Show if I m ass Natives of Indias India's Wild Hills Dills Continue Chopping Off Their Neighbors Heads and Even Flaying ff Them Alive to Appease the Evil Spirits and a tA tAW W J y v a t Ii j A y v r ve vea a JN V q t tx A rv x wf f V 2 k ds d's t ii a Ji Q j j 6 x i s r Y y A r rt y M yA C 1 t v J A f v x C WIN t UMAN sacrifice the tho ghastly re- re re HUMAN religious re- practice that we are accustomed to consider aa as hav hav- havIng having having ing completely died out long ago is still going on In the hills of India just north of romantic Burma where the pretty native girl of Kipling's Mandalay 1 lived amongst the pagodas and the sound j A of temple bells belle Very often otten travelers traveler are horrified upon approaching a village Tillage In the Naga Hills above Burma to see aee rows of skulls or dripping heads beads hanging from the trees They are told that these those are the remains of victims who have been surprised and deliberately murdered In Inthe inthe inthe the jungle because it was thought the tho thoI gods demanded new sacrifices I A recent government investigation I brings bring to light the fact that there are areat areat areat at least a few persons sacrificed in this way every year and that they are usual usual- usually usually ly Iy slaves brought from the neighboring territory of Assam for Just this ghastly pUrpose The Governor of the frontier of Burma reports that when the Naga trIbesmen are aro wealthy enough to buy more slaves the yearly sacrifice often rea reaches hes as many as twenty or thirty victims Many ManyI I of these are small boys and girls kid kid- kid from Assam The government he says laYS often steps in to save these un- un unfortunates unfortunates un unfortunates when it hears of the ap- ap approaching approaching ap approaching sacrifice but it has been no- no noticed noticed no noticed I Iare that In these cases the murders are merely postponed Sometimes the victim for the pro pro- proposed proposed proposed posed propitiating of the or evil spirit Is earmarked and allowed to togo togo togo go about the village until the they are ready for him Government officials hasten to buy the freedom of these marked per per- persons persons persons sons although they realize that the re- re re money is quite likely to be spent on a new set of slaves from Assam A pathetic story Is told by an English civil Inthe service officer who was staying inthe In Inthe the outto hills of the tho violent death meted out to a young oung slave boy in order to ward off tho the mysterious or haunt haunt- ing haunting evil spirit The boy belonged to another tribe and was sold to an influential and prosperous prosper prosper- prosperous prosperous ous savage in one of the tho villages of the Naga Hills Bills Unfortunately for the poor boy poorboy this man died shortly after the purchase To the tho villagers this meant nothing else than that the dread was angry and must bo be appeased as usual with the sacrifice ce of a human being The Tho fact that the boy was purchased just before the de death th of his owner was con con- considered considered considered a bad omen and In their simple minds t they decided that ey it was on ac- ac account account ac account count of the tho purchase that the evil spirit was enraged Immediately upon coming to this de- de decision de decision they flayed the boy alive cutting his flesh off bit by bit until he died died- died then dh divided the body giving a piece of d 4 flesh to each man In the village to put into his a large corn basket to ett V 11 avert ert evil On another occasion one of these hill vIllages was attacked by sm smallpox and anda anda a number of villagers died dl d Therefore it was decided that one of the strange spirits who are suppose to represent that particular scourge was angry and a village council coun coun- council cil was called tL It was decided that the tha f J only way to avert the f Qi evil spirit was to have four men go out and p bring In n a head as an oftering offering of- of j J fering to the I A JAnd And so tour four of those thos who had not been strick a aen en with the terrible die dis S t ease case crept through tho the x jungle to lie In wait walt by bythe b i the cultivation path of a g neighboring village i i The murder from the tile CA z Naga point of view was eminently w em eminently 1 n e n t Iy su successful a aThe The four crept upon a woman Vroman a small boy and anda a baby beloni belonging ng to theother theother the other other village and succeeded sue sue- seeded in securing for their an a angry n g r y deity the th baby's head bead and the tho sari earl ear t of the ot other er two which the they y carried off and burled in