The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1893-10-04
BURIAL ALIVE.
Some Queer Stories That Come From Far
or India.

some queer SNOFlcs lHalt SOhc EEouh at
or IndIn.
British Medisa! Journal
The annals OF Eastern nations furnish
abundant example, OF this custom,
which has beCn resortcd to from vari-
ETY. OF motives and under very different
circumstances. Tho practice may be
employed Tor the purpose OF eXtinguish-
ing life or maintaining life for pro-
longed period without food or drink.
There is. therefore, fatal and nom
fatal kind OF living inhumation. Tho
common description Of burial alive
Gamadh) is leper burial, which used to
be very frequently rosorted to in India,
often at the request or urgent
entreaty OF the victims OF this
loathsone disease. A pit was dug
by the relatives of the leper or by other
lepers, and the unfortunate cast into
it and smothcred with earth. In somo'
cases the wretch was burned todeath be-
fore being thrown into the pit. Opium
water was freely drunk by eXecutioners
and executed ON such occasions. Tho
cruel rite fingered in Kashmir and some
parts OF Rujputana till within very re-
cent years. Indeed, it is questionable
whether it is even now altogether eX-
tinct. Lepers have been known in the
extremity OF their distress and misery
to commit suicide by jumping into pits.
Burial alive has also in India 'consti.
tu;ed u mode Of SWtGG, or voluntary sac
riiice of life, by widows who have been
cast by sympathizing and obliging rela
tives, at their own request, into the
same graves as their deceased hus-
bands. Homicidal burial alive has
been used as means Of punishment OF
crime, torture, revenge or murder, and
the burial has been in such cases either
complete or incomplete. The non-fatal
form of living burial has always ex-
cited moro interest than the fatal,
which, however, supplies material for u
strange and large chapter in the history
of human crime The phenomenon OF
Information yields some sort OF counte.
nance to the idea that the animal or
ganism is capable, under certain cir
cumstances-namely, conservation OF
body, heat, perfect inaction, and preser-
walton from all external stimuli-of
living Tor weeks, ifnot months, without
food or drink; and records Of prolonged
fasting, with or without sleep, are
forthcoming with the regularity of the
announcements Of gigantic gooseber-
ries, sea serpents and eight-legged
calves.
Tho alleged proceedings OF Indian
fakirs and Persian dervishes arc cited
in support Of the possibility Of human
Information in underground cells. The
proceedings OF these gentry must, how
ever. be very literally discounted.
They certainly achieve some very eX-
traordiuary feats OF endurance and self
abnegation. Their efforts to set at def
anCe tho laws and inClinations OF the
body, and by contemplation, fasting
and neglect OF the ordinary usRges and
requirements OF life to nortify the
flesh and become absorbed into the
divine soul, which is, according to the
tenets OF pedantism, the spring and
essence OF existence, surpass phi ysiologi-
cal possibility aud necessarily ongender
imposturc, which may be conscious or
unconscious or both. This element OF
imposture, involuntary or designed,
enters into all their proceedings, and is
seldom either diligently looked for or
detected. The love OF the marvellous is
strongly developed among 0rientals,
and ial,ir stories must be taken with n
liberal grain OF salt. Tales OF
prolonged living burial are COM
mon enough in India, but in
no case has the proceeding been
subjected to scientific observation or
systematic watching; and in aomo in-
stances the grave in which the devotee
has proposed to hibernate has been un-
covered after the lapse OF few days
and its occupant found dead, When,
therefore, We are told that Seymour,
tho thought reader, proposes AZ Chi
cago 10 DO buried and remain under
ground long enough for crop of barley
to be grown on his grave" we incline to
share tho general impression that, il he
carries out his plan, "he will probably
remain under ground for good"
IT,. ...z.. ,l.,.s,,l ,,,r,s of fhOusnpIa 81