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Show Curled Alive. In Russia people are oftener than else-I else-I whero condemned unintentionally , of ; coura. to that most grewsome of all dent is, of which Poe had such un-foi";ned, un-foi";ned, horror burial alive. But the circumstances accompanying this frightful fright-ful torture are seldom so characteristic or so horrible as in the case of the wife of a peasant in the government of Vol-hynia, Vol-hynia, on the borders of Austria, who, according to the local papers of Volliynia, was lately buried in a comatose state. She was expecting soon to become a mother at the timo of her supposed death. After the "corpse" had been kept the usual time, the parish priest, Konstantinolf, recited the prayers of the burial service in the churchyard, the : widower cast tliree handfula of earth on the collin, and all departed except the gravediggcrs. In filling up the grave . the latter shoveled in an unusually large sod of hard earth, which struck the cofiin ; with a loud noise and woke up the un-i un-i fortunate woman from her 6lecp. The horror of her position at once . dawned upon her. She cried out in most piteous tones to the gravediggers to rescue her from a hor-; hor-; rinlo death. Slio solemnly promised i them all her property if they would take her from tho grave and coffin. The more she cried and entreated the more strenuous were their endeavors to fill in the grave; and on leaving tho church yard, when their work was done, they still heard her cries and moans. They at once hurried off to her husband, who was surrounded with guests, drinking to the memory of the deceased. Having related what had taken place, the matter mat-ter was discussed by the guests and the neighbors, who soon came rusliing in, anu it was finally resolved nem. con. that an evil spirit had taken possession of the deceased, and that in order to pre-'. pre-'. vent her walking at night and disturbing tho people, it was absolutely necessary I to disinter her and drive an aspen stake through her body. The mirsent a depn-j depn-j tation to the priest asking permission to j disinter the body and perform the super-I super-I Btitious rite, deemed necessary in all such j cases. The pope, horrified, hurried off to tho churchyard and had tho body disinterred dis-interred in the hope of saving a life, but superstition had already got its victim, the woman was dead, but unmistakable signs showed she had struggled hard to escape from the most horrible death the human mind can conceive. Boston Herald. |