A PEASANT BOY SACRIFICED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 2 November 1907, Page 6

A PEASANT BOY SACRIFICED.

TERRIBLE STORY FROM A RUSSIAN VILLAGE. A terrible .story is told by a correspondent of the Russky Slovo (Moscow). In the village of Svsocva, Mogiloff government, tliere lived a peasant called Michael Koltchevsky, who had long been regarded as a "saint," and who always gave out that ho was "not of this world." On July 29 Michael told his fellow-villagers that he had had a revelation from Heaven to the effect that all earthly misfortunes proceed from antichrist, and that it was necessary to kill the antichrist, who had become incarnate in the person of a two-year-old boy, the son of a peasant called Grobatchcvsky.

The parents of the child were persuaded to consent to the sacrifice, and, the mother having pointed out the exact spot where the child had been born, the "prophet" laid the victim there, and began to press him to death with his feet. In a quarter of an hour the child was dead, but, to make sure, the prophet gave him twenty blows on the head with an iron hammer. The body was then cut in two halves by the "prophet," who afterwards again divided each part in two, praying fervently all the time, the villagers looking on reverentially.

At last Koltchevsky put the fragments of the body in a sack, tied the sack to the tail of a horse, mounted the horse himself, and- rode through the village, followed by the inhabitants, who bore lighted candles (it being now night), and an ikon of St. Nicholas, the Wonder-worker. The child was then buried, while the muhziks sang songs of praise.

It was now daylight, and the "prophot" went home to sleep, after inviting the peasants to come at 8 o'clock in the evening, in order to see him, the "prophet," ascend to Heaven from the roof of his hut. But 8 o'clock found Koltchevsky-asleep in bed, ind, after waiting; patiently a lonjr time, the villagers resolved to wake him. Koltchevsky was in one of his lucid intervals, however, and, after hearing what had happened the night before, he attempted to explain that the ascension to Heaven could not take place just then, because the permission of the nearest priest should have been obtained before antichrist was put to death. Finally, the peasants began to bcit the "prophet," who would probably have been killed had not the local police inspector happened to be passing within earshot. The "prophet" and all the heads of families in the village (thirtytwo men) were then arrested, and will be tried. Among the accused is a man of 102 years of age, who took an active part in the murder of the child. The "prophet" is described as a man of years of age, but looking much older, with an intelligent face, long flowing hair, and restless eyes.