In Christian
England within the last century men where hanged for petty theft; but in
Yuen-nan--I do not know whether it is still current in other
provinces--men have been known to be burnt to death for stealing maize.
A case was reported from Ch'u-tsing-fu quite recently, but it is a
custom which used to be quite common. A document is signed by the man's
relatives, a stick is brought by every villager, the man lashed to a
stake, and his own people are compelled to light the fire. It seems
incredible, but this horrible practice has not been entirely extirpated
by the authorities, although since the Yuen-nan Rebellion it has not been
by any means so frequent. I have no space nor inclination to deal with
the ghastly tortures inflicted upon prisoners in the name of that great
equivalent to justice, but the more one knows of them the more can he
appreciate the common adage urging _dead men to keep out of hell and the
living out of the yamens_!
Hua-chow is thirty li from here at the head of an abominable hill, and
here women, overlooking one of the worst paved roads in the Empire, were
beating out corn. Then we climbed for another twenty-five li, rising
from 5,900 feet to 8,200 feet, till we came to a little place called
Tien-chieng-p'u.
Pages:
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428