THE SCARLET DEATH.

Mataura Ensign, 18 July 1906, Page 3

THE SCARLET DEATH.

UKii;i) i:jti:s of a miudkkoi3 | sixr. j Tli.. following remarkable descrip-i lion of th«* rites of tin- "Society <>f | th« Scarlet Death' quoted from tin- j 'Lral* by Lagan's St. IVtcrshm-y cor f respondent, who states tlmt tin- vol-j nries oi tin* Strang*- society an.' loeat-j cd near the Savodsk Laic, ami thai i th«* exposure luis Iwcn in ronsivpirnce I of the disappearance »>f t,n *- *h* citizens "Tli»» Scarlet Death is surrounded with much 'circumstance, In the house designed for (he saci-ilice there is a room in which there is neither window nor lb«-place. It is a srrav«* without a tenant. The room is lined wifcij ?i;atvrial, but one of the walls is covered with u black cloth. 5 TIIO Moor is rriVt-nil with scarlet. 'I wo I cushions arc placed in the middle of I the room. j '"The %irtiii) is then htl in, and hi>| or her head is placed on one of the j cushions. Then all the attendants j leave. After a few minutes*a youn«r| woman, clad also in scarlet, conies in I froiti behind the black cloth.- She) slowly approaches, takes the second j cushion and'places it over the face of; > the irecnmbcnt figure. Then she sits! upon the (Mifihion and 'Joe* md rise till the romh-jnnii.l one has? ceased to show siirns of life. "What leads np to the sacrifice is l variously explained by the local in- ' habitants. Some say that it is to > expedite the process of the sacrifiei*l to Paradise a others hold that it is a punishment for the commission of some mortal sin."