PENALTIES IN BANGKOK

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 348, 24 July 1875, Page 3

PENALTIES IN BANGKOK

Tho following details, says an Indian paper, relate to the ordinary legal executions at Bangkok, Siam : The culprits were four : an incendiary, sentenced to have his hand cut off; a murderer, to be ripped open; the third, a political offender, to be delivered to wild beasts; and the fourth, a blasphemer, to have his head burnt off. The executioners made full speed, grinding the axes and sabres, dressing the furnace, and preparing the bellows. The incendiary came first and tendered his wrist, and his hand immediately was seen flying in the air. This mutilation did not seem to affect him much, for he went amongst the crowd to witness the following executions. The murderer next takes a seat on a stone, and whilst they are cutting into his abdomen he keeps biting a banana; the sufferer is then seen to gnash his teeth, and, under horrible convulsions, loses the banana and sinks to rise no more. The traitor to the King meanwhile is looking down a den speaking to the tigers, and recommending them to sharpen their appetites. The executioners seize him, pass a rope under his arms, and lower him slowly into the horrible hole, after which they slowly draw the rope up. Then we hear, says M. Caulnens, an eye-witness, something like muffled crepitation; fiom time to time a human form is seen jerked up ; the breaking of the skull and thigh is distinguishable. The wild beasts are roaring all the time, but no human cry is audible. As for the sacrilegious criminal, the executioners tied him on a plank, and placed his head between two coal-pans. They then work the bellows and direct jets of name on the culprit's head, who continues singing what is supposed to be an impious or blasphemous song. His temples are blistering under the darts of fire, and yet he continues his psalmody. Meanwhile his body writhes in awful convulsions, his eyes are bleeding, his bones crackling, and he finally gives up the ghost with a fearful yell.