Ancient Punishment in Korea to it as firmly as possible. In this posi tion the shins are beaten with a lath made of oak or alder wood, as long as
303
renders the spectators fellow-sufferers in his torture." Public enemies, in Hamel’s day, suffered death and forfeiture of estate,
one’s arm, a little rounded on one side and flat on the other, about two inches
quite after the manner of the old Eng
wide, and as thick as a crown. Not more than thirty blows may be given at one time. Two or three hours after
severely administered there. A rebel is exterminated with all his race. His
lish law.
“Justice,” he remarks, "is
ward, however, the process is repeated,
house is demolished, and no one dare
until the sentence has been fully exe cuted." This form of punishment was still in use in recent years. The writer's father, who, in the early eighties, opened up the first foreign hospital in the country, often had natives brought in for treat ment after the shins had been beaten. The pain must have been excruciating, for he tells me that the flesh was usually reduced to a pulp, necrosis of the exposed bone being one of the results. "When a criminal is condemned to receive the bastinado on the soles of the
rebuild it. All his goods are confiscated and sometimes abandoned to some faith ful subject. Anyone who utters the
feet,” writes Hamel, "he is made to sit
tried without the participation of the court.”
on the ground, his feet bound together
least objection to the sentence is certain
to undergo a rigorous punishment." There were certain restrictions to hold in check the tyranny of lesser officials;
at least, to prevent the infliction of capital punishment at the mere caprice of a local magistrate. "Inferior Gover
nors and subordinate judges are allowed to condemn no one to death without informing the Governor of the province about it, nor can persons of state be
by thick saplings, and placed on the
Those, however, who incurred the
end of a piece of wood, the rest of which is thrust between his legs. In this
special ill-will of the reigning sovereign,
position the soles are beaten with a club
barbarous punishment, as the following
as thick as one’s arm and two or three feet long. As many blows are given as the judge has ordered. “In applying the bastinado to the buttocks, the culprit is stripped and stretched on the ground, face down ward . . . and in this position he is struck with a lath, longer and wider than that first described. . . . One hun dred blows are equivalent to death, and even fifty have sometimes produced the
incident related by Hamel well shows.
same result.
“The bastinado on the calves of the legs is applied with rods about as thick as one’s finger. It is the usual punish ment of women and apprentices. In these performances the criminal utters such lamentable cries that compassion
might expect the most summary and
"On one occasion, when the King had asked his brother’s wife to embroider a robe for him, because she excelled in needlework, this princess, who cherished a mortal hatred toward him, sewed between the stuff and the lining some charm of so potent a nature that he could experience no pleasure, nor enjoy
the least repose, as long as he wore his robe. Finally, having suspected the truth, he had the garment ripped apart, and they were not long in finding the
cause of the trouble. His resentment was so keen that he ordered his sister shut up in a room paved with copper, beneath which a great fire had been lighted.
She died there in the agony
