The Pearl of Asia/Chapter 13

by Jacob T. Child

Courtyard of Bangkok's Golgotha.

XIII.
A Siamese Execution.

It is seldom that the Siamese resort to capital punishment, most violations of law being punished by imprisonment, the major crimes by incarceration for life, such as murder and treason. As soon as sentenced the prisoner is manacled and turned over to some Prince or noble, whose slave he becomes, and he is then placed under a task master who proceeds to get all the work out of him possible. Under his control the doomed one has a foretaste of hades ere he shuffles off his mortal coil. The life prisoner has a chain fastened to a steel ring riveted around his neck, and this is never taken off till death claims him; the chain from his neck is also riveted around his ankles, and the clanking of these fetters can be heard in every part of Bangkok, as long lines of prisoners are daily driven through the streets to their work. The other prisoners are chained around the ankles with a chain about eighteen inches in length. Any one owing slaves has a right to put them in chains on the most frivolous pretext, and I was assured by a gentleman who had traveled through the interior of the country that he saw large numbers thus manacled, male and female. The prisoners in Bangkok are put to work in the gardens of the nobles, sawing teak wood logs into boards, working on the streets and cleaning out canals, in fact all kind of hard work, and at night men and women are locked up together in close rooms and treated as if they had lost all the rights of humanity. Should they desire any favor they can only obtain it through the greed of the guards who extort from them all the money that their relatives can give for this purpose, frequently holding back the small amount of rice doled out for their food will they are on the verge of starvation so as to induce their friends to come to their assistance. The prisons, I have been informed by those who have entered them, are filthy in the extreme; the stench intolerable. Within the past year His Majesty has attempted to alleviate the suffering of the prisoners and has had erected a large prison house in accordance with modern methods, but se long as a prisoner is looked upon as a mere beast and brutal jailors have him in charge but little can be done to benefit his wretched condition. Persons are arrested on the frailest pretexts and knowing the horrors that are in store for them if convicted "see" some one in power who "sees" some one else and if he can raise the requisite number of ticals escapes with a lightened pouch; in fact this state of affairs was so prevalent a couple of years since that a band of dacoits operated openly in Bangkok until their crimes became so bold and flagrant that the attention of the King was called to it and then fourteen of the leaders, whose money had hitherto shielded them, were arrested and tried; the evidence against them was conclusive and they were sentenced to be executed. Every effort was made to save them by their friends, but it availed not, in this instance money was powerless, the King had moved in the matter. That settled it, no one daring to set aside the edict of royalty.

A Siamese execution is a peculiar affair⟨.⟩ After sentence of death is pronounced on a prisoner he is confined in jail till the morning of execution and then a bamboo yoke, about a yard in length, is placed around his neck and fastened to a round piece of wood that encloses his wrists, thus keeping the arms stretched out in front of him and with chains on his neck and ankles he is led to a wat in the neighborhood of the execution ground where he is bambooed by the executioner and after prayers by the priests is taken to the spot selected for the purpose where a small bamboo cross is stuck in the ground; the yoke and chain around the neck is then taken off and the prisoner ordered to squat down in front of the cross to which his arms are fastened, he is then made to bend forward with his face toward the ground, in front of him are placed some flowers and a few lighted joss sticks, then one of the attendants takes some mud and plugs up his ears and makes a mark across the back of his neck. All being ready at a signal the executioner enters and as soon as he gets immediately behind the prisoner gives his sword a whirl and bringing it down with full force severs the head from the body, except a small piece of skin which connects it with the torso.

Having a curiosity to witness an execution I attended that of three dacoits, three of the fourteen that had been sentenced. His Majesty having commuted the sentence of eleven to imprisonment for life, a worse punishment than death. After the prisoners had been bambooed they were escorted to the ground by a squad of soldiers and police. Then their chains were stricken off and they were made to seat themselves before the crosses to which they were fastened, mud was then placed in their ears and marks drawn across their necks. The feeling of the crowd now became intense and all eagerly awaited the appearance of the executioners. The victims seemed more composed than the spectators; the head dacoit, a man about fifty years old, asked for a bogee, a Siamese cigar, which one of the attendants lighted for him and he smoked it as coolly as if he felt no terror of the fate that hung over him, that his stay on this earth was encompassed but by a few minutes; another, a magnificent young half-cast Chinaman, smiled placidly and leaned over and inhaled the perfume of the flowers placed in front of him, the other evinced some feeling. It was a strange spectacle to see those men squatting on the ground with bowed heads inside a cordon of soldiers and immediately behind them a mass of people eagerly awaiting the coming of the executioners. In about ten minutes after the prisoners were brought on the ground I observed a slight commotion among the crowd and upon looking up noticed three men enter the circle dressed in scarlet with gold fringe trimmings on their coats, each bearing a heavy shining sword; they advanced dancing and saluting with their weapons until they were immediately behind the prisoners when with a sudden whirl they struck, you heard a simultaneous thud and then saw the blood spurt upward as three bodies rose upright and fell forward, being held in place by the crosses. It seems as if death was instantaneous. As soon as the blows were struck the executioners disappeared and then a man came forward with a large knife and severed the small piece of skin that held the heads to the bodies and stuck them on small bamboo poles about six feet high. The eyes opened repeatedly and the jaws closed and opened as the blood ran out, the faces bleaching nearly white. It was a horrible sight. After impaling the heads the man in charge proceeded to cut off the heels of the dead bodies so as to secure the chains around the ankles, and then the torsos were left on the ground for the dogs and vultures to feast on, but generally the friends of the doomed men wait till night and bear the bodies off, assisted in this by some of the priests, and convey them away for the purpose of cremation. Executions are rare in Bangkok, as the prisoners can be put to better use than executing them; it is only resorted to in such cases as I have mentioned to act as a check on the outlawry that would otherwise exist in a community where money can be used to evade justice and brigandage thus go unpunished. The curse of gambling is the cause of most of the crimes in Siam, which is mainly confined to petty stealing in the cities. In the country the outlaws frequently band together and then they bid defiance to the authorities, and when they are arrested the officials fail to punish them, if the necessary inducements are offered for their release. A reign of terror sometimes exists in and around the small towns in the interior. While at Ratburee a Chinaman told me that he had been for over three years endeavoring to bring to trial some scoundrels who had entered his house and assaulted him, killed his wife and gutted his place. He had them arrested, they were in chains and working for the governor, and that was the end of it. They will thus remain slaves till they die, if they have no one wealthy enough to buy them off, and thus escape the extreme penalty for their crime. Chapters could be written on prison life in this kingdom, of its untold horrors, and still the half would not be told. It is so all over the East, in fact much worse in China, where prisoners are subjected to all kind of torture by their jailers till the last tael is extracted from them, starvation and thirst being the mildest means used. The power of the jailer is absolute and there is no one to stand between him and the code that he lays down for the management of those who are so unfortunate as to fall into his power. In Bangkok the subject of prison reform has been agitated to some purpose by the missionaries and others, and prisoners are now better cared for, and treated with more leniency than in the past; much of this is owing to the fact that His Majesty is looking into matters of this kind, having had his attention called to it.