After the car had reached the place from which it set out, the end of the beam from which the man was swinging was then lowered and he was untied.  Again I looked very carefully at the hooks in the back.  The people say that no blood is shed by their introduction, and consider this to be a miracle.  The falsity of this assertion was shown by the blood which I saw on the side of one of the wounds.

I have been long in this country, and consequently have become so familiarized with heathenism, that my feelings, though deeply wounded at this sight, were not so keenly affected as were those of my new associate, Mr. Chandler.  He has been on heathen ground but a short time.  When they tied the man to the beam, he was unnerved and wellnigh overcome; and he told me, that during all the time he was following the car, he felt like shedding tears.

While following the car, the young men of America came into my mind.  They refuse to come, said I, to help these miserable creatures.  O, they will not come—­they will not come.  I thought, that if many of the dear children of that land—­children to whom I lately preached, as well as others, could witness this poor creature swinging from the end of a long beam, far above the tops of the trees, and that, too, by hooks passing through the tender parts of his back, they would say, we will, by and by, become missionaries, and, by the help of God, proclaim to the heathen that there is a Saviour.

On the evening of the day on which the swinging takes place, another act of great cruelty is practised.  Devotees throw themselves from, the top of a high wall, or a scaffold of twenty or thirty feet in height, upon a bed of iron spikes, or on bags of straw with knives in them.  Many are often mangled and torn.  Others are quickly killed.

At night, many of the devotees sit down in the open air, and pierce the skin of their foreheads, by inserting a small rod of iron.  To this is suspended a lamp, which is kept burning till daylight.

Sometimes bundles of thorns are collected before the temple, among which the devotees roll themselves without any covering.  These thorns are then set on fire, when they briskly dance over the flames.

Other devotees swing before a slow fire; some stand between two fires, as you see in this picture.

[Illustration:]

Some have their breasts, arms, and other parts stuck entirely full of pins, about the thickness of small nails, or packing needles.

Another very cruel torture is practised.  Some of the devotees make a vow.  With one hand they cover their under lip with wet earth or mud.  On this, with the other hand, they place some small grains, usually of mustard-seed They then stretch themselves flat on their backs, exposed to the dews of night, and the blazing and scorching sun by day.  Their vow is, that from this position they will not stir, that they will not move nor turn, nor eat nor drink, till the seeds planted on their lips begin to sprout.  This usually takes place on the third or fourth day.  After this they arise, and then think that they are very holy.