The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1826-03-08

voted exercises exacted. 1t is, indeed,
matter OF establishment that the human
frame should ever be capable of with
standing the excessive torture devised
by those ministers of hellish superstition,
The Yogees of India. 1t is not long
since one ofthe devoiees expired in the
act ct suspension, the third experiment
tai rite, at Loombo, in Thbet, and from
the account OF whose sufferiDgs as cIrcu-
lated here, transmit you the following
particulars: Educated by an Hindoo
devotee to the rigid tenes of his reIig-
lon, Teshoo Lagree, at the early age of
twelve, commenced preparative course
of exercise, and at fifteen entered upon
The service of his extraordinary NOR
Ghcatiooa. The llrst vow ne was pleas
ed 10 make, was TO continue perpetual
~ on his feet forten years. He en-
ployed that period in wandering through
the vast continent of Asia; and, al
though at first to prevent his falling
whilst taking the necessary refresh
ment of sleep, he was obliged to lie
himself TO tree or post. yet eventual
ly he acquired the habi! of sleeping
standing, without other support than~a
wall against which 10 lean. Having
acquitted himselfoi this trying devotion,
he next vowed to keep his clasped
hands across the nap Of his neck for Is
years, and 10 wander without ahome
during that entire period. This, too,
he had faithfully discharged, and calcu-
lated that in the twenty five years, dur
ing which these penances, or rather
ambitious wanderings, occupied han, he
had walked upwards of sixty thousand
miles Ere, however, he could calculate
upon superlatlve bliss 10 another world,
there was yet two exactions ofunimpor-
tant duration, when compared with the
others, but infinitely more dangerous, be-
cause opposed TO the. haneful effects Of
two, aod the deprivation of one of the
elements of this worlds existence.
These trials were compulsory-theo 9th
ers voluntary and first, Theshoo Sag
rec bad to be suspended by his feet from
a beam, twelve feet from the ground,
over clear blazing fire, So near that his
hair should catch as his body was swung
backwards and forw ards, and lbe dura-
ton of this trial was to be two hours
and a half, Surviving the horrid rite
just described, the Yoogee would have
to submit TO actual inhumation THE
crown of his bead being six inches be-
low the surface of the earth for the
period of three hnnrS and three omar
tiers. They who survive tnIs oTueaI
are accounted the chosen of heaven,
and being esteemed and honoured by
their tribe, employ the remainder of
their existence in qualifying the favor
ed children of others for like suffer ring,
and possibly equal happiness Poor
Theshoo, however, did not survive the
rite ofsuspenslou, for he had scarcely been
affixed to the beam forty minutes, when
the blood gushed from his nose, eyes,
and mouth, and in the expiration o. the
two hours and a half all signs of life
had disappeared. His old master Cor
noree was present, and he declared
bis Inflated pupil blessed beyond the
generality of his tribe-havrg been
chosen to the highest state but two,
committed his body to the earth in an
erect position. and caused hut 10 be
Ferected over it az resting place for
future Yogees or Devotees on their first
and second probationary pilgrimagss."