They Were Then Sent Back To The Tender Mercies Of The
Opium-Smoking Jailer, Probably To Come Back Again And
Again to undergo
the severer forms of torture, till no more money can be squeezed out of
their friends, when
They will probably be beheaded, death being the
legal penalty for robbery with aggravations.
There is no regular legal process, no jury, no one admitted to plead
for the accused, and owing to the way in which accusations are made and
the intimate association of trial with bribery, it is as certain that
many innocent persons suffer as it is that many guilty escape. From
such a system one is compelled to fall back upon the righteousness of
the Judge of all the earth; and as I stood in that hideous
judgment-hall beside the tortured wretches, I could not shut out of my
heart a trembling hope that for these and the legion of these, a
worthier than an earthly intercessor pleads before a mightier than an
earthly judge.
It is not clear whether torture is actually recognized by Chinese law,
but it is practised in almost every known form by all Chinese
magistrates, possibly as the most expeditious mode of legal procedure
which is known. It is also undoubtedly the most potent agent in
securing bribes. The legal instruments of summary punishment which
hang on the wall of the Naam-Hoi judgment-hall consist of three boards
with proper grooves for squeezing the fingers, and the bastinado, which
is inflicted with bamboos of different weights. The illegal modes of
"putting the question," i.e., of extorting a confession of guilt, as
commonly practised are, prolonged kneeling on coarse sand, with the
brow within an inch of the ground; twisting the ears with "roughened
fingers," and keeping them twisted while the prisoner kneels on chains;
beating the lips to a jelly with a thick stick, the result of which was
to be seen in several cases in the prison; suspending the body by the
thumbs; tying the hands to a bar under the knees, so as to bend the
body double during many hours; the thumb-screw; dislocating the arm or
shoulder; kneeling upon pounded glass, salt and sand mixed together,
till the knees are excoriated, and several others, the product of
fiendish ingenuity. Severe flogging with the bamboo, rattan, cudgel,
and knotted whip successively is one of the most usual means of
extorting confession; and when death results from the process, the
magistrate reports that the criminal has died of sickness, and in the
few cases in which there may be reason to dread investigation, the
administration of a bribe to the deceased man's friends insures
silence.
The cangue, if its wearers were properly fed and screened from the sun,
is rather a disgrace than a cruel mode of punishment. Death is said to
be inflicted for aggravated robbery, robbery with murder, highway
robbery, arson, and piracy, even without the form of a trial when the
culprits are caught in flagrante delicto; but though it is a frequent
punishment, it is by no means absolutely certain for what crimes it is
the legal penalty.
We left the judgment-seat as a fresh relay of criminals entered, two of
them with faces atrocious enough for any crime, and passed out of the
courtyard of the Yamun through the "Gate of Righteousness," where the
prisoners, attached to heavy stones, were dragging and clanking their
chains, or lying in the shade full of sores, and though the red sunset
light was transfiguring all things, the glory had faded from Canton and
the air seemed heavy with a curse.
LETTER IV (Continued)
The "Covent Garden" of Canton - Preliminaries of Execution - A Death
Procession - The "Field of Blood" - "The Death of the Cross" - A Fair
Comparison
Although I went to the execution ground two days before my visit to the
prison, the account of it belongs to this place. Passing through the
fruit-market, the "Covent Garden" of Canton, where now and in their
stated seasons are exposed for sale, singly and in fragrant heaps,
among countless other varieties of fruits, the orange, pommeloe, apple,
citron, banana, rose-apple, pine-apple, custard-apple, pear, quince,
guava, carambola, persimmon, loquat, pomegranate, grape, water-melon,
musk-melon, peach, apricot, plum, mango, mulberry, date, cocoa-nut,
olive, walnut, chestnut, lichi, and papaya, through the unsavory
precincts of the "salt-fish market," and along a street the specialty
of which is the manufacture from palm leaves of very serviceable rain
cloaks, we arrived at the Ma T'au, a cul de sac resembling in shape, as
its name imports, a horse's head, with the broad end opening on the
street. This "field of blood," which counts its slain by tens of
thousands, is also a "potter's field," and is occupied throughout its
whole length by the large earthen pots which the Chinese use instead of
tubs, either in process of manufacture or drying in the sun. This Ma
T'au, the place of execution, on which more than one hundred heads at
times fall in a morning, is simply a pottery yard, and at the hours
when space is required for the executioner's purposes more or fewer
pots are cleared out of the way, according to the number of the
condemned. The spectacle is open to the street and to all passers-by.
Against the south wall are five crosses, which are used for the
crucifixion of malefactors. At the base of the east wall are four large
earthenware vessels full of quicklime, into which heads which are
afterward to be exposed on poles are cast, until the flesh has been
destroyed. From this bald sketch it may be surmised that few
accessories of solemnity or even propriety consecrate the last tragedy
of justice.
In some cases criminals are brought directly from the judgment-seat to
the execution ground on receiving sentence, but as a rule the condemned
persons remain in prison ignorant of the date of their doom, till an
official, carrying a square board with the names of those who are to
die that day pasted upon it, enters and reads the names of the doomed.
Each man on answering is made to sit in something like a dust-basket,
in which he is borne through the gate of the inner prison, at which he
is interrogated and his identity ascertained by an official, who
represents the Viceroy or Governor, into the courtyard of the Yamun,
where he is pinioned.
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