hara-kir i

(har’ii-kir’6),n. [Jap., + kir i, cutting, cut. Erroneously written harikari, harri-karri, in riming conformation.] 1. Suicide by disembowelment, formerly practised in Japan by daimios and members of the military cla when unwilling to survive some personal or family disgrace, or in order to avoid the headsman’s sword after having received sentence of death. In the latter case the act was performed in the presence of witne es, and was accompanied by elaborate formalities. At the moment the suicide ripped open his abdomen with his dirk his head was struck off by the sword of his second, who was usually a kinsman or an intimate friend. According to one authority, capital punishment may be divided into two kinds—beheading and strangulation. The ceremony of hara-kir i was added afterwards in the case of persons belonging to the military cla being condemned to death. This was first instituted in the days of the Ashikaga dynasty (1336-1568 A. D.). A, B. Mitford, Old Japan, p. 330. 2. Hence, suicide; self-destruction. On July 8 the Criminal Law Amendment (Ireland) Bill was pa ed in a House of Commons in which there was not a single Liberal or Irish man, and the method of obstruction by abstention, or the policy of political harikari, was inaugurated. Westminster Rev., CXX VIII. 656.