Technical description
Artistic description
Spanish tickling
It was widespread during the Middle Ages to punish thieves and unfaithful wives. The Spanish Inquisition instructed the atheists in this way.
The “Cat's Paw” is a simple device, but very effective and thoughtful. It consists of a plate with four curved spikes-claws, which was mounted on a wooden stick for convenient use. Thus, she became an extension of the tormentor's hand.
A terrible bloody spectacle was revealed to the crowd watching the torture. The criminal was hung by the wrists and tortured, methodically tearing off flaps of flesh on various parts body (back, chest, arms, legs). The claws dug so deep that they separated the muscle cover from the bones. All this caused unbearable torment to the victim, but death occurred mainly from blood poisoning, since the teeth were almost never washed.
Artistic description
Are you afraid of tickling? People say that this is a sign of a jealous nature. Nothing like this! This is a reaction nervous system, to unwanted touch.
Do you see this woman with hands tied and legs? She committed a double crime - she cheated on her husband and stole his gold. Surely no one will ask her before tickling her. If it were not for the bruises and bruises on her face and naked body, she could be called beautiful. The executor attaches the “cat’s paw” to a long wooden shaft. First, he lightly runs his iron “claws” over the adulteress’s skin and tells a traditional joke about unfaithful wives. The unfortunate woman's stomach and ribs are covered with beads of sweat, her chest heaves from frequent, intermittent breathing. Without stopping to laugh at the joke, the executioner sharply, in one well-honed movement, plunges the curved spikes into the thigh of his victim and begins to slowly lead him down. Rusty metal traces four ragged stripes across pale skin, revealing the pink fibers of muscle. The woman hits her head on the boards, screams so hard that her ears are blocked, but the torture does not stop. The "cat's paw" reluctantly comes out of the scratched flesh. Torn flaps of skin sway slightly in the dank basement draft. The next portion of “tickling” exposes the rib bones. The executioner throws a bucket of salt water on the exhausted woman, and while she squirms from the torment corroding her consciousness, he tries on the “cat” to her left breast.
"Enough!" a trembling voice is heard. The deceived husband is the first to break down.
Esquire talks about the most sophisticated methods of extracting confessions from apostates, sorcerers and people simply disliked by the authorities.
Vertical rack
One of the most famous torture instruments. The number of modifications: from vertical to horizontal, will impress any sadist. A simpler option is hanging on a rope thrown over a crossbar. A more complicated option is an ingenious design with rotating drums and a system of chains, capable of grinding bones, tearing tendons, twisting joints and turning a person into a rag in the most literal sense of the word in a few hours.
Horizontal rack
The convict was placed on a table, his legs and arms were secured with ropes wound onto bolsters. Then the rollers were spun in different sides, stretching the victim lengthwise until the muscles were torn. Particularly strong individuals, whose muscles did not want to tear, were helped by the executioner, who cut the “problem” areas.
The Vigil, or the Cradle of Judas
Another the right way deprive the victim of sleep. The constant thought that there is a sharpened log under you makes you stay awake as long as possible. It is interesting that initially the “vigil” was considered not as cruel torture, but as a slight tickle of the nerves. But the inventive Inquisition did not stop at such a banal and unreasonable use of the weapon. And the convicts began to be slowly impaled on the sharp top of the log, with a heavy weight tied to the victim’s arms and legs to be sure. Read what happened to the anuses and vaginas of those placed in this position in the “Pear” section.
Pear
The goal of the “pear” is to get into any of the human “offending” holes. Heretical preachers had a pear inserted into their mouths or nostrils; women accused of intimate connection with the Devil and his servants, in the vagina, homosexuals - you know where. Then they turned the screw. The pear petals opened like a flower, completely unromantically tearing everything apart. internal organs victim, and causing her unbearable pain.
Slingshot
An iron collar with long sharp spikes did not allow the convict to lie down either day or night. The constant wakefulness gave me nerves already on the third or fourth day. The victim went crazy and slowly died from exhaustion. The spikes could also be directed inward. Then the pain from the wounds, which quickly began to fester, was added to the torment of lack of sleep. The instrument was very popular in Russia, where it was used until early XIX century.
