A RACE OF SELF-TORTURERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1396, 5 June 1883, Page 2

A RACE OF SELF-TORTURERS.

Thm are the Territory of New : ■■;:;.. Mexico about ,2000 persons belonging:: to the'';"Hermarios' ■ fanatical religious sect, who believe in ,'; the periodical atonement for sin-by ;> inflicting ori their bodies agonising, tortures. They were: originally con-,' ■> nected with thei , Romans .Catholic .; Church, but Archbishop LaneyjShocked: by their barbarous cruelties, promulgated a decree banishing them from that communion.''. Its membership has greatly decreased since, andthosenow 'belonging to the Order preside pi'inei-. pally in but four counties of the territory. Great care is taken to prevent the discovery of their identity, all being masked. While conducting their an- ; nual ponance the devotees often travel hundreds of -miles ;to; the .; prescribed tortures, Los- Griegos, a. small Mexican village near Albuquerque, boasts \q& the; great;]body of the penitents. On March; 25th their ceremonies were inaugurated byi;an introductory procession, about thirty men and women. - : .-V: The process of purification by torture began at ten' o'clock. : Five men.' naked to the waist, barefooted, and wearing black robes and hoods that completely concealed their identity, were seen to'.issue above'the lodgehouse ofthe sect; led by. a master of ceremonies, who carried a genuine, cat-o'-ninetails. Two huge wooden crosses, weighing 2501b. each, were placed on the shoulders of two of the self-torturers, The sharp, edges out . into the naked flesh, causing the blood to spurt out and drop to the ground. One penitent produced ai sharp goad, which he thrust into the flesh', of bis fellow-sufferers from timo to time, while the procession moved up the street singing a wild chant in..Spanish. Halting once, the crosses were transferred to the shoulders of others, tho attendants meanwhile applying, their raw-liido whips mercilessly; each blow lak iiig off skin and bits of flesh. The procession again started, and took its way to the goal, half During: the march not i; ~ was heard, nor was a word spoken; but just before reaching the goal, a small adobe hut, an ordeal was encountered which tried the nerves of tho boldest, FpV spme distance before t])e dopp ejetp plants hajj been thickly strewn, upon the ground, and as t|)p_ haver footed approached it one hesitated, Instantly half-a-dozen whips , descended upou his bare shoulders, and with a bound he sprang into the thorny plants, his every step and the footsteps of his followers being; marked with blood, L$ the torture grew more, terrible the chant grew louder and the throngs fell with more vigour. Reaching the door of the house the procession was lost sight of, a sentinel guarding ! the entrance, and only broken whips ( and poles and blood bear witness to , what transpired within. Issuing from i the house the procession reformed and I retnrnpd tp their house gf prs)]ip, anff 1 so tjvo jiorrifying 'exercises continued, ' one band of; penitents succeeding another until nig|t, when a grand pro: > cession and cjipnt wound up tjm exercises for the day, During these [ marches to and from tjie housp pf rpfuge ■ the scene ftt. times was too siqkeping • for description, Powerful men sub= 1 niitted their bodies to the most merci' ! less flagellation, until, in some instances , tho bare muscle was seen quivering at f every blow. I The whole proceeding was a savages attempt to honor tho Easter season. ! Hitherto the law has made no attempt ' to check these wild' exercises, although I once a penitent who threw another . bearing a cross into..the : river near j San Juan, and' drowned him, was i lynched, by the infqrjatgd gpeptfttpra,