Filthy Whore Punished

[cclaun]

In old time Germany a young woman with the wrong type of reputation would be forced to wear a crown made of braided straw and a braided straw halter around her neck. Seated on a cow she would be led through the village and pelted with cow manure.

[cclaun]

In other parts of Germany women of this sort would be subject to the Haberfeldtreiben or "Oat Field Tribunal" Taken out to a field at the edge of town by a mob of young men. They would be subject to a tribunal and when found guilty they would be driven running in panic through the field

[cclaun]

As recently as the 1960's a thirty year old woman in a rural village in the Dutch bible belt was subject to the Volksgericht. The court met in secret do discuss her affair with a married man. After her conviction a mob of young men, between 16 and 30, entered her house and dragged her out of bed. They placed her in a manure cart and wheeled her through the entire district where the entire population could jeer at her and pelt her with all manner of filth. after 5 or 6 hours the ordeal ended, but only after she made a tearful confession and swore to end the affair. The mob had threatened to duck her in the icy water of the canal. This was in February.

[cclaun]

In old England a widow who failed to maintain her chastity would lose the use of her husband's farmlands. Without the right to these fields, she and her children would starve. In order to restore her title to the lands she would have to make a humiliating penance. She would be dragged out into the street by her neighbors and have her hair cropped short and be placed astride a black ram. She would be paraded throughout the parish. Finally, she would be brought before the Steward and the priest and be forced to make a humble confession of her fault in an explicit rhyme "here I stand, like the whore I am..." She would be dragged off the ram and forced down onto her knees. Struggling along the stone pavement on her knees she would make her way to the church and confess to the priest. If she chanced to become pregnant through her sin her sons could keep the lands and turn her and her bastard child out to become beggars.

[cclaun]

Whore tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

[cclaun]

The widow who failed to maintain her vow of chastity is dragged out by her neighbors to face her humiliating public penance. Her shameful belly is exposed for all to see.

[cclaun]

Seated on a stool. Her head is bowed in shame. Her long brown hair is cropped short. It sticks out like a poorly thatched cottage roof. The last of the stubble is scrapped away with a dull blade.

[cclaun]

The barber holds up her braids to show them to the crowd. Her bare head and swollen belly are both symbols of her ultimate shame.

[cclaun]

The shouting and the cries increased, and as the people pressed forward I saw a procession ascend the hill, lumbering at a jog trot. Two lads raced ahead, brandishing whips, and behind them came five men escorting what at first sight I took to be a small moorland pony with a woman mounted on its back. They drew closer and the laughter amongst the spectators turned to jeers, as the woman sagged upon her steed and would have fallen had not one of the men escorting her held her fast, flourishing a hay fork in his other hand. She was not mounted upon a pony at all but on a great black sheep, his horns beribboned with crepe, and two fellows on either side had thrust a halter over his head to lead him, so that startled and terrified of the crowd about him he ducked and stumbled in a vain endeavor to throw his passenger from his back. The woman was draped in sack cloth rags with a veil covering her face, her hands bound in front of her with leather thongs clutched the wool at the sheep's neck.

[cclaun]

The procession came stumbling and lurching to the geld house, as it drew to a standstill before the Steward and the Lady of the Manor the escort jerking the sheeps halter, the man with the hayfork dragged off the woman's veil to disclose her features. She could not have been more than thirtyfive, Her eyes as terror stricken as the sheep that bore her, while her dark hair, roughly scissored, stood out from her head like cropped thatch. The jeering turned to silence as the woman, trembling in shame, bowed her head before the Lady of the Manor.