Armenian Sacrifice Against Cholera
By Methodist Herald
It hardly seems credible that at the close of the nineteenth century priests and teachers of a Christian church should call the people together to witness a bloody sacrifice to propitiate the wrath of God. And yet this is what took place in the town of Talas on Friday, June 29, 1894, in the Armenian Church. It was the culmination of a series of exercises, all designed to propitiate the wrath of God and induce him to release the town from the curse of scourge. A few days previous a great crowd of priests and choir boys, followed by the people, marched about the place singing and praying, laying, as it were, a cordon of prayer about the district, inside of which they hoped that God would not allow the cholera to enter. This was unsuccessful, and the idea took root and grew apace that God was angry; that he had sent the disease as a punishment, and that he must be propitiated. Money, cattle, and sheep were forthwith secured by donation in preparation for the event.