The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-09 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS, AUGUST 8

The Earl of SHAFTESBURY took his seat on the
Wool,ack at a Quarter before Five.
The Bishop of LONDON presented petitions front Louth,
Newea=tle- upon. Tyne, Chester, and Ashton-under- Lyme,
against idoLtrous wrr,hip in India.
The Militia Pay MD went through Committee, and was
ordered to be read a third time to-morrow.
Lord RE DE SD AL E presented a petition from I.,,eds in
favour of the Factory Bill ; also a similar petition Innat Bristol.
The Stamp Dies Bill went through Committee, and was
ordered to be read a third time to-morrow.
The Slave Trade (Tuscany) Bill went through Committee.
The Slave Trade ( Sicily) Bill went through Committee.
The Bank of Ireland Itepa)ment Bill went through Com-
mittee. To be read a third time to- morrow.
The Fines and Recoveries Bill was read a third time and
passed.

CANADA.
Lord BROUGHAM laid on the table a Bill for altering-
and explaining the Act pas.sed for the Government of Lower
Canadj, and for annulling the Ordinances p!ssed under the
same.

Read a first time.
Lord ELLE N BO ROUG H brought up the Rcpnrt of the
Committee appointed to draw up the reasons for their Lordships
disagreeing with the Commons' amendments to the Irish Cor-
poration Bill.
Their Lordships then adjourned till to-morrow (this day).

EXTRAORDINARY SECT OF FANA-

TICS IN INDIA.

(From the United Service Journal.)
Ever since I have been in India, I have heard of a class of
Mussulmans, the disciples of a sect or saint, by name Shaikh
Ruffai, who, in order to impress the unbelievers with the
truth of the Mussulman faith, imparted to his followers the
power of plunging swords and daggers into their bodies, cut-
ting off their tongue, frying it, and putting it together again,
cutting off the head and limbs, scooping out the eye, and, in
truth, doing with their bodies whatsoever it pleased them to
do; all of which Col. G--, in company with a clergyman,
a Mr. R—, had seen, when the latter grew sick and ran out
of the place, declaring it was the power of Satan, which to
this day he believes, and the Colonel that it is done through
the power of the art magic, at which I, of course, laughed,
and declared that, so soon as a man of the regiment (by
name Shaikh Kureem, one of these Ruffai) should return from
furlough, I would witness the exhibition. - A large tent was
accordingly pitched, and fifty lamps furnished, and plates full
of arsenic, and quantities of a plant of the cactus tribe filled
with a milky juice, a drop of which, if it fall on your skin,
blisters it, and a vast quantity of the common glass bangles, or
bracelets, worn by the women, and daggers, and swords, and
things like thick steel skewers, and other horrid-looking
weapons like a butcher's steel, only with a large handle covered
with chains, and about twenty Ruffais to beat all manner of
drums ; and so, when all was ready, about five of the officers
left the mess-table with myself, and along with us about a
hundred sepoys crowded into the tent. When we were seated,
and silence obtained, the work commenced by a sort of chant
from their sacred books, the drum-beaters joining in and
keeping time ; the chant increased at length both in noise
and velocity, until, having worked themselves into an ecstacy,
they seized bold of the instruments, the body kept in a sort of
swinging motion, some plunged the skewer instruments, one
through each check, another through the tongue, a third
through the throat, and then commenced stabbing themselves
with swords and daggers, and all sorts of nasty instruments.
Others cut off their tongue, and, having roasted it in the fire,
put it in their mouth again, when it immediately united ; they
ate the arsenic and the blistering milk-plant, whilst others
munched the glass bangles, as though they were the greatest
delicacies. This was all done within half a yard of my knees,
for they came up close to me with many lamps, in order that
I might see there was no deception ; and I do assure you that
it made me feel sick, and produced anything but an agreeable
sensation on my mind, for to this moment I know not what to
think of it. 1 am not superstitious; and, although the Colonel
and numerous most respectable natives had declared to me
that they did actually do these things, and that, if a sense
were to be in any manner trusted, they had seen it all done, I
would, nevertheless, not believe it. I was told beforehand
that it required faith and purity on the part of the performer,
and that then not a drop of blood would follow, but that, other-
wise, a few drops of blood would sometimes follow the instru-
ments, and the performer would receive some slight injury.
On taking my departure from the tent I happened to say that I
should, at all events, think more honourably of their prowess if
I saw them exhibited in the open face of day, and divested of
noise, motion, paraphernalia, &c. On the following day,
whilst reclining on my couch, at about two o'clock, reading an
English newspaper, without a servant or a spill near me, in
rushed their Kasee (priest or judge), his hand full of instru-
ments, which, throwing upon the ground, he seized one,
plunged it through his cheek on the left side, another on the
right, a third through his tongue upwards, so that it stuck
into his nose, another through his throat ; he then stabbed
himself with a bright and sharp crrese, which enterod his
body about three inches ; not a drop of blood fell : he was
going to cut off his tongue, when I bogged of him to desist. I
was, in truth, perfectly nauseated at the sight. The man was
in a state of frenzy, and really looked frightful, his face stuck
full of instruments, and stabbing and cutting himself with
all his might. I sang out for some people, and turned him
out. I have now told you what I have seen, and yet I will
not ask you to believe it, for I know not myself what to think.
There are many persons of very strong minds in other respects
who firmly believe, and who do not hesitate to declare their
belief, that, although driven out of Christendom, demonology,
witchcraft, necromancy, and the entire list of black and for-
bidden arts and powers, are abroad and i❑ full existence in
India. And I must declare that I will never again trust my
senses if I did not see all that I have told you. I examined
the instruments—l saw them drawn out of the flesh, and no
scar, or blood, or mark left ; I saw also a man cat and swallow
three ounces of arsenic, and crunch and swallow glass bangles
innumerable; and yet, although " seeing is belie:ing," I can
scarcely say that I believe what before a court of justice: I
would swear I had seen.

