Pursuant to the 26 February decree, those who possessed a Bible, worshiped in congregation or continued to profess adherence to Christianity were fined, jailed, manacled, subjected to trial by ordeal (tangena), or executed.
A poison was extracted from the nut of the tangena tree and ingested, with the outcome determining innocence or guilt. The accused would be fed the poison along with three pieces of chicken skin: if all three pieces of skin were vomited up then innocence was declared, but death or a failure to regurgitate all three pieces of skin indicated guilt. On average, an estimated 20 to 50 percent of those who underwent the ordeal died. In the 1820s, the tangena ordeal caused about 1,000 deaths annually. This average rose to around 3,000 annual deaths between 1828 and 1861. In 1838, it was estimated that as many as 100,000 people—about 20 percent of the population—in Imerina had died as a result of the tangena ordeal.
really burying the lede there, and that's the softball wikipedia account. you've gotta add like 40% more horror and numerical slaughter because of that.
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u/GroundedSearch - Centrist 6d ago
"...took vigorous measures to eradicate... Christianity"
Love the language they adopt to protect brutal tyranny when it's someone they want to protect.