The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-27
HUMAN SACRIFICES.
THE THRILLING SToRYOFAN EYE
 WITNESS.
A Remote Village In Asia Where Men and Women arc still Offered to HeathcM Gods.

Heaahcn Gods.
 William Jameson Reid in his interest
 ing work, "Unexplored Asia" tells O
 a strange people he visited and thrill
 ing experience he encountered which i
 scarcely paralleled in modern books O
 travel. At Gharlkau Qatitude 33 de
 grees) on the Djichu river, where near
 ly 30 main caravan roads converge, in
 tersecting the country, and affording
 practical means of communication iron
 China to Thibet and to the other regions
 of central Asia, he halted for fort
 nights Journey to the northwestWarc
 through the Ping mountains to the
 Chite city of Tzuchau, in the heretofore
 unknown and untrodden northeast cor
 ner of Thibet According to Chinese
 historians many centuries ago the
 Chites, then a highly civilized and en-
 frightened race, but the most fanaticay
 and bigoted of Buddhists, from then turbulent and proselytzing spirit be-
 coming obnoxious to the government
 were driven from their homes near Shanghai and, after years of wandering
 up the valley of the Yangtse Kiang and
 the Kinsha, they finally located in this
 wild mountain region of northeastern
 Thibet. Here they have held aloof from
 their more civilized Chinese neighbors,
 and are for the most part semi-civilzed
 many of them being savages or the
 worst order, and even cannibalism is
 said to be prevalent among numbers of
 them They acknowledge no allegiance
 to the emperor defy the mandarins, and
 hold no communication with the out
 side world. Over mountains and rivers
 and sandy wastes our intrepid travellers
 with selected body of their brave fol- l lowers and native Gharlkauese made i their way for five days, until, halting on the edge of the forest, they saw in a
 shallow plain below them the object of their quest, the Chte city of Tzuchau. The author continues as follows: "It had been our intention to steal into the city under cover of the night, but from our position of vantage we could see that some religious demonstration was in progress, and we did not dare to move. One of the Gharlkauese, accom- panied by one of the Kiangsis, volun- teered to cross the open space and enter the city in search of food
 With fearful hearts we saw them de- part, and, half dead with cold and eX- posture, waited in silence for two long hours, when we breathed a sigh of in- vountary relief as they reappeared with eevral loaves of bread and two large pieces of yak meat which they had been able to secure from deserted hut. The reports which they brought were far from reaseuring. The natives were engaged in a weeks religious orgy; should we dare to enter the city our presence would be immediately detect natures fed on the fires of a religious frenzy, our instant fate would be assur- ed. For another half-hour our guides crawled out on to the plain, and re- turned with the information that they had discovered a considerable cave in the hillside to the left of the town, which would screen us from observation, and at the same time permit us to watch the movements of those inside of the walls. Cautiously we crawled along on our bellies for what seemed to be ages of time, until one of our guides pointed to a narrow opening ahead, just suffi- cient to admit a man in a stopping posi- ton. With eigh of relief we entered and with thankful hearts feasted on the raw yak meat. Fearful and watchfu1 we remained all night, like wild beasts purused by some unknown terror.
 Next morning the religious festival which we had witnessed the night before was still in progress, and we were about to venture forth to secure a better view when we were hurried back by the un- nerving spectacle of long procession approaching in our direction, beating drums and tom-toms and led by a doz- en filthy looking priests. They halted for a few minutes, and then, having re- formed, commenced the ascent of the hilly slope, where we were concealed. 1 Onward still they came, the priests chanting in dolorous voices, while the | horde following took up the wild re- frain until the din was simply inde- | scribable. If we had entertained hopes that they were bound elsewhere, we were doomed to disappointment, for they were now scarcely thirty yards away | and approaching the cave entrance. We had just time to retire from our position and chamber up step ascent at one side of the cave to a place of conceal ment, when the leaders of the procession entered the narrow orifice, and halted while torches were being lit to guide their passage through the gathering gloom.
 For half an hour the ear-torturing strife of discord waxed louder at every until a hundred devils in hu- man form fitted beneath the sepulch- 'al glare of fliclSering torches like a weird and supernatural picture of an- other world. A frenzied enthusiast would leap into the air. frothing at the mouth, carried away by the saneuinary and fantical spirit of the moment; acerating himself with knife, grasp ng the gory flesh, and grinding it under lis heel. or taunting a neighbor into he spirit of emulation by Haunting be- Ore his eyee the ghastly piece of flesh.
 Suddenly from out the compact 1 mass rose howl of mingled anguish lnd fury At the farther end of the 'mpitheater was a sort of raised plat orm. upon which q solitary individual vas pounting, evidently one of the hief priests. Having made the ascent, | le stretched forth his hand, Instantly here was silence--the silence of a hundred human beings who but one hort moment before had been a yelling orde of demone. The light of the orches enabled us to see the priest who ad mounted the platform He was a