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THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



which the board passes. His hands being bound behind him, he cannot relieve himself for 

 a moment. Iron snakes are another form of torture; they are tubes of soft metal, fashioned 

 in the form of snakes with open mouths. The sufferer is stripped naked and forced to 

 a kneeling position, with his arms extended straight out on each side. One of the metal 

 snakes is then coiled round each arm from the wrist to the shoulder, the mouth or orifice of 

 the tube appearing at the latter end. Another tube is coiled round the body, with the mouth 

 at the back of the neck. Boiling water is then poured into the snakes until they are filled, 

 and the burning torture thus inflicted can hardly be imagined. 



Finger-squeezing is a torture also frequently used. Four pieces of bamboo are tied loosely 

 together at one end, and a string passes through the other ends, so arranged that, by pulling 

 the string with some force, the pieces of cane can be drawn closely together. The fingers 

 are placed between the pieces of bamboo, and the executioner, by pulling on the string with 



gradually increasing force, can inflict excru- 

 ciating torment, aud even break the bones 

 of the fingers to pieces. This torture is often 

 employed by the mandarins when trying to 

 force money from persons whom they suspect 

 of having concealed wealth somewhere. The 

 ankles are squeezed in a similar manner, only 

 that the implement of torture is necessarily 

 much larger. 



Capital punishment is inflicted in several 

 ways. The mode that is thought to be least 

 terrible is to be accorded permission to 

 commit suicide. This is a privilege granted 

 only to men of very high rank, and is con- 

 ferred upon them by sending " the silken 

 cord." When the mandate is received which 

 intimates to the offender that he may use 

 the silken cord, the doomed man takes some 

 of his relatives and nearest friends to his 

 house, fastens the silken cord to a beam, 

 stands upon a stool, places the noose round 

 his neck, then leaps off -the stool, and so 

 hangs himself. For criminals of no particular 

 social standing strangulation is the mode of 

 execution generally practised. It is inflicted 

 in a manner closely resembling the garrote. 

 The criminal is placed, standing, with his 

 back to a post, through which a hole is 

 bored at the level of his neck. The two 

 ends of a cord are passed through the hole, 

 and the loop embraces the man's neck. The 

 ends are then twisted round a stick, and by 

 a few rapid turns the loop is so tightened 

 that strangulation is almost instantaneous. 

 Beheading is another way in which criminals 

 are executed, but to this death the Chinese 

 have the strongest objection. They believe 

 that the spirits of the dead appear in the 

 next world minus any members which their 



P/ioto by 3Ir. Afontj] [Iloi,g-biy. J . 



A WOMAN OP SHANGHAI. bodies may have lacked when they died m 



