FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   39   >>  
nd a weak intellect, generally go together. I have known many fools to be gluttons, but never knew one that was an epicure. The affection of women is the most wonderful thing in the world; it tires not--faints not--dreads not--cools not. It is like the Naptha that nothing can extinguish but the trampling foot of death. There is a language in flowers, which is very eloquent--a philosophy that is instructive. Nature appears to have made them as emblems of women. The timid snow-drop, the modest violet, the languid primrose, the coy lily, the flaunting tulip, the smart marigold, the lowly blushing daisy, the proud foxglove, the deadly nightshade, the sleepy poppy, and the sweet solitary eglantine, are all types. W.C. B---- M. * * * * * There are a set of malicious, prating, prudent gossips, both male and female, who murder characters to kill time; and will rob a young fellow of his good name before he has years to know the value of it.--_Sheridan_. * * * * * MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS. No. XII. * * * * * A BURMESE EXECUTION. The scene took place at Rangoon, and the sufferers were men of desperate characters, who merited death. At a short distance from the town, on the road known to the army by the name of the Forty-first Lines, is a small open space, which formerly was railed in: and here all criminals used to be executed. On this occasion several gibbets, about the height of a man, were erected, and a large crowd of Burmans assembled to feast their eyes on the sanguinary scene that was to follow. When the criminals arrived, they were tied within wooden frames, with extended arms and legs, and the head-executioner going round to each, marked with a piece of chalk, on the side of the men, in what direction his assistant (who stood behind him with a sharpened knife,) was to make the incision. On one man he described a circle on the side; another had a straight line marked down the centre of his stomach; a third was doomed to some other mode of death; and some were favoured by being decapitated. These preparations being completed, the assistant approached the man marked with a circle, and seizing a knife, plunged it up to the hilt in his side, then slowly and deliberately turning it round, he finished the circle! The poor wretch rolled his eyes in inexpressible agony, groaned, and soon afte
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   39   >>  



Top keywords:

circle

 
marked
 

criminals

 
characters
 

assistant

 

inexpressible

 
merited
 

height

 

gibbets

 

sanguinary


follow

 
desperate
 

Burmans

 

assembled

 

erected

 

occasion

 

railed

 
executed
 

distance

 

groaned


arrived

 

wretch

 

stomach

 

doomed

 

centre

 
finished
 
straight
 

favoured

 
decapitated
 

deliberately


plunged
 

slowly

 

seizing

 

approached

 
preparations
 

turning

 

completed

 

extended

 
executioner
 

frames


rolled

 
wooden
 

sharpened

 

incision

 

direction

 
MANNERS
 

instructive

 
philosophy
 

Nature

 

appears