SL A VERY.—We have now followed the Europeans
to;every region of the globe, and seen them planting colonies, and peg.
piing new lands, and everywhere we have found them the same—a law.
less and domineering race, seizing on the earth as if they were the first-
born of creation, and having a presumptive right to murder and dis.
possess all other people. Everywhere they have had the word of God in
their mouth, and the deeds of darkness in their hands. In the first
dawn of discovery, forth they went singing tire " Te Daum," and de..
Glaring that they went to plant the cross amongst the heanen. It
turned out to be the cross of one of the two thieves, and a bitter cross
of crucifixion it has proved to the natives where they have received it.
It has stood the perpetual sign of plunder and extermination. The
Spaniards were reckless in their carriage of the Indians, and all sue.
ceeding generations have expressed their horror of The Spaniards. 'fag
Dutch were cruel, and everybody abominated their cruelty. One
would have thought that the world was grown, merciful. Behold
North America at this moment, with its disinherited Indians ! See
Hindustan, that great and swanning region of usurpations and exac-
tions ! Look at the Cape, and ask the Caffres whether the English are
tender.hearted and just.:' ask the same question in New Holland : ask it of
the natives of Van Mcrae:l's land—men transported from the island
of their fathers. Ask the New Zealanders whether the warriors,
whose tattooed heads stare us in the face in our museums, were not deli-
cately treated by us. * Many arc the evils that are done
under the sun; but there is and can be no evil like that monstrous and
earth.encompassing evil, which the Europeans have committed against
the Aborigines of ev,ry country in which they have settled. It is often
said as a very pretty speech—that the sun never sets upon the dominions
of our youthful °nem ; but who dares to tell us the far more horrible
truth, that it never sets on the scenes of our injustice and cppression I
* • * The slave tra,le, which one of our best informed
philanthropists asserts is going on at this moment to the amount of
170,000 negroes a year, is indeed the dreadful climax of our crimes
against humanity. Regions were seized on by fraud or vio'enee; it
was not enough that there rightful inhabitants were murdered or en.
slaved; that the odious vices of pe-.ple styling themselv...s the followers of
the purest of beings, should be poured like a pestilence into these new
countries. It was not enough that millions on millions of peceful be.
logs were exterminated by fire, by sword, by heavy burdens, by base
violence, by deleterious mines and unaccustomed severiti s—by dogs, by
man.hunters, and by grief and despair—there yet wanted one crowning
crime to place the deeds of Europeans beyond all rivalry in the cause of
evil—and that unapproachable abomination was found in the slave-trade.
—William Holvitt.

