The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-31

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thorns their prayers. The noise grew loud
| er' herce, more unholy: the men bias
/ pnemed fearfully in their agony They
were Ike pack of mad beasts, rather
tnan human beings. And all this in the
| nineteenth century. within three days
ride Of New York city. This spectacle
TASTED do not know how long. After
nalI an hour must confess even my
curiosity was satisfied, and we put spurs
10 our bropchos and set out for Taos
with the piercing shrieks following us
! through the heavenly beauty OF the night
UNI, unui we came within five minutes Of the
lights of the little town.
You can always tell the track Of the
Fenitentes," said my companion. Where
ever they go they leave behind them a
path Of blood. Those cotton drawers they
had on We're white when we first saw
Them BY midnight. they will be saturated
With blood. 1t is, in fact, not an unusual
thing for the men to bleed to death from
the effects of their setf-in-
fllcted wounds. They will continue
| these insane orgies until after
Easter week. Then they will take to
their beds, and the old women will be
called in to attend to their wounds. The
man who dies of the effects of his wound
goes straight to heaven, they think, and
being all Of them fatalists, they do not
care much whether they live or die
during my stay in Taos l did not see
| a cructfiXion, but a story of one came
in from one of the outlying Pueblos. The
man crucifed was very large man.
very fat, and the buckskin thongs
| that held his wrists cut into the
flesh to the bone and then broke one after
| the other, precipitating the poor wretch
race down upon the bed of cactus thorns
at the foot of the cross. For some time
| ne remained in this horrible position until
| the others about him cut the thongs that
bound his ankles to the cross and liber-
ated him.
| 1t seems that those who are crucified
| consider it a. great honor, but is is an
honor forced upon them, for the man TO
be crucifed is selected by lot. Forever
| after the crucifxion the crucifed one
what sins he commits after he has passed
| through this ordeal they are as nothing,
| and when he dies he goes straight to eter-
| nal glory. And the same saints are SO
far as 1 can learn. neither better nor
worse than their fellows, nor are they
| overcareful as to how they get a thing
they want so long as they get it. AS for
| their fellows, all the year round they do
almost as they please, and then during
Lent they do penance and their sins are
forgiven.
A week after my experience in Taos
had another that was quite as inter-
esting. This occurred in a little Pueblo
some eight or ten miles from Taos Ac-
companied by young fellow from New
York, out here for his health, went with
letter of introduction to certain Mex
/ lean gentleman, who readily agreed to
take us to the meeting place of the Peni-
tentes, assuring us. however that should
/ we be discovered it would not be very
| comfortable for us. He dressed us up
after dark in some old clothes and gave
US each meal bag, or something similar
to a meal bag. which we put over our
! heads, and then we sauntered forth The
meeting place was in little church. built
like all the rest of the churches through
out the territory. a low. squat building,
oblong in shape, whitewashed within and
without, with one wooden door taking up
one end of the church, and studded with
enormous brass-headed nails arranged
| in the shapes of crowns and crosses. In
front over the door on top of the church
was a triangular structure with a square
| hole, in which hung the silVer-toned bell
| Inside the church at one end was the
altar, and in the body Of the church were
a number of plain wooden benches on
which the old and feeble sat, the younger
women and the men squatting on the
| floor all about the place. We found every
thing in darkness. In the body of the
church had been erected a cross, and on
what was intended to be a rude imita-
| ton of a throne sat a man who, we
learned was the latest saint" All about
the throne and the cross had been scat
| tered cactus thorns, and when we en-
| tered the penance was in progress. The
din was frightful, and the mad ectasy of
the fanatics blood-curdling. We three
Rugged the walls, and In making our
way to the door to leave after some ten
minutes we suddenly ran up against some
Penitente, who, it seemed, preferred the
comforts of a corner to the cruelties of
the cross. When he saw that we had dis
covered him Sinking his duty, he, think
ing we were his fellows. with cry of
terror sprang out ipto the room and we
heard him louder in his shriekings and
more energetic in his penance that the
rest.
The sect was founded by Father Mar
tinez, Franciscan monk, about 200 years
ago. At first the church recognized the
sect and approved Of it, but in later
years when the penance became nothing
more than fanatical self-torture, the
church proclaimed against it and ordered
| that the practices be stopped. The Peni-
tentes then withdrew from the church
and formed a church of their own. Each
village has its own lodge or society, and
despite the fact that all members are ex-
| communicated, the practices still con-
tinue. In giving me this brief history
of the Penitentes, Father De Fury, of
this place, and secretary to Archbishop
/ Chappelle, told me this story, which has
| it's funny, as well as its tragic side. A
few years ago while number of Peni-
tentes were engaged in crucifying a man
some little distance to the westward of
Santa Fe, a band of rowing Apaches,
the born enemies of all Mexicans, came
upon them. At once all penance was for
got, and the Penitentes, with the cry
of "Apaches,'' took to their heels, Ieav-
| ing the poor fellow on the cross to the
mercy of the Indians. The Apaches see
| ing the man on the cross, selected him
for a target, and the next day he was
| found dead with no one knows how
many arrows sticking in him and any
number of bullet holes through him.
The members of the sect have more of
the Indian than of Spanish blood, and it
seems that in the intermarriage all the
viciousness of the white man has been
inherited and all the goodness of the In
dams lost to posterity.
/ The MeXicans and the Pueblo Indians
1 live in their own villages; the United
States authorities do not bother their
heads about them; they attend to their
own government, and seem to get along
very well, too. Warren McVeigh.
WOman's Curse Came True.
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