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Bastinado

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(or beating) has always been of universal application as a punishment of minor offenses in the East, and especially in Egypt. It appears to be designated by the Hebrews phrase שֵׁבֶט מוּסִר , she'bet musar', "rod of correction" (Proverbs 22:15). (See ROD). The punishment of beating with sticks or rods, termed "scourging" (Leviticus 19:20) and "chastising" (Deuteronomy 22:18), was very common among the Jews, and is ordained in the law for a variety of offenses. Thus stripes, the rod, etc., frequently occur for punishment of any kind (Proverbs 10:13; Proverbs 26:3). The dignity or high standing of the person who had rendered himself liable to this punishment could not excuse him from its being inflicted. He was extended upon the ground, and blows not exceeding forty were applied upon his back in the presence of the judge (Deuteronomy 25:2-3). This punishment is very frequently practiced in the East at the present day, with this difference, however, that the blows were formerly inflicted on the back, but now on the soles of the feet. China has aptly been said to be governed by the stick. In Persia, also, the stick is in continual action. Men of all ranks and ages are continually liable to be beaten, and it is by no means a rare occurrence for the highest and most confidential persons in the state, in a moment of displeasure or caprice in their royal master, to be handed over to the beaters of carpets, who thrash them with their sticks as if they were dogs (Pict. Bible, note on Exodus 6:14).

Among the ancient Egyptians, in military as well as civil cases, minor offenses were generally punished with the stick — a mode of chastisement still greatly in vogue among the modern inhabitants of the valley of the Nile, and held in such esteem by them that, convinced of (or perhaps by) its efficacy, they relate "its descent from heaven as a blessing to mankind." If an Egyptian of the present day has a government debt or tax to pay, he stoutly persists in his inability to obtain the money till he has withstood a certain number of blows, and considers himself compelled to produce it; and the ancient inhabitants, if not under the rule of their native princes; at least in the time of the Roman emperors, gloried equally in the obstinacy they evinced, and the difficulty the governors of the country experienced in extorting from them what they were bound to pay; whence Ammianus Marcellinus tells us, "an Egyptian blushes if he cannot show numerous marks on his body that evince his endeavors to evade the duties." The bastinado was inflicted on both sexes, as with the Jews. Men and boys were laid prostrate on the ground, and frequently held by the hands and feet while the chastisement was administered-; but women, as they sat, received the stripes on their back, which was also inflicted by the hand of a man. Nor was it unusual for the superintendents to stimulate laborers to their work by the persuasive powers of the stick, whether engaged in the field or in handicraft employments; and boys were sometimes beaten without the ceremony of prostration, the hands being tied behind their back while the punishment was applied. It does not, however, appear to have been from any respect to the person that this less usual method was adopted; nor is it probable that any class of the community enjoyed a peculiar privilege on these occasions, as among the modern Moslems, who, extending their respect for the Prophet to his distant descendants of the thirty-sixth and ensuing generations, scruple to administer the stick to a sheraf until he has been politely furnished with a mat on which to prostrate his guilty person. Among other amusing privileges in modern Egypt is that conceded to the grandees, or officers of high rank. Ordinary culprits are punished by the hand of persons usually employed on such occasions; but a bey, or the governor of a district, can only receive his chastisement from the hand of a pacha, and the aristocratic daboss (mace) is substituted for the vulgar stick. This is no trifling privilege: it becomes fully impressed upon the sufferer, and renders him, long after, sensible of the peculiar honor he has enjoyed; nor can any one doubt that an iron mace, in form not very unlike a chocolate-mill, is a distingue mode of punishing men who are proud of their rank (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. 1:210 sq. abridgm.). (See FLAGELLATION). The punishment of tympanism, τυμπανισμός , or beating upon the tympanum, was practiced by Antiochus toward the Jews (2 Maccabees 6:19; 2 Maccabees 6:28; comp. 2 Maccabees 6:30; Auth. Vers. "torment"), and is referred to by Paul (Hebrews 11:35; Auth. Vers. "tortured"). The "tympanum" was a wooden frame, probably so called from resembling a drum or timbrel, on which the sufferer was fastened, and then beaten to death with sticks. (See CORPORAL INFLICTIONS).