Formerly, in England, branding was used in the case of all clergyable crimes, by burning in the hand, but this law was repealed in 1829. In the middle ages, in England, branding with a hot iron, was a mode of punishment used for various offenses. The iron used had the form which it was desired to leave on the culprit’s skin. It has not been in use for years, except in desertions from the army or navy, and this form of branding is regulated by statute and of late years ink, or other material is used, instead of a hot iron. By the Mutiny Act, of 1858,[100] it was provided “On the first and on every subsequent conviction, for desertion, the court-martial, in addition to any other punishment, may order the offender to be marked, on the left side, two inches below the arm-pit, with the letter D, such letter not to be less than an inch long, and to be marked upon the skin with some ink or gun-powder, or other preparation, so as to be visible and conspicuous, and not liable to be obliterated.” This, in old England, as late as the Victorian age, shows the early training of the English upon the custom of punishment by branding. _Plucking off the hair_, or scalping, was not always confined to the American Indians, but according to the inspired word of the Jews, it was a form of punishment, in ancient Israel, inflicted upon Jews who had indulged in mixed marriages.[101] According to the prophet, in Isaiah, scalping, as a judicial practice was common in his time, for he says: “I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that _plucked off the hair_: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”[102] And according to the Biblical account of this ancient and severe punishment, inflicted upon criminals in old Israel, they were not as compassionate as the American Indians, who first killed their man, then removed the scalp with a knife, but they tore off the hair in such a brutal and barbarous manner, as to remove the skin by main force, with the hair, without the use of a knife or other instrument to augment or ameliorate the suffering of the criminal.[103] _Flaying_, was a punishment in vogue among the Persians and Assyrians, and according to Rawlinson, the Assyrians would flay the victim, even after life was extinct[104] and the Persians were accustomed to flay and then crucify the criminals and Herodotus states that they used the skins of human beings thus obtained.[105] Along with this atrocious punishment of flaying, the Persians also seem to have been addicted to the recall of judges,[106] for Herodotus tells how King Cambyses not only recalled an unpopular judge, known as Sisamnes but actually flayed him alive, and covered the judgment-seat with his skin, as a warning to the next judge to be more careful in his judgments and decrees.[107]