Fear of Death. 49 



embowelled alive, that his heart should be torn from his 

 bosom and flung in his face and that, finally, his head should 

 be taken off. The sentence was literally executed on the 

 1 4th July, the criminal supporting its horrors with the same 

 astonishing fortitude. So calm were his nerves, crippled and 

 half roasted as he was ere he mounted the scaffold, that when 

 one of the executioners was slightly injured in the ear by the 

 flying from the handle of the hammer with which he was 

 breaking the fatal pistol in pieces, as the first step in the 

 execution a circumstance which produced a general laugh 

 in the crowd a smile was observed upon Balthazar's face in 

 sympathy with the general hilarity.' 



A friend of mine who was a police officer in Burma, 

 shortly after the occupation of that country, tells me that he 

 was present at the execution of four dakoits who had been 

 sentenced to be shot. All were tied up ready for their turn. 

 One of the bullets of the volley that was directed on the first 

 man, struck him on the forehead, at the junction of hair and 

 skin, and lifted the top of his head off as clean as one would 

 slice off the top of a turnip with a knife. Seeing this 

 unexpected effect, the remaining three burst into shrieks of 

 laughter ; in fact, the occurrence amused the second man so 

 much, that death alone restrained his merriment. His last 

 words were : * I wonder, will the top of my head be blown 

 off?' The same gentleman tells me of another Burman who 

 was on the scaffold waiting to be hanged. He first of all 

 held up his hands and swore an oath a Burman is supposed 

 never to break, that he was innocent. Then he asked to be 

 allowed to make one last request. In reply, he was told that 

 it would be granted, if at all reasonable. ' Then,' said he, 

 ' hang my brother, who is in jail under sentence ; for I would 

 like someone to keep me company when I am dead.' This 

 was promised. ' But,' he continued, with a humorous twinkle 

 in his eye, ' don't hang him immediately after me, if he wants 

 to live a little longer.' And with a smile he passed into 

 eternity. 



D 



