The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-12

Certain Russians. Chinese and Hin
docs still Practice the BarbnrOus
Custom of Buryins Living Per-
sons.
From the New York Tribune.
Cable dispatches from St. Peters burg
report the discovery of the bodies OF
twenty-eight persons at Teraspol who
were buried alive, the writings found with
the bodies indicating that they belonged
to the seif-immolati ting sect known as the
Bjeguni which FIRST attracted public at
tention four years ago, when one of it's
members-a man named Kovaeff-after
being convicted of having taken part in
the living interment of twenty-five per-
sons, including his wife, mis- two children
and his sister, was sentenced to perpet-
uai Imprisonment in a monastery.
In India the British authorities have
recently been called upon to deal with
a somewhat analogous case at Rurki, a
city not far from Delhi. In China, and
even on this side of the world among
the Tobo Indians in Bolivia, and in the
remote portions of Brazil. the practice of
burying people alive is stin in existence,
the victims being consenting parties 10
their death
In the recent case in India referred to
above the person buried alive was wo-
man who had suddenly become aware of
the fact that sSe was afflicted with lep-
rosy. In Asia a superstition prevails
to the effect that there is only one way
of preventing this malady from descend
ing 10 the children and the children's
children of the patient. and that is by
burying the latter alive. This woman had
several children, to whom she was de-
voted. Firmly resolved to spare her lit
tie ones from the scourge with which they
were threatened, she communicated to
her husband, a market gardener. her in
tention of sacrificing herself for their
sake in accordance with the me-honored
custom of the Orient.
To the husband the decision of his wife
seemed perfectly natural and in the nor
NAL order of things Besides, he must
have realized that even the fate to which
She offered herself as a willing victim
would be preferable to the living death to
which she would be condemned as leper
that is to say, as an unclean outcast,
cut off from all intercourse with her fam
lily, relatives and friends.
Buried HIS Wife Alive.
Accordingly he invited four of his
trends to take part in the obseques of
his wife, who. after she had taken a final
to the site of the grave, which was
thereupon dug in her presence by her
husband and his friends. The entire vii
lage had fiocked to the scene. The woman
having addressed a few words of fare
we'll to those around her took her place
in the grave, was covered by the children
present with flowers and green twigs, af-
ter which the husband cast the first
spadeful OF earth upon her floral pail The
xryas fhos,
mounted with cone of soil, capped in
its turn by an earthenware jug turned up
side down.
The grave became a spot of pilgrimage
to the women and children of the dis
trict for the purpose of depositing flowers
and fruits upon the last resting place of
this victim Of maternal devotion. 1t was
this that attracted the attention of the
English authorities and led to the arrest
and trial of the widowed husband. and of
his four friends who had helped to bury
his wife
Inc trial at Rurki created great excite
ment throughout the country, as it was
held that the prisoners had merely acted
in conformity with old established tradi-
ton and usage. Even the two native iu-
dlclal assessors who sat beside the Eng
lish judge on the bench shared these
views and strove to induce their British
~NNANN+6N'Ns
matter i'm the same light This he de-
clined to do, and, overriding their pro-
tests, he sentenced the prisoners. not to
death, but 10 imprisonment at hard la
Dor for lfe-a decision against which the
Two assessors themselves have been the
hrst TO appeal to the Supreme Court at
Calcutta
Problem for Civilization.
II is unlikely that the judgment will be
reversed, since it stands to reason thai
British justice even when modified 70
conform TO the requirements of Indian
hle, cannot concede legal sanction to such
a custom as living burial. But Lord Cur
zon will probably solve the difficulty. by
exercising after a time his vice regal right
OF clemency in behalf of the prisoners. II
may be pointed out that this incident
serves 20 show anew how great are the
difficulties of reconciling Western civiliza-
ton to Eastern customs
IN China not merely lepers DESTROYS of
preserving their children from the inner
1,ance of their malady but people whose
misconduct is regarded as incorrigibpe. or
VINO nave become a nuisance to their rel
atlNes and 10 the community, are buried
alive. These interments are generally the
result OF the decree of a sort of family
council composed of the principal rela-
lives Of the victim, and they are so far
regarded as legitimate that the local au-
thorlties do not hesitate to attend the OBJ
sequels. Sometimes, 100, the decree Is
pronounced by a species Of vigilance COM
mittee-an institution that 1ourishes as
extensively in China at the present day as
II did To Germany two or three centuries
ago. The French missionaries in the dis
trlct OF Tchong-Lok have recorded several
cases OF this kind and declare thai in
each Instance the victim. after having
been notified Of the decree against him.