Bastinado (or beating) has always been of univer- sal application as a punishment of minor offences in the East, and especially in Egypt. It appears to be desig- nated by the Heb. phrase "IDIE 'J2d, she'bet musar ', "rod of correction" (Prov. xxii, 15). See Ron. The punishment of beating with sticks or rods, termed "scourging" (Levit. xix, 20) and "chastising" (Deut. xxii, 18), was very common among the Jews, and is ordained in the law for a variety of offences. Thus stripes, the rod, etc., frequently occur for punishment of any kind (Prov. x, 13; xxvi, 3). The dignity or high standing of the person who had rendered himself liable to this punishment could not excuse him from its being inflicted. He was extended upon the ground, and blows not exceeding fort}' were applied upon his back in the presence of the judge (Deut. xxv, 2, 3). This punishment is very frequently practised in the East at the present day, with this difference, however, that the blows were formerly inflicted on the back, but now on the soles of the feet. China has aptly been said to be governed by the stick. In Persia, also, the stick is in continual action. Men of all ranks and ages are continually liable to be beaten, and it is by no means a rare occurrence for the highest and most con- fidential persons in the state, in a moment of displeas- ure or caprice in their royal master, to be handed over to the beaters of carpets, who thrash them with their sticks as if they were dogs (Pict. Bible, note on Exod. vi, 14). Among the ancient Egyptians, in military as well as civil cases, minor offences were generally pun- ished with the stick — a mode of chastisement still great- ly in vogue among the modern inhabitants of the val- ley of the Nile, and held in such esteem by them that, convinced of (or perhaps by) its efficacy, the}' relate "its descent from heaven as a blessing to mankind." If an Egyptian of the present day has a government debt or tax to pay, he stoutly persists in his inability to obtain the money till he has withstood a certain number of blows, and considers himself compelled to produce it; and the ancient inhabitants, if not under the rule of their native princes, at least in the time of the Iioman emperors, gloried equally in the obstinacy they evinced, and the difficulty the governors of the country experienced in extorting from them what they were bound to pay ; whence Ammianus Marcellinus tells us, "an Egyptian blushes if he cannot show nu- merous marks on his body that evince his endeavors to evade the duties." The bastinado was inflicted on both sexes, as with the Jews. Men and boys were laid prostrate on the ground, and frequently held by the hands and feet while the chastisement was admin- istered ; but women, as they sat, received the stripes on their back, which was also inflicted by the hand of a man. Nor was it unusual for the superintendents to stimulate laborers to their work by the persuasive powers of the stick, whether engaged in the field or in handicraft employments : and boys were sometimes beaten without the ceremony of prostration, the hands being tied behind their back while the punishment was applied. It does not, however, appear to have been from any respect to the person that this less usual method was adopted ; nor is it probable that any class of the community enjoyed a peculiar privilege on these occasions, as among the modern Moslems, who, ex- tending their respect for the Prophet to his distant de- scendants of the thirty-sixth and ensuing generations, scruple to administer the stick to a shereef until he has >een politely furnished with a mat on which to pros- trate his guilty person. Among other amusing privi- leges in modern Ervpt is that conceded to the gran- dees, or officers of high rank. Ordinary culprits are punished by the hand of persons usually employed on rich occasions ; but a bey, or the governor of a dis- trict, can onlv receive his chastisement from the hand
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Ancient Egyptian Bastinado: 1, inflicted upon Boys; 2, upon Meu ; 3, upon Women.
of a pacha, and the aristocratic daboss (mace) is substi- tuted for the vulgar stick. This is no trifling privi- lege : it becomes fully impressed upon the sufferer, and renders him, long after, sensible of the peculiar honor he has enjoyed ; nor can any one doubt that an iron mace, in form not very unlike a chocolate-mill, is a distingue mode of punishing men who are proud of their rank (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. i, 210 sq. abridgm.). See Flagellation.
The punishment of tympanism, rvfiiravtofios, or beat- ing upon the tympanum, was practised by Antiochus ] toward the Jews (2 Mace, vi, 19, 28; comp. ver. SO; , Auth. Vers, "torment"), and is referred to by Paul (Ilcb. xi, 35; Auth. Vers, "tortured"). The "tym- panum" was a wooden frame, probably so called from resembling a drum or timbrel, on which the sufferer was fastened, and then beaten to death with sticks. See Corporal Inflictions.
Baston, Guillaume-Andre-Rene, a French Po- manisl divine, was burn at 1,'ouen, Nov. 29, 1741. Af- pli ting his studies, he became professor of the- ology at Rouen, emigrated during the Revolution, and "ii his return became grand-vicar of Rouen. In 1813 he was made bishop of Seez, but had to give up his see mi Hi- return of the Bourbons. He died at St. Laurent, Sept. 26, 1825. Among his published works ; de Theohgie (Paris, 177:; 1784); Les Entre- '« iduPapi GanganelU (177 7, 12mo) ; Premiere journee] i! M.Votiain dam V autre Monde (1119, 12mo); L'Eglue M. le Maistre (2 vols. 8vo, 1821-1824). — Hoefer, Biog. Generate, iv,726.