Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-01-30
INDIANS PASSION PLAY.
The Annual Celebration Among the Chris
TANNED Pueblo Tribes.

Inc annual celebration Among the Chris
TANNED Pueblo Tribes.
The annual celebration of the passion play
among the Christianzed Pueblo Indians at
Rosita, a little town in the mountains west of
chihuahua, Mexico, has just been completed
and the ceremonies were attended with even
more fervor than is usual The religious cere-
mony was instituted by the priests years ago
when they redeemed the savages from their
ldolatrous practices The Indians we're of such
nature that they could not understand the
worship Of God without some external mani
feststion, and in order to meet this demand the
Catholic church among them instituted several
innovations in the religious exercises and this
annual passion play was one of them. It is
patterned upon the passion play OF Oberam-
mergau with the difference that it is attended
with scourging of the bodies of the deyotees I'm
order to purify them of sin. All who partici-
pate In the exercises come forth free from faint
OF sin and are absolved of all the wickedness
which they have been guilty of during the pas.
year.
The exercises are, to a certain extent. revolt
ing. The passion play itself is a very simple
affair, with none of the theatrical effects which
would naturally be supposed to attend the play
simple dialogue Is arranged between about
dozen of the indians. which number is liable
to vary according to the disposition of the
IL Is necessary to rearrange the dialogue
TO suit the number. After the play Is over all
who desire to be absolved of their sins take
their position in line and pass before the priest
who hears their confession and inf,icts the
penalty according to the magnitude of the
onense. This penalty consists principally of
the scourging OF the naked shoulders and BODY
with the whips of cactus, which are prepared
especially for this purpose by the priest He
gives to each whip and as the penitent passes
from the church he strips his body from the
waist up and begins castigaton which in
many instances brings the blood at every cut.
As the priest is pretty well aware of the short
comings OF his flock he SO arranges it that each
one gets the whip which best suits his indi-
vidual case, and as the priest at the same time
allots the number of blows which are to be
given, the penitent is pretty apt to be we'll
haggelated before he gets through 1t would
be supposed that the people would treat them
selves lightly with such a severe whip. but this
is not the case. They go at it with a religious
Iervor which Is worthy OF a better purpose
After the stream of confessIonists has passed
through the streets it is common sight to see
twenty or thirty people on the streets lashing
themselves in a most fearful manner while the
blood streams down their backs. Men and
women are in this throng, for the rite makes no
distinction, and In MANY instances the females
nave received the most singing whips from
the hands OF the priest for the various infrac-
tions of the moral law.
As the play at kosita is the central one it at
tracts participants from ali parts Of the state
and during the period just passed there were
not less than thousand Indians who took mart
In the performance and inflicted upon them
selves the punishment for the sins of the wear
just closed. In addition to the whipping which
1t Is necessary for them to undergo they are
compelled to pay a small sum Tor the whip,
which sum Is part o. the revenue Of the little
church The priest makes the whips himself.
devotlng his leisure moments during the whole
year to this business, and it nets in the bulk
quite large sum for an institution which has
few or no expenses. 1t is said that in some in
stances the castigation is SO severe that the
victim has been overcome, ana in three in
stances within the past four years death has
followed the whipping,