Iron or Nuremberg maiden
The heavy metal band that chose the name Iron Maiden knows a lot about thrash. The heretic or “witch” was imprisoned in a wooden or metal cabinet in the form female figure and slowly closed the doors, studded with long, sharp thorns on the inside. For the comfort of the executioners, the thick walls of the device muffled the screams of those being executed. The spikes were positioned in such a way that they did not touch vital organs, but stuck into the arms, legs, stomach, eyes, shoulders and buttocks. The cramped and confined space added to the suffering. The death was painful, and the judges had the opportunity to conduct a long and biased interrogation.
Horse
Russian analogue of the cradle of Judas. The design was indeed a wooden horse with a sharp metal rib on its back. Sitting on it was also extremely uncomfortable, especially with logs tied to the legs.
Witch's chair O
The chair, generously studded with sharp spikes from the seat to the armrests, very quickly made a person talkative. Trying to keep the body suspended, the tortured sooner or later fell on the spikes, the pain forced him to tear himself away from the seat again, and this continued endlessly until the torture was interrupted or the interrogated lost consciousness.
Torture by water, or the thin jug
Latin expression: “A drop wears away a stone not by force, but by frequent falling” in in this case literally works. The prisoner's crown was shaved and tied to a post, under a jug, from which large drops fell slowly onto his head, in a spaced manner, in the same place. ice water. At first, the person came into a state of anxiety, trying desperately to escape from the shackles, then slowly became numb, falling into unconsciousness. Each blow of the drop felt like a hammer blow, striking straight to the brain. Soon the distraught prisoner was ready to confess to any crime. It is known from history that in 1671 the troublemaker and robber Stepan Razin was tortured with a “thin jug” before being quartered.
Stork, or prayer cross
Compared to others, this instrument of torture looks completely harmless. No sharp thorns tearing flesh. With the help of the “Stork”, heretics and apostates were simply shackled in an uncomfortable position of prayerful submission. However, literally after a couple of hours of being in this position, the victim began to experience severe muscle spasm in the abdominal area. Then the spasm covered the entire body and limbs, causing the poor fellow to fall into a state of complete madness.
Iron gag
This device allowed the executioners to drown out the shrill screams of the victim during the auto-da-fé. The iron tube inside the ring was pushed tightly into the throat, and the collar was locked with a bolt at the back of the head. The hole allowed air to pass through, but if desired, it could be plugged with a finger and cause suffocation. Giordano Bruno was “lucky” to burn at the stake with such a gag in 1600. Only his gag, for greater efficiency, was also equipped with two spikes. One of them, piercing the tongue, came out under the chin, and the second crushed the palate.
Bamboo torture
The world-famous method of “heavy” execution in China. Bamboo is one of the most fast growing plants on the ground. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow a full meter high in a day. The victim is suspended horizontally, with his back or stomach, over a bed of young, pointed bamboo. The sprouts pierce the martyr's skin and grow through abdominal cavity, causing an extremely painful and lengthy death.
Head press
The lower the press went, the worse it became for the object of execution. First, the jaw broke, and with further compression, the bones of the skull splitand, as a result, death occurred.
Whip torture
Whips were usually made from heavy leather straps. To make them even heavier, they were also covered with wire and stuck small nails or equipped with a sharp hook at the end. The correct and skillful use of the whip required extensive study, as well as strong nerves and muscles. With the same whip, the executioner could inflict several abrasions, or could turn the human body into a shapeless and bloody piece of meat. Often the result of torture depended on the size of the bribe received before the flogging.
In Muscovy, under Ivan the Terrible, those tortured were placed under a large bell and they began to ring it. More modern method – « Music Box“- was used when it was undesirable for a person to cause injury. The convict was put in a room with bright lights and no windows, in which “music” was played. A continuous set of unpleasant and in no way melodically related sounds gradually drives you crazy.
Copper (phylarid) bull
The bull was invented by the Athenian coppersmith Perillus in order to please his tyrant ruler Philarides. The condemned man was placed in a hollow bronze sculpture of a bull and a fire was lit under him. When a person began to roast and scream wildly, it seemed as if a bull was roaring, and steam was coming out of his nostrils. This evaporated the water contained in the person. The experienced tyrant was shown this device, he was horrified and ordered the inventor to demonstrate its effect on himself, and to remove the bull himself from sight. Phalarid's instincts did not fail, after some time he was overthrown and thrown into a bull, not forgetting to call him Falaridov.
