The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, AUGUST 1, 1903.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 957, 1 August 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, AUGUST 1, 1903.

BUTCHERY OP. BABIS

.Tlis shocking news l from Persia as to the butchering of members of the Babi sect cannot be read without a feeling of horror. The cablegrams state hundreds are being, butchered,

mutilated bodies being dragged •through the streets. The murderous mob were joined by, the soldiers, and the cowardly Governor, being

threatened, appeased the wrath of the blood-mad fanatics by blowing some of the Babis from the cannon’s mouth. The Babi sect dates back for a considerable period. The founder, after having gained some strong •adherents, met his death in a cruel manner in 1850. All attempts to make him retract having failed, he was, with one of his disciples, suspended from the summit of a wall by the armpits, in view of the people, the object of such exposure being to leave no doubt as to his death. 'At

company, of soldiers fired at the

pair. .The disciple was killed immediately, but the bullets only, cut the cords by which the Bab himself was suspended, , and he fell to the ground

unhurt. Instead of rising to the occasion, like one of our tohungas certainly would have done, he did not promptly proclaim that his escape was due to himself, hut ran off and took refuge in a guard-house, where he was quickly murdered. He was succeeded as leader by, a youth of noble birth, and things proceeded in a smooth way until 1852, when an attempt by several Babis to assass-

inate lire Shah was followed by a fierce persecution. This persecution however, during which the beautiful Gourred-Oul-Ayn, a lady, of surpassing loveliness, perished, rather served to encourage than to repress the sect, and it is said to be at the present, time very widely diffused through Persia, although under the mask of conformity to the established creed. The doctrines of Babism arc descrij/ed as essentially a system of Pantheism, with additions from Gnostic, Cabbalistic, and Buddhistic sources. Individual existence is regarded as an emanation from the Supreme Being, by whom it will ultimately lie reabsorbed. The sect has a morality which shows an important advance upon all previous Oriental systems in the treatment of woman.i Polygamy and concubinage are forbidden, and at least one of the nineteen sovereign prophets must be a female, this being a concession to the equality of the sexes. Babism inculcates hospitality, char-

ity, and generous living, by abstinence from intoxicating liquors and drugs. It is probably largely due to their superior moral code they are now being murdered in wholesale fashion by fanatics. The awful atrocities will probably have the same effect as before, in increasing the hold of Babism on the people of Persia.