putting Pepper or Chillies into the Eyes, or into the Urethra or Anus.*

I am informed that introducing the Arum Colocasia (Kachoordata) into the Ears. (Kana Kachoordata Daya) and also Dhatoora (Kana dhatoora daya) are modes of Torture practised in Bengal.

Tying Bichootee upon the Limbs and Body appears to be a very common practice in Bengal, to which allusion has already been made. I also hear of "Besprinkling the Body with Alkoosh water." (Alkoosh juldya.) The Alkoosh being described as "a creeper, like Bichootee."

Some months since, I examined a man under whose chin there were a great number of extremely fine, but distinct, cuts or scratches, which had barely entered the cutis. These were said to have been produced by fastening on his neck a Pounded or Split Bamboo. This appears to be a well-known mode of Torture.

Introduction of a Ruler, Stick, or other foreign body into the Vagina (Rule puriya deon, and Lati puriya deonRúldhaya).

It would appear that this mode of torture is not unfrequently inflicted. My opinion was called for in two alleged cases of the kind, at Howrah, during twelve months. In one of these it was alleged that an office ruler was the instrument employed. The woman (a widow) stated that the violence had occasioned severe hæmorrhage and pain: she was certainly anemiated and, for two or three days, there appeared to be great tenderness above the pubes. In the other case, it was asserted that a bamboo stick had been employed. Both women were menstruating at the time, (a very suspicions circumstance). No bruise or laceration could be detected in either case. Very guarded opinions were therefore given.

* Appendix C., No. xiv., p. cxlv.

Mr. Simmons, apothecary at Gowalparah, reported, in 1841, upon the case of a Hindu woman, said to have been ill-treated by her husband, in which he found sloughing of the vagina, extending to the nympha and groin on one side, and to the urethra. The bladder had also become considerably diseased. He was of opinion that these effects had been caused by the thrusting of some sharp instrument into the upper part of the vulva.

Last year, one Calachand Darra, of Jessore, (married to a young girl who was very unwilling to remain with him,) upon his wife's refusing to sleep with him, strangled her; and afterwards suspended the body by a cord to a tamarind tree, attempting to make it appear that she had destroyed herself. Witnesses who first saw the body observed that the genitals were swollen, marks of injury to the pudenda were also evident when the darogah held the inquest. The native doctor who viewed the body said that there was the appearance of a stick having been forced into the private parts, but he could not examine minutely, as the body was decomposed.*

One Hurree Ram and a relation of his were condemned to death, at Bareilly, in 1852, for the murder of the wife of the former. It appears probable that the unfortunate woman had given her husband cause for jealousy. Cries were heard in the night, when a neighbour, rushing in, found the man transfixing his wife's neck with a spear, while his relation held her head. It was found, upon examining the body, that she had been also stabbed in the pudenda.†

Introduction of similar bodies into the Rectum.-This crime is, undoubtedly, common, and has not unfrequently occasioned death. The following cases will be sufficient in illustration, although others might be cited.

* Nizamut Adawlut Reports, 31st July 1854, p. 158 Nizamut Adawlut Reports, N. W. P., 5th April 1852, p. 268.

In 1842, Dr. T. W. Wilson, then of Mymensing, found on the body of a Mussulmaun woman distinct marks of strangulation and wounds (their character was not described) in the lower bowel which he considerd to be of necessity mortal. An old woman was tried for this crime.

Dr. Dickson, of Behar, examined the body of a Hindu man into whose rectum it was evident that some blunt body, such as a lattee or bamboo, had been forced, producing great injury to the intestine and effusion of blood into the abdominal cavity.

Dr. Kenneth Mackinnon found the bladder punctured in this manner.

Rather frequent allusion is made to this violence, in cases where other severe injuries have been inflicted. Dr. Denham, of Gyah, examined the body of a Hindu man, in which he found contusion about the face, and fracture of all the ribs on the right and of four on the left side. There was also great laceration at the verge of the anus, and the cavity of the abdomen contained a very large quantity of extravasated blood.

