CHINESE PUNISHMENTS.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 286, 7 June 1909, Page 8

CHINESE PUNISHMENTS.

The code of fantastic punishments with which Mr Gilbert delighted us in "The Mikado" may or may not have any reality in Japan; but they certainly have their parallels in the land of the Dragon. Sometimes, for instance, an offender is placed in a cage, through the top of which his head protrudes, and which is just long enough to allow the tips of his toes to touch \he ground. 'T-hus suspended, with just enough support from his feet to prevent the dislocation of the nock, he dangles for days, jeered at by the p ; asser-by, till he starves „to death. Parricides, , according to the oxtreme , penalty : of the law/are cut to pieces, the ; . murdered being fastened to a cross, and while thus suspended, ciits are made by the executioner into the flashy parts of his body, and ho is ultimately decapitated. Offonders of high rank are strangled, the victim being sent to ( prison with a silken cord, and left to execute himself, just as Koko was supposed to do. In 1861 a prince of the blood was called upon to put an end to his existence in this way for treason; but his nerves failed him, and. the goalers had to be called in to carry out the sentence. Decapitation has become quite a fine art. A block is used, the neck of the victim being simply stretched, to its ; full length, and by one blow, literally a short, sharp shock, the head is soon rolling on the ground. For minor offences, all sorts of punishments are used and the stocks, long since abolished in England, are in constant use. The Chines© stocks are peculiarly disagreeable; but, then, the whole theory of torture is very refined in the flowery East.>