S is for...

... Scold's Bridle

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

---Edgar Allan Poe

The Young Girl

So this was a lovely little device, primarily used on women, as a means of torture or public humiliation. It was essentially a human muzzle. It was fixed around the woman's head, with a 2-in bridle-bit that projected backward so that it rested inside the woman's mouth---specifically atop her tongue. The bit was studded with spikes, which left a lovely impression on a woman's tongue if she were to try and speak.

Apparently, this was the "in thing" to do during the 16th and 17th centuries when a woman spoke her mind. Let a woman be declared a nag or a gossip or a "scold" and she could face being walked through town with a metal plate strapped to her face with a piercing bit in her mouth. It was not unheard of for churches to be gifted inscribed bridles, "to curb women's tongues that talk too idle."

Ah, humanity......