Imagine you are lying on a
beach, under a warm
sun. No one else is around you. The only sounds you
hear are any you're making, the distant calls of birds, and the
rhythmic lapping of the growing waves of the incoming
tide.
Pleasant, isn't it?
Now imagine you've been
bound and gagged,
punished for a minor
crime or
infraction. The waves slowly rise, slightly faster than you can
inch your way up the beach, with
inevitable results.
Scream all you want; those responsible for your
plight left an hour ago. This is what was called, as late as the early
19th century,
faleste, a most
terrifying form of
capital punishment.
The
malefactor would be
apprehended, and if they were on shore where a
deep tide would be expected soon, they were tied up and left alone to
drown minutes (or perhaps
hours) later when the tide came in.
In fact, it is
documented that at least one pair of
scoundrels met their fate in this manner. The
records show that
Britons Thomas Wadham and Samuel Hall, both aged 23, were executed in this manner in
1797, in response of the beating death of a third unidentified
seaman at
Wool Bay,
Australia. There is no mention of additional
details of the
execution or the crime itself, nor if the bodies of the two
guilty men were ever recovered.
The word itself originates from the
Norman falese, meaning "
sands,
rocks and/or
cliff."
Source: John Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1839.