Spanish buck
The Spanish goat (sometimes also referred to as the Spanish horse or Spanish rider ) is an instrument of torture that was used in the early modern period in Europe, but also independently of it, in Japan and China . The name connects the instrument with the Spanish Inquisition , although it was only used in individual regions, but not primarily in Spain or as part of the Inquisition.
The device consisted of a wedge-shaped wooden trestle , often provided with metal spikes, on which the torture victims were placed with spread legs and tied, their feet being unable to touch the ground and therefore the entire body weight had to be carried between the legs. In some cases, weights were also hung on the feet.
One variant is the punishment donkey , which was also used as a method of punishment for soldiers from the 17th to the 19th century.
Web links
- Robert Zagolla: Torture , from: Lexicon for the history of witch persecution, ed. v. Gudrun Gersmann, Katrin Moeller u. Jürgen-Michael Schmidt on historicum.net (accessed December 28, 2009)
- Jürgen Scheffler: Torture Instruments , from: Lexicon for the history of witch persecution, ed. v. Gudrun Gersmann, Katrin Moeller u. Jürgen-Michael Schmidt on historicum.net (accessed March 13, 2011)