Were dogs really “insulting?” Because a huge number of portraits of noblemen from back then show them with dogs at their side.
Sure, but not in a modern-day cuddle-cuddle-who’s-my-furry-baby kind of way, but in a heres-my-hunting-companion-let’s-kill-and-eat-something kind of way.
-Joe
Seriously, I see those little dogs all the time - probably more often than larger hunting dogs - in portraits.
Concur. Saying somebody endured horrific torture calmly is, to my ear, not even one full click up from accusing them of being a witch. “Well, it’s a good thing we caught that guy and did the nasty stuff to him, 'cause look how easily he handled that torture. Gots to be Evil.”
I recently received an email with a letter attached. The letter was supposedly written by an Air Force fighter pilot who was shot down in Vietnam and suffered some spectacular torture without cracking. The gist of the letter was that no one at Gitmo or anywhere else in the current disagreements came anywhere near being tortured-----it was basically that torture methods used against Al Quada guys were pussy stuff. I remember he referred to waterboarding as having water thrown in your face. The moral of the letter was vote Republican and thank God for GWB.
There are many stories of people reacting with eerie, not to say unnerving, calm under torture. I read a rather scholarly work called (IIRC) A History of Torture in which the author recounts some stories that have stayed with me.
In one, a bishop of something or other was found to have been a heretic. He recanted his heresy, and signed a document to that effect. But then he changed his mind and re-affirmed his beliefs. He was sentenced to be burned at the stake. As the flames rose, he held his right hand in the fire until it was burned to a crisp, because that was the hand with which he signed the recantation. He then “bathed” his face and head in the fire, and died shortly thereafter.
Another story is of an American Indian captured by an enemy tribe and tortured. After they worked on him for a while, he remarked that they obviously didn’t know what they were doing, and that he could better. They took him up on it, and he demanded a tobacco pipe and a fire. Then he roasted his own genitals while smoking the pipe. The tribe was so impressed they considered adopting him as one of their own, but then decided he was “spoiled” and tomahawked him to death instead.
And the story of St. Lawrence, perhaps apocryphal, but a good story nonetheless. He was martyred by being roasted alive on a gridiron. He is said to have remarked to his torturers shortly before his death -
And, not a story of torture, exactly, but Jack Ketch the famous hangman/torturer was entitled to the clothes of the executed as one of the perks of his job. He was supposed to hang a woman, and she cheated him of the perk by stripping in the cart taking her to the gallows, and tossing her clothing to the cheering crowd. Ketch was going to get back at her by not dropping her, and simply hoisting her up to strangle, but she fooled again by jumping off the gallows and breaking her neck.
Different people have different reactions to fear and pain. And “dying bravely” is a common ideal in warrior cultures. Witness the unpleasant custom of sepukku among the samurai, which is not a quick or easy death if you don’t want it to be.
Regards,
Shodan
Not questioning your statement, but I was wondering if you could tell me a source or sources where I could read up more on this.
You mean, aside from crushing feet? No. If you went down to the Tanner’s place (“Hey DJ, what’s happening?”) and requested some dog leather, everybody in town would know there was going to be a foot crushing and would start jockeying for seats on your lawn. That’s why it was best to use imported dog leather. You pay a bit more up front, but you don’t have to re-plant your crocuses.