Jesuit, this perfume is said to have been discovered by accident.
"Nur-Jahan, the favorite wife of the Mogul Jahan-Ghur, among her other
luxuries, had a small canal of rose water. As she was walking with the
Mogul upon its banks, they perceived a thin film upon the water, which
was an essential oil made by the heat of the sun. They were delighted
with its exquisite odor, and means were immediately taken for preparing
by art a substance like that which had been thus fortuitously produced."
_Effect of a New Nose._
Van Helmont tells a story of a person who applied to Taliacotius to have
his nose restored. This person, having a dread of an incision being made
in his own arm, for the purpose of removing enough skin therefrom for a
nose, induced a laborer, for a remuneration, to allow the skin for the
nose to be taken from his arm. About thirteen months after the
adscititious nose suddenly became cold, and, after a few days, dropped
off, in a state of putrefaction. The cause of this unexpected occurrence
was investigated, when it was discovered that, at the same moment in
which the nose grew cold, the laborer at Bologna expired.
_Cader Idris Couch._
On the very summit of Cader Idris there is an excavation in the solid
rock, resembling a couch; and the residents of the vicinity say that
whoever rests for the night in the couch, will be found in the morning
dead, or raving mad, or endued with supernatural genius.
_Rights and Lefts._
Centuries ago shoes were made, as now, "rights and lefts." The shoes
found in the tomb of Bernard, King of Italy, were "rights and lefts."
Shakespeare describes his smith as—
"Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste,
Had falsely _thrust upon contrary feet_."
Scott, in his "Discoverie of Witchcraft," observes, "that he who
receiveth a mischance will consider whether he put not on his shirt
wrong side outwards, or his _left_ shoe on his _right_ foot."
_Efficacy in a Mutilated Saint._
There is a church connected with the convent at Chartreux, Provence. It
was dedicated to St. John, and over the portico were colossal statues of
the four evangelists, which have been thrown down, and the fragments
lie scattered about. When Miss Plumptre and her party visited the spot,
they observed a woman upon her knees over a fragment of stone, muttering
to herself. When asked whether there was any particular virtue in the
stone, she replied, in French: "Ah, yes? 'Tis a piece of St. John." She
seemed to think that the saint's intercession in her behalf, mutilated
as he was, might still avail her.
_Feasts at Coronations._
The quantity of provisions consumed at the coronations of some of the
English kings was extraordinary. For that of King Edward I., February
10th, 1274, the different sheriffs of twelve of the counties were
ordered to deliver, at Windsor, a total of 440 oxen, 743 swine, 430
sheep and 22,560 fowls.
_A Baker's Dozen._
The "baker's dozen" is an old saying. In "The Witch," written by Thomas
Middleton, about 1620, we find the following:—
_Firestone._—"May you not have one o'clock into the dozen, mother?"
_Witch._—"No."
_Firestone._—"Your spirits are the more unconscionable than _baker's_."
_Wonderful Exhibition with Bees._
On the 14th day of October, 1766, Mr. Wildman, of Plymouth, who had made
himself famous throughout the west of England for his command over bees,
was sent for to wait on Lord Spencer, at his seat at Wimbledon, in
Surrey, and he attended accordingly. Several of the nobility and
persons of fashion were assembled, and the countess had provided three
stocks of bees. The first of his performances was with one hive of bees
hanging on his hat, which he carried in his hand, and the hive they came
out of in his other hand; this was to show that he could take honey and
wax without destroying the bees. Then he returned to his room, and came
out with them hanging on his chin with a very venerable beard. After
showing them to the company, he took them out upon the grass walk facing
the windows, where, a table and a table-cloth being provided, he set the
hive upon the table and made the bees hive therein. Then he made them
come out again and swarm in the air, the ladies and nobility standing
amongst them, and no person stung by them. He made them go on the table
and took them up by handfuls, and tossed them up and down like so many
peas; he then made them go into the hive at the word of command.
