A history of tickling is difficult to pin down as there are very few records dealing with the subject of tickling. Everyone is aware of tickling, from childhood games to tickling experiences later on in life; yet is there any history behind this ticklish subject?
There are vague reports regarding tickling used as a punishment in ancient China, yet there a very few records to back up the claims. We have documents perhaps showing the soles of the feet being tickled yet this could merely be representations of reflexology sessions rather than actual tickling.
There are a few historical records to suggest tickling used as a form of punishment in the classical worlds. Something called the ‘torture of the goat’ has become almost myth like and yet some historians think that this tickling punishment took place. In this tickling method, the victim would be placed in stocks with all footwear removed. The feet would be immobilized and the soles would be covered in salt water; a goat would then be used to lick the solution from the soles of the feet. This would obviously cause extreme tickling and over a prolonged period this form of tickling torture could drive the person insane.
We also find tickling, later on, used more as a humiliation method in England and America during colonial times. The person would be placed in stocks for a petty crime and would often have things thrown at them to increase the humiliation. This would also include the victim’s feet being tickled mercilessly as the crowd watched and laughed. Tickling is mentioned in this regard in the New York Times of 1872. This post mentions the stocks as a way to imprison the victim and the endless tickling that followed.
There are a few actual records of tickling appearing in news items. A famous one from the ‘Illustrated Police News of 1869’ features a news item titled: ‘A Wife Driven Insane by Husband Tickling Her Feet’. The story recounts how a woman suffering from a back problem was convinced, by her husband, to be bound to a plank to alleviate the discomfort. The woman then had her feet made bare and the husband continued to tickle the woman’s soles with a feather. Apparently, the woman was driven insane by the prolonged tickling. The story also had an eyewitness, the niece of the woman being tickled.
Tickling, nowadays, is featured in literature and even cartoons, from the tickler Jasper Packlemerton in Dickens’ ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ to the tickling torture in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Tickling has thus become almost legendary and there are plenty of stories highlighting possible historical accuracy, yet very few records, indeed a very ticklish subject.
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