CHILD SACRIFICE IN RUSSIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9548, 21 July 1909, Page 7

CHILD SACRIFICE IN RUSSIA.

HORRIBLE STORY OF FANA- ....... ticism. The Mohilcff Circuit Cjiirt, sitting at Gorki, Russia, has acquitted all the twenty-six peasants at Sysoevo village charged with the murder of a two-year old child who had been denounced as "Ami-Chri9t." The instigator of the crime, who is a religious fanatic, and the father of the child, releaser! on the ground that they had acted in au excess of mental exaltation. The self-styled prophet seema to have hypnotised the degenerate peasants into a state of tirut; 1 frenzy. After he had named uie "Acn-Christ" who had appeared i:i their midst, and had ascribed all Uie woes of hussia, and more particularly the bad harvests of Sysoevo, to his arrival, the peasants marched in procession to the hut of the child's parents. Midnight was the hour chosen for the sacrifice. The peasants carried lighted candles and ikons, and sang prayers They found the child asleep in its cradle. The "prophet" seized it in his hands dashed it to the ground, then jumping on it and trampling it to death. He then ordered the peasants to lift the body and pull it aswnder. They obeyed his injunctions, and afterj wards hatchets were fetched, and i the body was chopped in pieces. ! The remains were then wrapped in [ a cloth, which was tied to the tail of I a white horse and dragged to a j neighbouring bog, into which it was thrown. The "prophet" had assured . the peasants that the chi'd would ' immediately rise from the dead, and when the promise was not fulfilled they began to realise the enormity of their crime and fear for conseqences. They were arrested the follow ing day. During the trial they all admitted their guilt, although eleven of them declared that they had taken ;no actual part in the) butchery. Ths ■ village priest testified to the remarkj abie influence exercised over the peasants by the "prophet/' who was thoroughly versed in Holy Writ, and with diabolical speciousness distorted sacred writings to support his fanatical theories. When the ver- . diet of acquittal was announced all the persons fell on their knees, thanking God and blessing the judges.