Landmarks of Chinese Law. ary1 In
- therefore
Things Chinese. he expects the friends of prisoners to reward him generously for pro viding them with extras like vegetables, and firewood for cooking purposes. The State allowance barely keeps the convict alive. A government official inspects the prison once a month. Among other things, he tabulates the number of deaths of prisoners, and if the percentage of mortality is too large, officials are degraded all the way up the scale. Contrarily, merits are noted and bring promotion to the officials concerned. Houses of deten tion within the precincts of the yamun con tain large rooms for those prisoners on remand whose friends are lavish in their gifts to the governor. The larger this room, the more crowded the quarters of the friendless must be. Gray compares certain houses of deten tion he has visited to the Black Hole of Calcutta. No need to dwell long on those extreme punishments which an Eastern despotism re gards as just. Confinement in a cage which is too long or too short for ease is a degree worse than the cangue. The victim of Lingchee is lashed to a cross and slowly cut into from twenty-four to one hundred and twenty pieces. The renowned Hakka rebel leader, Tai Chee-kwei, was put to death in this way, but the punishment is now rare. Dyer Ball 1 does not mention it among the regular penal ties. Persons condemned to decapitation are given the shortest possible notice as to when they are to die. After a farewell meal and cigarette the prisoner is generally carried to execution in a kind of basket, with his name printed on a slip of wood attached to his hair. He kneels, a lictor jerks back his arms, and the executioner severs the head with a heavy
583
sword, as a rule by one stroke; occasionally he finds it necessary to use a knife in addition. Hunter, author of Bits of Old China, tells of witnessing the execution of fifty-four reb els on the same occasion by a number of headsmen. The signal was given by a man darin seated at a table. Crime in China is sometimes curiously in volved. Hunter 1 heard of a thief who dropped his plunder in the dead of night and fled upstairs. The family finally discovered him, hanged by his own girdle. The humil ity of losing his " swag " had proved unbear able. This same writer relates the case of two passers-by who violently collided in the street. As a result one of the pair died; and the other was executed. In vain hands bent on APOLOGIA. sacrifice or clasped in prayer The we ways seeof; God are not exactly what those ways The should swindler be. and the ruffian lead pleasant lives Whileenough, judgments overtake the good and many a While The sharp please, swaggering thoserebuff. whobully neverstalks miss alone their as prayers blithely areasmar you
And tyrs if great to disease. God Almighty fails to keep the balance Whattrue, can we hope that paltry mortal magistrates will do? 2 YAO'S ADVICE. With trembling heart and cautious steps Walk daily in fear of God. . . . Though you never trip over a mountain, You may often trip over a clod. 3 1 In Bits of Old China. "Hsieh Chin, A.D. 1 369-1415. 3 Chinese Poetry in English Verse.
