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Java How to Program 9th Edition Deitel Test Bank download

The document provides links to download various test banks and solution manuals for different editions of Java programming and other subjects. It includes specific questions and answers related to object-oriented programming concepts such as polymorphism, abstract classes, and interfaces. Additionally, it discusses the industries and self-sufficiency of the penal settlement in the Andaman Islands.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
21 views

Java How to Program 9th Edition Deitel Test Bank download

The document provides links to download various test banks and solution manuals for different editions of Java programming and other subjects. It includes specific questions and answers related to object-oriented programming concepts such as polymorphism, abstract classes, and interfaces. Additionally, it discusses the industries and self-sufficiency of the penal settlement in the Andaman Islands.

Uploaded by

deqofossat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 10: Object-Oriented
Programming: Polymorphism
Section 10.1 Introduction
10.1 Q1: Polymorphism enables you to:
a. program in the general.
b. program in the specific.
c. absorb attributes and behavior from previous classes.
d. hide information from the user.
Ans: a. program in the general.

10.1 Q2: Which of the following statements about interfaces is false?


a. An interface describes a set of methods that can be called on an object, providing a
default implementation for the methods.
b. An interface describes a set of methods that can be called on an object, not
providing concrete implementation for the methods.
c. Interfaces are useful when attempting to assign common functionality to possibly
unrelated classes.
d. Once a class implements an interface, all objects of that class have an is-a
relationship with the interface type.
Ans: a. An interface describes a set of methods that can be called on an object,
providing a default implementation for the methods.

Section 10.2 Polymorphism Examples


10.2 Q1: For which of the following would polymorphism not provide a clean
solution?
a. A billing program where there is a variety of client types that are billed with
different fee structures.
b. A maintenance log program where data for a variety of types of machines is
collected and maintenance schedules are produced for each machine based on the
data collected.
c. A program to compute a 5% savings account interest for a variety of clients.
d. An IRS program that maintains information on a variety of taxpayers and
determines who to audit based on criteria for classes of taxpayers.
Ans: c. A program to compute a 5% savings account interest for a variety of clients.
Because there is only one kind of calculation, there is no need for polymorphism.

10.2 Q2: Polymorphism allows for specifics to be dealt with during:


© Copyright 1992-2012 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc.
a. execution.
b. compilation.
c. programming.
d. debugging.
Ans: a. execution

Section 10.3 Demonstrating Polymorphic


Behavior
10.3 Q1: Which statement best describes the relationship between superclass and
subclass types?
a. A subclass reference cannot be assigned to a superclass variable and a superclass
reference cannot be assigned to a subclass variable.
b. A subclass reference can be assigned to a superclass variable and a superclass
reference can be assigned to a subclass variable.
c. A superclass reference can be assigned to a subclass variable, but a subclass
reference cannot be assigned to a superclass variable.
d. A subclass reference can be assigned to a superclass variable, but a superclass
reference cannot be assigned to a subclass variable.
Ans: d. A subclass reference can be assigned to a superclass variable, but a
superclass reference cannot be assigned to a subclass variable.

Section 10.4 Abstract Classes and Methods


10.4 Q1: A(n) class cannot be instantiated.
a. final.
b. concrete.
c. abstract.
d. polymorphic.
Ans: c. abstract.

10.4 Q2: Non-abstract classes are called:


a. real classes.
b. instance classes.
c. implementable classes.
d. concrete classes.
Ans: d. concrete classes.

Section 10.5 Case Study: Payroll System


© Copyright 1992-2012 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc.
Using Polymorphism
10.5 Q1: It is a UML convention to denote the name of an abstract class in:
a. bold.
b. italics.
c. a diamond.
d. there is no convention of the UML to denote abstract classes—they are listed just
as any other class.
Ans: b. italics.

10.5 Q2: If the superclass contains only abstract method declarations, the
superclass is used for:
a. implementation inheritance.
b. interface inheritance.
c. Both.
d. Neither.
Ans: b. interface inheritance.

Section 10.5.1 Abstract Superclass Employee


10.5.1 Q1: Which of the following could be used to declare abstract method
method1 in abstract class Class1 (method1 returns an int and takes no
arguments)?
a. public int method1();
b. public int abstract method1();
c. public abstract int method1();
d. public int nonfinal method1();
Ans: c. public abstract int method1();

10.5.1 Q2: Which of the following statements about abstract superclasses is true?
a. abstract superclasses may contain data.
b. abstract superclasses may not contain implementations of methods.
c. abstract superclasses must declare all methods as abstract.
d. abstract superclasses must declare all data members not given values as
abstract.
Ans: a. abstract superclasses may contain data.

Section 10.5.2 Concrete Subclass SalariedEmployee


10.5.2 Q1: Consider the abstract superclass below:

© Copyright 1992-2012 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc.
public abstract class Foo
{
private int a;
public int b;

public Foo( int aVal, int bVal )


{
a = aVal;
b = bVal;
} // end Foo constructor

public abstract int calculate();


} // end class Foo

Any concrete subclass that extends class Foo:


a. Must implement a method called calculate.
b. Will not be able to access the instance variable a.
c. Neither (a) nor (b).
d. Both (a) and (b).
Ans: d. Both (a) and (b).

Section 10.5.5 Indirect Concrete Subclass


BasePlusCommissionEmployee
10.5.5 Q1: Consider classes A, B and C, where A is an abstract superclass, B is a
concrete class that inherits from A and C is a concrete class that inherits from B. Class
A declares abstract method originalMethod, implemented in class B. Which of the
following statements is true of class C?
a. Method originalMethod cannot be overridden in class C—once it has been
implemented in concrete class B, it is implicitly final.
b. Method originalMethod must be overridden in class C, or a syntax error will occur.
c. If method originalMethod is not overridden in class C but is called by an object of
class C, an error occurs.
d. None of the above.
Ans: d. None of the above.

Section 10.5.6 Polymorphic Processing, Operator


instanceof and Downcasting
10.5.6 Q1: When a superclass variable refers to a subclass object and a method is
called on that object, the proper implementation is determined at execution time.
What is the process of determining the correct method to call?
a. early binding.
b. non-binding.
© Copyright 1992-2012 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc.
c. on-time binding.
d. late binding.
Ans: d. late binding (also called dynamic binding).

