In a Burmese Prison [pp. 591-593]

592IN A B UB3IESE PRISON [MAY 20,
disposed natives were afraid to supply him with food lest it should
subject them to punishment for sympathizing with the offender. In
one case, where a noted Burmese general was sent to prison, he would
have starved, had not the British envoy daily supplied him with boiled
rice. No other person dared to do it.
Sometimes the myo-serai, the assistant to the governor of the city,
visited the prison to superintend the punishment of some unfortunate
culprit. The victim's denial of guilt being attributed to obstinacy,
torture was used to overcome it. In one of these cases a young man
was charged with being concerned in a robbery. Although appearances were in his favor, torture was resorted to, to extort from him a
confession of guilt. He was forced to sit on a low stool, his legs
being bound together by a cord above the knees. Two poles were
then inserted between them by the executioners, each of whom took
hold of a p)ole, one end being placed upon the ground, and moved it
in all directions, so as to force the limbs asunder. Such was the
prisoner's agony that he fainted. After being restored to consciousness by cold-water applications and vigorous rubbing, he was thrown
into prison and threatened with fresh inflictions on the morrow, as no
confession had been wrung from him. On the next day another kind
of torture was resorted to by the myo-serai. The victim's arms were
first tied together at the wrists behind his back with a stout rope,
which was then raised by means of a pulley, so as to just allow his
toes to touch the ground. He was left in this position till agonizing
pain compelled him to make a confession. In this he charged two respectable persons with being his accomplices in the robbery. As the
myo-serai's object was to obtain money, this was very satisfactory,
for he now had two men in his power who were able to pay. After
fleecing the new victims, the prisoner was released. He subsequently
acknowledged that, to save himself from fresh torture, he had accused innocent people.
Every afternoon, at three o'clock, an ominous sound startled the
inmates of the prison. It was the deep tones of the huge gong suspended in the palace-yard, and announced that a prisoner had been
selected for execution.
The mystery shrouding the selection of the doomed man made the
suspense more terrible. None knew beforehand who was to suffer.
The first intimation was given by the opening of the wicket and the
appearance of a spotted man, who silently stalked toward his victim
and bore him away to execution. For days Gouger waited in fear
and tremblipg lest the executioner should claim him.
At last, however, by means of bribery, Mrs. Judson secured some
relief for her husband, and, on her promising that the other white
prisoners should pay as much money as they could raise, Gouger and
his companions were removed from their filthy quarters to an open
shed looking out on the prison-yard. They were overjoyed at the
change, not merely on account of the more comfortable accommodations, but because it removed for a time their fears of a speedy execution. In assuming, however, that such favor would not be granted
to persons condemned to death they were mistaken, for it was sold to
all who could pay for it, the revenue of the jail establishment being
kept up in this way. They also found that the alleviation thus purchased was only partial. Though free from the stench and vermin
that infested their former quarters, they were obliged to witness the
perpetration of tortures which they were powerless to prevent. The
consequence was, that their sensibilities were gradually hardened, and
at last they looked with unconcern on scenes which would once have
excited the liveliest emotions of horror and pity.
At the end of three or four days they were taken back to their old
quarters, where their former discomforts were renewed. In the mean
time their houses had been searched and their property confiscated.
As it was now known that they had no money which torture could
cause them to give up, the bamboo infliction was no longer resorted
to, and they were allowed more privileges than formerly. The superstitious fears of the Burmese were well illustrated by the treatment
of one of the prisoners who had been incarcerated in the Let-mayoon, because he said he could fly. The keeper, who was responsible
for his safe-keeping, being terribly afraid that this featherless biped
would contrive to take wing during the night, did all he could to prevent such an iniquitous attempt. Thinking that there must be safety
in a multitude of contrivances, he had numerous arrangements to
keep the jail-bird down to earth. He was first put in three pairs of
irons, his feet were placed in the stocks, and his wrists bound together
with a long rope tied to one of the rafters of the roof of the building.
