Even though the audience had never seen a cat washing cage, they had more or less heard of the pig immersion cages of the old society, and their faces couldn’t help but change color once they heard of it. Old China had the pig immersion cages; medieval Europe also had the "Iron Maiden" (Iron Virgin). They were both tortures that people feared. Their ways of punishment were very similar as well. They both included having people locked into a narrow and cramped space where they could not escape, and then have the population slowly watch as they died slow and painful deaths.