111.] MODES OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 61 leaders of treasonable and seditious parties by offering them. rank, titles, money, and a free pardon. To this policy the reader will remember the ancient Jews, also, had recourse. Thus David, in order to secure the services of Abner, who was upholding the cause of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, promised that on the downfall of Ish-bosheth and the amalgamation of the two kingdoms Abner should be appointed to the command of the great army of the nation. To resume the subject of Chinese executions. On the nineteenth day of the first month of the seventh year of Tung-chee (February 12th, 1868), a woman named Lau Laam-shi was cut into twenty-four pieces on the common execution ground of Canton for having poisoned her husband. She was a native of Yung-yuen, a district or county in the prefecture of Wei-chow. Being enamoured of a rich neighbour named Chan Asze, whose second wife or concubine she hoped to become if she could get rid of her husband, who was a peasant, she resolved to remove the obstacle in the way of what she regarded as her advancement in life by poison. At the time of her execution she was slightly inebriated. When being bound to the cross upon which she was to suffer, she begged the executioner to despatch her with haste. He first, very roughly, blindfolded her with a piece of rope. She received in all twenty-four cuts, the fifteenth of which pierced her heart. The ropes by which her arms and neck were bound to the cross were then cut, and the upper part of the body fell forward, the lower part remaining tightly bound to the perpendicular beam of the cross. As the upper part fell forward, an assistant executioner pulled the head forward by the hair to enable the executioner to sever it from the trunk. This unfortunate woman had been two years in prison, having committed the crime for which she suffered in the fifth year of Tung-chee, or A.D. 1866. On the ninth day of the eleventh month of the eighth year of the same Emperor's reign, that is, on the 11th December, 1869, a woman named Mok Yu-shee was similarly punished for murdering her husband. In her crime she was assisted by her paramour, Lou San-koo, who was also brought to justice. At her execution her guilty paramour, so soon as she had been bound to the cross upon which she was to be cut into pieces, was made to kneel before her, and his head was then at one blow severed from his body. The second class of capital punishment, which is called Chan or decapitation, is the penalty due to murderers, rebels, pirates burglars, ravishers of women, &c., &c. Prisoners who are sentenced to decapitation are kept in ignorance of the hour fixed for their execution until the preceding day. Sometimes they have only a few hours'-in some instances, only a few minutes' warning. On the 26th of September, 1872, I was present in the gaol of the Namhoi magistrate at Canton a few minutes. previous to twenty-two malefactors being made ready for execution. When I entered the ward in which the majority of these men were confined, they were in perfect ignorance of the ignominious death which they were to undergo in the course of an hour. Nor did they know until a few minutes before being pinioned. My Chinese servant who accompanied me very nearly revealed to them the fact that in a few minutes they would be led forth to execution. The foolish fellow, who had been cautioned before we went in not to refer to the fate awaiting the criminals, at once asked the turnkey in a rather loud tone to point out the men who were that day to suffer. The prisoners, who had gathered round us, were much startled, and the turnkey pacified them by assuring them that no such event was at hand. When the time has arrived for making the condemned men ready for execution, an officer in full costume, carrying in his hand a board on which is pasted a list of the names of the prisoners who are that day to atone for their crimes, enters the prison, and, in the hearing of all the prisoners in the ward assembled, reads aloud the list of the condemned. Each prisoner whose name is called at once answers to it, and he is then made to sit in a basket to be carried once more into the presence of a judge. As he is carried through the outer gate of the prison, he is interrogated through an interpreter, by an official who acts on the occasion as the Viceroy's representative. The questions put to each prisoner, are very much like the following:What is your name? What is your family or clan name? Of what district are you a native? How long have you been con III.] EXECUTIONS OF THE SECOND CLASS. 63 fined in this prison? Of what crime have you been convicted? When and where was your crime committed? Had you any accomplices, and if so what are their names? Are you guilty? The representative of the viceroy, who has a list before him of the name, surname, native place, &c., of each prisoner, compares the answers which he receives with his list, and finding that they agree, he orders him to be carried to execution. As the prisoners pass the outer gate of the gaol which admits them into the courtyard of the yamun, they encounter the gaze of an idle crowd, who have come to see the procession of the condemned. As a rule on these occasions they seem quite unconcerned. Noticeably, they are very quiet. Sometimes, however, they make a parade of their indifference. On one occasion-it was in the year 1870-I was in the courtyard of the chief magistrate of Namhoi when thirty-five men were brought out of prison to be made ready for execution; and three or four of these, upon seeing so many people assembled, laughed outright, while one, who was evidently a wag, jocosely remarked that he had at last attained to a position of gentility, having two servants to carry him in a basket. When the prisoners who are to be executed, arrive in the courtyard of the yamun to which the prison is attached, their friends generally provide them either with a few cakes, or a little soup, or with pieces of betel nut to chew, or with wine, and a small dish of fat pork. What is most generally given to these men by their friends, or in the absence of their friends, by friendly turnkeys, is betel nut. The effect is that of a narcotic. It gives the countenance a very flushed appearance, which has led many foreigners to suppose that Chinese malefactors are made more or less drunk by opium or wine, before they are carried to execution. Fat pork and wine, however, are preferred on such occasions to betel nut; but it is not every prisoner who has friends to procure these luxuries for him. It is surprising to witness the nonchalance with which many of these prisoners partake of these viands. Others of them may be seen smoking cigarettes with perfect calmness. Some, however, weep in anticipation of the dreadful fate which is immediately before them. But there is very little time either |