Foot roasting
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One of the favorite methods of torture of the Spanish Inquisition, foot roasting was easy to apply and effective.
The prisoner was immobilized on his back and his bare feet were imprisoned in a stocks of wood or iron. The soles of his feet were smeared with lard and slowly barbecued over red-hot coals. A bellows was used to control the intensity of the heat, while a screen could be interposed between the feet and the coals as questions were put; if the questions were not answered satisfactorily, the screen was withdrawn and the naked soles were exposed to the flames for an ever increasing period of time. A more primitive form of this torture was employed in ancient Rome: flat plates of iron were heated red-hot and pressed to the soles of the feet. Template:Torture-stub