PERSIAN SELF-TORTURING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 74, 23 April 1909, Page 4

PERSIAN SELF-TORTURING

EXTRAORDINARY DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES,

No more ghastly spectacle is to seen in the ordinary course of travel than what is known here as U"' Persian festival, which I took occasion to attend yesterday evening with o small party of Europeans in which there were two ladies. The performance was to take place at sundown, when by the Moliammeda'n calendar the tenth day of the month of Jluharein begins. Our little party made its way in a falling snow up through the twisting dirty streets of Stanibould to what is called the Vnlide Khan. The word "khan" among the Turks is much liKe the word "hoP in Germany, that is to say, it might apply to .i small tavern where one puts up for the night, to a railway station, a Government building, or a quarter more or less encloseil where many people live. In the last sense the term "khan' applies in the present case. The Validc Khan is in the heart ot the Persian colony. It is a square surrounded by an ancient stone wall, still battleiuenti'd in places, lint crumbling along most of the top, and left demolished in one corner where it fell during a lire two years or more ago. Through the wall from the narrow, surrounding streets two or three low archways lead into the square, in the centre is a Persian white mosque, with a dozen squalid, crowded shops tucked into its basement, while around the walls of the square are other diminutive shops with low upper stories, where, the shopkeepers and their families live. I The quarter is one of the most Eastern i in appearance of any in the Turkish capital. It was a dismal hour when we entered the square through a tunnel-like archway. Tiie shopkeepers had not yet lit their smoky kerosene lamps, and the motley assembly of Persians and Turks had churni'd the white snow that lay upon the ground into a thick, filthy slush, for they had already moved around the square many times, some roping oil' the roadway,' others hurrying through from arch to arch with bolts of white and' black cotton and the crowd of idle onlookers following to watch anybody who had any work to do. To get'out'of the snow and the cold we pushed aside the Haps of a vast, tent where we thought the performance would take place, but as soon as we bad found stools and placed them near a pulpit such as one sees in a mosque, an old Mohammedan made us leave telling us ill unintelligible words but unmistakable manner that we must clear out. Our crime was that of being infidel, for the tent, we learned later, was where the devotees who were to torture themselves were exhorted nightly for nine days before by event by reading of the story of how Hassan and Hussein, the grandsons of the Prophet, were slain, the one poisoned, the other killed in battle. The lent had therefore the sanctity of a mosque. When wc pushed aside Hie Haps again we found some new arrivals whu raised our failing courage—a party ol nearly a hundred sailors from the "stationaries" in the harbour, sonic- nt them from the U. S. S. Scorpion. The fast'fading light and the call to prayer by a hoja on a minaret that over-looked the broken corner of the wall told the assembly that the sun had set and that the tenth day of Miihareiii had begun. A low murmur came from an arch upon which all eyes were turned; then the clang oi cy'miials a'nd the slow bent of drums and the monotone of several piping Persian horns. The instruments would clang their unmusical noise for a moment, then the chant would lift, coming nearer; then a neitve of many stricken chests. Two men bearing paper lanterns conic slowly out of the arch. Behind them came black robed figures carrying long poles draped in crape, with brass crowns and brass garlands at the top; then a double line of black robed men carrying black and green triangular Hags with Arabic texts written across them in silver. Each llagbearcr holds with one hand the point of the flag borne in front of him. At the tops u: the tlagstall' are open hands in brass. The chanting, interrupted by thuds and heaves of the chests, comes nearer, and the Hare of torches begins to show through thu archway. Three horses, set aside to commemorate the deaths, the first caparisoned in crape, are led out by black robed men carrying axes of the shape of those used in Crusader days. The second horse is canopied in white cloth spin tiered with blood, two long swords fastened crossed over its back are fastened there, with two living doves tied to them. For, according to the Moslem story, when Hussein was killed fighting for the faith, his white horse

covered with blood came back to the' tent of his sister with two white birds riding upon tile saddle. On lb? third horse sits a boy representing Hussein, clad in white and dripping human blood. Several priests with huge turbans now appear. Sometimes they wipe the tears from their eyes, while one, tuning to the followers, stops the chanting and the music and recites part of the story. Or, holding n copy of the Koran in one hand, he may appear to read a verse. It does not matter that there is not light enough for him to see the letters, for every educated Mohammedan knows the book of the prophet word for word. The cymbals clang again and the chant is renewed. In spite of the cold the chests of the devotees who follow are bare; a lid" at every bar on the chant they strike themselves a blow which drives the breath from their bodies audibly. Men carrying iron baskets f>f lire on poles illuminate the procession, for it is meant to be spectacular and alVecting. The first group of-self-torturers is composed apparently of very poor men, who cannot afford' robes, and perhaps do not possess sworrts; nevertheless their picturesque rags and their Eastern face worked to a frenzy are striking to the vision of the Occidental onlooker. The second group is clad in long, black shirts, with a round hole a fool or more in diainetiv, showing their backs below the shoulders. As they chant they swing a short wooden rod with a score or more "half-inch iroin chains a foot long fastened to the end. With regular lieats, keeping time to their chant, they bring down the chains lirst over one shoulder, then over the other. Their backs are- already black with bruises and lacerated. "Hussein! Hussein!" shouted in heavy, .-guic-k tones, signals the appearance of forty white-robed men brandishing long Aral) sabres u-jxi fioiible-bladed

This is the sight we have conic to see and we have the first place against the ropes, only a line of Turkish soldiers, bayonets fixed, between us and the fanatics. They pass so close that we can touch them: steam rises from tlicni to mingle with the heavy smoke of the torches; drops of blood are lleckeit about by the waving swords. A\> recoil; but the crowd is massed behind us. "Don't be frightened, madam, " comes an English voice from a tall man in a Turkish uniform and fez; "it is not their own blood, they have killed a ealf and poured tile blood over themselves. The one time Hritish subject tri"s by untrue words to encourage the ladies, ami he helps lliein iu,.i the olficc of an European rug buyer, from whose lowupper balcony they may view the scene and be rid of its realism. To the chiint "llnsseinil llusscim the Persians in white brandishing their knives from time to time draw them across their naked scalps, of which a round patch lias been shaved for the occasion. Sometimes 100 ardent men bring the weapons down with force upon their heads, cutting through to the skull; sometimes their swords have to be taken from them; sometimes they fall to the ground from loss of blood. Each parade moves around the square only twice, yet in this time the clothes of tlio participants are dripping with blood. Illood covers their faces, their heads and necks, Hows from their chins down their sleeveless shirts, and finally drops upon Hie snow covered ground. Friends who accompany the devotees tear their shirts and bind up their head . The beating of the cymbals and the chant grows fainter, Hie parade passes out of another arch, only to be succeeded in ten minutes or a quarter of an hour by another similar in affect but with a less or greater number of penitent head cutters. For every Persian khan sends its deputation. This performance enacted on Ihe day of Hassan and Husseim is carried out bv the faithful Shiil.es in expiation of their sins of the rear. llelonging to the Sunnite sett of Moslems the Turks are not observers of the da v.