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Show RUSSIAN PRIEST BURIED ALIVE. A Russian village priest has been buried alive by a mob of peasants in Svino Krivia. in the Crimea. The people peo-ple had ascribed t lie prolonged drouth which has ruined their crops this season sea-son to' the death of a certain old man who had been regarded as an "opyr" or i wizard, no rain having fallen since his i burial in March last. According to the popular superstition it was necessary in order to appease the sorcerer's spirit, that his remains should be exhumed at midinght, and after being sprinkled with holy water by a priest, replaced in the grave. Accordingly a procession of villagers, headed by boys and girls, carrying ; torches and accompanied by tiddlers j and flutists playing diwnal dirges, set . out for the cemetery. The body of the i dead wizard was duly exhumed and i placed in a sitting posture against a tree, around which forty or fifty peasants peas-ants danced a weird dance to the accompaniment ac-companiment of the village musicians. In the midst of the curious ceremonial Father Constantine ' arr ived. The villagers, vil-lagers, thinking he had come to con- i summate the ceremonies by pouring holy water on the corpse, hailed him j with joyous greetings. To their sur- prise and disappointment, however, the j priest not only declined to assist in the j affair, but upbraided them for their superstition and their sacriligeous barbarity. bar-barity. The crowd grew indignant. Some shouted that he was the real wizard, as the spirit of the dead man had entered ! into his body. The priest was accordingly accord-ingly seized, and despite his shrieks for mercy, was hurled by four of the men into the reopened grave, the remains of the corpse being (lung in after him with earth and stones. |