10.5.6 Q2: Every object in Java knows its own class and can access this information
through method .
a. getClass.
b. getInformation.
c. objectClass.
d. objectInformation.
Ans: a. getClass.

Section 10.5.7 Summary of the Allowed Assignments


Between Superclass and Subclass Variables
10.5.7 Q1: Assigning a subclass reference to a superclass variable is safe:
a. because the subclass object has an object of its superclass.
b. because the subclass object is an object of its superclass.
c. only when the superclass is abstract.
d. only when the superclass is concrete.
Ans: b. because the subclass object is an object of its superclass.

Section 10.6 final Methods and Classes


10.6 Q1: Classes and methods are declared final for all but the following reasons:
a. final methods allow inlining the code.
b. final methods and classes prevent further inheritance.
c. final methods are static.
d. final methods can improve performance.
Ans: c. final methods are static.

10.6 Q2: All of the following methods are implicitly final except:
a. a method in an abstract class.
b. a private method.
c. a method declared in a final class.
d. static method.
Ans: a. a method in an abstract class.

10.6 Q3: Declaring a method final means:


© Copyright 1992-2012 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc.
a. it will prepare the object for garbage collection.
b. it cannot be accessed from outside its class.
c. it cannot be overloaded.
d. it cannot be overridden.
Ans: d. it cannot be overridden.

Section 10.7 Case Study: Creating and Using


Interfaces
10.7 Q1: An interface may contain:
a. private static data and public abstract methods.
b. only public abstract methods.
c. public static final data and public abstract methods.
d. private static data and public final methods.
Ans: c. public static final data and public abstract methods.

10.7 Q2: Which of the following does not complete the sentence correctly?
An interface .
a. forces classes that implement it to declare all the interface methods.
b. can be used in place of an abstract class when there is no default
implementation to inherit.
c. is declared in a file by itself and is saved in a file with the same name as the
interface followed by the .java extension.
d. can be instantiated.
Ans: d. can be instantiated.

Section 10.7.1 Developing a Payable Hierarchy


10.7.1 Q1: The UML distinguishes an interface from other classes by placing the
word “interface” in above the interface name.
a. italics.
b. carets.
c. guillemets.
d. bold.
Ans: c. guillemets.

Section 10.7.2 Interface Payable


10.7.2 Q1: Interfaces can have methods.
a. 0

© Copyright 1992-2012 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc.
b. 1
c. 2
d. any number of
Ans: d. any number of

Section 10.7.3 Class Invoice


10.7.3 Q1: Which keyword is used to specify that a class will define the methods of
an interface?
a. uses.
b. implements.
c. defines.
d. extends.
Ans: b. implements.

10.7.3 Q2: Which of the following is not possible?


a. A class that implements two interfaces.
b. A class that inherits from two classes.
c. A class that inherits from one class, and implements an interface.
d. All of the above are possible.
Ans: b. A class that inherits from two classes.

Section 10.7.4 Modifying Class Employee to


Implement Interface Payable
10.7.4 Q1: A class that implements an interface but does not declare all of the
interface’s methods must be declared:
a. public.
b. interface.
c. abstract.
d. final.
Ans: c. abstract.

© Copyright 1992-2012 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc.
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different content
of its animal food and all its fuel and salt. In other lines of work, it
makes its own boats and provides from its own resources the bulk of
the materials for its buildings which are constructed and erected
locally. Among the materials produced are all the timber, stone,
bricks, lime and mortar, and most of the iron and metal work are
made up there from raw material. In the matter of convict clothing,
all that is necessary to be purchased elsewhere is the roughest of
cotton hanks and wool in the first raw condition, every other
operation being performed on the spot. It provides much of its own
leather.

In achieving the results, the officers have had first to learn for
themselves as best they could how to turn out the work to hand and
then to teach what they had learned to the most unpromising pupils
that can be imagined for the work required of them in Port Blair. And
they have been hampered all along by the necessities of convict
discipline, by the constant release of their men and their punishment
for misconduct. It is under such conditions that the corps of
artificers and other convicts have had to be utilised. Nevertheless,
the roads and drains, the buildings and boats, the embankments and
reservoirs, are as good and durable as are the same class of
structures elsewhere. The manufacturers are sufficient for their
purpose, and there are among the taught those who are now skilled
in the use of many kinds of machinery. Cultivation is generally fair
and some of it very good; the general sanitation is literally second to
none.

First of all the industries of the Andamans is that of timber, and to


accelerate and increase it a steam tramway has been instituted and
there are now some fourteen miles of line connecting the forests
with the shores of Port Blair. As a further adjunct steam saw-mills
were erected in 1896 and a forest department that employs from
five to six hundred men daily under its own officers, not only
supplies the settlement with all of its requirements in timber from
the local forests, but also exports timber and forest produce to
various places in India and Europe. Of these latter exports, rattans
and gurjun oil are the chief; other natural products of the islands are
trepang, tortoise-shell and edible birds’ nests, but they are collected
only in small quantities. The principal cultivations in which convicts
and ex-convicts are engaged are paddy, sugar cane, Indian corn and
turmeric; cocoanuts have during the past thirty-five years been
extensively planted, and besides the agricultural products previously
mentioned, vegetables and fruits of various kinds are grown. The
larger industries in which the penal community is engaged have
already been alluded to, but there are many minor employments,
the products from which also go toward making the settlement self-
supporting. Among these are to be found the manufacture of all
kinds of furniture, cane chairs, baskets, many varieties of bamboo
work and ornamental woodcarving, woven articles from serviettes to
saddle-girths, and blankets, pottery, rope and mats, silver, tin, brass
and iron work, shoes, rickshaws and carts, besides the production of
such materials as lime, bricks and tiles. Port Blair is in
communication three and often four times a month with Calcutta,
Madras and Rangoon by the vessels of the Asiatic Steam Navigation
Company. The distances between the settlement and the ports
named are 796, 780 and 387 miles respectively.

