I feel bad for the goat.
“The Romans used tickling as a cruel punishment. On the scaffold the soles of the victim’s feet were covered with a salt solution so that a goat, attracted by the salt, would lick it off with his rough tongue and continually tickle the skin. By doing so, the salty skin was gradually rasped away. Then, the wounded skin would again be covered with the biting salt solution- ad infinitum, till the victim died from the torture.”
-Meerloo’s article The Biology of Laughter (1963)
