BASTINADO, BASTONADO, or BASTONADE, a kind ofpunishment inflicted with a rod, or staff. This mode of punishment was common among most of the ancient countries, and is still practised in many of the eastern nations. In all the provinces of the Ottoman empire, the bastinado is the common punishment for theft, and other delinquencies' of a more trivial na ture. The criminal is stretched on his back upon a board, with his hands tied, and his ankles confined by r, wooden machine. The legs are then raised, while two men, one placed on each side, alternately beat the bare soles of the feet, with a rod about the size of a small walking stick. The bastinado is sometimes a very slight punishment, but is inflicted at other times with barbarous cruelty. The number of strokes is specified in the sentence, amounting sometimes to 400 or 500 ; but it is usual for some person present to intercede in favour of the offender, before he has received the full number ; for the punishment is in flicted, if not in the judge's presence, at least within his hearing. This punishment is accompanied like wise with a kind of fine ; for the person on whom it is inflicted pays so much for every blow, both to him who gives and to him who counts them. In China, the bastinado, though sometimes very smart ly applied, is the slightest kind of punishment, used only in case of very trivial crimes. It is often in flicted, by the emperor's direction, on his courtiers, who receive it as a particular mark of his gracious and paternal care, and are afterwards received into authority, and treated" with distinguished respect. Every mandarin has the privilege of inflicting this punishment at pleasure, either when he administers public justice, or when any person neglects to greet him with the accustomed salutation. When he sits in judgment, or gives a public audience, a bag, filled with small sticks, lies on a table before him, and he is surrounded by a number of petty officers, provided -with the baton, or pan•tsee, employed in bastinading.
Taking from his bag one of the little sticks which it contains, he throws it down on the hall, towards the culprit whom he wishes • to be chastised. His of ficers seize the criminal, and stretch him at full length, with his belly towards the ground ; lie is stripped hare to the heels, and receives five smart blows from the most athletic of the attendants ; an other succeeds, and bestows an equal number, if the mandarin pulls forth another small stick from the bag, which is the signal when he wishes the punish ment to be continued. The person thus chastised then throws himself upon his knees before the judge, inclines his body three times towards the ground, and thanks him for the fatherly charge which lie takes of his education. See Guer's Akeurs et Usages des Tures, vol. ii. p. 162. Russel's Aleppo, vol. i. p. 331. Grosier's China, vol. ii. p. 52. Chantreaux's Travels in Russia, vol. i. p. 117. (,u) BAT, an animal of the marnmalia tribe, an ac count of which will be found in the article MAMMA L' A. The bats in Senegal are eaten by the negroes, and are generally as large as pigeons. Their wings are very long, and they are furnished with five or six pointed hooks, by which they fix themselves toge ther, and hang like large bundles from the branches of trees. Mr Bolingbroke, in his voyage to Dema rara, mentions a very singular anecdote of the bats of that country. When the inhabitants are asleep in their hammocks, and their feet accidentally unco vered, the bats often open the veins of their feet with out disturbing them, and suck till they are satisfied. When the-victim of their attack awakes, he finds him self faint, and his feet bathed in blood. These ani make similar attacks upon cattle. See Du rand's Voyage to Senegal, chap. v. ; and Boling broke's Voyage to Demerara, chap. xii. Sec also Vespertilio, MAsiliALIA Index. (7r)