Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1880 — Hades where Darkness Reigns. [ARTICLE]

Hades where Darkness Reigns.

The natives of the Marquesas Islands. 1 according to an American who has lived among them for years, and studied their character, customs and creed, picture bell as a region of profound darkness, no ray of light ever entering it except on arrival of a spirit from earth. By this ray the newly condemned spirit is guided to the seat appointed for him—or it—and there he remains an impenetrable shadow until the next spirit brings a flash of light. There is no eternal punishment for •the doomed. They are, however, singed on entrance, because they are then obliged to pass a huge demon, who flaps Iris wings and exhales fire continually. ’ Women, it may be interesting to know, are seldom sent to the Marquesan Tophet, owing to the love (witness the customary egotism of the male animal even in Polynesia) apd devotion they bear the native chiefs and priests, who (here is gallantry) would be inconsolable without them, even in Paradise. But women are not admitted to the highestcircles of the good place, prepared alone for men, who can, however, descend to them when they wish to enjoy feminine society. There are‘different places of divins life for women, the loftiest being reserved for those who have loved and been loved most intensely in this world? and whose greatest bliss will come from the visits of the spirits of the chiefs and priests. < * u