HUMAN SACRIFICES IN RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2105, 28 June 1894, Page 42

HUMAN SACRIFICES IN RUSSIA.

Very few persons are aware that human sacrifices are still offered up in a part of the Russian Empire. The fact is, nevertheless, certain. Among the Tchuktchis such sacrifices still take place, and seem likely to be practised for a long time to come. At the same time, no blame can be attached to the Russian Government or to the Orthodox Church, because all efforts to stop the practice have proved ineffectual. The sacrifices alluded to are those of old, people and the Bick, who, finding no locger any pleasure in life, resolve to have done with earthly existence and to increase the number of happy spirits. The Tchuktchi who has made up his mind to die immediately notifies his neighbours and near relatives. His friends visit him and try to make him change his mind. Prayers, reproaches, complaints have no effect on the fanatic. Seeing him thus -resolved, his friends go away to make the customary preparations. At the end of from 10 to 15 dayp, they return to the hut of the Tchuktchi, with white mortuary garments and some weapons with which, in the other world, he will fight evil spirits or hunt the reindeer. After making his toilet, the Tchuktchi withdraws into a corner of his hut. His nearest relative stands by his side, holding in his hand the instrument of sacrifice — a knife, a pike, or a rope. If the Tchuktchi has chosen the knife, two of his friend 3 hold him under the arms and by the wrists, and, at a given signal, the Bacrificer thrusts the knife into his breast. If the pike has been chosen, two of bis friends hold this weapon, and two others throw the victim on its point. For strangulation, two of the sacrificers draw tbe rops tight unti) death ensues, then the breast is opened to let the blood flow out. The assistants go to the corpse, and bathe their bands and faces in tbe blood. The body is then placed on a Bledge drawn by a reindeer, and taken tj the place of the funeral. Arrived at their destination, the Tcbuktchis cut the throat o£ the reindeer, take from the dead body its clothing, which they tear to pieces, and then place the corpse on a funeral pile. During the process of cremation, the assistants offer up prayers to the happy souls in the other world, asking them to watch over those who are yet in tbe land of the living. These practices, horrible as they are, are followed in exactly tbe same manner to-day as in ancient times. — Gazette de Yakutsk (Siberia).