The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 125

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

125

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says: “There was nothing wrong with the Church”;
and now she smilingly puts it thus: “You see, I just
went to the fountain of life with a basket, and when
I dipped down, it always came up empty. I changed
vessels. I now go to the fount with a pail, and
when I dip down, it always comes up running over.”
She admits that she was so prejudiced against the
Church she could not see anything good in it.

She is now the happy mother in a family of ten,
all of whom are Lutherans, and her children are
preparing themselves to serve the Church of which
their mother at first thought so little.

F. D. Atston.

Human Sacrifices in Heathen Lands.

The following paragraphs are taken from Chris-
tian Missions and Social Progress, by Dr. James S.
Dennis : —

The grim tyranny of superstition has exacted
the sacrifice of human life among many savage
tribes. Different motives have inspired the crime,
and it has been justified by its perpetrators either
as a tribute to the dignity and station of some
person who has died or as a necessary propitiation
offered to some object of worship, under the inspi-
ration of fear, or with a desire to placate. It is
also frequently resorted to as a supposed means of
securing successful harvests, or victories in warfare,
or hoped-for success in connection with any new
undertaking. It is often considered an essential
part of the observance of festival occasions or an
indispensable feature of the ceremonial etiquette of
savagery. The ghastly realism of the scene appeals
in a vivid way to the native imagination. In many
sections of the earth the practise has been greatly
checked within a century.... There are localities
in India where the traditions of human sacrifices,
in some instances as a daily event, still linger, espe-
cially among the Rajputs, the Khonds, and in the
Northern Punjab. In many of the Indian temples
the very odor of human sacrifices seems to be still
present. The whole subject has been carefully
investigated -by Dr. Rajendralala Mitra, a distin-
guished modern scholar of India.... In reply to
the contention that human sacrifices are not author-
ized in the Vedas, but were introduced in later
times, Dr. Mitra remarks: “As a Hindu writing on
the actions of my forefathers, remote as they are,
it would have been a source of great satisfaction
to me if I could adopt this conclusion as true;
but I regret that I cannot do so consistently with

my allegiance to the cause of history.” He brings
forth abundant evidence from Indian sources to
show that “for a long time the rite was common
all over Hindustan, and persons are not wanting
who suspect that there are still nooks and corners
in India where human victims are occasionally
slaughtered for the gratification of Devi’... In
Assam, not long since, children were offered as a
sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Among the
Shans a belief in the efficacy of human sacrifice to
procure a good harvest still exists. It is supposed
by them that certain nats (spirits) are appeased
only by human sacrifice. “The guardian spirit
of one of the Salween ferries claims a victim every
year, preferably a Chinaman. The nat saves
trouble by capsizing a boat and securing his victim.
The ferry is then safe for the rest of the year.” ...

Among some of the aborigines of Australia the
custom is said still to prevail that in the case of
the death of any member of a given tribe his fellow-
tribesmen are thereby placed under obligation to
kill some one else in the next tribe, to equalize
matters. Among the Dyaks of Borneo and the
mountain tribes of Formosa human sacrifices have
been common and are even at the present time
resorted to in connection with public events, such
as the proclamation of war.

In the history of the Pacific islands there are
many traces of the bloody rites of human sacrifices.
They were known among the Maoris and in the
New Hebrides and almost universally throughout
Polynesia. In the early chronicles of the South
Sea missions are repeated references to the custom.
Worship was frequently attended with the sacri-
fice of life. It is recorded of King Pomare of the
Society Islands that “during his reign of thirty
years he had sacrificed two thousand human victims
as offerings to his idols.” Upon almost every public
occasion a human sacrifice was required. If war
was to be declared or some chief died or was threat-
ened with serious illness; if some public building
was to be dedicated or even a new house built for
a chief; if a new idol was to be set up or a new
canoe launched, — the blood of some human victim,
or, in some instances, of many such must be offered
in honor of the occasion. The horrible reputation
of the inhabitants of the Fiji Islands for every
species of brutality and cruelty makes it easy to
believe that their record for human sacrifices is
one of exceptional atrocity. Among the aborigines
of the West Indies and the pagan Indians of Guiana
there is clear evidence of this odious crime... .