GIRLS TORTURED IN A CHURCH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81894, 27 November 1906, Page 4

GIRLS TORTURED IN A CHURCH.

flogged for the good of THEIR SOL'LS. An extraordinary scandal is reported from the isolated Alpine village or Obervaz, in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland.

The young unmarried women of the village between the ages of eigh teen and twenty recently received an order by letter commanding them to appear before the villagj sexton, an elder'y man, to "undergo the pun ishmcnt of flagellation until the blood flows, for the great benefit of their souls." The letter was written by the sexton, who forged the signature of the pastor. Without question or inquiries, the young women suffered shameful indignities after their promised silence had been obtained by threats. In the church veatry and at the sexton's house the superstitious women were stripped and beaten until they t>vere covered with b ood.

These scenes had been going an for some weeks wlipn the parents of one of the victims discovered the truth and immediately arrested the sexton, win is accused of the most serious offer cej.

The "Tribune de Geneve, 7 ' in confirming the above facts remarks that the commune of has always been one of the mast backward ii the country, and its inhabitants the greatest slaves to superstition.