The earliest penal settlement on the Andamans was in the southern


island, where it was founded on the present site of Port Blair in
1792. It was known as the “old harbour.” After three years the
establishment was moved to the present Port Cornwallis on the
northern island, but this proved to be most unhealthy and it was
closed, the convicts, numbering some two hundred and seventy,
being removed to Penang, at the extremity of the Malay Peninsula.
In the early “fifties” the Straits Settlements sometimes sent their
long-term convicts to Bombay, from where they were usually drafted
to such moist and congenial climates as Tannah and Ratnagiri. By
good behaviour they earned tickets-of-leave to the hill stations,
Mahabuleshwar and Matheran, where they became the market-
gardeners of the place, many preferring to remain after their time
had expired, respected and respectable citizens, often possessed of
considerable wealth. At one time the Ratnagiri gaol contained about
three hundred and sixty convicts; “at least two-thirds were
Chinamen and Malays from the Straits, great ruffians, each with a
record of piracy or murder, or both combined. Many of them were
heavily fettered and carefully guarded by armed police when at their
ordinary work in the ‘laterite’ quarries, for they were mostly powerful
men;” the tools they used were formidable weapons and as there
were known to be deadly feuds always present among them, serious
disturbances and outbreaks were constantly dreaded. Nevertheless,
misconduct was exceedingly rare; breaches of gaol discipline were
much fewer among these desperadoes than among the milder
Hindus in the work-sheds within the gaol. The fact having in due
course created much surprise, inquiries were instituted as to why
pirates and murderers, usually so insubordinate in other places, were
so well-conducted and quiet at Ratnagiri.

The riddle was presently solved. “For some years one Sheik Kassam
had been gaoler. Belonging to the fisherman class and possessed of
very little education, he had, nevertheless, worked his way upward
through the police by dint of honesty, hard work and a certain
shrewdness which had more than once brought him to the front. At
last, toward the end of his service, the gaolership falling vacant, he
was, with everyone’s cordial approval, nominated to the post.” With
comparative rest and improved pay, the old gentleman waxed fatter
and jollier and was esteemed one of the most genial companions the
country could produce. The cares of state, and the responsibility of
three hundred murderous convicts, weighed lightly on Sheik Kassam.
He developed a remarkable talent or predilection for gardening,
almost from the first. “He laid out the quarry beds, brought water
down to irrigate them, produced all the gaol required in the way of
green stuff, and made tapioca and arrowroot by the ton. The better
plot of land belonging to the gaol lay between Sheik Kassam’s own
official residence, a tiny bungalow-fashioned dwelling, and a walled
courtyard near to the highroad. The sheik had no difficulty in
obtaining permission to erect a high wall of rubble from the quarries
along the whole road frontage, so that, as he urged, the convicts at
work in the garden would not be gazed at by passers-by, and that
forbidden articles, such as tobacco, sweetmeats, liquor, and the like,
should not be passed or even thrown over to them.”

Presently this favourite slice of garden was safely boxed in from the
public view by an enclosure some eight feet high, extending from
the gaol itself round to the gaoler’s house, the only entrance to it
being a little wicket-gate by the side of the sheik’s back-yard.

At last the head-superintendent of the Bombay prison heard that


Sheik Kassam’s disciplinary system consisted in his bringing the most
dangerous of the Chinamen and Malays quietly into his back-yard
from the adjoining garden, and there regaling them with plenty of
sweetmeats, sugar, drink in moderate quantity, and adding even the
joys of female society of a peculiar sort. If any one became unruly or
saucy, he was liable to get a dozen lashes, but if they behaved
decently they all had their little festivals with regularity. After this
discovery, poor old Sheik Kassam’s character as a model gaoler was
gone; he was dismissed, but with a full pension which he did not live
long to enjoy.
CHAPTER VII
PRISONS OF BURMAH

British acquisition of Burmah—Quarrels with the king in 1824—His


reprisals—British subjects seized and sent to prison—Mr. Henry
Gouger’s narrative—The “Death Prison”—Gigantic stocks—
Filthiness of prison—Tortures inflicted—Barbarous trials—
Horrible life—Rats and vermin—Smallpox—Tobacco a valuable
disinfectant—Another “Black Hole”—Chained to a leper—
Released by the advance of British troops—Penal code of
Burmah—Ordeals and punishments—Treading to death by
elephants—Dacoity the last form of resistance to British rule—
Prison life—The Burmese gaol-bird—An outbreak.

The acquisition and annexation of Burmah by Great Britain, first the


lower province with three-fourths of the seaboard, and then the
entire kingdom, were accomplished between 1824 and 1886, in a
little more than half a century, that is to say. Until this took place the
country was generally in a state of anarchy, the king was a
bloodthirsty despot, and the state council was at his bidding no
better than a band of Dacoits who plundered the people and
murdered them wholesale. The ruling powers were always anxious
to pick a quarrel with their powerful British neighbours, and were so
unceasingly aggressive that they brought on a war in 1824, which
ended in the capture of Rangoon and the occupation of Pegu and
Martaban with the cession of the coast province of Aracan.

The outbreak of hostilities led to cruel retaliation by the king of


Burmah upon all Europeans who resided in the country, whether as
missionaries or merchants engaged in trade. One of them, an
Englishman, Mr. Henry Gouger, was arrested as a spy and arraigned
before a court of justice with very little hope of escaping with his
life. He was fortunately spared after suffering untold indignities and
many positive tortures. Eventually he published his experiences,
which remain to this day as a graphic record of the Burmese prisons
as they then existed. He was first committed to the safe keeping of
the king’s body guard, and confined with his feet in the stocks; then
he was transferred to the “death prison,” having been barbarously
robbed and deprived of his clothing. He was not entirely stripped,
but was led away with his arms tied behind his back, bare-headed
and bare-footed to the Let-ma-yoon, the “antechamber of the tomb.”