In 1848, four natives of Purneah were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for killing a thief, whom they had captured, by forcing a stick into his fundament.*

In the following year some persons of Bograh, suspecting a man of theft, went to his house at night under pretence of smoking with him. After sitting some time, they suddenly seized him, beat him severely, and employed a bamboo in this manner so violently as to cause his death.†

Again, in 1851, a mahajun, of Maldah, having gone to collect advances, his debtor was reported to be from home; but he was invited to remain an oke, en two of his debtors appeared, beat, kicked

third then placed his feet

im down, a
ourth, with

whom he had a suit in the Civil Court, thrust a split bamboo several times into his person. He died the next day.*

A most striking case of this kind was reported by Dr. T. W. Wilson, then of Rajshaye, in 1841. In examining the body of a Hindu man, who had died under suspicious circumstances, Dr. Wilson found some outward marks of bruises on the lower part of the chest and upper part of the abdomen. There was extensive peritonitis. This had been occasioned by the presence of the wooden pipe of a native hookah, lying on the right side of the abdominal cavity. About three inches of the lower end of this pipe remained lodged in the rectum, through the coats of which its upper extremity had passed; the pipe thus introduced was about twelve inches long.

Three Mussulmauns of Allahabad, suspecting a woman of being implicated in a theft, sent for her, on the pretext that she was required at the house of one of them to undergo the ordeal of chewing rice. On her asserting her innocence, she was removed to a closet and beaten. Then one of the wretches got on her chest and held her down-another (a lad of fourteen!) held her feet, while the third forced a

* Police Report L. P., 1851, p. 24.

See a remarkable instance in which a Moorshedabad man,-who had died under il usage, apparently accompanied with violence of this kind, and whose body proved to have been suspended by his assailants after death,was found to be the subject of strangulated hernia. The medical evidence appears to have been imperfectly reported. The Civil Surgeon deposed that the body exhibited no external marks of violence; but, internally, there was a great deal of inflammation in the cavity of the abdomen and scrotum, and in the scrotum there was a great quantity of the small intestines and some dark fluid like blood in colour. That the deceased must, at that time, have been afflicted with strangulated hernia, and that the violence received was either directed to the seat of the disease itself, or caused a sudden shock to

the system, terminating fatally at once. The printed report, however, whichs deserves perusal, scarcely admits of a satisfactory explanation of the men's death. Nizamut Adawlut Reports, 20th October 1853, p. 684.

stick into her fundament. Seeing that the blood flowed, they brought water and began to wash the marks off the clothesthe boy pounded huldee, which they applied to the wounded parts. They then pounded charcoal which they were going to apply in order to stop the bleeding. She begged them not to do so, when they let her go; and she went at once to the thannah which was close by. This statement was considered by the Sessions Judge to be fully corroborated by circumstantial evidence. The Civil Surgeon, who examined the woman on the day after the assault, stated that there were severe marks of blows on the back, and that the skin of the fundament was abraded, as if by the introduction of some sharp pointed instrument; that these injuries could not have been the act of a single individual, but that no permanent injury had resulted or was likely to result.*

It is an extraordinary fact, showing how thoroughly conversant the people of Bengal are with this brutal mode of punishment, that, in two instances within the last ten years, young children have been tried for having caused the death of one of their companions in this manner! One example will suffice. It occurred at Rungpore." The deceased and the prisoners were children of eight or nine years old. The two latter quarrelled with another, whom they abused; the deceased interfered, when they seized him, and, throwing him down, forced a small stick into his rectum, from the effects of which he died the following morning.†

I am informed by Baboo Grischunder Ghose, Deputy Magistrate of Howrah, that there is a practice of Torture in the Eastern and Southern parts of Bengal, by introducing into the anus Kachoor, Cuchao, or Ole Danta, the stalk of the Arum Colocasia.

Nizamut Adawlut Reports, N. W. P., 22nd November 1853, p. 1412. † Ibid, for 1846, p. 33.