At five o'clock in the afternoon he exhibited again with the three
swarms of bees, one on his head, one on his breast, and the other on his
arm, and waited on Lord Spencer in his room, who had been too much
indisposed to see the former experiment; the hives which the bees had
been taken from were carried by one of the servants. After this
exhibition he withdrew, but returned once more to the room with the bees
all over his head, face and eyes, and was led blind before his
lordship's window. One of his lordship's horses being brought out in his
body clothes, Mr. Wildman mounted the horse, with the bees all over his
head and face (except his eyes); they likewise covered his breast and
left arm: he held a whip in his right hand, and a groom led the horse
backwards and forwards before his lordship's window for some time. Mr.
W. afterwards took the reins in his hand, rode round the house,
dismounted, and at his word of command the bees sought their hives. The
performance surprised and gratified the earl and countess and all the
spectators who assembled to witness the bee-master's extraordinary
exhibition.—_Annual Register_, 1766.
_A Treacherous Talisman._
Gübner mentions that a Jew once presented himself before Duke Albrecht,
of Saxony, and offered him a charm, engraved with rare signs and
characters, which should render him invulnerable. The duke, determined
to try it, had the Jew led out in the field, with his charm round his
neck; he then drew his sword, and at the first thrust ran the Jew
through.
_The Cavern Chapel._
Waldron, in his "Description of the Isle of Man" (1731), speaking of a
crypt or subterranean chapel near Peel Castle, says: "Within are
thirteen pillars, on which the whole chapel is supported. They have a
superstition that whatsoever stranger goes to see this cavern out of
curiosity, and omits to count the pillars, shall do something to
occasion his being confined there."
_Glastonbury Thorn._
This famous hawthorn, which grew on a hill in the church-yard of
Glastonbury Abbey, was said to have sprung from the staff of Joseph of
Arimathea, who, having fixed it in the ground with his own hand on
Christmas day, the staff took root immediately, put forth leaves, and
the _next_ day was covered with milk-white blossoms. It was declared
that this thorn continued to blow every Christmas day during a long
series of years, and that slips from the original plant are still
preserved, and continue to blow every Christmas day to the present
time. There certainly was in the abbey church-yard a hawthorne-tree
which blossomed in winter, and was cut down in the time of the civil
wars; but that it always blossomed on Christmas day was a mere tale of
the monks, calculated to inspire the vulgar with notions of the sanctity
of the place.
_Buying and Selling._
There was a singular custom at Rome in connection with the purchase of
provisions. Purchaser and vendor simultaneously closed, and then
suddenly opened, one of their hands or some of their fingers. If the
number of fingers on both sides was even, the vendor obtained the price
which he had previously asked: but if the number was uneven, the buyer
received the goods for the sum he had just tendered.
_Fairy Treasure._
In the Leverian Museum were deposited "Orbicular sparry bodies, commonly
called fairies' money, from the banks of the Tyne, Northumberland."
Ramon, a character in the play of "The Fatal Dowry," 1632, says—
But not a word of it, 'tis fairies' treasure;
Which but reveal'd, brings on the babbler's ruine.
_Hour Glasses in Coffins._
A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," 1746, says: "In June, 1718, as I
was walking in the fields, I stopt in Clerkenwell church-yard to see a
grave-digger at work. He had dug pretty deep, and was come to a coffin
which had lain so long that it was quite rotten, and the plate eaten so
with rust that he could not read anything of the inscription. In
cleaning away the rotten pieces of wood, the grave-digger found an
hour-glass close to the left side of the skull, with sand in it, the
wood of which was so rotten that, it broke where he took hold of it.
Being a lover of antiquity, I bought it of him, and made a drawing of it
as it then appeared. Some time after, mentioning this affair in company
of some antiquarians, they told me that it was an ancient custom to put
an hour-glass into the coffin as an emblem of the sand of life being run
out; others conjectured that little hour-glasses were anciently given at
funerals, like rosemary, and by the friends of the dead put in the
coffin or thrown into the grave."
_Macduff's Cross._
The law of Clan Macduff was a privilege of immunity for homicide
anciently enjoyed by those who could claim kindred with Macduff, Earl of
Fife, within the ninth degree. Macduff's cross stood on the march or
boundary between Fife and Strathearn, above Newburg. Any homicide
possessed of the right of clanship who could reach it, and who gave nine
kye (cows) and a clopindash (a young cow) was free of the slaughter
committed by him.