MOUNT TABOR, THE SCENE OF THE TRANS-
rioveaTioN.—lt stands perfectly isolated ; arising alone from the plain
in a rounded tapering form, like a truncated cone, to the height of threw
thousand feet, covered with trees, grass, and wild flowers from the b .se
to its summit, and presenting the combination, so rarely found in natu-
ral scenery, of the bold and the beautiful. At twelve o'clock, we were
at the miserable village of Deborah, at the foot of the mountain, sup-
posed to be the place where Deborah the prophetess, who then judged
Israel, and Barak and " ten thousand men after him, descended upon
Sisera, and discomfited him and all his chariots, even nine hundred cha-
riots of iron, and all the people that were with him." The men and
boys had all gone out to their daily labour, and we tried to persuade a
woman to guide us to the top of the mountain, but she turned away
with contempt; and, having had some practice in climbing, we moved
around its sides until we found a regular path, and ascended nearly to
the top without dismounting. The path wound around the mountain,
and gave us a view from all its different sides, every step presenting
something new, and more and more beautiful, until all was
completely forgotten and lost in the exceeding loveliness of
the view from the summit. Stripped of every association, and con.
sidered merely as an elevation commanding a view of unknown valleys
and mountains, I never saw a mountain which, for beauty of scene,
better repaid the toil of ascending it; and I need not say what an inte-
rest was given to every feature when we saw In the valley beneath the
large I)
hin of Jczreel, the great battleground of nations ; on the south
the supposed range of Hermon, with whose dews the psalmist compares
the "pleasantness of brethren dwelling together in unity ;" beyond, the
ruined villageof Endor, where dwelled the witch who raised up the
prophet Samuel ; and near it the little city of Nain, where our Saviour
raised from the dead the widow's son; on the east, the mountains of
Gilboa, "whole Saul, and his armour-bearer, and his three sons, fell
upon their swords, to save themselves from falling into the hands of the
Philistines;" beyond, the Sea of Galilee, or Lake of Genesareth, the
theatre of our Saviour's miraeles, where, in the fourth watch of the
night, he appeared to his terrifies disciples, walking on the face of the
waters; and to the north, on a lofty eminence, high above the pof
Tabor, the city of Saphet, supposed to be the ancient Bethulia, a:longed
to in the words, " a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid."—,Stephen's
Incidents qf Travel.

About two months ago a fine little boy, named John
Eva„,, son of a painter and French polisher, r,siding at No. 20, Upper
Lisson-street, Lisson.grove, was seized upon and bitten in the lower part
of the stomach by a dog, supposed to be in a rabid state. A surgeon,
who was sent for immediately, cauterised the part, and no unfavourable
symptoms were evinced by the child until Thursday last, when he ex-
perienced much difficulty in breathing, and in other respects seemed un-
well. Medical aid was once snore obtained, but, in spite of all the
exertions used, he rapidly got worse, and on Sunday afternoon died
raving mad from the effects of the wound. The deceased, who has thus
fallen a victim to that most dreadful of all maladies—hydrophobia, was
no more than ten years of age, and during the last few hours of his
existence the agony he endured was terrible in the extreme.