Let me proceed now in the narrator’s own words:—

“There are four common prisons in Ava, but one of these only was
appropriated to criminals likely to suffer death. It derived its
remarkably well-selected name, Let-ma-yoon, literally interpreted,
‘Hand, shrink not,’ from the revolting scenes of cruelty practised
within its walls. This was the prison to which I was driven. My heart
sank within me as I entered the gate of the prison yard which, as it
closed behind me, seemed to shut me out forever from all the
interests and sympathies of the world beyond it. I was now delivered
over to the wretches, seven or eight in number, who guarded this
gaol. They were all condemned malefactors, whose lives had been
spared on the condition of their becoming executioners; the more
hideous the crime for which he had to suffer, the more hardened the
criminal, the fitter instrument he was presumed to be for the
profession he was henceforth doomed to follow. To render escape
without detection impossible, the shape of a ring was indelibly
tattooed on each cheek, which gave rise to the name they were
commonly known by, pahquet, or ‘ring-cheeked,’ a term detested by
themselves as one of reproach and one we never dared to apply in
addressing them. The nature of his qualification for the employment
was written in a similar manner across the breast. The chief of the
gang was a lean, wiry, hard-featured old man whom we taught
ourselves to address under the appellation aphe, ‘father,’ as did all
his subordinates. Another bearing an appropriate motto had
murdered his brother and had hidden his body piecemeal under his
house. A third was branded thoo-kho, ‘thief.’ This troop of wretches
were held in such detestation that the law prohibited their entering
any person’s house except in execution of their office. It happened,
soon after I entered, that the exigencies of this brotherhood were
great from an increase of business, and no brave malefactor
(inhumanity was always styled bravery here) being ready to
strengthen the force, a young man convicted of a petty offence was
selected to fill the vacancy. I beheld this poor youth doomed to the
most debasing ignominy for the rest of his life by these fatal rings,
his piteous cries at the degradation he was undergoing being
drowned by the jeers and ridicule of the confederates. They soon
made him as much a child of the devil as themselves.

“The ‘father’ of this interesting family received me at the gate with a


smile of welcome like the grin of a tiger, and with the most
disgusting imprecations hurried me to a huge block of granite
embedded in the centre of the yard. I was made to sit down and
place my ankles on the block of stone while three pairs of fetters
were struck on with a maul, a false blow of which would have
maimed me forever. But they were too expert for this, and it was not
a time to care for minor dangers. Thus shackled, I was told, as if in
derision, to walk to the entrance of the prison-house not many yards
distant; but as the shortness of the chains barely permitted me to
advance the heel of one foot to the toe of the other, it was only by
shuffling a few inches at a time that the task was accomplished.
Practice, however, soon made me more expert.

“It is not easy to give a correct idea of the prison which was
destined to be my dwelling place for the first year of my captivity.
Although it was between four and five o’clock on a bright sunny
afternoon, the rays of light only penetrated through the chinks and
cracks of the walls sufficiently to disclose the utter wretchedness of
all within. Some time elapsed before I could clearly distinguish the
objects by which I was surrounded. As my eyes gradually adapted
themselves to the dim light, I ascertained it to be a room about forty
feet long by thirty feet wide, the floor and sides made of strong
teak-wood planks, the former being raised two feet from the earth
on posts, which, according to the usual style of Burmese
architecture, ran through the body of the building, and supported
the tiled roof as well as the rafters for the floor and the planking of
the walls. The height of the walls from the floor was five or six feet,
but the roof being a sloping one, the centre might be double that
height. It had no window or aperture to admit light or air except a
closely woven bamboo wicket used as a door, and this was always
kept closed. Fortunately, the builders had not expended much labour
on the walls, the planks of which here and there were not very
closely united, affording through the chinks the only ventilation the
apartment possessed, if we except a hole near the roof where,
either by accident or design, nearly a foot in length of decayed plank
had been torn off. This formed a safety-valve for the escape of foul
air to a certain extent; and, but for this fortuitous circumstance, it is
difficult to see how life could have been long sustained.

“The only articles of furniture the place contained were these:—First


and most prominent, was a gigantic row of stocks similar in its
construction to that formerly used in England, dilapidated specimens
of which may still be seen in some of the market places of our
country towns. It was capable of accommodating more than a dozen
occupants. Several smaller varieties of the same species lay around,
each holding by the leg a pair of hapless victims consigned to its
custody. These stocks were heavy logs of timber bored with holes to
admit the feet and fitted with wooden pins to hold them fast. In the
centre of the apartment was placed a tripod holding a large earthen
cup filled with earth oil to be used as a lamp during the night
watches; and lastly, a simple but suspicious looking piece of
machinery, whose painful uses it was my fate to test before many
hours had elapsed. It was merely a long bamboo suspended from
the roof by a rope at each end and worked by blocks or pulleys to
raise or depress it at pleasure.
“The prison had never been washed, nor even swept, since it was
built. So I was told, and I have no doubt it was true, for, besides the
ocular proof from its present condition, it is certain no attempt was
made to cleanse it during my subsequent tenancy of eleven months.
This gave a kind of fixedness or permanency to the fetid odours,
until the very floors and walls were saturated with them. Putrid
remains of castaway animal and vegetable stuff which needed no
broom to make it ‘move on’—the stale fumes from thousands of
tobacco pipes—the scattered ejections of the pulp and liquid from
their everlasting betel, and other nameless abominations still more
disgusting, which strewed the floor—and if to this be added the
exudation from the bodies of a crowd of never-washed convicts,
encouraged by the thermometer at 100 degrees, in a den almost
without ventilation—is it possible to say what it smelled like? As
might have been expected from such a state of things, the place was
teeming with creeping vermin to an extent that very soon reconciled
me to the plunder of the greater portion of my dress.

“When night came on, the ‘father’ of the establishment, entering,


stalked towards our corner. The meaning of the bamboo now
became apparent. It was passed between the legs of each individual
and when it had threaded our number, seven in all, a man at each
end hoisted it up by the blocks to a height which allowed our
shoulders to rest on the ground while our feet depended from the
iron rings of the fetters. The adjustment of the height was left to the
judgment of our kind-hearted parent, who stood by to see that it
was not high enough to endanger life nor low enough to exempt
from pain. Having settled this point to his satisfaction, the venerable
chief proceeded with a staff to count the number of the captives,
bestowing a smart rap on the head to those he disliked, whom he
made over to the savage with a significant hint of what he might
expect if the agreed tally were not forthcoming when the wicket
opened the next morning. He then took his leave, kindly wishing us
a good night’s rest, for the old wretch could be facetious; the young
savage trimmed his lamp, lighted his pipe, did the same act of
courtesy to all who wished to smoke, and the anxious community,
one by one, sought a short oblivion to their griefs in sleep.

