The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 8, 1900, Page 10

10 THE SUNDAY CALL Pendtent DLrotherhood HAmerican Citizens Who Hre ./ymzyed Ll \ : g X ‘2/17071 Crasse: e caught follow- e B G ries Lummis says the order have been that would terrify one who had never seen them. Cat-o’-nine-tail whips made of braided tough yucca ba ta are used. / Every blow raises a welt under each of ( \ _— SEMITENT ) 5 ¥ 1 HoOtg oF THE ChHIFY | S P A Y AN MATES ™ Cructfy During the Lenten Season —_——. Stashed With Knives and flyanzked With Cacf;/s Ohorns nis ain Bare = : - jand deep root. A as THE OLD ADOBE <lation s penance t CHURH > W must H €0 off { =go. The old adobe church of Fernandes travel de Taocs was for several generations _ the lonely and hard mountain headquarters of several thousand Peni- en he gets to the reg tente Father Brun finally stopped such es he must be cautious gacrilege in the church when he went to >k upon any of the rites Taos in 1875, and after he had a persistent erhood. The order is wary of @nd dangerous battle with fagaticism. To pale-faced spectators, and is this day one may see beneath the coats »gether by secrecy unlike any- of whitewash the dark splashes on the in- Ise in this country. It has several terior church walls where the blood of es at night on lonely mountain men spurted while they slashed their flesh each year. During Lent each during some 200 Lenten seasons. When meets in & morada, & lttle Father Brun went there the inner walls AT TAOS NM Pznitents Bearing the‘Cross In Procession Around the Church a (were black to his shoulder with blood member of the order g stains. huge, heavy crosses, made of tree tru h the advent of Ash Wednesday the t as large as a telegraph pole of the order come from the and, wi I settlemen a ther secretly at the morada. In each group or cirele o Penitentes there §s the Hermano May (chief -brother), whose authority is su- preme. In the old days he condemned to death heretics who opposed holy o der, and his will was executed in diy recret ways. Every one of the forty ten days I8 observed by t fcs the order. The members live at the mo- rada, sleeping on the earthen floor. There proba are semi-weekly flagellations—the more cept among fanatical demanding extra scourging now d and then. Once every three days pples one of the lashes. Over one ¢ rcToSs 18 and back The pu mble a each ger t when heard cials may be known by the lets of thorns anu black fabri foreheads. _The march is where the Penitentes a secret mummery, emselves a tes, and the: up the backward march to the mer rada. The crowning event occurred on Good Friday, when the anniversary of Christ-g death is celebrated with a_drama of the crucifixion., Honorary members of the der of Penitentes, known as Hermanos 4 Luz (Brothers of Light), are called in tnen ssi0: to a in the e o Brothers of Light are aged and feeble veterans of the Penite ne of the is dressed with a tinsel crown swart head to repre: what crudely thinks is Pontius Pilate y wears white cotton robes and long whis Kkers to represent Peter, and still another young Penitente is_ dressed in femin arb to represent Mary, the mother “hrist. At about 4 o’clock on Good Friday the crucifixibn eeremonies begin. The Peni- tentes issue from their morada and silen ly form in procession, two abreast. The pitero and the Hermano Mayor take their places at the head of the procession. The pitero blows weirdly shrill notes on his musieal plfe and the brothers sham- bling slowly to campo santo. ey are bare as to chests and backs and are hat- less and shoeless. Every back in the pro- cesslon s a mass of reddened welts and t Taos, N. M rd the campo sante. % a signal from the Herman, ber the cross is lifted from the excavmtion S0} is lowered. A sheet is thrown qver the fous man on the eross. e £ a dozen y and e to the morada. There it is nursed Back 1o life. Sometimes it requires a day or twp, But whatever the agony and no matter how near the man has been to death he has brought glory on his family for many a long year and at the dance on Baster Monday he is the bi it man in the locality. _ HENRY G. TINSLEY.