His long hair was then twisted into braids, each braid being fastened
separately to the floor, and another rope, also attached to the floor,
was tied round his waist. After taking these precautions the jailer
stood over the helpless prisoner, as if to devise some new means
of preventing his flight. For further security, the ingenious keeper
passed strings through the large holes pierced in the captive's ears,
confining them also to the floor. Being still anxious lest the creature
should fly away, he gave the savage who stood on guard with his club
strict orders to brain it as it rose. Meanwhile the poor lunatic expressed contempt for their precautions and confidence in his ability to
elude them. When the jailers became satisfied that he could not
carry out his intentions, they gradually released him from his
bonds.
Through the kind offices of Mrs. Judson the prisoners were permitted to remove from the fetid inner prison, which would have been
intolerable during the heats of summer, to cells outside. Though
these were so contracted that it was impossible to stand upright except in the middle, where the roof was highest, yet they were very
comfortable compared with their former quarters. Gouger turned
even the annoyances of the place to good account, spearing the rats
that infested it, and presenting them as a peace-offering to his jailer,
who prized them as a great delicacy. He still took pleasure, however,
in tormenting the prisoners, reminding them that they would soon
share the fate of the rats. Luckily for Gouger, his condition was
compassionated by the jailer's daughter, a bright girl of sixteen, who
supplied him with water for washing, a luxury which he now enjoyed
for the first time during his imprisonment.
One night, while tossing sleeplessly on his bed, he heard shrieks
proceeding from the inner prison, and, as his door was then unfastened,
he went into the passage-way, and, looking through a chink in the
wall, saw a young man stretched on the floor with his feet in the
stocks, toward whom one of the ringed executioners was striding.
Without saying a word, the pa7t-qnet stamped on the face of his victim with his heavy wooden shoes, and then beat him to death with a
huge club. From his hiding-place, where he stood trembling with
terror, Gouger could hear the bones of the victim crack and crash.
The sight was so horrible that he resolved never to gratify his curiosity
in this way again. A fire breaking out in his house not long afterward, he was charged with having been the occasion of it, for the
purpose of destroying the combustible city. His life was only saved
by the testimony of a friend at court that the fire was purely accidental. This fire came near proving his ruin in another way. In his
prosperous days he had kept a diary, in which, among other things, the
acts of the governor were commented on rather freely. Fearing that its
discovery would compromise his safety, he gave orders, when first imprisoned in the barracks, to have it destroyed. The man intrusted with
the execution of this order, knowing the writer's appreciation of his
diary, placed it in a small box which he hid in a hole dug in the ground
under the house. Fortunately for Gouger, on- learning, a few days
before the fire broke out, that the book had been concealed in this
way, he repeated his order, and it was accordingly dug up and destroyed. This almost providential caution saved his life. The house
being burned down, the Burmese, as is their custom, dug all over its
site in search for buried treasures. Had the box, with the diary containing strictures on the character and acts of the king and other
high officers of the government, been discovered, its owner would undoubtedly have paid the penalty with his life. Mrs. Judson, the missionary's wife, who kept a similar diary, tells us, in the life of her
husband, that she destroyed it on the first indication of approaching
hostilities.
Among the additions to the native inmates of the prison during
the latter part of Gouger's confinement was a man of herculean size
and strength, who, from the use made of him by the sovereign, was
called the "King's Horse." It was his duty to attend his majesty in
his daily walks, and to carry him when tired. Iis broad shoulders
made an excellent saddle, and it was ludicrous to see him kneel down
at a given signal while the king mounted the intelligent animal, who
rapidly trotted off with his royal load. The creature was put in
prison because a town, whose revenues had been given him for provender, was gobbled up by the British army, but the king, finding
him indispensable to his conmfort, wisely ordered his release before his
paces were injured by his fetters, or his constitution undermined by
the impurity of his stable.
Gouger afterward passed through a variety of adventures-at one
IN A BtURXMESE P-RIS 0-Y.
592
[MAY 20,