“In vain, however, did our little party court that blessing; passing by
the torment of thought, the sufferings of the body alone were
enough to prevent it. I had youth on my side, and my slender frame
enabled me to bear the suspension better than my fellow sufferers.
The tobacco smoke was a mercy, for it robbed the infliction of half
its torment. A year afterward, when we had to undergo a
punishment somewhat similar, though in a purer atmosphere, we
found the sting of the mosquitos, on the soles of our undefended
feet, ‘without the power to scare away’ these venomous little
insects, was intolerable; whereas in this well-smoked apartment a
mosquito could not live. We were not aware at the time what a
happy exemption this was. What a night was that on which we now
entered! Death, in its most appalling form, perhaps attended with
the agony of unknown tortures, was thought by all to be our certain
lot. Kewet-nee, who occupied the next place on the bamboo, excited
a horrible interest by the relation of a variety of exquisite tortures
which he had known to be perpetrated under that roof.

“The rays of the morning sun now began to struggle through the
chinks of the prison walls and told us that day dawned, bringing life
and happiness to the world outside, but only the consciousness of
misery to all within. The prisoners being counted and found to tally
correctly with the reckoning of overnight, symptoms of the routine of
the day began to attract attention. Our considerate parent made his
appearance and with his customary grin lowered down the bamboo
to within a foot of the floor, to the great relief of our benumbed
limbs in which the blood slowly began again to circulate. At eight
o’clock the inmates were driven out in gangs of ten or twelve at a
time, to take the air for five minutes, when they were huddled in
again, to make way for others; but no entreaty could secure a
repetition of the same favour that day, though a bribe, which few
could promise, might effect it. Fresh air, the cheapest of all the gifts
of Providence, was a close monopoly in the hands of the ‘sons of the
prison,’ who sold it at the highest price, and with a niggard hand.

“After breakfast the business of trying the prisoners began, and each
was brought in turn before the myo-serai, or assistant to the
governor. The first was a young man accused of being concerned in
the robbery of the house of a person of rank. Whether the
accusation was well founded or not I had no means of judging
except by the result; but certainly the man had not the appearance
of a robber. As a matter of course, he denied the crime; but denial
was assumed to be obstinacy, and the usual mode of overcoming
obstinacy was by some manner of torture. By order of the myo-
serai, therefore, he was made to sit upon a low stool, his legs were
bound together by a cord above the knees and two poles inserted
between them by the executioners, one of whom took the command
of each pole, the ground forming the fulcrum. With these the legs
were forced upwards and downwards and asunder, and underwent a
peculiar kind of grinding, inflicting more or less pain as the judge
gave direction. Every moment I expected to hear the thighbone
snap. The poor fellow sustained this torture with loud cries but still
with firmness until the agony became so intense that he fainted.
‘The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.’ To restore animation
they resorted to cold water and shampooing. Thus revived, he was
again thrust back into his den with menaces of fresh torture on the
morrow, as no confession had yet been wrung from him. I may as
well finish the revolting story at once.

“True to his word, the myo-serai returned the next day to renew his
diabolical practices. This time the culprit was tied by the wrists
behind his back, the rope which bound them being drawn by a
pulley just high enough to allow his toes to touch the ground, and in
this manner he was left until he should become more reasonable. At
length, under the pressure of agonising pain, just in time to save the
dislocation of the shoulder, the criminal made his confession and
criminated two respectable persons as accomplices. From what
followed I presume this was all that was wanted. The man of justice
had now two men in his toils who were able to pay. The unfortunate
man, who, when relieved from the pain of the torture, acknowledged
he had accused innocent people, was returned to gaol fearfully
mangled and maimed; but instead of meeting a felon’s fate, when
time had been given to fleece the two victims, he was released.

“Within the walls nothing worthy of notice occurred until the hour of
three in the afternoon. As this hour approached, we noticed that the
talking and jesting of the community gradually died away. All
seemed to be under the influence of some powerful restraint, until
that fatal hour was announced by the deep tones of a powerful gong
suspended in the palace yard, and a deathlike silence prevailed. If a
word was spoken it was in a whisper. It seemed as though even
breathing were suspended under the control of a panic terror, too
deep for expression, which pervaded every bosom. We did not long
remain in ignorance of the cause. If any of the prisoners were to
suffer death that day, the hour of three was that at which they were
taken out for execution. The manner of it was the acme of cold-
blooded cruelty. The hour was scarcely told by the gong when the
wicket opened, and the hideous figure of a spotted man appeared,
who, without uttering a word, walked straight to his victim now for
the first time probably made acquainted with his doom. As many of
these unfortunate people knew no more than ourselves the fate that
awaited them, this mystery was terrible and agonising; each one
fearing, up to the last moment, that the stride of the Spot might be
directed his way. When the culprit disappeared with his conductor
and the prison door closed behind them, those who remained began
again to breathe more freely; for another day, at least, their lives
were safe.

“It is not my intention to make this narrative a chronicle of all the


diabolical cruelties in this den of abominations, but the first
specimen which greeted our eyes on the morrow may serve as a fair
sample of the practices which it was our fate to behold almost daily.
The routine was generally this:—The magistrate takes his seat in the
front of the shed in which we occupy the background, as though the
spot had been selected for our convenience, as spectators to behold
an amusing exhibition. A criminal is now summoned from the
interior. He hobbles out and squats down in terror before the judge;
the crime of which he is accused is stated to him. He denies it; he is
urged by various motives to confess his guilt; perhaps he knows that
confession is only another word for execution; therefore he still
denies. The magistrate assumes an air of indignation at his
obstinacy and now begins the work of his tormentor, the man with
the ringed cheek who has hitherto stood by waiting the word of
command. He has many means at his disposal, but the one selected
for the present instance was a short iron maul. It would simply
excite disgust were I to enter into detail. Suffice it to say that after
writhing and rolling on the ground and screaming with agony for
nearly half an hour, the unfortunate wretch was assisted to his den,
a mass of wounds and bruises pitiable to behold, leaving his judge
not a whit the wiser.