Insect torture
The torturers made their biggest bets on flies and mosquitoes. The victim was tied up, coated with something tasty and left in nature. After some time, swarms of biting and buzzing creatures flocked to her and began their feast. Soviet NKVD officers used a bug box. The defendant was put in a dark wooden cabinet full of these stinking insects, and they joyfully pounced on him.
tickle torture
This seemingly harmless effect was terrible torture. With prolonged tickling, a person's nerve conduction increased so much that even the lightest touch initially caused twitching, laughter, and then turned into terrible pain. If such torture was continued for quite a long time, then after a while spasms of the respiratory muscles occurred and, in the end, the tortured person died from suffocation.
Water torture through a funnel
Described in Charles de Coster's novel Till Eulenspiegel. Having laid the person at an angle so that the head was lower than the stomach, several liters of water, often hot, were poured into him through a funnel. The weight of a full stomach pressed on my lungs and heart. After this, if the accused did not confess to the crime, he was beaten on the stomach with sticks or trampled on the stomach with feet. During World War II, torture was used by the Japanese in prison camps.
Torture by fire m
The inquisitors were very fond of frying careless heretics in every possible way. The victim’s legs were clamped in stocks, oiled and “fried” to the bone. Actually, there were plenty of variations of torture using fire: there was an iron bed under which a fire was made, a cage over a fire, a chair, a bucket, etc. There were also more exotic rituals, such as the Brazen Bull.
Heretic's Fork
The fork was tightly fastened with a leather belt to the criminal's neck. Four spikes: two digging into the chin, two into the chest, did not allow the victim to make any head movements, including lowering his head lower. In this position, a person could only speak in an unintelligible, barely audible voice. Sometimes you could read the fork Latin inscription: “I renounce.”
Torture by rats
G The naked patient was tightly tied to the tabletop, and a cage with hungry rats was placed on his stomach. The cage has no bottom. But on top there is a bowl of burning coals. The frightened rodents have no choice but to literally eat their way to survival through the organs of the unfortunate person. The mere thought that you would be devoured alive by hungry creatures quickly brought the most rebellious heretics to humility.
Looking at instruments of torture from a distance of hundreds of years is always unpleasant, but somehow not scary. It is much more terrible to realize that in our politically correct times, in many countries, all the above-described torture for religious beliefs still exists. And they are still just as wild and unpunished. In neighboring Uzbekistan, for example, thousands of Muslims are in prison on religious charges. There they are subjected the most severe torture and beatings, as a result of which some literally go crazy. One of the most sophisticated forms of torture is infecting prisoners with HIV through rape with an infected baton.
Recorded by Marina Popova
Illustrators Maria Drozdova, Stanislav Grishin
The material “Test Environment” was first published in the magazine in 2013.
Tickling. This very feeling is pleasant to some, disgusting to others.(V.I. Dal. Dictionary alive Great Russian language)
Some people tolerate tickling easily and even experience a certain pleasure from it, while others are afraid of tickling. Both of them, as a rule, giggle nervously during the tickling process. There are, however, those who do not react to tickling, but they are few.
What is tickling and why do people react to it? In a similar way? One hypothesis says that tickling is a reflex reaction of human skin to small animals and insects, inherited from our distant ancestors. American popular science writer I. Johnson believes that tickling is perceived by the skin and transmitted to the brain as a kind of threat signal. In principle, this theory has the right to life, especially since the most “ticklish” are the most delicate parts of the body: neck, armpits, sides, groin area, soles of the feet. However, insects bite not only in these places. Johnson explains giggling during tickling by saying that “when the momentary fear passes and the person realizes that there is no threat, he bursts into nervous laughter with relief.” The stronger the tickling, the greater the fear and the stronger the laughter.
According to another version, tickling is a built-in "generator Have a good mood". Its task is to stimulate the body's internal resources ( nerve cells, secrets), which begin to work more actively replenishing the blood various substances, increasing stress and virus resistance. And people who are not ticklish probably do not lack these substances. However, scientists from University of California recently found that tickling cannot improve mood: experiments conducted by American researchers showed that the convulsive twitching of a person being tickled has nothing to do with fun. By making sounds similar to laughter, a person, without realizing it, shows that this type of influence - tickling - is unpleasant to him and he would like to stop it.
