THE CHINESE CANGUE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1834, 14 January 1887, Page 33

THE CHINESE CANGUE.

With Father Pinabel vanished the last sup-, port of the Mission of Laos. 'Sixty Christian communitaes had bjecp .destroyed, 32; churches burned, several huqdred3,.of, Christians niaasacred, and 4($K) ne^'piiy tes.^hunted j like wiid^ beasts, .'were .pandering. , in., the ! 'uiodntaihs'r, '"yVell might , ( the ' venerable/ Bid; i hbp" 6t Wesib tTonquin" write : •• Hd\y.,'many ' times" have I thought of the saintly Job' in his trials 1 ; For tio me, as r to him, messages of fresh disaster, arrive without ceasing.' - • It has been said that the 'Anamitcsjhave ho' talent for' ir/ventioii. In regard to artps and sciences this may be true, but in respect to torture if is" an'efrorV" "Tfiey Ifuow how to employ unheard of refinements" in the application of the" 5 most punishments. The cangne, that favourite punishment of the Chinese, was in .frequent requisition. This instrument is a cage of crossbars formed of bamboos, or of heavy wood or iron. In this the prisoner's body is inclosed, his head projects above, and his legs' from the knee downward are free below. Thus iicamtrecl, ihe victim must be the prop and- support of his own portable jail :he carries abont his own dungeon, and he cannot lie down id rest, but must pass whole days and m ights on his feet, for the poles attached to the cangue keep him in an" upright position. A rangue may weigh 1001b or only 201b, but in iitiy caseit is a dreadful torture, kept on a» it is \ for periods of ' six hours or six weeks. " Imagine,"' says it writer on the Chinese j system of pnnisliirmnt, "days and- nights of | • cramp and sleeplessness, the harassing things of the mosquitoes and other tormenting insects worrying the naked skin, ujkl ho' hand to brush them away, the scorching sun,' and no screen ; the chilly night, and no covering; weariness, dizzy brains, limbs racked by diie fatigue, fever, delirium, the press'uie of the hard yoke on the galled shoulders, the strangling cqlla.-, the agony of long want of sleep, the thirst, the ridicule that the -wearer is exposed to from the idle urchins in the street." Prisoners often go niad in the cangue, it is said ; they fall asleep on their feet, like ■ horses, from sheer exhaustion ; they perish and are found dead in their cages."'