A cheap and effective way to torture someone was with the use of rats. There were many variants, but the most common was to force a rat through a victim’s body (usually the intestines) as a way to escape. This was done as follows:

The victim was completely restrained and tied to the ground or any horizontal surface. A rat was then placed on his stomach covered by a metallic container. As the container was gradually heated, the rat began to look for a way out – through the victim’s body.

Digging a hole usually took a few hours of agonizing pain for the victim. This almost invariably resulted in death.