Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/53

 “The City of Rans.” 49

In the last war with China, when the British troops held the heights north of the city, the legend of the tabooed bell was brought to mind, as, aiming at promi- nent buildings, a cannon shot struck it, breaking a piece out of its side. The city capitulated soon after, many believing the bell to have sounded its doom. The broken bell still hangs in its tower, an object of wonder and dread to the credulous people, who know not the day when its ominous peals may be heard again.

Leaving the Tartar quarter, we make our way to the office of the Nam-hoi magistrate, where justice is sup- posed to be administered. As we approach, the street is lmed with prisoners, with stones chained to their legs or necks, or broad wooden collars, called cungues, inter- cepting communication with the head. ‘Some are making shoes, some sewing, others twisting rope, but all are dirty, unkempt, ill-fed, wretched-looking objects. Passing a small fee into the hand of the jailer, we are admitted into the inner prison, where squalor and misery appear supreme. Hordes of gaunt, ragged, hairy objects gather around us, begging for money, each with a piteous tale of wrong. Some are not able to rise, still suffering from the effects of the bastinado, or, with their knees raw from kneeling on broken glass or chains, or with their ankles crushed by wooden hammers. The aim of the whole course of treatment is to extract confession of guilt, and to this end torture is used unmercifully. The jailer receives no salary, and is compelled to furnish food to the prisoners, yet his position is a lucrative one, Whence the money comes we can but imagine, but the stories of hideous methods of torture used to

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