Human Sacrifices in Europe. ' 29 



neck. A similar story is told of the castle of L,iebeusteiti. A mother sold her child for the purpose. 

 As the will ro52 about the little creature, it cried out, "Mother I .still see you!" Then later "Mother 

 I can hardly see you!" And lastly, "Mother I see you no more!" 



The Roman had, however, substituted for human sacrifice the offering of other 

 auimils. Livy tells us (xxii, 57), "Interim ex fatalibus libris sacrificia aliqtiot extraor- 

 diuaria facta: inter quae G.illus et Galla, Graecus et Graeca, in Foro Boario sub terra 

 vivi demissi sunt in locum saxo conseptum, jam ante hostiis htimanis, niinime Romano 

 sacro, imbutum." 



Mahometans vied with Christians in these human sacrifices to secure stability 

 of walls, and the well authenticated case of Geronimo of Oran, a Christian who was 

 bedded in a block of concrete September 18, 1569, and the block built into the wall of a 

 fort near the Bab-el-oved, Algiers, seems the last recorded instance of these human 

 sacrifices. In 1853 the block was removed from the wall and the remains with the 

 cast of the head are now in the Cathedral of Algiers. 



So late as 1S43, when a new bridge was to be built at the University town of 

 Halle, in German}-, the people assured the architect and masons that they could never 

 make the piers stand unless the}' first immured a living child in the foundation. During 

 the Boxer troubles in China, it was charged against the Christian missionaries that 

 they were tr3'ing to get Chinese children to build into the wall of a new church (much 

 as the Christians have repeatedly charged the Jews with stealing Christian children 

 for sacrifice), and it is not astonishing when we consider the words of Scripture, under- 

 stood literally by an unedticated and partly hostile audience, "Ye also, as living stones, 

 are built up a spiritual house" (I Peter, ii, 5), and the familiar hj-mn, 



Blessed city, heavenly- Salem, 



Vision dear of peace and love. 

 Who of living stones upbuilded, 



Art the joy of heaven above. 



Let us not then blame the Polynesians for a superstition which seems world 

 wide and powerful enough to survive and be a moving force to the present day among 

 some of the Asiatic nations. 



I have before me some charming views of Fijian hotises taken by my friend 

 J. W. Lindt, the distinguished photographer of Melbourne, which will give my reader 

 pleasure as well as instru(5lion if they can be reproduced with the beaut}' of the origi- 

 nals. These are on Plates XVIII and XIX. The first shows Na Kali village on the 

 shore of Viti Levu, and the inhabitants as well as their dwellings are brought vividly 

 before us. The builder of the principal house has ittilized a great rock in piling up 

 his platform, and this does not extend beyond the walls of the house. The usual pent 



[213] 



