Agitation to Order.

Otago Witness, Issue 2240, 4 February 1897, Page 53

Agitation to Order.

An Angle-Indian tells a story which shows a carious mingling of shrewdness and devotion in the religious ceremonies of the natives. On one occasion he was present when two sheep were to be offered in sacrifice, and eaten afterwards by the people. It was explained to him, as a foreigner, that it was necessary the victim, when brought before the altar, should exhibit some sign of agitation. This appeared to ate (he says) a hopeless rase, as the animals ia question held down their heads in true sheepish fashion. My simplicity, however, received a lesson from these unsophisticated mountaineers. Evidently their : superstition did not interfere with that natural I degree of ingenuity which a keen appetite induces. As the victim did not manifest the slightest [ confusion wben confronted with the little mis- | shapen idol, whose countenance might have excused terror in a bolder animal, the officiating pontiff obtained by artificial means what be I might have, despaired of. getting through any mere natural agency. , He approached the animal with all the i solemnity proper to such an occasion, took a [ mouthful of water, and spurted it with the force of a fire engine into the sheep's ear I .- The victim could not do less than shake his head, and the congregation was triumphant. At one blow of the priest's knife the head fell to the ground, the blood sprinkled tha alter,' and almost before the flesh had ceased to palpitate it was roasting before the fire;