The Pizzle

The pizzle is a whip made from a bull's penis (which is also called a pizzle). The name possibly derives from the Low German pēsel, diminutive of pese, penis, tendon or Flemish pēzel and the Middle Dutch pēze, from Dutch pees, sinew.

The penis is cleaned, salted and dried. By stretching and sometimes twisting during this process, it becomes a highly flexible rod-like whip of 3ft overall length (actually, it can be stretched much longer, becoming increasingly thin).

The pizzle was intended for driving cattle, for self-defense and as most other whips, it was also used for corporal punishment purposes.

It is a severe whip, that will at least rise purple welts, but that can easily cut the skin.

As a corporal punishment instrument, it was known from the antiquity. In the Amorites Hammurabi’s code, from about 1700 BC, you’ll find “202. If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public” What is called here an ox- whip was a ox’s penis whip. The Roman “Leggi delle XII Tavole” (laws of the 12 tables) (453 - 452 AC.) authorized the creditors to punish the insolvent debtors with it.

At the times of the slave driven galleys the pizzle was the favorite instrument for the rowers’ encouragement. The Spanish version of this was known as “corbacho” (from Arab kurbāq or Turkish kirbaç, whip), as it is probable that the Spanish adopted it form the Arabs, who used it in their galleys.

Its use was widespread, even when there are few references of it in England and its colonies. It was well known and used in the rest of Europe, and from there it spread to most of Central and South America. At the Caribbean, under the names of “bull bud” or “bull’s pistle”, it was used for cruelly punishing slaves.

In the Spanish speaking countries, it is called “vergajo” (from verga (Latin virga), one of the names for the penis) or “nervio de toro” (bull’s nerve). In Spain it is also called “picha de toro” and with this name it was used under the government of general Francisco Franco by the Spanish Guardia Civil, the police, as a torture instrument.


 

In the 1700 in Germany, what they call an “Ochenziemer” was used as a harsher alternative to the birch rod for judiciary punishments. If mentioned in the sentence, the lashes were given during the culprit stay at the prison. The men usually got it on the bare back, tied to a post, the women on mostly on clothed buttocks, frequently covered only with thin wet pants but sometimes also on the bare, while lying on a long low bench which had restraining mechanisms for holding the head and feet. But even when a flogging was not included in the judge’s sentence, the pizzle (or a birch rod) was used for the customary “welcome” and “farewell” floggings given to all prisoners, male and female, just after entering and just before leaving the prison. Those floggings were usually given in front of people, both women and men, that went to prison just for watching (and enjoying) the punishments.

The pizzle was also used in the Nazi concentration camps, where the prisoners could receive 10 to 75 blows. This is the pizzle exhibited in Dachau.

Under the name of “Nerf de boeuf” (ox nerve) it is mentioned in French sources as used by the Gestapo in WWII during the German’s occupation, not surprising given the long acquaintance of the German with the pizzle.

It was also used in the French Devil's Island prison, and mentioned in Voltaire’s “Candide”. It was exported to France's colonies, where it is documented as used even now for torture in Haiti, where they call it “rigoise”, from a famous punished named Rigois. With the same name it was used in the French Antilles for punishing slaves.

The Italian name is “nerbo” or “nerbo di bue” (ox nerve). In addition to its use for corporal punishment, it is used as a riding crop and it is mentioned in the famous Palio horserace, run especially in Siena, where one is given to every rider at the beginning of the race for being used on the horse and on the adversaries.

At South Africa they used an especially vicious version made with a hippo’s penis, called “sjambok”, as the one traditionally made with the hippo’s hide. The penis was hung at the sun from its base with a weight hanging from its point, stretching it and making it thinner and thinner as it dried. When dried, trimmed and oiled, it made a terrible whip, also about three feet long.

It is also know in English as “bull's nerve” or “hung beef”, in Bolivia as a “nervio”, in Portuguese as “cipó-de-boi” and we even found its Basque name, “idizil”. It is mentioned as commonly used as a whip in the past on the Iceland countryside, reported as used for torture nowadays in Sri Lanka. In Dutch it is called "bullepees" (bull's sinew).

Even when it is very severe, we found mentions of its contemporary use for children punishments at least in Colombia, Guatemala and Haiti, and as school punishment instrument in Classical Greece and Rome and until the middle of the 20th century, in Italy.
 

Published: 03/29/06