The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-04-17 00:00:00

ilt.‘ 800 roirTURES.

The Journal of the American 3lissionaries at
aornbay, contains the folio:rine: narrative:--

We Lave witnessed a horrid spedinen of the
ilindon religion. It was ::t v;:' called b' the
natives Kamatnponr, ur the Kinua-
fees. who are n Telinga people. fr:sLi opperite
'skit, of the peninsula. The affair t 0..,!: ptree at tho
tomple 44 tiandobn, or Eandobn Roa, an incarna-
tion of lfaliadeva in a Litman form, in %Aidh cha-
racter he destroyed the demon Maniroal. To tli:s
god. two persons. a man and a woman of low caste,
amide a cow. The man, ns was s yid. mode his
vow. And performed it. for the puriolie of obtaining
F-rcat' r bodily strewth and y;::-,ur, and the v‘oii:an
flat.' .• obtain an offspring.
The vows were performed by making offerings
to the idol. and by torturing themselves before the
temple. The arair began with nit&c and dancing
before the door of the temple: or rather a kr-
t.3aclis pant'-3,moding drums anti pip. s,
cud by a b•irt of bea,tly !lay, somewhat resembling
the pla:,S i 4 iio:rs or monkeys.
After this, the offerings were made. They
consisted of a small quantity of boiled rice, a few
small enlits, several of colouring stars or sa-
cred paint, liftmen'', of incense. a drink-offering of
toddy. an intoxicating liquor taken from the palm-
tree. besides n timber of other things, which were
all placed on a little spot of ground. previously
/lowed by red liras variously intersecting one
another.

After thew ofrerings were made, the sacrifice of
a kid was performed. The person who princirtl ly
oTiciated at the ancriCce wits al old man. almost
it.ked, with long bh:Lk heir, hatigin., frightfully
e‘er leis shoulders and face, around his loins u
broad belt strung with a number of bells, also bells
around his antics. and a heavy hempen rope for
flagellation in his baud ; malting, altogether a
v‘ry horrid appearance. The kid was brought,l
waved around the spot where the other
is zs had been made. It was then seized by the
detnou-like man, who began to rue round the car,l
which was the engine of torture, and at the same
t:me to tear open, with his teeth, the throat of the
k'd, and to sack its blood. While be was doing 1
this, the clang of music, the veil of the people, the
cr.,wdin,g, howling, and pushing around him, exhi-
bited a horrid and diabolical scene. After the
monster had thus torn the li:t1 and drund its blood,
he was caressed and reverenced by the people as
a superior being and they were as eager to touch
him as though the touch of him was sufficient I.
ego/mimic:de sonic invaluable blessing.
The car just mentioned, consisted of two cart-
whe, Is, upon the axis of which was
N perpeudien-i
Isrly erected a pole, ten or ets° feet in length.
On the top of this perpendicular pole, another pole
or about twenty-five feet in length, was so bred
L3rizontally, that t:v means of ropes fastened to one
end of it, thu opposite end might be let down to
the ground, or eitetated at yleasure to the height
:ibout twenty feet. Near the end of the pole
1,, be thus elevated was fastened vn it a cloth, or a
of canopy ; and directly under this clumpy was
fastened a rope for suspendieg the person volunta-
rily devoted to torture.

All things being made ready, a young man,
loaded with red and yellow paint, came forward.
preceeded by musicians, and followed by a train,
he began to ciretim-ambulate the temple, making a
tirentefereuce of about thirty rods. After going
round the temple several times in this way, two
irvm hooks, having each two prongs thrust through
the slin and principal muscles on the small of the
back, were made fast to the end of the pole, which
was let down near the gronnd. Instantly the ropes
at the other end were and the poor fran-
tic creature was was drawn up to the height of
about twenty feet. and there fastened. The music
struck up, and a noisy group seized the ropes fas-
tened to the car, and drew it six times round the
temple, making the circumference as before men-
tinned ; the man at the same time soittering the
d::st of elinnda-wood on the crowds under him.
When he was let down, the people manifested the
:erne eagerness to touch him, as they did before
to touch the monster who had sucked the blood of
t;:e kid.

After this man bad performed leis vow, a female
was suspended on the hooks, and drawn round in
the J:1111C manner. She seemed to manifest greater
tbrtitad•r and contempt of pain than the man ; for,
while the weight of her body was entirely suspend-
ed on the hooks in her back, she voluntarily Bung
I,o,rself about in a variety of action, which must
leave greatly augmented her sufferings.
After she had been drawn live times round the
temple, she was let down and led away amidst the
c,,rog,-atulations and applauses of the multitude.—
Thus the scene closed. Several others, it was said,
Food bound by their vows to the same idol, to in-
t:lllt the same tortures on themselves in the course
a few slays.

AMERIC.I.I

(FROM THE NATIONAL INTELLIOENCER, MARCH 10.)

OCR AFFAIR* At fo:lowing extraot of
a private letter front a highly respectable source, which
UM hue had an opportunity of perusing, give us more
satisfactory information on the subject of our relations
oitit Spain than is disclosed by the official documents
on the subject:—
EX TRACT OF A LETTER, DATED CADIZ, DEC. 17, 1820.
We have nothing new here. Mr. Forsyth has been
pressini,► this flovernment very bard about lieneral
Vivas, and it has at last (in order to quiet Mr. F.) bren
determined, that In shall go; but I know positively
:rum a person, who has it from Vivas himself, that he
goes to Paris, from thence to London, anti that he has
11. l idea of leaving Europe until it is known what our
Covert !uent has done anti mean, to do. Thus, you see.
it our people wait for explanations ft um this Court, they
may wait, and the business will be protracted by pretend-
ed negotiations fur twenty years longer. If our tiovern-
rnent will act with energy. all will ao right. It is ritli-
v:laus to talk of England assisting this country;
rimy are on as bad, or. if possible, worse terms with
Spam than ourselves. Besides, England cannot, anti
feels no disposition to qoarrel with us. She wist:es, it
is true, to get as into a wsr with Spain, but that is
merely to gut a cover. ur plea, fur acknowledging the