Page:The costume of China, illustrated in forty-eight coloured engravings.pdf/77



By which name it is commonly known to Europeans, but by the Chinese called the Tcha; being a heavy tablet, or collar of wood, with a hole through the centre, or rather two pieces of wood hollowed in the middle which inclose the neck (similar to our pillory), there are, likewise, two other holes, for the hands of the delinquent, who is sometimes so far favoured as to have but one hand confined; by which indulgence he is enabled with the other to lessen the weight on his shoulders.

The division in the Cangue which receives the head, is kept together by pegs, and is further secured by a slip of paper pasted over the joint, on which is affixed the seal, or chop, of the Mandarin; and the cause of punishment likewise depicted on it, in large characters.

The weight of these ignominious machines, which are from sixty to two hundred pounds in weight, and the time criminals are sentenced to endure them, depends on the magnitude of the offence, being sometimes extended, without intermission, to the space of one, two, or even three months; during which time the offender's nights are spent in the prison, and in the morning he is brought by the magistrates' assistant, led by a chain, to a gate of the city, or any place most frequented; when the attendant suffers him to rest his burthen against a wall, where he remains exposed throughout the day to the derision of the populace, without the means of taking food but by assistance. Nor is the punishment at an end when the Mandarin has ordered him to be released from the Cangue; a certain number of blows from the bamboo, remain to be inflicted; for which chastisement, in the most abject manner, with forehead to the earth, he thanks the Mandarin for his fatherly correction.