WHAT MEN WILL DO FOR FAITH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2369, 27 July 1899, Page 55

WHAT MEN WILL DO FOR FAITH.

WILLING MARTYRS TO MANY CREEDS.

Loss of all that man holds most dear, hunger, thirst, torture unspeakable, death even ! — what is there that a man will not do for his religious beliefs? It is one of the most remarkable things in the world to notice what the members of different faiths consider the highest virtues, and cue wey in. which each thinks their separate rites and practices the best and most pleasing. For we English people must not be selfish and deny that virtues are possible to those who do not believe as we do. For instance, whilst of the income of Christian peoples only 5 per cent, goes in charity, rlie Hebrew race give away just double as much in proportion. The Mahommedans, too, really practise what they preach in the way of abstinence during the month of Hamadlian, their Lent. They go absolutely without food until nightfall every day of the while month. For another thing, the true Maliommedan is really a total abstainer.

Few religions impose on their followers a more tremendous task than the pilgrimage to Mccca — the Hadj, as it is called. From Morocco on one side, and from Ind'a on the other, faithful followers of Mahomet brave the very real dangers of thousands of miles of desert and sea to visit the Prophet's tomb and gain the coveted privilege of the green turban. The risk of cholera alone is terrific. It rages always at Mecca, and is spread by the reeking water of the Prophet's well, swarming with disease germs. Englishmen who have visited the East have probably seen something of the whirling bands of dancing dervishes : but it is

' not generally known that these dervv Jies a'f certain times assemble in thousands in Con« stantinople .and there, after dancing until they fall into a sort of Hysterical • "irenzyy gash themselves frightfully with keen- uladed. knives. Death often ensues from sheer lostf of blood, but it never checks the practice. A European doctoi who was present, dis< guised, at one of these performances de< clared that the men's bodies were literally covered with old scars and h<Uf : healed and open wounds, and that he could not imagine how any human being could survive such an. ordeal. •• ' The Buddhist religion has 500,000;000 followers, chiefly in Further India, Ceylon, and China. Pilgrimages are as essential to Hindoos as to Mahommedans — and not only to men, but to women also. One pilgrimage is to the top of Adam's Peak in Ceylon. There, 7420 ft above the sea, is the print- of Buddha's foot, and thither the pilgrims climb up an ascent so steep that th« only way of reaching the summit is by iror chains fastened to the rock. In some cases, notably amongst Hindoo sects, a man who is devoted to religion must think of nothing else, not even of cleanli- • nees'. That idea. arose in India, and sprsad all over Europe, until at one time to' ba - dirty and holy were the same thing. Europs . knows better now ; but in India the fakirs 01 devotees delight in being as unclean as possible. But they do more, for a fakii will vow never to sit down as long as h" lives.

He straps himself to a post, and so re« mains in torment foi the rest of his life. He keeps one hand clasped for years until the finger-nail grow right through th; palm, extending, perhaps, four" or five inches on the other side. He vows to keep one arm extended, and aftei months or years of agony the muscles and bones stiffen into a rigid bar beyond' all control. He stands on one leg, and in time the other leg becomes too feeble to support the slightest weight; He walls himself up in- a hole, which he never leaves. Very different- is the Moslem who shaves his head and goes bald for the sake of more perfect cleanliness, leaving only a lock of hair by which he thinks the Prophet, his master, will lift him to heaven. The Chinese were compelled by their Tartar conquerors to shava the head and wear a pigtail. Now a Chinaman who loses his tail thinks that he loses his soul, and is condemned to everlasting punishment.

Some of the Red Indians of the Forest used to share the same belief ; but there was a' much finer faith among, the great fighting- tribes- of the Plains and- the Rocky Mountains. There, a young man who wanted to rise to the -rank; of warrior "went Tout alone" .into > the wilderness, where he starved -himself until he saw visions. The Big -Spirit -caiae : to him, and told him his wampum or medicine. This -might be a stick or- •a •' stone, and so long-as he carried it he should ' have the protection of his god» W-hen h<a ' got his -wampum he went back to the tribe, where he submitted to long hours of torture, hanging to a rope fastened into great slits in his chest, until the quivering flesh lore away. If he made so much as a moan or cry he was dressed as a squaw, and must be a slave for ever ; but if he bora the ordeal he became a warrior. That religion bred up a splendid race of men, generous, hardy, and brave. In India " hook-swinging " was a -well-known but awful ceremony. The sufferer was slung in the air by steel hooks through the flesh of his back. It has now been done away with by our Government.

