HORRIIBLE ORGIES OF RELIGIOUS FANATICS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 932, 30 March 1882, Page 1

HORRIIBLE ORGIES OF RELIGIOUS FANATICS.

The following extract from a letter of a correspondent of the London Times writing from Kairwan, which rises on the ruins of the Roman Vicus Augusti, in North Africa, and once the acknowledged metropolis of Islam in the west, shows tc what a horrible degradation a false religion under Satanic influences may reduce its votaries. The misguided victims of the delusion appear firmly convinced that by self-inflicted tortures they are qualifying themselves for a high place in the Mahomedan heaven. The most extraordinary association of the Aissawi, is one of the most remarkable features of modern Islamisra. The adepts believe in the saving virtue of religious frenzy and bodily torture, while the sheikhs are supposed to exercise mesmeric influences over their followers. Kairwan, North Africa, is one of the principal seats of the order. The Sheikh Syad Hamuda, a pale-faced mild mannered Arab, said to have 50 disciples fully initiated and about 600 others belonging to the second or inferior class, expressed his willingness to allow any Europeans to witness the celebration of Aissawi rites. Before a crowded audience of some hundreds of spectators, a number of the most skilful went through, on a large scale, the various elf-inflicted tortures familiar to travellers in Algeria. A circle of musicians grouped in the centre of the building around the sheikh began playing in slow and monotonous tunes small earthenware drums and tambourines, gradually increasing its cadence until most uf the devotee* commenced to bow their Leads and shout a sort of chorus. A long line of men and boys was soon formed across the hall, who swayed their bodies to and fro, keeping time to music. Suddenly, one after another, they began tothrow off their clothes and imitate the cn'es and movements of wild beasts. Then a Tunisian soldier siezed a swoul and began slashing himsalf across the stomach, the blood flowing freely. A second placed a large iron prong against his side, while one of the sheikh's assistants forced its point into his flesh with the point of a mallet. Another pushed au iron skewer through his cheek ; while a fourth perforated the flesh of both shoulders with daggers. A large glass bottle was broken into pieces and devoured ; scores of iron nails were greedily swallowed, while three branches of a thorny prickly pear were eaten up in as many minutes by a score of pretended camels. As the frenzy of the Aissawi increased, it sometimes required four to hold a more than ordinarily excited disciples, who oily regained consciousness after the sheikh had placed his hands on his forehead and said a certain formula in his car. At the of an hour a living sheep was thrown into the middle of the room It was skinned, torn to pieces, and its still quivering flesh devoured in less than ten minutes. Some of the French spectators had seen the Aissawi fn Algeria, but none of ther.i were prepared for the additional horrors of tho spec- :* !• at K.irwan, nor will any of thcm f , I ihinkj wish to witness them again.