Yet, on the other hand, we find that that same part, which has been thought by some to possess so many accomplishments, and has accordingly become the subject of their respect and their admiration, has been made by others, the object of their scoffs, and expressly chosen as a mark to direct their insults to.
The facts that have been recited a few pages before this, might be produced as confirmations of this remark. The prevailing vulgar practice, in cases of provocation, of threatening, or even serving, the part in question with kicks, might also be mentioned on this occasion. But it will be better to observe in general, that, among all Nations, the part we are speaking of, has been deemed a most proper place for beatings, lashings, and slappings.
That this notion prevailed among the Romans, we are informed by the passages of Plautus, and of St. Jerom, that are recited in the sixth Chapter of this Book ([p. 94, 95].) The same practice was also adopted by the Greeks, as may be proved by the instance of the Philosopher Peregrinus, which has been mentioned in the same Chapter. And under the reign of the Emperors, when the two Nations (the Greek and Roman) had, as it were, coalesced into one, the same notions concerning the fitness of the same part, to bear verberations and insults, continued to prevail. Of this we have a singular instance in the manner in which the statue of the Emperor Constantine was treated, at the time of the revolt of the Town of Edessa: the inhabitants, not satisfied with pulling that statue down, in order to aggravate the insult flagellated it on the part we mention. Libanius the Rhetor informs, us of this fact, in the Harangue he addressed to the Emperor Theodosius, after the great revolt of the City of Antioch; in which he mentions the pardon granted by Constantine for the above indignity, as an argument to induce the Emperor to forgive the inhabitants of the last-mentioned City: a request, however, which Libanius was not so happy as to obtain.
Among the French, notions of the same kind likewise prevail. Of this, not to confine ourselves to particular facts, we may derive proofs from their language itself; in which the verb that is derived from the word by which the part here alluded to, is expressed, signifies of itself, and without the addition of any other word, to beat or verberate it: thus, Mons. de Voltaire supposes his Princess Cunegonde to say to Candide,—Tandis qu’on vous fessoit, mon cher Candid; by which, however, that Author does not mean expressly to say that Candide was flagellated upon the part we speak of, by order of the Inquisition; he only uses the above word to render his story more jocular. From the above French word fesser, has been again derived the noun fessade, signifying a verberation on the same part; the same as the word claque (or clack, as they pronounce it) which originally meant a flap in general, but, by a kind of antonomatia (a particular figure of speech) is now come expressly to signify a slap on the part in question. Among the Italians, the practice of verberating the same part, also obtains, if we are to trust to proofs likewise derived from their language; and from the word chiappa, they have made that of chiappata, the meaning of which is the same with that of the French word claque.
If we turn our eyes to remote Nations, we find they entertain notions of the same sort. Among the Turks, a verberation on the part we speak of, is the common punishment that is inflicted either on the Janissaries, or Spahis; I do not remember which of the two. Among the Persians, punishments of the same kind are also established; and we find in Chardin, an instance of a Captain of the outward gate of the King’s Seraglio, who was served with it, for having suffered a stranger to stop before that gate, and look through it. And the Chinese also use a like method of chastisement, and inflict it, as Travellers inform us, with a wooden instrument, shaped like a large solid rounded spoon.
Among the Arabians, the part here alluded to, is likewise considered as a fit mark for blows and slaps. We find an instance of this, in one of the Arabian Tales, called The one thousand and one Nights: an original Book, and which contains true pictures of the manners of that Nation. The story I mean, which is well worth reminding the reader of, is that of a certain Cobler, whose name, if I mistake not, was Shak-Abak. This Cobler having fallen in love with a beautiful Lady belonging to some wealthy Man, or Man of power, of whom he had had a glance through the window of her house, would afterwards keep for whole hours every day, staring at that window. The Lady, who proposed to make game of him, one day sent one of her female slaves to introduce him to her, and then gave him to understand, that if he could overtake her, by running after her through the apartments of her house, he would have the enjoyment of her favours: he was besides told, that in order to run more nimbly, he must strip to his shirt. To all this Shak-Abak agreed; and after a number of turns, up and down the house, he was at last enticed into a long, dark, and narrow passage, at the farthest extremity of which an open door was to be perceived; he made to it as fast as he could, and when he had reached it, rushed headlong through it; when, to his no small astonishment, the door instantly shut upon him, and he found himself in the middle of a public street of Bagdat, which was chiefly inhabited by shoemakers. A number of these latter, struck at the sudden and strange appearance of the unfortunate Shak-Abak, who, besides stripping to his shirt, had suffered his eye-brows to be shaved, laid hold of him, and, as the Arabian Author relates, soundly lashed his posteriors with their straps.
If we turn again to European Nations, we shall meet with farther instances of the same kind of correction. It was certainly adopted in Denmark, and even in the Court of that Country, towards the latter end of the last Century, as we are informed by Lord Molesworth, in his Account of Denmark. It was the custom, his Lordship says, at the end of every hunting-match at Court, that, in order to conclude the entertainment with as much festivity as it had begun, a proclamation was made,—if any could inform against any person who had infringed the known laws of hunting, let him stand forth and accuse. As soon as the contravention was ascertained, the culprit was made to kneel down between the horns of the stag that had been hunted; two of the Gentlemen removed the skirts of his coat; when the King, taking a small long wand in his hand, laid a certain number of blows, which was proportioned to the greatness of the offence, on the culprit’s breech; whilst, in the mean time (the Noble Author adds) the Huntsmen with their brass horns, and the dogs with their loud openings, proclaimed the King’s Justice, and the Criminal’s punishment: the scene affording diversion to the Queen, and the whole Court, who stood in a circle about the place of execution[107].
Among the Dutch, verberations on the posteriors are equally in use; and a serious flagellation on that part, is the punishment which is established at the Cape of Good Hope, one of their Colonies, as Kolben informs us in his Description of it, for those who are found smoaking tobacco in the streets: a practice which has frequently been there the cause of houses being set in fire.
In Poland, a lower discipline is the penance constantly inflicted upon fornicators, in Convents, previously to tying them together by the bond of matrimony; or sometimes afterwards.
In England, castigations of the same kind, not to quote other instances, are adopted among that respectable part of the Nation, the Seamen, as we find in Falconer’s Marine Dictionary; and a Cobbing-board is looked upon as a necessary part of the rigging of his Majesty’s ships.