The scene took place at Rangoon, and the sufferers were men of desperate
characters, who merited death. At a short distance from the town, on the
road known to the army by the name of the Forty-first Lines, is a small
open space, which formerly was railed in: and here all criminals used to
be executed. On this occasion several gibbets, about the height of a
man, were erected, and a large crowd of Burmans assembled to feast their
eyes on the sanguinary scene that was to follow.
When the criminals arrived, they were tied within wooden frames, with
extended arms and legs, and the head-executioner going round to each,
marked with a piece of chalk, on the side of the men, in what direction
his assistant (who stood behind him with a sharpened knife,) was to make
the incision. On one man he described a circle on the side; another had
a straight line marked down the centre of his stomach; a third was
doomed to some other mode of death; and some were favoured by being
decapitated. These preparations being completed, the assistant
approached the man marked with a circle, and seizing a knife, plunged it
up to the hilt in his side, then slowly and deliberately turning it
round, he finished the circle! The poor wretch rolled his eyes in
inexpressible agony, groaned, and soon after expired; thus depriving
these human fiends of the satisfaction his prolonged torments would have
afforded them. The rest suffered in the same manner; and, from the
specimens I have seen of mangled corpses, I do not think this account
overdrawn. Hanging is a punishment that seldom, if ever, takes place.
The manner in which slighter punishments are made is peculiar to the
Burmans, and, as nearly as I can make it out, according to our
pronunciation, is called "toung." The delinquent is obliged to kneel
down, and a man stands over him with a bent elbow and clenched fist. He
first rapidly strikes him on the head with his elbow, and then slides it
down until his knuckles repeat the blow, the elbow at the same time
giving a violent smack on the shoulders. This is repeated until it
becomes a very severe punishment, which may be carried to great
excess.--_Two Years in Ava_.
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