The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-07-06

ALMOST INCREDIBLE DELusIoN AND FANAT4
ICIsM.
TIE "IMMOLATORS.

THE "IMMOLATORS."
The widest among the Russian fanatics
are the Morclshchiki, or Immolators -
The leading idea is to mortify the flesh
tor the sake of saving the soul, and in or
der TO do this efficiently they have recourse
to various mutilation and DEATH Sects
intoxicating the virtues of suicide and
murder do all they can TO keep their exis-
tence secret, but every now and then a
forrible story comes from the interior of
some gloomy forest or dreary waste, which
tells how some of these wretched people
have died. Sometimes a pit is dug in
the earth, and half filled with wood and
straw. This is set alight, and when the
whole mass is in blaze, the miserable
creatures leap into the pit and are con
sumed in the fire, wildly singing hymns
as they burn. AT other times they meet
in a wooden house, round which they
have piled heaps of straw and in it they
deliberately burn themselves to death,
their neighbors looking quietly on the
while, for the act is sacred one the
victims are undergoing "baptism by fire"
Some years ago, says Haxthausen, con.
gregation of lmmolaiors assembled ut a
SPOT on the left bank Of the Volga, and
agreed to put each other to DEATH But
after six and thirty of them had fallen,
''the desires OF life awoke in young wo-
man, and she fled to neighboring viii
lage. The people repaired to the scene
of action, an1 founl two of the murderers
still alive, and forty>seven persons dead.
The two We're taken We're knouted-exul-
ting at every stroke at the martydom they
were undergoing 1t is to this sect that
the Scoptsi belong, of whom we have
spoken in previous chapter.
THE "SCOURGERS."
Next in singularity to these people come
the Khlisti, or Scourgers the Flagellants
Of the Middle Ages-whose notion of Il
religious service is wild dance accompa
MED by severe castigation. In the middle
OF the room in which they meet, stands a
vessel containing water, and to this they
90 from time to time, in order to wet their
heads or to drink out of their hands -
They then resume their stamping and
their hogging, until they fall down utterly
exhausted, or convulsions sez, them, dur
ing which they utter rawlings which they
call prophecies Every Easter night, one
of his secretaries told Hexthausen, the
fanatics ''all assemble for great solem,
nifty, the worship of the mother of God.
A virgin, fifteen years of age, whom they
have induced to act the part, by tempting
promises, is bound and placed in tub OF
warm water ; some old women come an !
first make large incision in the left
breast, then cut it off, and staunch the
blood in a wonderfully short time. Other
barbarities follow, too shocking to b. told.
During these operations mystical picture
of the Holy Sp rit is put into the victims
hand, in order that she may be absorbed
in reg riding it, Afterwards wild dance
takes place around the tub, kept up 10y
the whole congregation until their strength
is exhausted. The girls who have beer
thus mutilated are ever afterwards con,
sidered sacred. At the age of nineteen oil
twenty they are said to look like womcr
of fifty or sixty, and they generally die
before reaching their thirtieth year.