A popular YouTube star has shared the worst possible way someone can die - and there's not a blade, bullet or terrifying drop in sight.
Better known as Ask a Mortician, Caitlin Doughty posts regular videos to her 1.84 million subscribers - who are all interested in learning about all things macabre.
The LA-based undertaker told her viewers in one of her Q&A videos that 'bad deaths' across cultures all tend to have similar features.
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She added: "It's tragic and unexpected, a suicide, a homicide, a terrible accident. For the survivors, the worst thing could be when the body is never found and funeral and mourning rituals can't be performed."
The Mirror reports that Doughty then went on to discuss the worst way someone can die, and it's by a form of ancient torture that most people have probably never heard of. And as uncommon as it may be, the Persian method of scaphism - also known as 'the boats' sounds like a brutal and unfavourable way of bowing out.
Caitlin continued: "First your body is stripped naked and you're put between two hollowed-out logs with your head and limbs sticking out. Then they pour honey all over you and force you to ingest honey which attracts insects.
"Then they leave you in a stagnate pond to be slowly eaten - but they come back every day to forcibly feed you more milk and honey so you don't die right away, eventually succumbing to exposure, dehydration, shock and delirium."
Birmingham Live reports that the cruel idea was to ensure a victim suffered for as long as possible while still alive, slowly dying over a period of days or even weeks. The unusual practice was a fatal form of punishment believed to have started around 500BC - and was strictly reserved for the most substantial crimes such as murder and treason.
A reference to it was even made in William Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale.
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