Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1893-11-18
,NHuMATIoN oFL,vINe PERSONS
Many Eastern Nations Indulge in tho Hor-
rIble Practice of burial Alive.

Many Eastern Nations Indulge in tho Hor-
ribie Practice of Burial Alive.
The annals of eastern nations fur
nished abundant examples of this GUS
tom, which has been resorted to from
variety of motives and under very
different circumstances The practice
may be employed for the purpose of
| eXtinguishing life or maintaining life
for prolonged period without food or
drink. There is, therefore fatal and
non-fatal kind of living inhumation.
| The common description of burial alive !
(jamadh) is leper burial, which used to
be very frequently resorted to in India, |
often at the request or urgent en-
treaty of the victims of this loathsome |
disease. pit was dug by the relatives
of the leper or by other lepers, and the
unfortunate cast into 1t and smothered
with the earth. In some cases the
wretch was burned to death before be-
ing thrown into the pit. Opium water
was freely drunk by executioners on
such occasions. This cyuel rite lin
gered in Kashmir and some parts of
Rajpuntana till within recent years.
Indeed, it Is questioned whether it is
even now altogether extinct. 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-
tuted mode of suttee. or voluntary
sacrifice of life, by widows who have
been castby sympathizing and obliging
relatives, at their own request, into
the same graves as their deceased hus-
bands. Homicidal burial alive has been
I used as a means of punishment of crime,
: torture, revenge, or murder, and the
, burial has been in such cases either
I complete or incomplete. The non-fatal
9 form of living burial has always eX-
l cited more interest than the fatal,
g which, however, supplies material for
S q strange and large chapter in the his
tory of human crime. The phenomenon
+ of Information yields some sort of coun-
t tenance to the idea that the animal
\ organism is capable, under certain cir
e cumstances-namely: conservation of
S body heat, perfect inaction, and pres
ervation from all external stimuli-of
r living for weeks, if not months, with
# out food or drink; ard records of pro-
It lonTed fasting, with or without sleep,
are forthcoming with the regularity ot
the announcements of gigantic goose
berries, sea serpents and eight-legged
calves.
The alleged proceedings Of Indiar
fskirs and Persian dervishes are CITED
in support wf the possibility of human
Attenuation in underground cells. Th,
proceedings of this gentry must, how
ever, be worry iEberally discounted
J, They certainly achieve some very ex
traordinary feats of endurance an,
10 self-abnegation. Their efforts to Sc
W at defiance the laws and molina ton
of the bSdy, and by contemplation
III fasting End neglect of the 'U'dinar
S1a usages and requirements of life t
mortify the flesh and become absorbe
into the 6ivinesSo oul, which is ancordin
to the tetsets Of pedantism, the sprin
and essence 'Uf existence. surpas
.su physiological possibility and
!. lily engerder imposture, whidt. may b
conscious or unr onscious- or both. Thi
element .of in4osure, imvolu ntary c
designed, entars into all their ore
ceedinge, and is seldom 'eth dill
- gently lcokedlfrr or detected. The low
,r.. of the marvellous is sstromglyoFIevelope
ne among "0rientRls, and fsdEr storie
=, must beutaken>vyith liberal grain {
= salt Vi les of prolonged living buris
u" are comrson ere ugh in india, but in II
'e- case has'the proceeding beer' subjecte
ee to scientific observation or-systemati
h Watching; and in some inSGances th
be grave p which the deu0tee has pr,
M posed tGdiiberns te has beentancovere
m after the lapse, Of few days&nd it's o.
a. cupant found, dead. When. ;6herefor,
=. we are rDald that Seymour, tlee though
" NJ reader, proposesTlt Chicagoto be burie
~ alive amt ''iremain under grsund Ion
as enough for a crop of barley tn be grow
of on his grave" VIZ, incline tu share til
vi general impression that, if Ire carrie
ISL out his plan, 'he will probably renal
tel under ground for good. d."-Bui5ish Met
u! ical Journal.
M Eyils,of Educatiou.