he act; as it is said (Deut. xvii. 7), "The hands of
the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward
the hands of all the people."

"Criminals who were stoned dead were afterward hanged." These are the
words of Rabbi Eliezer; but the sages say none were hanged but the
blasphemer and the idolater. "They hanged a man with his face toward the
people, but a woman with her face toward the gallows." These are the
words of Rabbi Eliezer; but the sages say a man is hanged, but no woman
is hanged.... How then did they hang the man? A post was firmly fixed
into the ground, from which an arm of wood projected, and they tied the
hands of the corpse together and so suspended it. Rabbi Yossi says, "The
beam simply leaned against a wall, and so they hung up the body as
butchers do an ox or a sheep, and it was soon afterward taken down
again, for if it remained over night a prohibition of the law would have
been thereby transgressed." For it is said (Deut. xxi. 23), "His body
shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise
bury him that day; for he that is hanged is accursed of God," etc. That
is to say, people would ask why this one was hanged; and as the reply
would needs be, "Because he blasphemed God," this would lead to the use
of God's name under circumstances in which it would be blasphemed.

The sentence of burning was carried out thus:--They fixed the criminal
up to his knees in manure, and a hard cloth wrapped in a softer material
was passed round his neck. One of the witnesses, taking hold of this,
pulled it one way, and another the other, until the criminal was forced
to open his mouth; then a wick of lead was lighted and thrust into his
mouth, the molten lead running down into his bowels and burning them.
Rabbi Yehudah asks, "If the criminal should die in their hands, how
would that fulfill the commandment respecting burning?" But they
forcibly open his mouth with a pair of tongues and the lighted wire (the
molten lead) is thrust into his mouth, so that it goes down into his
bowels and burns his inside.

The sentence of beheading was executed thus:--They sometimes cut off the
criminal's head with a sword, as is done among the Romans. But Rabbi
Yehudah says this was degrading, and in some cases they placed the
culprit's head upon the block and struck it off with an ax. Some one
remarked to him that such a death is more degrading still.

The sentence of strangling was carried