Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1918-01-04
A STRANGE PEOPLE.
Red Heads OF Asiatic Turkey
Last of the BaaI WorShiners.
HAVE SOME QUEER CUSTOMS.
All Males Wear Red Caps and Around
Their Threats Red knotted Cords and
Allow Their Wives to Beat Them-Aii
Babies Are Sailed When Born.

Strange people are the Red Heads Of
Asiatic Turkey. They are the last of
the Baal worshipers. The men wear
red caps; hence their name Red Heads.
They also wear red knotted cords
around their necks. The cord is put
on during babyhood and is never re-
moved. 1t is inferred with the body
after death. They shave their heads
except for a patch on the top, and
here they allow the hair to grow long
and plat it into pigtails, which hang
about their ears. They are tall, wiry
fellows, with enormous appetites for
both food and drink.
The women, who do not veil them
selves and who dress simply in loose
fitting garments, are thin and spare,
homes they wear breeches as well as
skirts There is no wife beating among
the Red Heads, but plenty of husband
beating. The husbands take their fire.
quent chastisements meekly and pa
tiently. They employ themselves, both
and theft They produce couple of
crops, tobacco and durra. The rest OF
their time is given up to looting the
Turks crops and cattle.
In the center of every village there
is a small circle rallied off, and in this
space there is planted the special reli-
giOus emblem, an evergreen oak. No
one except the father priest of the vii
lage enters the inclosed ground, which
is decorated with small flags, strings
of coins and bright colOred beads.
Around and about the circle the Red
tival known to them, 1.-The gathering of
the new moon," which takes place ev-
cry month. Directly new moon makes
its appearance the people are called
together by lay priest beating bar
rel shaped drum stuck end up On the
ground.
Fires are lit, the cooking utensils
placed thereon and the sheep killed by
the priest, who sprinkles little OF
the animals blood on the oak, and the
carcasses fayed and cut up into joints
and the latter cooked over the fires,
before which millet and wheat cakes
are by this time baking on huge flags.
In the meantime tables on trestles are
set up and laid with wooden plates,
horn spoons and steel knives and forks,
and soon the feasting begins. The
women wait ON the men, who gorge
81,
while their wives and daughters are
clearing up the little they have left, in
dulge in dancing, drinking and general
merriment.
No religious Formally marks the
feast, no blessing or benediction or
grace. Indeed, not at birth or burial
or marriage do these survivors OF the
ancient Baal worshipers employ any
formula or observe anything in the ma
ture of a religious ceremony. They
have no Bible, no prayer book, no lit
urgy, no place of worship. Their one
and only sanctuary is the sacred tree
inclosure, their only religious symbol
the evergreen oak.
When a baby is born it is warmly
clothed, placed on large wooden plat
ter and taken to the priest, who, III
front of the sacred tree, strips 1t and
salts it. Probably this accounts for the
few Red Heads that now survive, it be-
ing said that their numbers have dw1n-
died to a mere seven or eight thousand.
For the service the priest is always
given a shoulder from the sheep which
it is usual to kill on such occasions and
which forms the principal item in the
birth feast. Other duties that the priest
has to carry out are the cutting OF
three horizontal cuts with a dagger
Just above the level of the eyebrows on
the forehead of the dead and the set
Ting of all disputes.
When a couple becomes engaged the
woman spends most of her time cook
ing dainty and tasty dishes and trot-
ting round with them to her lovers
home, followed by her father with wine
and. spirits. Breach of promise is al
most unknown, for the youth who jilts
hoe biS throat emf An prrinp husband