GARROTTE' (Spanish garrote, a stick or cudgel), a mode of execution practiced in Spain and. the Spanish colonies. Originally, it consisted in simply placing a cord round the neck of a criminal, who was seated on a chair fixed to a post, and then twisting the cord by means of a stick (whence the name) inserted between it and the of the neck, till strangulation was produced. Afterwards, a brass collar was used, containing a screw, which the executioner turned till its point entered the spinal marrow where it unites with the brain, causlng, instantaneous death. The inquisitors were wont to grant as a favor this mode of strangulation, before being burned, to such condemned persons as recanted. If the executioner was unskillful, however, the pain was sometimes very great. Llorente (Hist. de t. iii. p. 472) mentions that at an auto da fl (q.v.) at Cuenca, a_poor Jew, who had obtained this dismal privilege of preliminary tion, noticing the bungling manner in which the executioner had performed the tion on the two who preceded him, said to the latter: " Peter,.if you are likely to
strangle me so clumsily, I' would much rather be burned alive." The same process was also applied as a species of torture to the limbs, or to such portions of the body as might be injured with comparative impunity. It is probable that the Spaniards adopted the G. from the Moors; at all events, in its primitive form; it exactly punishment of the bowstring in use • among Mohammedan nations.—Garrotting is also the name given in England and Scotland to a species of robbery which for some time was rather common, in which the robbers suddenly come behind their victim, and throwing a cord, or handkerchief, or something of the sort, round his neck, produce temporary strangulation till their purpose is effected.