_Woman's Cleverness._
It is a singular fact that on one occasion the lives of thousands of the
Irish Protestants were saved by a clever device of a woman.
At the latter end of Queen Mary's reign a commission was signed for the
purpose of punishing the heretics in that kingdom, and Dr. Cole, Dean of
St. Paul's, was honored with the appointment, to execute which he set
off with great alacrity. On his arrival at Chester, he sent for the
mayor to sup with him, and, in the course of conversation, related his
business. Going to his cloak-bag, he took out the box containing the
commission, and, having shown it, with great joy exclaimed: "This will
lash the heretics of Ireland." Mrs. Edmonds, the landlady, overheard
this discourse, and having several relations in Ireland who were
Protestant, as well as herself, resolved to play a trick upon the
doctor, and while he went to attend the magistrate to the door, took the
commission out of the box, and in its room placed a pack of cards, with
the knave of clubs uppermost. The zealous doctor, suspecting nothing of
the matter, put up his box, took shipping and arriving safe in Dublin,
went immediately to the viceroy. A council was called, and, after a
speech, the doctor delivered his box, which being opened by the
secretary, the first thing that presented itself was the knave of clubs.
The sight surprised the viceroy and the council, but much more the
doctor, who assured them that he had received a commission from the
queen, but what had become of it he could not tell. "Well, well,"
replied the viceroy, "you must go back for another, and we will shuffle
the cards in the meantime." The doctor hastened across the channel, but
at Holyhead he received the intelligence of the queen's death, and the
accession of Elizabeth, who settled on Mrs. Edmonds a pension of forty
pounds a year for saving her Protestant subjects in Ireland.
_Queer Place to Secrete a Diamond._
An old gentleman recently died at Brussels who has solved in his will a
problem which his friends could never quite unravel. He came home after
a few years absence abroad, some time ago, with plenty of pecuniary
means, though when he left Brussels he went literally to seek his
fortune, since he had none on starting. In his will, before he specifies
his bequests, of which there are several very liberal ones to friends,
relatives, and also to charitable institutions, he tells for the first
time how he became possessed of his wealth. He went to Asia and engaged
himself as a day laborer in the mines, and while working there found a
diamond of large size and great value. He at once made a deep cut in the
calf of his leg, where he secreted the gem. Of course, the limb became
very sore and lame, and led to his being permitted to leave the mine
unsuspected. Having reached a safe locality, he removed the stone and
the sore healed up. He worked his way to Amsterdam, where he sold the
diamond for $80,000. This money, put at interest, not only afforded him
a good living, but enabled him to go on accumulating. The precious stone
is now one of the crown diamonds of Russia.
_Incredible Liars._
The French papers, in the autumn of 1821, mention that a man named
Desjardins was tried, on his own confession, as an accomplice with
Louvel, the assassin of the Duke de Berri. But on his defense,
Desjardins contended that his confession ought not to be believed
because he was so notorious for falsehood that nobody would give credit
to a word he said. In support of this, he produced a host of witnesses,
his friend and relatives, who all swore that the excessively bad
character which he had given of himself was true, and he was declared
not guilty.
Before that a similar instance occurred in Ireland. A man was charged
with highway robbery. In the course of the trial the prisoner roared out
from the dock that he was guilty, but the jury, in their verdict,
pronounced him "not guilty." "Good heavens, gentlemen!" exclaimed the
astonished judge, "did you not hear the man himself declare that he was
guilty?" The foreman answered: "We did, my lord, and that was the very
reason we acquitted him, for we _knew_ the fellow to be such a notorious
liar that he never told a word of truth in his life."
_Force of Imagination._
A peasant saw his dog attacked by a strange and ferocious mastiff. He
tried to separate the animals, and received a bite from his own dog,
which instantly ran off through the fields. The wound was healed in a
few days, and the dog was not to be found, and the peasant after some
time began to feel symptoms of nervous agitation. He conceived that the
dog, from disappearing, was mad, and within a day or two after this idea
had struck him, he began to feel symptoms of hydrophobia. They grew
hourly more violent; he raved, and had all the evidence of a violent
distemper.