There is another, rather funny theory, suggesting that tickling is a method of communication inherited from monkeys, who thus express sympathy for each other. But when an experiment was carried out on several volunteers, it turned out that people absolutely do not care who tickles them - a person or a robot.
But a person cannot tickle himself. This is what the professor says University of London Sarah-Jane Blakemore, who published a report in 2000 regarding tickling and people's attitudes towards this process. According to Ms. Blakemore, the mechanism human body and especially the nervous system is designed in such a way that it practically does not react to tickling - “self-torture”, but few people manage to avoid laughter if someone else tickles him. Apparently, the cerebellum plays the role of a “fuse”: so that a person does not become a “tickle addict”.
Well, maybe there is a rational grain in this, because lovers of unconventional erotic entertainment claim that tickling is a separate species sex: your partner can be tickled to orgasm. IN sexual practice Tickling was indeed used quite often. Different nations approached this process differently: Africans, for example, prefer the technique of tickling with pressure, and Indians say that it should be like the dance of a bee, which first curls and then bites. The erotic tickling technique uses different zones of sensitivity. The Chinese believe that The best way to excite a lover - gently touch the foot. Arabs cannot resist being tickled by their hair, which they call "a thousand fingers." In Japan, tickling is pure female occupation, and a woman must have a fan with her, because those around her should not guess anything. By the way, Japanese tradition prohibited those who did not master the “art of affection” from becoming geishas. At the same time, affection meant different kinds touching, including tickling, supported by knowledge of the areas of its application.
However, tickling can not only bring pleasure, but also be terrible torture. Which was successfully used during interrogations and punishments. The fact is that with prolonged tickling, a person’s nerve conductivity increases so much that even the lightest touch first causes twitching, laughter, and then turns into terrible pain. If the process is continued for quite a long time, then after a while spasms of the respiratory muscles occur, and in the end the tortured person dies from suffocation. It is no coincidence that the expression “tickle to death” exists. "Tickle" tortures were very diverse. At the most simple version torture, the interrogated person had sensitive areas tickled either with their hands or with hair brushes, tassels and stiff bird feathers. The executioners tickled the heels, nipples, groin folds, genitals, under the arms, and also under the women’s breasts. Torture was often used using animals that licked some tasty substance from the heels of the interrogated person. There was also a type of tickling torture using a beetle, most common in India: a small beetle was placed on the head of a man's penis or on a woman's nipple and covered with half a nut shell. After some time, the tickling caused by the movement of the insect's legs over a living body became so unbearable that the interrogated person would confess to anything.
Descartes attributed a metaphysical nature to tickling, believing that tickling occupies a borderline position between the spiritual and the physical, for it is “pleasure that does not deny suffering.”
It was very popular to hang victims by various parts of the body: men - with an edge by a hook or by the genitals, women - by the breasts, after first cutting through them and passing a rope into the through wounds. The last official reports of such atrocities came from Iraq in the 80th year of the 20th century, when mass repression against the rebel Kurds. People were also hung as depicted in the pictures: by one or both legs, with a weight tied to the neck or legs, or by the hair.
Insect torture
Different peoples used different insects to inflict torture on their victims. The most common were flies (see TORTURE BY HANGING, 1st picture) due to their ubiquity. The victim was tied up, coated with something “tasty” and left in “nature”. After some time, swarms of flies and gadflies flocked to her and began their feast.
American Indians launched ants into the liver.
Soviet NKVDists used bug boxing. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of bedbugs in a dark wooden closet. The jacket or tunic is removed from the person being planted, and immediately hungry bugs fall on him, crawling from the walls and falling from the ceiling. At first he fiercely fights them, smothers them on himself, on the walls, suffocates from their stench, after a few hours he weakens and meekly allows himself to be drunk.
Sound torture
In Muscovy, under Ivan the Terrible, people were tortured like this: they put them under a large bell and started ringing it. A more modern method, the “Music Box,” was used when it was undesirable for a person to cause injury. The convict was put in a room with bright lights and no windows, in which “music” played continuously. A continuous set of unpleasant and in no way melodically related sounds gradually drove me crazy.
tickle torture
Tickling. Not by that much effective method, like the previous ones and therefore was used by executioners when they wanted to have fun. The prisoner's arms and legs are tied or pinned and his nose is tickled bird feather. The man flutters up and feels as if his brain is being drilled. Or a very interesting method - the heels of a tied convict are coated with something sweet and pigs or other animals are released. They begin to lick their heels, which sometimes ends in death.
