It Seems To Have Worked So Far....

Due to the Japanese earthquake (which looks even more severe now than it did last week) I was reading up on some other big earthquakes. The biggest was in Chile in 1961, according to the ever reliable Wikipedia the response to that included:

In the coastal village Collileufu, Lafkenches carried out a ritual human sacrifice during the days following the main earthquake. Collileufu, located in the Budi Lake area, south of Puerto Saavedra, was by 1960 highly isolated and inhabitants there spoke mainly Mapudungun. The community had gathered in Cerro La Mesa, while the lowlands were struck by successive tsunamis. Juana Namuncura Añen, a local machi, demanded the sacrifice of the grandson of Juan Painecur, a neighbor, in order to calm the earth and the ocean.^[11][12] The victim, 5 year old José Luis Painecur, had his arms and legs removed by Juan Pañán and Juan José Painecur (the victim's grandfather), and was stuck into the sand of the beach like a stake.

To which I can only say wow!