1843] SEVERITY OF THEIR LAWS. 79 



tried, and if guilty executed at Loo-Choo, but that death 

 was not inflicted by their own authority at the islands ; 

 all bad characters were sent to labour at the off-lying low 

 islands, where produce is probably scarce, labour heavier, 

 and water difficult to obtain. 



Their laws must however be stringent, as the most 

 abject permission and endurance of punishment, though 

 we saw nothing beyond that inflicted by a stroke of 

 bamboo, appeared to be submitted to cheerfully, and to 

 have a powerful effect on the bystanders. That their 

 decisions in special cases extend to the penalty of death, 

 we had evidence, in the case of two parties found guilty 

 of adultery, whose skeletons in the same coffin were 

 shown to us ; the law awarding in such case the horrible 

 impalement of both the offending parties together, by a 

 stake passed between the two lower ribs. 



From the information obtained by our Chinese inter- 

 preter, who was admitted into some of the private dwel- 

 ling houses, as well as from our own observations, in the 

 houses vacated for our habitation, it appeared that the 

 women of the better classes occupy an apartment distinct 

 from the ordinary sitting room of the family ; that they 

 wear the ' eschaw ', or robe, and the oosisashee, already 

 described, the hair being loosely secured in a larger knot, 

 without the head being shaved, as in the male portion of 

 the community ; and that their feet are permitted to enjoy 

 their natural freedom of growth, subject only to the slip- 

 per and stocking, made after the fashion of the Chinese. 

 I had an opportunity of noticing one dressed female 

 arranging her house, and a little girl, very neatly attired, 

 brought by her papa to see the Barbarians ; both were 