As he was lying with the door open to let in the last air he was to
breathe, he heard his dog bark. The animal ran up to the bedside and
frolicked about the room; it was clear that he at least was in perfect
health. The peasant's mind was relieved at the instant; he got up with
renewed strength, dressed himself, plunged his head into a basin of
water, and thus refreshed walked into the room to his astonished
family.—_Prof. Barrantini._
_A Wife Returned._
The annexed story is gravely recorded in "Dodsley's Annual Register:"
"The following extraordinary affair happened at Ferrybridge, in 1767.
The wife of one Thomas Benson, being suddenly taken ill, she, to all
appearances, expired, and continued without any symptoms of life the
whole day, and every proper requisite was ordered for her burial; but
the husband, hoping for consolation in his distress, by some money
which he had reason to believe she had secreted from him in her
lifetime, began a rummage for it, and found seven pounds ten shillings
in crown pieces concealed in an old box; but, upon his attempting to
take it away, he was surprised by his wife, who was just then recovered,
and met him and terribly frightened him by appearing as if nothing had
happened."
_Life in Death._
The wife of the consul of Cologne, Retchmuth, apparently died of the
plague, in 1571. A ring of great value, buried with her, tempted the
cupidity of the grave-digger, and was the cause of many future years of
happiness. At night the purloiner marched to his plunder, and she
revived. She lived to be the mother of three children, and, when really
dead, she was reburied in the same church, where a monument was erected,
upon which the above particulars are recited in German verse.—_Edmund
Fillingham King._
_Remedy for Bad Dreams._
When a man has dreamed a bad dream in China he need not despair, for an
interpreter of dreams is ready to supply him with a mystic scroll, which
will avert the impending calamity. It is written on red or yellow paper,
and the interpreter rolls it up in the form of a triangle and attaches
it to the dress of his client. The dreamer is then made to look toward
the east, with a sword in his right hand and his mouth full of spring
water. In this position he ejects the water from his mouth, and beats
the air with the sword, repeating in an imperative tone certain words,
of which the following is an interpretation: "As quickly and with as
much strength as rises the sun in the east, do thou, charm or mystic
scroll, avert all the evil influences which are likely to result from
my bad dream. As quickly as lightning passes through the air, O charm,
cause impending evils to disappear."—_Credulities Past and Present._
_The Letiche._
At Bayeux, in Normandy, one of the superstitions still current relates
to a being called a letiche. It is an animal whose form is scarcely
defined—of dazzling whiteness—which is only seen in the night time,
and disappears the moment any one attempts to touch it. The letiches are
believed to be the souls of infants who died without baptism. Most
probably this pretty little spirit was no other than the agile and timid
ermine of Normandy and Brittany.—_Summer Among the Bocages._
_Hell-stones._
These were vast stones formerly used for covering graves, _helicin_
being the Saxon for "to cover" or conceal. In Dorsetshire is one of
these stones; and the tradition is, that the devil flung it from
Portland Pike to its present position, as he was playing at quoits.
_The Golden Tooth._
In 1593 it was reported that a Silesian child, seven years old, had lost
all its teeth, and that a golden tooth had grown in the place of a
natural double one. In 1595 Horstius, professor of medicine in the
University of Helmstadt, wrote the history of this golden tooth. He said
it was partly a natural event and partly miraculous, and that God had
sent it to the child to console the Christians for their persecution by
the Turks. In the same year Rullandus drew up another account of the
golden tooth. Two years afterwards, Ingosteterus, another learned man,
wrote against the opinion which Rullandus had given on this golden
tooth. Rullandus immediately replied in a most elegant and erudite
dissertation. Libavius, a very learned man, compiled all that had been
said relative to this tooth, and subjoined his remarks upon it. Nothing
was wanting to recommend these erudite writings to posterity but proof
that the tooth was gold. A goldsmith examined it, and found it a natural
tooth artificially gilt.
_The Devil Regarded as a Benefactor of the Human Race._
The Ophites were a sect who, like most Gnostics, regarded the Jehovah of
the Old Testament with great abhorrence. Regarding the emancipation of
man from the power and control of Jehovah as the most important end,
they considered the serpent who tempted Eve and introduced "knowledge"
and "revolt" into the world, to have been the great benefactor of the
human race. They worshipped the serpent, and sought to engraft Ophism
upon Christianity by causing the bread designed for the Eucharistic
sacrifice to be licked by a serpent which was kept in a cave for the
purpose, and which the communicants kissed after receiving the
Eucharist.
