EXEC1

pended by the pole on which he was impaled. Deathusually ensues after a few hours, if any fluid be takenby the sufferer.

Beheading is a punishment of great antiquity,though the palm of excellence, on the score of manualdexterity, must be divided between the Germans andChinese. The office of headsman among the Ger-mans was formerly hereditary ; and being men ofsome muscular strength, as well as mechanical inge-nuity, they generally contrived to decapitate the cri-minal at a blow. To insure success they tied theprisoner’s hands to a block. In China, on the contrary,the criminal remains erect, and having a rope passedround his neck, as shown in the annexed engraving,the executioner severs the head from the body.

Death by the iron crown was a common punish-ment for subjects who unsuccessfully aspired to theregal dignity. The circlet being made nearly redhot was placed on the brows of the rebel, and thus,by a species of refinement in cruelty, he was at thesame time made to feel the disappointment of hisambitious hopes, and the pangs of his own scorchedframe.

Of the punishment of crucifixion it may be enoughto state, that it was usually reserved for the vilest ofthe vile, and on this account was selected for the Sa-viour of mankind, as a fitting mode of marking theenmity of his earthly persecutors.

The aboriginal inhabitants of North America, whilein a state of nature, no doubt possessed many nativevirtues ; but that of mercy, in their public executions,was seldom or ever practised. Their mode of exe-cuting those condemned to death has, however, beenso graphically described by a modern traveller, that wequote the whole passage. “ A scaffold is erected, andthe prisoners bound to the stake, where,thev commencetheir death-song, and prepare for the ensuing scene ofcruelty with the most undaunted courage. Theenemies, on the other side, are determined to put itto the proof by the most refined and exquisitetortures.

“ They begin at the extremity of his body, andgradually approach the more vital parts; one plucksout the nails by the roots, another takes a finger intohis mouth and tears off the flesh with his teeth ; a thirdthrusts the finger, mangled as it is, into the bowl of apipe made red hot, which he smokes like tobacco ; thenthey pound his fingers and toes to pieces betweentwo stones ; they cut circles about his joints, andgashes in the fleshy parts of his limbs, which theysear immediately with red hot irons, cutting, burning,and pinching them alternately; they pull off the flesh,

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thus mangled and roasted, bit by bit, devouring itwith greediness, and smearing their faces with bloodin an enthusiasm of horror and fury. When theyhave thus torn off the flesh, they twist the bare nervesand tendons about an iron, tearing and snappingthem, whilst others are employed in pulling and ex-tending his limbs in every way that can increase thetorment. This continues often five or six hours, andsometimes, such is the strength of the savages, daystogether. Then they frequently unbind him, to givea breathing to their fur}', to think what new' tormentsthey can inflict, and to refresh the strength of thesufferer, who, wearied out by such a variety of tor-ments, often falls into so profound a sleep, that theyare obliged to apply the fire to awake him, and renewhis sufferings. He is again fastened to the stake, andagain they renew their cruelty : they stick him allover with small matches, or wood that easily takesfire, but burns slowly; they continually run sharpreeds into every part of his body ; they drag out histeeth with pincers, and thrust out his eyes; and,lastly, after having burned the flesh from the boneswith slow" fires, and after having so mangled the bodythat it is all but one wound, after having mutilatedhis face in such a manner as to carry nothing humanin it, after having peeled the skin from the head, andpoured a heap of red-hot coals or boiling water onthe naked skull, they once more unbind the wretch,who, blind and staggering with pain and weakness,assaulted and pelted on every side with clubs andstones, now up, now down, falling into their fires atevery step, runs hither and thither, till one of thechiefs, either out of compassion or weary of cruelty,puts an end to his life with a club or dagger; thebody is then put into a kettle, and this barbarous em-ployment is succeeded by a feast as barbarous.

“ The women, forgetting the human as w’ell as thefemale nature, and transformed into worse than furies,even outdo the men in the scene of horror that hasbeen described; while the principal persons of thecountry sit round the stake, smoking and looking onwithout the least emotion. What is most extraordi-nary, the sufferer himself, in the little interval of historments, smokes too, appears unconcerned, and con-verses with his torturers about indifferent matters.Indeed, during the whole time of his execution, thereseems a contest which shall exceed—they in indictingthe most horrid pains, or he in enduring them with afirmness and constancy almost above human. Not agroan, not a sigh, not a distortion of countenance,escapes him ; and he possesses his mind entirely inthe midst of his torments.”

The secret institutions of Germany, which were infull force as late as the beginning of the sixteenthcentury, had a variety of diabolical methods of exe-cuting their victims, which were, in general, thoughnot always, connected with the locality of theirsituation. One of the most celebrated of these tri-bunals held their sittings in a subterraneous hallbeneath the bed of the Rhine, and w hen any of theirprisoners were condemned to death, the followingwas, one of the modes adopted of executing the cri-minal. They placed the condemned person in avault beneath the bed of the river, and the entrancewas walled up ; the waters of the Rhine were thenadmitted at the rate of one inch in height every hour,until the dungeon was completely filled. It is hardlypossible to conceive the horror of such an execution ;the river rolling over head—no ear to hear the cries

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