Hitting on the hands (3)

 

Positions

The most usual position was with the pupil standing in front of the teacher, and extending her hand with the palm up, at waist level, or with the hand raised at shoulder level. If you plan to hit across the hands (as it was traditional with the cane), and not along them, you should be at the side of the punished.

Extending the hand to receive a painful blow, and letting it there until it is delivered is not easy. Those were times when adults were supposed to be obeyed, and obedience was one of the reasons for the pupil keeping her hand offered.

 

Another reason was fear of a still worse punishment for not submitting. And finally, especially for the boys and as the punishment was public, pride. To take the hand off at the last moment was not "manly", and most boys preferred the pain to the humiliation of being considered weak.

One possibility for helping the pupil to hold the hand is making her to extend both hands, placing one over the other. It was frequently used at schools. It is slightly easier not to move the hand if it is resting on the palm of the other.

Finally, and used mostly on girls, that were more prone to move the hands as there was no merit for a girl to show fortitude, was to make her sit on the teacher's desk, move her skirt up, leaving the thighs bare, and make her hold her hands over the thighs. If the hand was moved, the lash would hit on the bare legs, hurting a lot more that a blow on the hand. And of course, the blow would be repeated, so she would get one on the thighs and on one the hands.

See Positions

If the sub cannot hold her hand properly, you could hold her wrist (but if the subject closes her hand in a fist, you will hit the top of the fingers, with risk of hurting the hand), or you can hold the hand open in the form shown in the next pictures.

If more that one lash was deserved, they were given alternatively on one hand after the other. The pupil offered one hand, received the lash, offered the other, and so on.

If the hands were held one over the other, after each lash the pupil was ordered to "swap hands".

 

Another possibility for restraining the culprit moving or closing the hands, could be tying them, by wrist and fingers, to a rigid object (like the arm of an armchair).

You could do it this way:

Only do not hit with a too rigid or heavy implement, because you risk crushing her hand's bones between it and the supporting object.

As a final possibility, and with rigid instruments like the ruler or the ferule (it is difficult to do it accurately with a flexible instrument), the pupil was made to offer both hands simultaneously, one at each side, and the blows were delivered, right, left and again, at a fast pace.

As for the effects, the sharp stinging of the beginning subdues fast to a dull burning, fading slowly for about one hour (if it doesn't, if some point hurts sharply, or if the punished can't move freely her hand after some time, look for professional help).

Enjoy it, but be very careful, please...

 

Published: 09/03/03