Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
replies are not even recorded; all the indictments retain
their force and validity, however perfect her answers to
them. She is ordered back into prison, there to consider
more carefully whether she will persist in obstinacy - for,
since she has already denied her guilt, she is obstinate.
18. Next day she is brought out again, and hears a decree of
torture - just as if she had never refuted the charges.
19. Before torture, however, she is searched for amulets: her
entire body is shaved, and even those privy parts indicating
the female sex are wantonly examined.
20. What is so shocking about this? Priests are treated the
same way.
21. When the woman has been shaved and searched, she is
tortured to make her confess the truth - that is, to declare
what they want, for naturally anything else will not and
cannot be the truth.
22. They start with the first degree, i.e., the less severe
torture. Although exceedingly severe, it is light compared
to those tortures which follow. Wherefore if she
confesses, they say the woman has confessed without
torture!
23. Now, what prince can doubt her guilt when he is told she
has confessed voluntarily, without torture?
24. She is therefore put to death without scruple. But she
would have been executed even if she had not confessed;
for when once the torture has begun, the die is already
cast; she cannot escape, she has perforce to die.
25. The result is the same whether she confesses or not. If
she confesses, her guilt is clear: she is executed. All
recantation is in vain. If she does not confess, the torture
is repeated - twice, thrice, four times. In exceptional
crimes, the torture is not limited in duration, severity, or
frequency.
26. If, during the torture, the old woman contorts her
features with pain, they say she is laughing; if she loses
consciousness, she is sleeping or has bewitched herself
into taciturnity. And if she is taciturn, she deserves to be
burned alive, as lately has been done to some who,
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