BURIED ALIVE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18901, 17 January 1927, Page 11

BURIED ALIVE.

TRAGEDY OF RUSSIAN FANATICISM.

(Bt ASSOCIATION—cOrtBiOBt.) (AUSTBALIAH AND If.Z. CASUS ASSOCIATION.) MOSCOW, January 14.

The recent census retailed an astonishing tragedy of fanaticism enacted at the time of the last census in 1887, when a small sect, known as the "Uzbekistan," regarded the censustakers as heralds against Christ, and chose to have themselves buried alive in preference to answering questions. As it was essential that there should be one survivor to carry out the interment, lota were cast, and a protesting youth, with his wife and two children, was selected to enclose the rest in a living tomb. Chanting -Weird songs, intoning prayers, and carrying lights, 24 men, women, and children descended into a cellar, and the twenty-fifth eemented them in the tomb, kneeling in prayer until the singing of the entombed, including his own wife and children, ceased. Later, the fanatic was sentenced to life-confinement in a monastery, but before the recent Census he was released, and went to members of his sect and- persuaded them to accept the census, thus averting a second tragedy.