“By degrees we settled down into the habits of the prison and were
becoming familiar with such scenes as I have recounted. We began
also to speculate on the length of time nature could hold out, if we
were left to test it. How long could we live in such a plight without
the use of water or other means of cleanliness? Would habit
reconcile us to it as it apparently had done many of our fellow
prisoners? Some of them had lived there for years. We gradually
became acquainted with them and with their crimes, real or
imputed. There were many cases in the calendar that were almost
incredible and showed that accident, caprice, superstition and even
carelessness occasioned their confinement. One grimy, half-starved
old man had been kept there three years and neither knew why he
was there nor who sent him. The crime of another must have been
that of a madman, or more probably it was a false accusation,
preferred to gratify private revenge. He was said to have made an
image of the king and to have walked over it. The mere imputation
of practising necromancy against the sacred person of the king was
a fatal charge. The poor fellow was taken from among us at the
hour of midnight and despatched by breaking his spine. Why this
singular method of slaughter was resorted to, as well as the manner
of carrying it into execution, was as mysterious as the crime itself;
they were not at all particular as to the mode of depriving their
victims of life, but seemed to be guided altogether by caprice.

“The plan of the prison yard shows that there were a number of
small cells used by the ringed brotherhood, and the pleading of our
amiable protectress secured for us the liberty to occupy them. It is
true they were very small, the one I inhabited being about five feet
wide with just enough length to lie down in; it was so low that I
could not stand upright except in the middle where the roof was
highest; but it was Elysium when compared with the suffocating
choke of the inner prison. Nor could it be called altogether solitary
confinement, for one of our gaolers had a pretty daughter about
sixteen years old, who took a wonderful fancy to me and was a
frequent visitor in my cell. She supplied me, too, with an
unspeakable luxury, water for ablution. Oh, who can appreciate the
gift but those who have been long deprived of it? A scrap of rag,
moistened with some of the water given us to drink, only served to
smear the grime like a plaster over our bodies. Now, once again I
could call myself comparatively clean. My cell had other advantages.
My eyes escaped many scenes of revolting cruelty; my ears, many
foul anathemas and gross abuse; my lungs and olfactories, all sorts
of abominations. The chief loss was the society of my friends. The
rats, too, were numerous and troublesome at first; but these,
though a disgusting nuisance, I managed to turn to account by the
fancy of the pahquets for their flesh. The Burmese hold rats in about
the same estimation as we do hares, and sell them commonly in
their markets for about their own weight in lead. My cell, therefore,
might be regarded as a well-stocked preserve for game. The
burrows ran in all directions, and hardly a day passed without my
bagging a few heads of this novel kind of game and handing them
over to my pretty visitor’s father, who willingly lent me his spear for
the purpose of destroying them. The bait of a few grains of boiled
rice at the entrance of the burrows brought them out in shoals and
gave me the opportunity of spearing them. ‘What do you expect will
be your fate?’ said this pious Buddhist as he once took the struggling
vermin from the spear, ‘when the time comes for me to serve you as
you are serving that creature?’ They all looked forward to the
pleasure of decapitating us, and when in a mild humour would
promise me as a favour, to use their greatest skill so that I should
scarcely feel it. What a consoling thought!

“Shut up close in my little cell, I thought that at all events my


feelings would no longer be harrowed with the sight of deeds of
blood. To a certain extent it was so; but even here there was no
abiding peace and quietness. One night as I was vainly
endeavouring to coax myself asleep, the screams of an unfortunate
wretch in the inner prison fell upon my ear, and the door of my cell
being at the time unfastened and the prison wall not more than
three feet off, curiosity prompted me to peep through a crack to see
what fresh mischief was on foot. Never shall I forget the foul
assassination I witnessed. The inmates were breathlessly silent,
evidently expecting some evil. The cries proceeded from a young
man who lay stretched on the floor with his feet in the stocks. The
lamp was burning dimly, giving just enough light to show the form of
a grim pahquet striding toward his victim. Without a word, he
stamped several times on the mouth of the youth with his heavy
wooden shoes with a force which must have broken his teeth and
jaws into fragments. From my hiding place, where I stood trembling
with terror, I heard the bones crack and crash. Still the cries were
not altogether silenced, when the monster seized the club of the
savage, and with repeated blows on the body and head pounded the
poor sufferer to death. The corpse was then taken from the stocks
and buried in the prison yard.

“Now news came of the defeat of the Burmese troops in the field,
and the governor wreaked his vengeance on us. We were all hustled
again from our cells into the inner prison, to await any fresh orders
that might be issued from the palace. A merciful Providence again
averted the danger. For a few days, probably a week, we were kept
in the old den of corruption, when time, as before, softened down
asperities, the rage of the governor and of our keepers began to
evaporate, and a little renewed coaxing, backed by such insignificant
bribes as our people could yet afford to pay, regained for us the
favour of the cells in which we were once more installed, and my
war of extermination against the rats recommenced.

“While we were passing this week in the inner prison, a frightful


event took place, which threatened the immediate destruction of the
whole community; indeed, it is wonderful that the instinct of self-
preservation did not deter our parent of the prison from executing
his order. A woman was brought in covered with the pustules of the
small-pox. Our doctor looked aghast and so did we all, as well we
might. It was a case quite beyond his treatment, though it is strange
the versatile doctor did not undertake the cure. Even the Burmese
prisoners themselves expressed their astonishment, but
remonstrance was useless. The gaolers, however, showed a little
common sense by placing the unfortunate creature in a clear spot by
herself to avoid contact with the other inmates of the prison, with
delicate threats of punishment if she moved from it. We never heard
what induced this barbarity, but she was most likely suffering for the
misconduct of some relative in the war, and the authority who sent
her there could not have been aware of the disease, for she had not
been among us more than twenty-four hours when she was again
taken away.

“But by what means was infection averted? Inoculation or


vaccination was unknown. Here were about fifty persons living in the
same confined room without ventilation, and yet not one of them
took the disease. The fact seems almost miraculous, and I should
have doubted the nature of the malady had it not been
acknowledged and dreaded by everyone, the natives as well as
ourselves. I can only account for our immunity by the free use of
tobacco.