the vicinity of the the village to be protested protected pro- pro tested The Tha natives firmly believed believed be- be that the angry deity was appeased for shortly Hlf-shortly L shortly after the murder A of the baby the smallpox ceased r p ceased to spread in the Wv village Q Tho The people of the Naga aF Q HIlls are head hunters head head hunters looking upon the decapitating decapitating decapitating tating of a 11 human being as a praise praise- praiseworthy worthy exploit at any time and the tho moro more praiseworthy worthy If it the victim is taken by surprise In one of ot the villages among the any human buman flesh brought into the village on return from froman an expedItion of this gentle kind is examined by a sort of board of old men who decIde whether it is really what It is stated to tobe tobe tobe be by the hunter If It it is there is a cere cere- ceremony cere- cere ceremony ceremony mony celebrating the hunters hunter's success Nor does tho the Naga tribesman make any very great distinction between human heads and the heads of game Man is only the biggest and tho most dangerous game gamo Under certain circumstances heads taken from women and children are moro more highly valued by the headhunter than those taken from men provided in the cael of tho the children that the teeth are cut In 1911 1011 Porter ot of the Infantry then quartered at Kohlma went on a shooting trip into the tho Lhota country Accompanied by some somo men of ho he was obliged to stop for shelter at night in ono one of ot the tho villages but was received with reluctance be- be because because be because cause It was found that there was en- en enmity enmity en enmity mity between his savage attendant and hi hie host The reason for the feud between these two savages Ravages rom from rom different villages was Typical natives of the hill re- re region re region i gion gion north of Burma where 1 tv head hunting and human sacrifices sacrifice r fice persist in spite of h i Y St everything the British Et r v government can do d o 1 d G x xI I Nn by J r a j jj j l t iJ MM hL tl 1 a f 0 4 A LK y t that in the days of their youth they had quarreled over a very pretty girl in the village Hinge where Captain Porters Porter's attend attend- attendant attendant ant lived The story was that the girls girl's mother had said that she sho should marry which which- whichever whichever ever of her suitors would bring her the ears of some girl belonging to a neigh neighboring boring tribe It turned out that Captain Porters Porter's attendant was the successful ear taker and suitor the wife of the host had no ears and hence must have been the tho vic vic- victim vic victim tim 1 The heads of women and children are taken more often under less romantic circumstances however The favorite method is to hide hido at dawn by a neigh neigh- neighbor's neighbor's bors bor's well and to take the head of the first woman or child coming to draw draw w ater The idea of the necessity of human sacrifices to the unseen spirits is preva preva- prevalent prevalent lent all over India although in the Hindu religions of the tho more civilized parts of the country it is more usually in the form of self punishment and self self- torture self torture A favorite mode of mortifying the flesh among among- the strange fakirs and at the bazaars along the sacred River Ganges is to sit alt under the blazing Indian sun all day with five small Email fires lighted close to the body Other Eastern mystics who devote Win Favor From I the Good Ones An Indian religious fa torturing himself by hanging suspended by the ankles for hours d at a time is the burning s z hea of the tropical sun On the e a This will he believes remarkable help win the forgive photo photograph aph kG ness of heaven for his of ofa a pIOUS sins A native pious I inI kneeling in f I I'd Prayer at a wayside wayn d e yrA us shrine be be- be bew w a a fore the te ex- ex ex t t ary n s a graven images of 4 three of the they y deities he worships s Note the theL L Rowers flowers with h which he adorned the w wt images before i F t bege inning g Gf bis devotions yr r w wW Y W e t n r r rt 1 v ft yA y X err 4 r 1 1 yr Raws d ri a i i ii i E 51 t ia Is- Is IsE t a yr r Po A 4 a w W n r X A 1 d da a f y Y 1 M 5 0 L Entrance to the Shive Shiva Dagon Pagoda in Rangoon one of Indias India's most moat magnificent places of worship their lives to renouncing the world and thinking pious thoughts sit and sleep on beds of spikes Sometimes these spikes are aro placed inside a pair of ot wooden shoes In which they stand A prominent feature in these ascetic practices Is hanging head suspended from irom tho the bough of a tree or n a suitable