OCR Text |
Show Crucifixion is America. Out in the country we have the Mexican penitent es, whose nominal Christianity has only served to determine the time and manner of their penances. Last week, returning from Sagouche, I tried a Bbort out, and, riding over a little hill, suddenly came upon a band of four. Naked, eicapt for a pair of drawers, they were walking barefooted through the snow, chant- j ing some melancholy atraiq, and lashing their bare bodies with strips of soapw&od leaves. It is no poetical exaggeration, but the literal fact, that the blood was flowing rapidly down them. Their bodies looked like raw steaks, and the heavy sound of the lashes told of the reality of the flagellation. flag-ellation. Some little distance from them stood a large wooden cross, which, I was told, bad been carried in procession by one last year. Its weight must have nearly broken bis back. Upon it they crucified one of their number last sprine, binding him fast by ropes and leaving bim so long that he died. Colorado paper. |