“After an engagement with the British troops, many were taken


prisoners and were brought to the prison. Unfortunately, it so
happened that one of the freaks, already noticed as common to the
gaolers, had at this time consigned all our party to the inner prison,
and we beheld with horror about a hundred of these men step one
after another through the wicket into our already well-filled prison,
one of the ringed fraternity remaining inside to see that they were
packed as close as possible. The floor was literally paved with
human beings, one touching and almost overlapping the other on
every side. It soon became evident what must follow. Difficulty in
breathing, profuse perspiration and other disagreeables, overcame
the natural terror of their tormentors, and the suffering multitude
began to cry aloud for air and water. The horrors of the notorious
‘black hole of Calcutta’ must have been reënacted had the building
been of brick, but the manner of its construction, before explained,
fortunately prevented it. At length the clamour of the captives,
working probably on the fears of the gaolers themselves, induced
them to open the wicket door for the night, some of their number
keeping ward outside as sentinels. By this means a general disaster
was avoided.

“This temporary influx of prisoners was the cause of greater anxiety


to me than to my companions from a peculiar circumstance. The
stock of fetters in the establishment ran short, and to provide for
this unexpected demand our three pairs of fetters were taken off for
the night, one ring only being left on the ankle, and by this we were
chained one to another, two by two, like hounds in couples, only by
the leg instead of the neck. Perhaps the reader may think this was,
at all events, a slight respite, for which we ought to have been
thankful. So it was, to all except myself, for the luxury of being able
once more to stretch the legs apart was, no doubt, a most grateful
refreshment. But—my flesh creeps when I think of it—I was chained
to a leper. My companion was an unfortunate Greek, whose ankles
had by this time broken out into unmistakable open leprous sores,
with which a few inches of chain alone prevented contact, while at
the same time it kept me in terrible proximity. The chain was kept at
its full length all night, as may be supposed, and sundry nervous
jerkings from time to time on my part to assure myself that it was
so, indicated the nature of my alarm to the poor man, who was not
unconscious of his malady, though he would not openly admit it. He
grew irritated at my studied avoidance of him, and raised the
question himself only to deny it. This voluntary allusion to it by
himself, notwithstanding his denial, only tended to confirm the fact.
With what joy did I submit myself the next day to the hands of my
worthy parent, while he again invested me with my wonted
complement of irons. With what anxiety, too, did I watch for weeks,
searching diligently my ankles for the first symptoms of the
contagion, fearing I might unwittingly have rubbed against the
infected man and become inoculated with his loathsome disease.
Happily I escaped without accident.”

This horrible imprisonment was protracted into the sultry months of


March and April, and the wretched sufferers were left throughout
heavily laden with five pairs of fetters in a gloomy filthy dungeon,
without air or light, or even water to wash their fevered bodies,
constantly associated with the worst felons and sharing their
dreadful expectation to be taken out and executed. Finally, as the
relieving army approached, they were removed from Ava further into
the country, and the scene changed for the better as regards
personal treatment. The prisoners had at least fresh air, freedom
from vermin, lighter chains, water to wash in, exercise in the yard
when their wounded feet were sufficiently healed to allow them to
walk, and as much comfort as possible in a Burmese prison. But
fresh terrors were caused by the importation of a huge lioness into
the prison enclosure. It was confined in a strong cage, but was kept
in a state of constant fury and grew more and more ferocious, being
kept continually without food. The luckless prisoners began to
believe that they were to be thrown as a prey to the wild beast, but
it grew visibly weaker and weaker and presently died of starvation.
The reason for shutting up the lioness with the human victims of the
terrified king was never explained. Meanwhile the British troops
pressed on and threatened shortly to capture the capital by storm.
The last and most terrible ordeal of all was now impending. It was
openly announced that the white prisoners were to be sacrificed to
save the king by being buried alive before the broken and dispirited
Burmese army. But another decisive battle intervened, the prisoners
were hastily released from gaol and carried to Ava, whence they
were borne by water to meet the British flotilla on its way up stream,
and the painful captivity was at an end.

The penal code of old Burmah in the pre-English days was primitive
and of ancient origin, being based largely upon the laws first
promulgated by Menu. Trial by ordeal was a very general rule, and
many forms were similar to those obtaining in other parts of the
world. One was to plunge a finger wrapped in a thin palm leaf into
molten tin; again, accused and accuser were immersed under water
and the case was won by the party who could remain the longest
time below. Or two candles made of equal portions of wax, carefully
weighed, were lighted by the two litigants, and the one which
burned longest was adjudged to have won.

“In the Indies,” says one old authority, “when one man accuses
another of a crime punishable by death, it is customary to ask the
accused if he is willing to go through trial by fire, and if he answers
in the affirmative, they heat a piece of iron till it is red hot; then he
is told to put his hand on the hot iron, and his hand is afterward
wrapped up in a bay leaf, and if at the end of three days he has
suffered no hurt he is declared innocent and delivered from the
punishment which threatened him. Sometimes they boil water in a
cauldron till it is so hot no one may approach it; then an iron ring is
thrown into it and the person accused is ordered to thrust in his
hand and bring up the ring, and if he does so without injury he is
declared innocent. Sometimes an iron chain or ball is used instead of
the ring. Sometimes a vessel of oil is heated, and a cocoanut is
thrown in to test the temperature, and if it cracks, then the
suspected person may prove his innocence by taking copper coins
out of the boiling oil.” Another ordeal was to take the accused to the
tomb of a Mohammedan saint and walk past, having first loaded him
with heavy fetters. If the fetters fall off, he is declared to be clear. “I
have heard it said,” is the comment of one authority who had little
confidence in the good faith of the tribunal, “that by some artful
contrivance the fetters are so applied as to fall off at a particular
juncture.”

