the two upright poles with their grim cross
bean and the movements of preparation
among the guard, it was evident that what
could at most have been only suspicion in
! her mind before, then flashed into terrible
certainty. She moaned piteously at first,
then broke into low cry of 'dmdn, dBldR.
(mercy mercy, and asked what they were
| going to do with her. She was told, "merely
to exile her" and thus partly quieted, was
led into the old black wooden Khan at the
corner of the street. There she was i'm
mediately seized and pinioned screaming and
! struggling fearfully the while, till the moose,
rapidly slipped over her head and pulled at
either end bya cayass, had done its.quieting
work. The body was then carried out and
hung Jon the frail g,.llows for it.
While this half of the tragedy had been in
course of accomplishment within the khan,
the male culprit had suffered his punishment
outside. As soon as the woman was removed
into the building, an officer read aloud q
statement of the prisoners crime and SEN
tence-announced to the wretched man for
the first time. He was then told to kneel
down, which he did, stretching forward his
neck without hesitation or resistance, but
looking, as II bystander remarked, like man
who had died yesterday. The Gypsy then
drew his yataghan' "a heavy, inwardly-curv-
ing blade) and struck a single-handed blow
close to the shoulder end Of the neck; the
criminal fell over on his face and made few
convulsive struggles, but three additional
hacks from the sword of a cayass at length
severed the head entirely from the trunk, and
completed the judicial butchery. The head
was then placed up by the side Of the body
which, with that of the woman, remained eX-
posed to view throughout the day. with pla-
cards announcing their crime stitched to the
front of both. Since last week, we have been
informed that jealousy, and not criminal
intrigue with the male murderer, was the
| impelling motive of the woman's share in
her husbands death. The latter it appears
had taken to himself young slave, and
maddened by his refusal to turn away thi:
trespasser on the conjugal domain, the
wretched wife planned and accomplished the
old mans death as we have related. d