That, and making them listen to Justin Beiber on 11 ^^

Long, very thin glass tube + male genitalia + hammer = horrid mental picture.

And one mentioned by Kafka, I believe, was the Room of Discomfort(exact name?) Basically a room that is too short to stand up fully and too narrow to stretch out fully on the floor, causing you to never be able to stretch out your body…talk about an incredibly slow mental torture. I know it sounds benign compared to these others, but the psychological discomfort over the course of months would eventually drive you nuts.

I’m surprised drawing and quartering wasn’t mentioned. In drawing, the person’s abdomen is opened, and their entrails yanked out with a metal hook, while they are still alive. (It is ultimately fatal, of course.) In quartering, their limbs are tied to draft horses, which are then driven in opposite directions to tear the victim apart. According to legend, William Wallace (“Braveheart”) went this way.

Crushing by stones (recounted in “The Crucible,” a mostly historical work) was another method. Stones or other heavy weights are progressively piled on top of the victim until he/she either capitulates or perishes.

Regarding why a woman might be punished for miscarriage — this is astonishing to our modern sensibilities, but you must understand that women have not always been treated fairly. Indeed, there are parts of the world where women are still tortured, maimed, or murdered for having a miscarriage, for failing to conceive, or even for bearing a child of the wrong sex. It’s rare in the West, where this is considered abuse, but culturally acceptable in some places. One famous historical example is Anne Boleyn, whose marriage to Henry VIII turned sour after she miscarried at least one male fetus. (There were political factors too, but if you look at the pattern of Henry VIII’s six marriages, it’s clear that he was looking for a son.)

Ironically, though Henry eventually did get his male heir (who succeeded him as Edward VI), it was Anne’s daughter by Henry who would have the greatest legacy: Elizabeth I, who died without issue, ending the Tudor dynasty.

So yes, barbaric as it is by our standards, women were frequently blamed for miscarriages. Indeed, a woman’s main value was her fertility, which is why so much was tied up in her chastity and her eventual faithfulness to her husband. While the “choke pear” may have been a later invention (or used mainly to spook potential offenders), it is indisputable that many women throughout history have been tortured and killed simply for not producing the desired offspring.