#Indian burn body skin#

It meant waiting for the one-by-one elimination of my senses. Any spot or abrasion, even when I knew perfectly well it was a zip-scar or the remains of some tortured blackhead, meant going through the routine. Now I looked at them only when I had to, and even then covertly, as if I were a queen and they were someone else’s. The rest was temporary scares and growing neurosis about my private parts-parts (it bore pointing out) that had come to enjoy greater privacy over recent months. Coker, will you screw the back of his hand, while I show him how they make barley-sugar?’Īnd he gave Paul an interesting illustration of the latter branch of industry by twisting his right arm round and round till he nearly wrenched it out of the socket, while Coker seized his left hand and pounded it vigorously with the first joint of his forefinger, causing the unfortunate Paul to yell for mercy.ģ-: From The Rachel Papers (London: Jonathan Cape, 1973), by the English novelist Martin Amis (born 1949):įor goodness’ sake, I had had only one real infection. ‘Very well, then,’ said Coggs firmly, ‘we must try the torture. Will you promise to be your old self again?’ ‘We don’t want any fine language, you know,’ said the relentless Coggs. ‘You don’t understand,’ he protested feebly. Bultitude, though he longed for peace and quietness, dreaded doing or saying anything to favour the impression that he was the schoolboy he unluckily appeared to be, and he had not skill and tact enough to dissemble and assume a familiar genial tone of equality with these rough boys. ‘Will you promise on your sacred word of honour, now, to be a decent sort of chap again, as you were last term?’īut Mr. Anstey, pseudonym of the English author Thomas Anstey Guthrie (1856-1934)-through the use of a talisman, Dick Bultitude, a schoolboy, has swapped bodies his father, Paul Bultitude, a pompous businessman this results in the father suffering at ‘ Crichton House’ boarding school while Dick is able to enjoy his father’s much more comfortable life: The term barley-sugar occurs in the comic novel Vice Versâ: or, A lesson to Fathers (London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1882), by F. If the operation is conducted merely by squeezing a piece of flesh between the thumb nails and rubbing in opposite directions it is termed ‘Snake’s bite’. This torture is particularly unpleasant if the victim’s arm is already twisted behind his back. Less dangerous, but equally painful, is a ‘Chinese burn’, also known as ‘Chinese torture’ and ‘Chinese twist’ (in the United States ‘ Indian burn’ or ‘Indian torture’), in which the perpetrator clenches the victim’s wrist with both hands and ‘twists both ways at the same time, like wringing the dish cloth’. The hold is also known as ‘Red hot poker’, ‘Fireman’s torture’, and ‘Nelson’s grip’ or ‘Nelson’s twist’ (after the wrestling hold). The most common torture is to ‘do a barley-sugar’, also expressed verbally in the threat ‘I’ll barley-sugar you’, which is to twist a person’s arm round until it hurts, usually behind his back, so that the sufferer has-according to which way his arm is being twisted-to lean backwards or bend forwards excessively to alleviate the pain, and is thus utterly at his tormentor’s mercy. Tung Fifth dynasty? You surprise meĢ-: From The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (Oxford University Press, 1959), by the English folklorists Iona Opie (1923-2017) and Peter Opie (1918-1982): Now, scum, are you going to own up?Ĭome on grab him by the neck scrag him give him a chinese burn beat him up. i would not hav thort that tint of eggshell blue – no matter, tie his hands behind the chair. Come on grab him by the neck scrag him give him a chinese burn beat him up and let him hav it. INSPECTR THE HON NIGEL MOLESWORTH: Detectives are very cultured. INSPECTR THE HON NIGEL MOLESWORTH: Now you kno the rule in cases like this the smallest tick hav to own up. Ltd, 1956), by the English author and journalist Geoffrey Willans (1911-1958) and the English artist, cartoonist and illustrator Ronald Searle (1920-2011):ĭET.

These are the earliest occurrences of the term that I have found, in chronological order:ġ-: From Whizz for Atomms: A guide to survival in the 20th century for felow pupils, their doting maters, pompous paters and any others who are interested (London: Max Parrish and Co.

The allusion is to the fiendish methods of torture attributed to the Chinese. This term occasionally occurs in extended use.

#Indian burn body skin#

A synonym of Indian burn, the term Chinese burn, also chinese burn, originated in children’s slang to designate a juvenile torment inflicted by grasping a person’s wrist or forearm with both hands and twisting the skin sharply in opposite directions, causing a painful burning sensation.