_Curse of Scotland._
This is a term applied to the nine of diamonds in a pack of playing
cards. Much uncertainty prevails respecting the origin of the phrase.
The most probable explanation is that it refers to the detestation
entertained in Scotland toward John Dalrymple, first Earl of Stair, on
account of his connection with the Massacre of Glencoe, for which he had
to resign office in 1695. The heraldic bearing of this person consisted
of nine lozenges on a field of azure. These nine lozenges resembled the
nine of diamonds, and hence the popular phrase, the "Curse of Scotland."
_Curse of Innocent Blood._
Southey, in his "Common-place Book," has traced the outlines of what
might be worked up into a very effective story of "citation" for those
who unjustly and cruelly put others to death. "The Philipsons of
Colgarth coveted a field, like Ahab, and had the possessor hung for an
offence which he had not committed. The night before his execution the
old man (for he was very old) read the 109th Psalm as his solemn and
dying commination, verses 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16." The
verses contain a prayer for vengeance upon the "wicked and deceitful,"
who "have spoken with a lying tongue," and whose days are to be few,
their children to be fatherless and continually vagabonds and beggars,
and their posterity to be cut off. "The curse," Southey adds, "was fully
accomplished; the family were cut off, and the only daughter who
remained sold laces and bobbins about the country."
_Legend of an Inventor._
A story is told of an inventor whose skill was the occasion of his own
death. An immense bell, with the twelve hours carved upon it, had been
hung in a high tower. A female figure was so arranged as to glide from
her hiding place and strike each hour on the bell with a huge hammer.
Everything was in its place, and it had been previously arranged with
the concourse below, who had assembled to hear the bell strike, that it
should sound the hour of one. Forgetful that the hour approached, the
artist was still at work upon the carving of the bell, with his head
near it, when the female figure, true to the machinery that moved it,
glided from its place, and, hammer in hand, struck a fatal blow upon the
head of the workman.
_A Strange Legend._
We are told that when St. Helena had discovered the true cross of
Christ, she permitted various fragments to be taken from it, which were
encased, some in gold and some in gems, and conveyed to Europe, leaving
the main part of the wood in the charge of the Bishop of Jerusalem, who
exhibited it annually at Easter, until Chosroes, King of Persia,
plundered Jerusalem in the reign of Phocas, and took away the holy
relic. Before this fatal event we are taught to believe, by Rigordus, an
historian of the thirteenth century, that the mouths of Christians used
to be supplied with thirty teeth, and in some instances, no doubt
according to their faith, with thirty-two teeth; but that _after_ the
cross was stolen by the infidels no mortal has ever been allowed more
than twenty-three!
_Abraham and Sarah._
The Talmudists relate that Abraham, in traveling to Egypt, brought with
him a chest. At the custom house the officers exacted the duties.
Abraham would have readily paid them, but desired they would not open
the chest. They first insisted on the duties for clothes, which Abraham
consented to pay; but then they thought, by his ready acquiescence, that
it might be gold; he consented to pay for gold. They then began to
suspect it might contain silk, whereupon Abraham was willing to pay for
silk or costly pearls; in short, he consented to pay as if the chest
contained the most valuable of things. It was then resolved to open and
examine the chest; and, behold! as soon as the chest was opened, that
great lustre of human beauty broke out which made such a noise in the
land of Egypt,—it was Sarah herself! The jealous Abraham, to conceal
her beauty, had locked her up in the chest.
_Tradition of the Temple._
There is a beautiful tradition connected with the site on which the
temple of Solomon was erected. It is said to have been occupied in
common by two brothers, one of whom had a family and the other none. On
the spot was a field of wheat. On the evening succeeding the harvest,
the wheat having been gathered in shocks, the elder brother said to his
wife, "My younger brother is unable to bear the burden and heat of the
day; I will arise, take of my shocks, and place them with his, without
his knowledge." The other brother, actuated by the same benevolent
motives, said within himself, "My elder brother has a family, and I have
none; I will contribute to their support; I will arise, take of my
shocks, and place them with his, without his knowledge."