Olearius gives a description of the manner in which he saw the knout inflicted on eight men and one woman, only for selling brandy and tobacco without a licence. The executioner’s man, after stripping them to the waist, tied their feet and took one at a time on his back. The executioner stood at three paces distance with a large pizzle, to the end of which were fastened three raw-hide thongs. Blood flowed at every blow.
After their backs were thus terribly mangled, they were whipped through the city of Petersburg for about a mile and a half, and then dismissed.
Wife Beating.
The wife of an old negro on the neighbouring estate of Anchovy had lately forsaken him for a younger lover. One night when she happened to be alone, the incensed husband entered her hut unexpectedly, abused her with all the rage of jealousy, and demanded the clothes to be restored which he had previously given her. On her refusal he drew a knife, and threatened to cut them off her back; nor could she persuade him to depart until she had received a severe beating.
Monk Lewis’s Journal.
The Flagellating Monks and the Bear.
At Lent time, when religious fraternities are accustomed to inflict on themselves certain discipline, there was in a certain Italian city a confraternity of Penitents. A pastry-cook in the same city had a tame bear which ran about the streets, doing no harm to anyone. Wandering about one evening, it found its way into the chapel (the door of which was open), coiled itself up in a corner and went to sleep. When the penitents were all assembled, the door was locked, and after a short exhortation from the altar, they spread themselves about the chapel. The light was hidden behind a pillar; the most zealous commenced by inflicting punishment on themselves, an example that was soon followed. The noise woke up the bear who, in trying to make his way out, stumbled against the penitents who, with their breeches down, were inflicting castigations.
The bear felt with his paw to find what it was; from one behind he passed on quietly to another; and the penitents in their fear began to think it was the devil who had come there to disturb them in their devotions. Their suspicions became a certainty, when the bear passing by the pillar where the light was, they saw his shadow on the wall. It was who could get to the door first! And to this day nothing would convince these worthy disciplinarians that they had not received a visit from the arch fiend in person.