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A JOURNEY THROUGH A PRISON. 283
tama, or blood-pit, in which criminals were beheaded.
It was a pit originally about a foot deep, six feet
long, and four feet wide. At the top, partly above
the ground, was a curb of heavy square wooden
planks, six inches thick and deep, which enclosed it.
It was kept covered by a sloping timber frame, like
the roof of a house.
When this was lifted off by two
eta the hideous reality was startling. In the pit
were rough mats soaked with the fresh blood of
many criminals. The straw was thickly dyed with
the still crimson stains, and on it lay spotted or
red-dyed paper bandages that had fallen when useless
from the eyes of the severed heads. Beneath the
upper mat, when lifted by the eta, was another, and
another, all stained and clotted. The sides of the
wooden frame were black with the gore of years,
deposited in crusts and lumps.
The faint odor that ascended was more horrible
the awful cloud of associations which it called up
than in the mere stench. The last execution had
taken place the day before, and hundreds of heads
had tumbled in during .the previous year. In that
small area a thousand had fallen within ten years;
and from its first
day of use a myriad of men must
have bowed to the sword and shed their blood there.
It was awful to picture the hosts that had found this
the portal of eternity.
The criminal who was to be executed was led,
bound and blindfolded, into the yard, and to the ehitama,
where he knelt upon the mats, and for the first
time smelt the odor of the pit, which, one may fancy,
in