Women in Hindustan think nothing of • death for their religion.' The practice of suttee, or widow-burning, is still practised* though strongly put down by our Government. A Japanese,' whose religion is his honour, commits suicide by the- elaborate and awful ceremonial of harakiri, and his relations look on and approve. The Chinaman, if deeply insulted and ' injured, kills himself upon his neighbour's' doorstep. The Jams, a Hindoo sect, "will suffer death themselves .rather than allow' & dumb animal to be killed in their presence.

The Aztec tribes of Mexico made tremendous sacrifices for their religion, sacrificed theii slaves, their- sons, their fsmaK : relations — everybody, in fact, except' them solves. Our ancestors, the f ancient Britons '

During his absence his wife, to whom he bad not communicated a line or sent a shilling, had changed her name, but not remarried ; and the daughter had grown into a neciuedly charming young woman of rather more than 19, and a valuable assistant in earning the daily breao. for her mother and herself in a highly respectable manner. Father and daughter chanced to meet at a public entertainment without in the least suspecting each other, but not without the man being struck by the girl's prepossessing appearance and charming manners. . He got into conversation w r . her, and so ingratiated himself into her good opinion, that a serious courtship commenced that very evening. For some weeks after that they met at various places, until at last the father proposed, was accepted, and. asked to call next day at her home to "see her mother about the proposal. He went, and a very short time was necessary for the disclosure to all concerned of the fact that he had actually fallen in love with and proposed to the up-to-date representative of the infant daughter he had callously deserted nearly 20 years pre.Viously!

An equally remarkable and dramatic case ■wa'3~"that of a military gentleman, the second .son of an aristocratic English landowner. When onry seventeen this gentleman went to stay with some friends in ''America, and during his visit he fell in love •with and secretly married a young lady.beJonging to a boarding school near his -friend's residence. Shortly after the marriage, he was 'suddenly recalled to England. ," He left his wife at school, with ardent promises to return directly he had •made matters straight with his relatives, ■and to do his best to intercede for her jvith her father, who was a wealthy Chicago merchant.

At home, however, all his good wishes iand intentions were frustrated ; he was taught to look upon the marriage as merely a boy's mad freak involving no responsibilities, and he was sent into the army, ■where he gradually became accustomed to considering his romance in the way his ■relatives desired he should do. Even the news cabled to him some months after his return to England that he was the father of an infant daughter failed to move him or his relatives. In consequence of this, his wife subsequently obtained a divorce from 4u'm in America, and later on married a Boston solicitor.

Eighteen years later, then an officer in a crack cavalry regiment and 35 years of age, he met at a London ball a young and beautiful American lady, whom, rumour said, would one day inherit a considerable fortune. The soldier fell in love with the girl, despite the disparity of age, and never missed a chance of meeting her ; and it appears that his affection was not unreciprocated. Before, however, the wooing had reached to the proposing stage, the girl was joined in England by her mother and stepfather, the former of whom promptly recognised in the person of her daughter's lover her erstwhile husband and her daughter's father. The daughter had adopted her stepfather's name, and thus the soldier Jell into a tragedy of his own making. Only one case have we been able to discover in which the parent actually married the child, and that was the very extraordinary story of a mother and her son.

The lady was the daughter of an eminent •Serman scholar, now deceased, and at the age of 16 she fell in love with an English lad who was completing his education in Germany. The two lovers, mere children, both of them, ran away, and were married, shortly after which they parted and returned to their respective homes, the arrangement being made that the husband ■was to have the child of the marriage, a boy, as soon as he was old enough to leave his mother. In pursuance of this agreement the boy was sent to England in the care of a nurse and handed over to his father, who put him out to nurse and subsequently deserted him.

When seven years old the boy, who had up to that time been maintained by the generous people with whom he had been put to nurse, was adopted by a gentleman of means, " who had him well educated at a public school, gave him his own name, and settled his fortune upon him.

.i-iater on in years, when the lad was a man of seven-and-twenty, and his patron dead, Avhile travelling in Italy he met a German lady who excited his admiration "by her mature beauty, despite tLe fact that she was 43, and who, to all appearances, reciprocated his tender sentiment.

After coming into contact in various parts "of the Continent, where they were both travelling for pleasure, they decided to get married, a resolution which was actually carried out and ended in a hideous climax.

The young man signed the register in his adopted name and his original name also, his idea being that it would facilitate matters if any property should be left him in after years. Never before had he mentioned his name to the lady, preferring to keep secret the dark page in his history. But now she saw the signature, and properly demanded explanations. These only tended to comfirm the idea the name had put into her mind, and as a resiilt they separated there and then to discover, if possible, whether he was really her son. They did find absolute proof, he in England and fehe in Germany, the two sets ot proofs joining and forming a complete story. Needless to say, the discovery was a great shock to both, and the lady became seriously ill in consequence. But if she lost a husband, she had the consolation of discovering a son, to-which position the man's age alone made him much more^fit than he was for the former position.