The rich expiated any offence by the payment of a fine, while the
impecunious suffered imprisonment, stripes with a rattan, mutilation,
endless slavery, and in the extreme case, death. The sentence to
slavery extended to all a man’s belongings and to his descendants
forever. Capital punishment was performed by decapitation, and a
fiendish executioner often prolonged the agony of the condemned
convict. To throw a victim to be devoured by wild beasts or trodden
to death by elephants was a practice only surrendered in recent
times. In the northern provinces crucifixion was common, but the
instrument was not in the shape of an ordinary cross. It was more
like a double ladder consisting of three upright bamboos crossed by
three horizontal bars, and upon these two more were laid in the
shape of a St. Andrew’s cross. Three scaffolds were commonly
erected on river banks or on sand banks in the stream, and were
constantly seen on the Irrawady. Sometimes the culprit was killed
before he was affixed to the cross; sometimes he was tied up and
rendered helpless by a few spear thrusts, or disembowelled by a
sword cut across the stomach. In any case, the body was left
suspended until the flesh was pecked off by vultures and the bones
fell off by decay. When the mouths of the Irrawady were Burmese
territory, the criminal was lashed to a tree stump at low water and
left to be drowned by the incoming tide. The fishes, more voracious
than the vultures, were often more expeditious than the sea and ate
their prey alive. The tree, one of the undeveloped growth in the
mangrove swamps, was familiarly known as the “stump of hell.”

Imprisonment, as we have seen from the previous pages, was often


worse than death. But there might be some relaxation of durance.
With money a prisoner might appease his gaolers. He could by
payment secure release daily to go home, eat his meals and pass his
time in comfortable idleness, provided he came punctually back at
night and allowed himself to be again incarcerated. Nevertheless,
the friendless and impecunious preferred to suffer a public flogging,
inflicted on the culprit at all the street corners. Bribery and
corruption, buying ease from dishonest gaolers, speedily
disappeared under the British rule. An equable uniform system has
been adopted for all prisoners, and the demeanour of even the
worst is outwardly quiet. They are for the most part irreclaimable
gaol-birds, with all the traits and characteristics of the congenital
criminal.

The predatory instinct predominates in the character of the Burman.


He is consumed with a desire to lay violent hands upon his
neighbours’ goods and possessions. He is a Dacoit, a thief and
highwayman by inheritance. One who knew Burmah intimately was
convinced that the evil propensity was inborn in every Burmese
child, and was stimulated as he grew up by Dacoit stories. The
example of others who had taken to the business and become
famous for enterprising raids, was always before the youth of every
generation. It was no disgrace to a young fellow to be concerned in
a Dacoity attack upon a neighbouring village, but very much the
reverse, and the most successful robbers were generally treated with
much consideration and respect.

A Dacoit band for the most part numbered five or six; they were not
all armed with firearms, but they fired a few shots on making a
descent to give warning of their approach, and no resistance was
offered as they swooped down with loud shouts and much waving of
swords. Ransom was demanded or the village, if deserted, was
looted, and the Dacoits fled before the outrage became known to
the police. Then pursuit was organised, but was generally fruitless.
The Dacoits were close at hand, in the very village, and might be
easily seized, but no one would give information, as that would be
deemed an unpardonable offence. To betray an offender into the
hands of justice is a sin against religion much more than against
morality. There is the utmost difficulty, therefore, in tracing crime in
Burmah. British police officers were driven to death in ceaseless
efforts to catch Dacoits, hunting them perpetually for months and
months and seldom, if ever, laying hands on a single offender.

Summary vengeance was meted out to “informers.” On one


occasion, a well-to-do villager in Lower Burmah had assisted in the
capture of a notorious Dacoit. Some of the prisoner’s friends,
without waiting for the issue of the trial, visited the traitor’s house
and upbraided him with being the cause of the Dacoit’s
apprehension. “We mean to punish you for this,” they said. “You
shall be burned alive; which do you prefer, that the fire should be
lighted here in your own house, or outside the village?” His wife
offered a thousand rupees to buy him off, but it was sternly refused,
and he was forthwith put to death. In another instance, a man who
received a reward for securing the arrest of a band was obliged to
surrender the money to other Dacoits, who called him to account,
and to prevent his repeating the offence, his head was cut off and
exhibited on a pole.

Dacoity, when the complete pacification of Burmah was so long


delayed, became the last form of resistance of the people. The one
time thieves were promoted into rebels and insurgents. The
Burmese did not all accept British rule very willingly, and the
government resolved to finally crush opposition by exterminating the
dissidents under the name of Dacoity. Many serious encounters,
costly in human life, were fought; many leaders of small bands long
evaded pursuit and gave much trouble. But vigorous measures
persistently carried out gradually put down all opposition, and the
most active Dacoits ended on the gallows or found their way to
prison or to the penal settlements. A good picture has been
preserved of one prominent Dacoit who had long ravaged the
country and been guilty of many crimes; and upon whom a sentence
of penal servitude for life was at length passed. “A small, spare, thin-
visaged man, whose features have nothing in them that would bear
out his character of a cruel ruffian and leader of men ... yet such
was the power of his name that a sum large enough to be a fortune
to any three natives was offered to whoever should kill or capture
him, before his career was checked.” Every gaol in Burmah has its
complement of such life convicts, reckless desperadoes, a source of
constant anxiety to those in charge of them.

To follow this man on his reception and through his treatment will
give a good idea of prison life in Burmah. His clothing was first
issued to him; a loin cloth of coarse brown stuff and a strip of
sacking to serve as his bed. His hair was close cut and his head was
as smooth as the palm of his hand, save for one small tuft left on
the crown; his name was registered in the great book, and he was
led to the blacksmith’s shop, where his leg irons were riveted on
him, anklets in the form of a heavy ring to which a connecting ring
with two straight iron bars was attached. At the same time a neck
ring of iron as thick as a lead pencil was welded on, with a plate
attached, nine inches by five, on which a paper recording the
personal description of the individual was pasted. This was called the
thimbone, and its adoption became necessary through the frauds
practised by the convicts.

At one time every new arrival was given a tin medal stamped with
his number, which was hung round his neck with a string. But it was
found that these records were frequently exchanged among the
prisoners. A prisoner sentenced to a long term often assumed the
identity of a short term convict, who accepted the more irksome
penalty for a money consideration. At the present time, with the
irremovable thimbone, these exchanges are rendered impossible. It
is strange that such a simple process of preserving identities is not
enforced in Siberia, where Russian convicts have long made a
practice of fraudulent exchanges.

“If there is a type of revolting human ugliness, it is the Burmese


gaol-bird,” says the same authority, “with his shaven head and the
unmistakable stamp of criminal on his vicious face. All convicts seem
to acquire that look of low, half-defiant cunning from their
associates, and a physiognomist would not hesitate to describe nine-
tenths of the men before us as bad characters if he saw them in any
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