framework for perhaps hours at a time Even severer forms of voluntary tor tor- tor torture turo ture are aro also known wn as when a n man tle his arm to a support such Buch as a light bamboo BO so as to keep kelp it erect overhead At last the disused limb reduced to a shrunken and rigid condition refuses to tope tobe tobe pe be lowered again to its natural posItion When both arms are so dealt with the subject becomes a helpless cripple on- on en entirely dependent for everything upon the kindness of others n All these tortures including burial alive for five or six seeks are aro self-inflicted self i They cannot be be compared wit w i t h hr r the deeds of the northern hill hIli die die- dis districts the superstitious kill et N their fellow men Human sacrifice aa K vl has always been e more or less eon con connected con connected t 1 nested with tho religious ceremonies ceremonies Y 4 L nies of primitive peoples and numerous nu- nu numerous Instances of it are arc mentioned Inin in in M r w the Bible Dible Abraham it I iv will I l l b a 0 remembered came tame near slaying his son Jacob on tho the mountain and ae 0 know that in Ur of the in Abrahams Abraham's time the tho tem tem- temple temple tem temple of the strange Moon God was the scone of countless terrible sacrifices The blood of human victims is believed to have run so freely on the altars that gutters and drains had to be construct construct- constructed constructed constructed ed to carry it away The Tho problem of putting an end to these cruel human sacrifices is being wrestled with Ith to-day to by the ruling authorities In inthe the tho Fiji Islands the African jungles and other parts of ot the tha world as well as in inthe the tho hill regions of India s In Africa the purpose of human sac sac- sacrIfice sacrifice sac sacrifice is tho the same as it is in India to India strengthen alliance with the supernatural supernatural ural A typical sacrifice in the tho Congo region is described by a mis mis- missionary missionary The savages allowed themselves the luxury uy of at two or three human sacrifices II a week eek This ceremony cel emony was as the occasion of public rejoicing The condemned p person parson firmly se- se secured secured se secured cured cured is permitted to witness the height of Joy which his death is to bring At length they untie him make him sit on ona ona ona a log slightly raised from the ground hIS arms hanging beside his body his hands fastened to the ground by means of forked sticks whose extremities are se- se securely securely se securely fastened in the soil Suddenly the crowd is silent the vil- vil village vii vil village lage sorcerer has appeared In his wool woolly ly Iy y hair more than two hundred feathers of different colors aro are arranged artis artis- artistIcAlly artis- artis artistically artistically to form an enormous headdress two white circular marks surround the eyes which thereby acquire extraordinary extraordinary extraordinary nary brightness The sorcerer ad advances ances Vr with aith ith short steps swinging his feathery mane hold hold- holdIng holding hold holding ing in his nervous hand the terrible exe- exe execution exe execution cution that must sever the head wIth a single blow and ho he stops and greets the tho wretch whom he has hIlS to exe exe- execute execute execute cute Then as though seized with madness he goes through contortions that no pen could describe he tosses himself about like like one possessed leaps doubles up ad- ad advances ad advances vances ances so gently so much h like a reptIle that you cannot perceive any movement of his feet The crowds applauds But silence is restored tho moment the fatal knife is raised Tho sorcerer then begins a n rhythmic chant it is the chant of ot death Thus singing and gesticulating gesticulating ho he approaches his victim who is a helpless witness of these preparations preparations preparations With white chalk he marks a aline aline aline line around the victims victim's neck neck-it neck it is there he will strike when the time arrives Twice 1 Ico brandishing the knife he touches the condemned mans man's neck wIth It it The chant is ended wItha with a leap the sorcerer approaches the victim and again steps back twice more his arm strIkes the tho air by way of trial Then the knife is lowered lo anda and a sin sin- single single sin single gle stroke cuts off the tha head had v which the c bent pole Sends rolling far 1 away ay With a shout the crowd leaps on the bod body All is over soon the savages will III joyfully return to their t homes to discuss discuss dis- dis discuss cuss with interest all the horrid details detail of tho the sight BIght they have witnessed |