"OFF WITH HIS HEAD." AN INTERVIFW WITH CHINESE HIGH EXECUTIONERS.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2, 2 July 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

" OFF WITH HIS HEAD." AN INTERVIFW WITH CHINESE HIGH EXECUTIONERS.

I onco visited Oanton with souie companions, and, of course, we did the sights there. We visited pagodas and temples galore, silk factories, an artificial duck-egg-hatohing company's premises, jade and ivory shops, pawn shops, cat and dog butcher's shops, and the city water-clock, all of which have been " done " and described before innumerable. During our meanderings in the city our ears were asailed with the Cathay synonym of the Egyptian bakseesh cry, till the caverns of onr brains resounded and echoed with it. " Cumshaw ! cumahaw! " yelled immature possessors of pigtails, and mature possessors echoed the, sound where ever we went. When the youngsters' requests were not complied with, they, after a little, invariably changed they cry to " Fanquai ! fanquai ! " (foreign devil, foreign devil). We marched into the magisterial yamun to tn"e accompaniment of the cumshaw tune. Here we were Bhown the instruments whereby bamboo chow chow is given to the nadal callosities of the wicked, also ratans and short bludgeons for .slapping the faces of untruthful witnesses, thumbscrews and racks for exacting confessions (no criminal can be executed according to the laws of China until he has confessed his crime), canquls, a species of collar which for largness and uncomfortableness even outstrip the mashers', and which are rectangular planes of wood with neck and hand holes. The gloomy, small depository room of these torture implements we thought to be a fair representation of what a European mediaeval chamber of '"justice" had been. We were next taken in our sedan chairs through an overcrowded busy part of the city to the execution ground, passing on our way the new Roman Catholio Cathedral, whose gigantic spires pierce the clouds. The execution ground we found to be a small enclosed rectangular space, about fifteen yards by fifty, entered by a gate. On the right on entering ran a row of small squalid honaoa, the habitations o£ potters whose rough, unbaked work lay all about on the ground, drying in the sun, but we were informed that it was cleared away when an execution was about to take place. Facing the potters' houses was a high wall, at whose base, and leaning against it, were some large crocks, all of which had their mouths earthed over except one. Here our guide introduced us to three poorly dressed Chinamen, whom we noticed gambling at a fantan table near the gate on our arrival. One, a big, brutishlooking fellow with a villainous cast in one of his eyes, was the head executioner, and the other two, who were smallish men, were his assistants. Through our guide we told the head executioner that we wished to see the instruments of his calling, and thereon he produced a short, very heavy, two-handed sword and a long knife. The following conversation was carried on between us and this " boss " through the medium of our guide : — " How do you use this sword ? Where is the block ? " "We don't use a block. What we do is to make fie prisoners kneel down in two rowt. facing one another, and bending their heads down. Then I take the sword, and chop, chop, one on each side, and the heads fall off ; bo on, till they are all done, as you'd switch the tops off green weeds with your walkingstick." "But you don't always chop a head off' with one blow ?" " Always." • ' What is the knife for ?" " For the ling che, or death by many cuts. We tie the culprit .who is condemned to this death to that cross there" (pointing to two rough unbarked sticks roughly crossed), " and we commence by cutting off the eyelids, ears, nose, and so on, ending by sticking the knife into the heart. The cuts~vary in number from eight to a hundred and twenty, according i to the heinousness of the culprit'B j crimes." ! " What class of criminals are con- ' demned .to the ling che ?" " Parri-

cides, matricides, and women who have killed and mutilated their husbands form tho majority." " Do the executions interfere with your appetite and sleep ?" The thrpe executioners grinned sardonically at this question, so we asked : "How many persons have you executed in a day?" "I have chopped twenty heads off myself in two minutes. See that dark looking place on the ground over there — that's caused by the blood of the last batch we had." " What is done with the bodies ?" " The friends take the bodies away, but we keep the heads in the crocks over by the wall there, and when we have a large number which are no longer identifiable, we bury them. Would you like to see some of the heads ?" We declined, and one of my companions began to grow pale and complain of not feeling well, so we ordered the guide to lead us away. " Gentlemen, give twenty cents each, cumshaw, to the executioners," said the guide, which we gladly did to escape from the staring of the " boss " butcher's swivel eye ; and j so ended our interview with these High Executioners of the Great Chinese Empire. j