"Tarred and feathered" persons rarely die of the coating of tar they receive.

For other instances of peculiar forms of suicide reference may be made to numerous volumes on this subject, prominent among which is that by Brierre de Boismont, which, though somewhat old, has always been found trustworthy, and also to the chapters on this subject written by various authors on medical jurisprudence.
Religious and Ceremonial Mutilations .-- Turning now to the subject of self-mutilation and self-destruction from the peculiar customs or religious beliefs of people, we find pages of information at our disposal.

It is not only among the savage or uncivilized tribes that such ideas have prevailed, but from the earliest times they have had their influence upon educated minds.

In the East, particularly in India, the doctrines of Buddhism, that the soul should be without fear, that it could not be destroyed, and that the flesh was only its resting-place, the soul several times being reincarnated, brought about great indifference to bodily injuries and death.

In the history of the Brahmans there was a sect of philosophers called the Gymnosophists, who had the extremest indifference to life.