Whipping as a Punishment. lation in France may be mentioned the cus tom which prevailed there (and also in Italy) in olden times of ladies visiting their ac quaintances while still in bed on the morn ing of the " Festival of the Innocents," and whipping them for any injuries, either real or fancied, which the victims may have done to the fair flagellants during the past year. One of the explanations given for the rise of this practice is as follows : On that day it was the custom to whip up children in the morning, " that the memory of Herod's murder of the innocents might stick the closer, and in a moderate proportion to act the crueltie again in kinde." There is a story based upon this practice in the tales of the Queen of Navarre. Among the Eastern nations the rod in various forms plays a prominent part, and from what we read China might be said to be almost governed by it. Japan is singu larly free from the practice of whipping, but makes up for it by having a remarkably san guinary criminal code. Russia is, however, par excellence a home of the whip and the rod, the Russians having been governed from time immemorial by the use of the lash. Many of the Russian monarchs were adepts yi the use of the whip, and were also particularly ingenious in making things un pleasant for those around them. Catherine II. was so particularly fond of this variety of punishment (which she often administered in person), that it amounted almost to a pas sion with her. It is related that she carried this craze so far that one time the ladies of the court had to come to the Winter Palace with their dresses so adjusted that the Em press could whip them at once if she should feel so inclined. While the instruments of torture used in
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Russia were of great variety, the most for midable " punisher" was the knout, an instru ment of Tartar origin, and of which descrip tions differ. In its ordinary form it appears to be a heavy leather thong, about eight feet in length, attached to a handle two feet long, the lash being concave, thus making two sharp edges along its entire length; and when it fell on the criminal's back it would cut him like a flexible double-edged sword. "Running the gauntlet " was also employed, but principally in the army. In this the offender had to pass through a long lane of soldiers, each of whom gave the offender a stroke with a pliant switch. Peter the Great limited the number of blows to be given to twelve thousand; but unless it were intended to kill the victim, they seldom gave more than two thousand at a time. When the offender was sentenced to a greater number of strokes than this, the punishment was ex tended over several days, for the reason above stated. Whipping, after dropping out of sight for a time in England, was reintroduced in 1867, in order to put a check on crimes of vio lence. The law was so framed that the judges might add flogging at discretion to the im prisonment to which the offenders were also sentenced. The first instance of this pun ishment being used was at Leeds, where two men received twenty-five lashes each before entering their five and ten years' penal servi tude for garotting. The whip used in this instance was the cat-o-nine-tails. The whipping-post is also still used in some parts of this country, notably at New Castle, Delaware, where the "cat" is still administered for minor offences. Judging from a whipping that the writer once wit nessed, it appears to be a very mild form of punishment. — American Notes and Queries.
