The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-07-03
Russian Fanatics.

Our German correspondent wrote us,
some weeks since, an account of new sect
the attention of the Russian Government,
but whose cunning generally eluded all
efforts for their suppression, or for the de-
lection of their rites. The sect spoken of
by DR.. Hurst were mutilators, as their
name implies. Closely akin to them are
the Morelshchiki, or Immolators, an &C
count of whom is given in the Pail Mall
Gazette:
"Their leading idea is to mortify the
flesh for the sake of saving the soul, and in
order to do this efficiently, they have re-
course to various means of mutilation and
death. Sects intoxicating the virtues of
suicide and murder naturally do all they
can to keep their existence a secret, but
every now and then horrible story comes
from the interior of some gloomy forest or
dreary waste, which tells how some ofthese
wretched people have died. Sometimes a
deep pit is dug in the earth and half filled
Will NOOl otlltl SlldN Ills Is ScI dllSut,
and when the whole mass is in blaze the
miserable creatures leap into the pit and
are consumed in the fire, singing hymns rs
they burn. At other times they meet in 4
wooden house, round which they have piled
heaps of straw; and i'll it they deliberately
burn themselves to death, their neighbors
looking on quietly the while; for the act is
a sacred one; the victims are undergoing
baptism by fire. Some years ago, con-
gregation of Immolators assembled at Il
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
desire of life awoke i'll young woman, and
she fled to a neighboring village. The
people repaired to the scene of action, and
found two of the murderers still alive, and
forty-seven persons dead. The two who
were taken were Notwithstanding at every
stroke at the martyrdom they were under
going
Another sect of Russian fanatics are the
Khlist, or Scourgers, who seem to be i'll
the regular succession of the Flagellants
of the Middle Ages. Their idea of a religi-
Gus service is wild dance, accompanied by
, severe castigation :. In the middle of the
room in which they meet stands a vessel
containing water, and to this they go from
time to time, in order to wet their heads
or to drink out of their hands Then they
resume their stamping and their tlogging
| = ~, r,11 Il,
commissions seize them during which they
utter rawlings which they call prophecies
| Every Easter-night the fanatics AL assem-
bic for great solemnity, the worship of
the Mother of God. \ 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 and 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 shock
ing to be told. During these operations a
mystical picture OF the Holy Spirit is put
into the victims hand, in order that she
may be absorbed in regarding it. After
ward wild dance takes place around the
tub, kept up by the whole congregation I'M
til their strength is exhausted. The girls
who have been thus mutilated are ever
aftcrward considered sacred At the age of
nineteen or twenty they are said to look
like women of fifty or sixty. and they gen.
orally die before reaching their thirteenth
year,
The Beslovesniki were dumb Sect which
is now extinct-its members, from the time
of joining, never again uttering sound,
not even the severest torture being sufficient
to induce to break their VOWS.
The Molol1ani are harmless sect. re-
scmbling, in their manner of life, i'll many
respects, the Moravians. They are very
prone to follow any self-constituted leader,
no matter how wild may be his pretensions.
At one time they followed one Terenty,
who gave himself out to be the Prophet
Elias, and who fixed time for the millen-
mum, in anticipation of our Miller.
When Napoleon was in Russia the
Molokani imagined that he was the Lion
Of the Valley of Jehoshaphat described in
their old Psalms, who was destined toover-
throw the false Emperor, and restore the
throne of the white Gar So the Tambof
Molokani appointed deputation from their
body t - ell1tif1ed in white and present an
address to him, in the year 1872. The
deputies made their way through little
Russia and Poland, as far as the Vistuls,
but there they were made prisoners. One
Of them escaped, and got safely home; the
rest were never head of again. Liprandi,
in the report he drew up lin Russian) for
the Government i'll the year 1853 says that
tile Napoleonovshchina, or sect of wor-
shippers of Napoleon, reappeared in 1890
: at Byelostok, and at Pskoff, and again, in
1914, at Moscow The worshippers of
; Napoleon at Moscow meet with the utmost
secrecy in 4 private stone house i'll the mid
die of the town. There, after performing
other rites, they PROSTATE themselves before
f bust of Napoleon as before divinity
For them Napoleon is still living, and they
believe that some day he will return from
Siberia, together with the Emperor Peter
III. iHcil elcl VIII iiio''iie .iio eiiiohS VI
| the world, and Napoleon will command the
, legions of the faithful under him. Lipran-
, Iii goes on to tell how the police contrived
i'll November, 1916, to get hold of certain
secret pictures belonging to this sect one
of which he laid before the Minister of the
, Interior. These pictures We're printed on
very thin paper, in order that being slipped
between the leaves of books and aliases,
. they might get passed on unseen from hand
to hand. And these pictures represented
Napoleon ascending into heaven
Methodist