Cat's paw or Spanish tickle
A simple device made in the image and likeness of an animal’s paw. It was a plate with four or more iron claws. For ease of use, the paw was mounted on the shaft. The device was used to tear the victim's flesh into shreds, tearing meat from bones for different parts body: back, chest, arms and legs.
Heretic's Fork
A four-pronged, double-sided fork was used during interrogations as shown in the figure. Penetrating deeply into the flesh, it caused pain with any attempt to move the head and allowed the interrogated person to speak only in an unintelligible, barely audible voice. On the fork was engraved: “I renounce.”
Skull crusher
The victim's head was inserted into this device and crushed using a screw mechanism. Modifications were created with a sharp pin inside the cap, which, when the screw rotated, was the first to bite into the skull and did not allow it to fidget, bringing additional suffering to the victim.
Mixed types of torture
Just as no classification in nature has rigid partitions, so in torture we will not be able to clearly separate mental from physical methods. Where, for example, should we include such methods (the NKVD arsenal):
1) Sound method. Place the defendant six meters away. for eight and force everyone to speak loudly and repeat. This is not easy for an already exhausted person. Or make two megaphones out of cardboard and, together with a fellow investigator who has approached, approach the prisoner closely, shout in both ears: “Confess, you bastard!” The prisoner becomes stunned and sometimes loses his hearing. But this is an uneconomical method, it’s just that investigators also want to have fun in their monotonous work, so they come up with something to do.
2) Extinguish the cigarette on the skin of the person under investigation.
4) Light method. Harsh round-the-clock electric light in the cell or box where the prisoner is kept, an excessively bright light bulb for a small room and white walls. The eyelids become inflamed, it is very painful. And in the investigative office, room spotlights are again directed at him.
5) Such an idea. On the night of May 1, 1933, in the Khabarovsk GPU, Chebotarev was not interrogated all night, twelve hours, no: they were taken for interrogation! So-and-so - hands back! They took me out of the cell quickly up the stairs to the investigator’s office. The hatchling has left. But the investigator, not only without asking a single question, but sometimes without even allowing Chebotarev to sit down, picks up the phone: take him away from 107! They take him and bring him to a cell. As soon as he lay down on the bunk, the castle rattled: Chebotarev! For interrogation! Hands back! And there: take it from 107th! In general, methods of influence can begin long before the investigative office.
6) Prison begins with a box, that is, a box or closet. A person who has just been captured from freedom, still in the summer of his inner movement, ready to find out, argue, fight, is slammed into a box at the very first prison step, sometimes with a light bulb and where he can sit, sometimes dark and such that he can only stand, still crushed by the door. And they keep him here for several hours, half a day, a day. Hours of complete uncertainty! - maybe he is walled up here for life? He has never seen anything like this in his life, he can’t guess! His first hours are passing, when everything in him is still burning from the unstoppable spiritual whirlwind. Some lose heart - this is where they should do their first interrogation! Others become embittered - so much the better, they will now insult the investigator, commit negligence - and it will be easier to screw up the case for them.
7) When there weren’t enough boxes, they did this too. Elena Strutinskaya in the Novocherkassk NKVD was put on a stool in the corridor for six days - so that she would not lean against anything, would not sleep, would not fall or get up. This is for six days! Try sitting for six hours. Again, as an option, you can sit the prisoner on a high chair, like a laboratory one, so that his feet do not reach the floor. they numb well then. Let it sit for eight to ten hours. Otherwise, during the interrogation, when the prisoner is in full view, sit him on an ordinary chair, but like this: on the very tip, on the rib of the seat (still forward! still forward!), so that he doesn’t fall over, but so that the rib presses painfully on him the whole interrogation. And do not allow him to move for several hours. That's all? Yes, that's all. Try it.
8) According to local conditions, boxing can be replaced by a divisional pit, as was the case in the Gorokhovets army camps during the Great Patriotic War. The arrested person falls into such a hole, three meters deep, two meters in diameter, and there for several days under open air, for an hour and in the rain, there was both a cell and a restroom for him. And three hundred grams of bread and water were lowered there to him on a string. Imagine yourself in this position, and even just arrested, when everything is bubbling inside you...
