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Baca: Boyar Bakir’s Research

This time, Boyar Bakir ordered us to try the method of scaphism, as mentioned in Plutarch’s ‘Life of Artaxerxes’. The procedure went as follows: Out upon the lake, we prepared two boats, fashioned to fit one atop the other, with suitable openings cut to allow for the prisoner’s limbs. Into the lower vessel we laid one of the rebel captives; then we placed the second boat above him, clamping them together so that his head, hands, and feet protruded, like in a coffin far too small for him. Just as Plutarch described, we forced the prisoner to drink a concoction of milk and honey until he nearly retched, then we anointed his face, hands, and feet with the same mixture. Exposed to the sun, he was soon beset by flies, wasps, and bees, which settled on him to sting and gnaw. In time, other creeping vermin were meant to arise from the corruption of his own filth, drawn by the stench and decay. The death, according to the description, was to be lingering and ghastly as he rotted away alive, devoured from within and without. Yet over the three days we observed him, the prisoner mainly lapsed into unconsciousness from heat and exhaustion. When Boyar Bakir came to inspect the results, he called Plutarch a ‘bloody liar’ and dismissed scaphism as ‘too slow and dreadfully boring’, then ordered us to sink the boats with the prisoner still inside. Now he speaks of trying a method called ‘the blood eagle’.

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