SUICIDES BY FIRE
MANY CUBAN GIRLS OLD TRADITION FOLLOWED i • , NEW YORK, Aug. 24 Despatches from Havana state that in na amazing epidemic of suicides, which has swept the island of Cuba during the .last three weeks, 65 girls between the ages of 16 and 23 have set- fire to themselves. This method of taking their lives seems to bo a Cuban tradition which experts cannot explain. * The girls soaked their clothes with alcohol and set fire 1 to themselves, becoming human torches. Some officials declare that it is a revival of an old religious .custom wben women, before being canonised as virgins, voluntarily mutilated, chastised, or burned themselves as pioof of their repentance of earthly sins.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21277, 2 September 1932, Page 11
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117SUICIDES BY FIRE New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21277, 2 September 1932, Page 11
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