Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/410

 The Tongue. the king. This law was re-enacted as late as 1723. In Connecticut, by the code of 1642, blasphemy against God, the Christian religion, or the Holy Trinity was punishable with death; this statute remained in force until the revision of 1784, when the penalty was changed to whipping on the naked body, not exceeding forty stripes, and sitting in the pillory one hour. In 1821 the present pen alty was substituted, — that is, a fine of not more than $100, with imprisonment for not more than a year; the court also having the power to bind the culprit to his good beha vior. In Virginia, by the laws of 1610 and 1611, death was the punishment for blas pheming God's holy name. A common scold is a nuisance, and can be punished. The law is not gallant; it supposes that none but a woman can be guilty as such. All the words used in the old law Latin to denote this miserable sinner are of the femi nine gender; there are several aliases, such as "communis rixatrix," " communis pugnatrix," " calumniatrix," " communis pacis pertabatrix." How much one could scold without incurring conviction is not quite clear; if, however, the scold was convicted, she was sentenced to be placed in a certain engine of correction called a trebucket, castigatory, or cucking-stool; which last word is said in the Saxon language to signify the scolding-stool, though in later days it was generally corrupted into ducking-stool, be cause the residue of the judgment was that, when so placed therein, she be plunged in the water for her punishment. Coke, who is exceedingly interesting on etymologies, says, " cuck," or " guck," in the Saxon tongue "signifieth to scould or brawl (taken from the cuckaw or guckhaw, a bird, qui odiose jurgat et rixatur), and ' inge,' in that lan guage, water, because she was for her pun ishment soused in the water; and others fetch it from cuckquean, i. pellex." Women seem not to have liked this mode of correction. In 1705, a scold, after convic tion, wanted to argue her writ of error in person; and Holt, C. J., gave her time so to

do, saying, " that perhaps ducking would rather harden than cure her, and if she was once ducked she would scold on all the days of her life." On the argument she used her tongue to good purpose, and succeeded in setting aside the judgment on the ground that in the indictment she had been called "rixa" (a scolding) instead of "rixatrix" (scolder). Another flaw in the indictment, says the reporter, was the want of an allega tion that the scolding was a common nui sance to the neighbors, for " that all scolding was not indictable, but only such as was in tolerable to neighbours." Scolding of this kind was indictable, but not actionable like a slander. The use of this reformatory engine in England in the good old days of yore is re ferred to in the " Green Bag," vol. ii. p. 198; but this was one of the good things that crossed the Atlantic with the early colonists. Apparently, however, it was confined to Vir ginia and Massachusetts. Good Parson Hartley, of Hungaro parish, Virginia, thus tells Governor Endicott of Massachusetts all about it : — "The day before yesterday I saw the punish ment of the ducking-stool given to one Betsy, the wife of John Tucker, who by the violence of her tongue had made his house and the neighbourhood uncomfortable. She was taken to a pond near which 1 was sojourning, by an officer, who was joined by a magistrate, and a minister, Mr. Cotton, who had frequently admonished her, and by a large number of people. They had a machine for the purpose, which belongs to the parish, and which I am told has been used three times before this summer. It is a platform with four small rollers or wheels, and two upright posts, between which works a lever by a rope fastened to its shorter end. At the end of the long arm was fixed a stool, upon which Betsy was fastened by cords, her gown tied fast about her feet. The machine was then moved to the edge of the pond, the rope was slackened by the officer, and the woman was allowed to go under the water for the space of half a minute. Betsy had a stout stomach, and would not yield until she had allowed herself to be so ducked five several times. At length she cried piteously, ' Let