A HORRIBLE PUNISHMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1139, 14 February 1884, Page 3

A HORRIBLE PUNISHMENT.

A correspondent of the Philadelphia Press describes a horrible Hindoo mode of punishment. The bamboo plant grows with wonderful rapidity in a tropical climate. That fact did not escape the notice of Hindoo tyrants. Sharpening a bamboo shoot, and planting it in the earth with the sharp end upward, they would order the victim to be led up to it. Looking around he would see no instrument of death near by, and feel relieved perhaps that his life was to be spared. His torturers would congratulate him, and ask him to be seated on the earth. He would obey. They would place his body immediately above the concealed bamboo shoot, and then tie him down by stakes so that be could not move. As night wore on the victim would realise his fate. He would find that slowly but with terrible certainty the bamboo was growing up into his body. He was generally left to his fate. Growing at the rate of two or three inches a night, the sharp-pointed shoot would finally put an end to his sufferings by penetrating a vital part. But before this took place what an eternity of agony the poor wretch must have passed through ! It is impossible to conceive what the suffering of one so tortured must have been, with that bamboo shoot slowly and inexorably growing through his living body. Fortunately, before the end came, complete insanity generally obscured the consciousness of the sufferer.