24 The Rev. S. Haughton on Hanging } considered from 



ment, that the hanging so often spoken of was the exposure of 

 the body of the criminal, after death, to the birds of the air and 

 to the beasts of the field, either by suspension from a tree, or by 

 crucifixion on a gallows. 



In Deut. xxi. 22, 23, it is provided that the criminal already 

 executed shall be lifted up on a tree, and that his body shall be 

 taken down before nightfall ; it is also proved, by the story of 

 the Hebrew thief in Herodotus, that the Jews, even before they 

 left Egypt, had a special horror of the exposure of the dead at 

 night to the birds of prey ; for he relates that the King of 

 Egypt exposed on a cross the headless body of the thief caught 

 in the trap laid in the treasure-house, in the hope that his rela- 

 tions might be induced to attempt the removal of the body before 

 nightfall. 



Prom Gen. xl. 19, we may infer that the Egyptian practice 

 was to execute the criminal by decapitation, and afterwards ex- 

 pose the body nailed on a cross to the birds of prey. 



Among the Persians, also, exposure on a cross was a custo- 

 mary punishment, as appears from Esther vii. 9 ; but I do not 

 know whether this crucifixion was post mortem or not ; among 

 the Hebrews, the "suspension" or "crucifixion" was always 

 that of the dead body, and they were not guilty of the terrible 

 atrocity of suspending or nailing up by the hands a living man : 

 this refinement of cruelty was reserved for the Romans. 



I have not succeeded in finding a case of execution by hanging 

 in the Old Testament, although there are cases of suicidal stran- 

 gulation (as that of Ahithophel, 2 Sam. xvii. 23), which may 

 have been effected simply by tying a cord round the neck, and 

 have been unaccompanied by any " suspension," in the Anglo- 

 Saxon use of the term. 



The most ancient account of a formal execution by hanging 

 that I can find is the hanging of the twelve faithless handmaids 

 of Penelope at the suggestion of Telemachus, in the twenty- 

 second book of the Odyssey. The passage is so remarkable for 

 many reasons, that no apology is needed for offering some sug- 

 gestions respecting it. I give the translation of Cowper, for the 

 benefit of English readers. 



" leading forth 



The women next, they shut them close between 

 The lofty wall and scullery, narrow, straight, 

 And dreadful, whence no prisoner might escape. 

 Then, prudent, thus Telemachus advised : 



The death of honour would I never grant 

 To criminals like these, who poured contempt 

 On mine and on my mother's head, and lay 

 By night enfolded in the suitors' arms. 



