OT: lashes [Was: more lost subjunctive; protest at]

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sun Dec 2 01:25:42 UTC 2007


Since you put it that way, I''m become totally confused and am no
longer certain what I meant. Perhaps you will allow me to retract
anything that I may have had to say on the subject, lest I find myself
contradicted by those impeccable sources, the Bible or the writings of
the colonial authorities, given that slavemasters  and sea captains
must necessarily have followed their strictures.

-W.

On Dec 1, 2007 5:26 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: OT: lashes [Was: more lost subjunctive; protest at]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 12/1/2007 02:34 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >OT: Should there be anyone who doesn't already know, the lashes are
> >applied incrementally and not all at once. The lashee is allowed to
> >heal between sets of lashings. For dekkids, I'd wondered how slaves
> >and seamen lived through those twenty to 100 lashes that you read
> >about.
>
> By :"all at once", I will assume Wilson does not mean "at the same
> instant."  That would require 40 lashers, or about 4 and 1/2
> simultaneous cats-o-nine-tails.
>
> I believe up to 40 lashes could be given in one set in colonial
> America, limited by something or other in the Bible.  This could be
> repeated for multiple transgressions.  However, it will take me some
> time to cite authorities (whether Biblical or Colonial), if I be required to.
>
> Joel
>
> Joel
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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-----
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