Secret Ceremony

The lady had come from Europe, and was glad to be in the U.S. She had never seen a sorority initiation, and persuaded a teen-age friend to let her watch the secret ceremony of her high school sorority. What she saw horrified her; she could only hope it was not a fair sample of U.S. initiations. U.S. friends assured her that it was not typical of college sororities, but could not assure her that it was unique among younger girls. This was what she saw:

"The high-school girls -- there were about 15 of them--were dressed for a tea party, but they carried long bundles containing paddles, and pails for vomiting. In the corner of the room one girl was mixing a drink out of castor oil, cold cooking grease, coffee grounds, raw oysters and mackerels' eyes.

"The first girl to be initiated was brought in, wearing a bathing suit and a blindfold. She was pale, trembling, and sweating. They made her lie on the floor, face up. Then one of the girls poured the concoction into her mouth.

"She choked and retched. Two girls held her shoulders. They told her that if she vomited, she would have to drink it back. Some of the castor oil started coming out of her nose. The girls told her: 'You goat, you have to drink it all.'

"Then they made her take a crawling position, and took turns burning her back with lighted cigarets--not deep, just enough to leave blisters. Meanwhile another girl was throwing an egg at her face. She started to cry and they kicked her. Then they spun her around until she was dizzy and started to vomit, but the girls grabbed hold of her nose and mouth so she couldn't."

Where It Would Hurt Most. "Next they told her to assume the angle--kneeling with her head down on her arms, which were flat on the floor. Her buttocks were up and her legs apart. Each girl walked behind her and hit her three times with a paddle, very hard. They seemed to know where it would hurt most. They didn't hit her horizontally, but between her legs, toward her sexual organs. With every hard blow she would fall down flat. She cried and screamed.

"After several beatings, she fainted. I thought the others would be frightened then, but they weren't -- they seemed angry. They threw cold water in her face. After a few minutes she revived. They made her get into position again.

"Then I went away. I couldn't stand seeing any more.

"The next day I asked my young friend whether she had had any fun last night. 'Not exactly,' she said, 'but it was one of those things that has to be done. You have to, to join a sorority. Otherwise you can't go to dances and everything."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.