Omniana/Volume 2/Tarring and Feathering
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201. Tarring and feathering.
Tarring and feathering, it seems, is a European invention as well as a Tupinamban. One of Richard Cœur de Lion's ordinances for seamen was, "that if any man were taken with theft or pickery, and thereof convicted, he should have his head polled, and hot pitch poured upon his pate, and upon that the feathers of some pillow or cushion shaken aloft, that he might thereby be known for a thief, and at the next arrival of the ships to any land, be put forth of the company to seek his adventure, without all hope of return unto his fellows."Holinshed.