The Washington bee., 1902-02-01
KILLED HIS MOTHER.
Fearful Rites Inaugurated by a
Sect of Religious Cranks.
Young Man from America Beats
Woman Who Gave Him Life TO
Death - Crazy Mystics in Ger
many and Bosnia.

The Berlin correspondent of the New
York World writes that about a year
ago. young man named Kaschke has
tened to his home in the village of
Datten, an hours journey from Berlin,
from the United States to inform his
family of the approaching end of the
world. His father, a well-to-do farm
er, had always been a religious man,
with leanings toward the mystical in
religion. He was member of the ra-
Uonal church until the return of his
son.
The young man while in America had
associated himself with a number of
semi-mystical bodies, the chief tenet
Of which is that the end of the world
is at hand. Being persuaded of the ap-
proach of the second advent, he be-
lieves it to be his duty to assist his rela
tives in preparing for the coming of
Christ.
The young man found his relatives
in perfect readiness to accept his pc
culiar views. Recently they assembled
Il
selves of nearly all their chothing and
began to chant Iitanies and psalms.
The neighbors saw them dancing about
and careering like maniaes across the
farmyard
They had resolved to take no food
until Christ came, and young Kaschke
said that those who felt the pangs of
hunger first were those whom God had
not elected. Besides the farmer. his
wife and son, there were two other
grown children, a maid servant and
four peasants
Frau Kaschke sank from want of
food after four days, and her husband
and son began to exercise the evil
spirit they said possessed her. They
danced about her and struck her mad
woman fell dead on the floor, covered
with blood. The blood gave unmixed
satisfaction 10 the eight maniacs in
the room with her. When they saw it
flow they sank on the floor beside her,
murmuring feebly their litanies and
giving thanks that the poor woman
had at last been accepted, for without
shedding of blood there can be no re
mission of sins"
In this state of religious ecstacy
they were found by the village au-
thOrities, who broke open the doors
and carried them off, shrieking and
wailing, to the village lookup. Here
they were handcuffed and chained and
marched by six armed gendarmes to
the lunatic asylum.
In the village of Sinan-Tehya, in
Bosnia, a singular oriental sect, an
offshoot of the Greek church, has
monastery. For years the greatest
secrecy was observed by the 20 monks
who lived there with regard to their
ritual and religious Observances, but
the government mas at last insisted
upon knowing all, with the result that
the monks at Sinan-Tekiya have been
revealed as a fanatical sect of mad
men closely resembling the MahOm-
etan dancing dervishes.
Twice every week they have a sol
emn service. The monks sit on the
floor in the half light of the evening
under the dome of the great hall of
the monastery. The abbot, in a long
black "caftan," stands in the midst
and recites prayers. One after the
other the monks rise from their places
and begin to sway their heads back
ward and forward like a pendulum,
emitting with every motion forward a
deep groan.
In unison they then begin to sing
the creed, at first slowly, but grad
ually increasing the time until it is
a wild gabble, accompanied by furious
bendings backward and forward, for
ward until the tips Of the fingers touch
the ground. Drops of sweat begin to
appear on their foreheads, and as the
intensity of their emotion increases,
they begin to turn round, at first
slowly, but rapidly increasing in quick
ness until giddiness sets in, and, pale
and sick. they fall to the ground one
after the other.