If you see the videos made of such punishments on some such website as Corpun (which considers the topic of judicial castigations in a serious and non-sensational and non-exploitative fashion), you will find that the cane strokes are fairly moderately administered, to hurt enough that the offender will know she is being caned, but not to injure seriously; humiliation [the public punishment on the bare seat] rather than intense pain seems to be the object; certainly to cause no danger of death or even serious injury. The full-force lashes of the 'cat' given in olden times to soldiers and sailors were of quite a different, and in no way comparable, order of severity.