AN EASTERN BLUEBEARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 78

AN EASTERN BLUEBEARD.

KING OF ANNAM TORTURES HIS WIVES TO DEATH.

Than Thai, - King, or, as he is sometinr.- tailed, limperor of Annam, the mu;-l fantastically cruel monarch of modem timte, has been condemned to perpetual exile in Algeria by the French Government.

Than Thai murdered 20 of his pretty little wives with tortures of inconceivable cruelty and horror.

Annain is a large country of southeastern Asia, which is»under a French protectorate. France permits the native Emperor to rule his own country absolutely, in internal affairs except where French interests are specially concerned. Thus it happened tliat the Emperor was afc liberty to carry on murder and torture in his harem for many weeke before anybody ventured to interfere.

Finally the French authorities broke into the Emperor's paluce, which he had! turned into a morass of blood, and, seized the crazy monarch. That was nearly two yean* ago. Since then the Emperor has been kept under restraint and close observation.

He has just beou trjed. for his crimes by a court consisting of French officials and doctors. They listened to a recital of his terrible deeds, and decided that it was unsafe to allow him to remain in his own country, even under restraint, because his sympathisers were liable to set him at liberty and give him an opportunity to resume his atrocities among the female population of the country. Than Thai has, therefore, been condemned to exile for life in Algeria, the - French colony on the Mediterranean, which, of course, if thousands of miles away from his own country. lii Algeria he will not be permitted to have any wives at all. because it is pretty certain he would kill some of them in a paroxysm/ of fury. This deprvation will, doubtless,

lave an aggravating effect upon the already diseased naiud -of the pleasure-lov-ing monarch, and it is probat>le that lie .will die a raving maniac. He will be closely guarded by French soldiers in Algeria, and abundance of harmless toys ■will be famished him to distract iris mind, but they will hardly compensate him for the lost, of his wives. Than Thai gave -the 'first' evidence >f ■maniacal fury by shooting down one of his venerable uncles, who was a member of the Council -of i;he Royal F-amily. This .was but a preliminary which, like the firet ■taste -of blood to the tiger, excited his passion for more. The next day he assembled all his (wives in the throne-room, according to the accounts of native eye-witnesses. The poor little creatures knelt before him as if he were a divinity. His eyes were bloodshot and inflamed with cruelty. He clapped his hands, and huge, brutal, muscular slaves sprang forward to do his bidding. Be indicated one of the youngest and prettiest of his wives, and ordered them to seize near. He derided and cursed her, and then the torture began. ±ne Emperor himself with his terrible Malay uword cub Jong strips of flesh from the woman's body. The d-ernon despot gloated over every detail, and thrilled with pleasure as be listened to the victim's shrieks. All the other wives were compelled to watch every detail of the torture on order that they might be iilled with terror and suffer even more when their own turn came, because they would know -what to expect. The first wife was allowed to bleed slowly to <leatfa. The nest day a new victim was selected. She was tortured, to death in a different way. Every day another victim was taken and put to death with some variation of the torture. In one case the Emperor had a woman slowly dissected, joint by joint and limb by limb. Another was burned with ivoiiß. In one instance ho began by having the woman's nose, ears, hands, aod feet cot off. One of the victims was then the Emperor's favourite .wife. He killed her with fiis own hands and subjected her to peculiarly atrocious tortures, the detail* of -which it would be impossible to describe. iWhen she was at last dead, he cut her body to pieoes and had them served for 'dinner. fie then partook of them, and compelled the remainder of the wives to share in the cannibal feast. Two of the women -were bung to the 'ceiling with hooks. One was -buried alive in oil. Two or more were thrown into the cages of hungry tigers, who devoured Jh«m. The French Resident at the Emperor's capital had protested warmly when the monarch shot his nnicle, and after that he had been excluded from the palace. For this reason he did not learn of the atrocities until they had been going on for some time. Then be entered/ the palace with a force of soldiers. A hideous spectacle met him. The Emperor's throne-room and adjoining apartments were littered with the remnants of dead boddes. Many victims of the torture were stall alive. Several of them were hanging from the walls by hooks passed through the fleshy parts of the legs. Some were lying about without no-es, eyes, eara, and hand?. Two women were chained in a tub of ■water sufficiently hot to boil them slowly to death dairing a period of two -days or 6o Three others were chained up and roasting bafore a slow fire. Altogether, EO were dead or subsequently died from their injuries. While Than Thai is a meet extravagant type of the Oriental despot, he has sudopt-ed many of the habits of Western civilisation, especially the vicious ones. H«j is reported to be a great smoker of cigarettes and a drinker of absinthe. His court is one of the most splendid ?.i the Orient. He rules over 6,000,000 people, over whom he exercises absolute j>ower. The French content themselves ■with controlling the foreign trade and illations, and with making all the profit i they can out of selling foods to the Annamites. They maintain a garrison at [Hue, the capital of the country. The Emperor, of course, has as many wives as he pleases. The number always runs up into the hundreds. All the women an the empire are at his disposal, and no girl must get married until her parents bave found out whether his Majesty would like her or not. Most of the wives are chosen from the performers of the royal theatre, who consist of 80 singers and 80 (musicians carefully ohosen among the most (beautiful women in the empire. They exclusively for the Emperor and those whom he permits to be present, and 'one of the principal objects of their performance is to give his Majesty an opportunity to decide whether be wishes to add jfhem to his harem. At the time of his deposition Than Thai tad about 400 wives. Those who aT« of good family are first-class wives or queens, while the others are ranked as second-class .wives. The first-class wives are entitled to 12 women attendants each, and the second-class to three each, so that there (are over 2000 women in the harem altogether. Than Thai's son, a little boy, has now •been placed upon the throne by the French.