Beachcombed 23 May 1, 2012
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
Dear Reader, 1 May 2012
This has been one of the busiest months on record. Aupairs came and went, students declined and fell into exams and, though Beachcombing couldn’t bear to write about it at the time, there was a rat’s nest under the stairs: they had their young in some loveletters from two decades ago. The most popular posts this month included Lili Marlene, a Letter from a Witch and that Lincoln Coincidence. Beach’s own favourite was perhaps the force fed queens and Mad Dadd. Off world highlights included the Oxford comma and Stalin; images of an uncontacted tribe in Brazil; the obituary of Mr Facts; the best April Fool’s Joke; the last survivors of slavery in the US; tree inscriptions as a new academic discipline; and robots and warehouses – why go to a shelf when a shelf can come to you? Oh and there is the virus that could kill your computer on July 9. Huge thanks to all those readers who sent in links: Andy, Amanda, Invisible, Laurence, SM, Ricardo and many many others. And now, without further ado, the most important ten thousand words of the last month…
Fairies and Vegetation: Pam writes back with the promised passage: I couldn’t find much in the Paul Devereux book, so my memory was faulty there, but here are the relevant passages from Evans Wentz. W. Y. Evans Wentz, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries: In the positive doctrines of mediaeval alchemists and mystics, e.g. Paracelsus and the Rosicrucians, as well as their modern followers, the ancient metaphysical ideas of Egypt, Greece, and Rome find a new expression; and these doctrines raise the final problem—if there are any scientific grounds for believing in such pygmy nature-spirits as these remarkable thinkers of the Middle Ages claim to have studied as being actually existing in nature…. These mediaeval metaphysicians, inheritors of pre-Platonic, Platonic, and neo-Platonic teachings, purposely obscured their doctrines under a covering of alchemical terms, so as to safeguard themselves against persecution, open discussion of occultism not being safe during the Middle Ages, as it was among the ancients and happily is now again in our own generation…. All these Elementals, who procreate after the manner of men, are said to have bodies of an elastic half-material essence, which is sufficiently ethereal not to be visible to the physical sight, and probably comparable to matter in the form of invisible gases. Mr. W. B. Yeats has given this explanation:—’Many poets, and all mystic and occult writers, in all ages and countries, have declared that behind the visible are chains on chains of conscious beings, who are not of heaven but of earth, who have no inherent form, but change according to their whim, or the mind that sees them. You cannot lift your hand without influencing and being influenced by hordes. The visible world is merely their skin….’ [From Yeats' Irish Fairy Tales and Folk-Tales] Wentz again three paragraphs on: And independently of the Celtic peoples there is available very much testimony of the most reliable character from modern disciples of the mediaeval occultists, e.g. the Rosicrucians, and the Theosophists, that there exist in nature invisible spiritual beings of pygmy stature and of various forms and characters, comparable in all respects to the little people of Celtic folk-lore. Yeats’s words do somewhat remind me of the famous opening of the Reverend Robert Kirk’s Secret Commonwealth,wherein he says these beings are said to be of a midle Nature betuixt Man and Angel, as were Dæmons thought to be of old; of intelligent fluidious Spirits, and light changable Bodies, (lyke those called Astral,) somewhat of the Nature of a condensed Cloud, and best seen in Twilight. Thes Bodies be so plyable thorough the Subtilty of the Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear att Pleasure. Some have Bodies or Vehicles so spungious, thin, and delecat, that they are fed by only sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors, that peirce lyke pure Air and Oyl…’ Thanks a million Pam!
Bizarrest Date: John G offers some ‘bad’ dates: Tony Blair and Gordon Brown at The Granita Restaurant, The Last Supper, Elements of the Glencoe Massacre, Alexander and the burning of The Palace of Xerxes (Probably not strictly a date), The death of Christopher Marlowe, I read one account that it was an argument about the bill, it’s a pity that TB and GB didn’t have a similar dispute. How different would the world be if Cleopatra hadn’t had her unusual date with Julius Caesar?’ Then Wade chips in with dating that results in family honor killing. Thanks John and thanks Wade!
Hindustani: Sword&Beast writes in ‘Your post on the hindustani of course got me interested. Living in Suriname itself for 4 months now, I have not much to add to your instructive post and the comments afterwards. Maybe just a picture from Suriname itself: the hindustani community represents, today, around 35% of the Surinamese population. Even though the community had reservations on the pace towards independence, and many indeed left in 1975, they had a major role in it. Its main party, the VHP, has more than 60 years, and its first president, Jagernath Lachmon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagernath_Lachmon), is revered as one of the founders of the nation. Besides being well organized and generally afluent, the community is proud of its heritage, with temples, festivities and excellent food. One recent example was the hosting, last week, of the Miss India Worldwide Pageant (http://miww2012.com/), with contestants with indian ascent from Sri Lanka to Scotland. By the way, the girl from neighbouring Guiana won it. ‘ Thanks S&B!!
After the Funeral: Mark Bunyan got in touch about the play. In a post-cold, pre-holiday, haven’t-done-it-for-ages-so-why-not? fit of Googling my own name, I came upon it mentioned by Edwin Murphy with regard to his book AFTER THE FUNERAL which made me aware of a lot of the stories which eventually became my musical UNBURIED TREASURES. This ran at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in Islington for three weeks in April / May 2010 with a terrific cast but little public attention. Nonetheless, there are various bits of it on YouTube, one of which I finally put up last week. That is EVA OR EVITA? There’s also INES DE CASTRO. CRISTOFERO (Columbus). PERE LACHAISE. And the story of Shelley’s heart, WHAT REMAINS. There’s an original cast album available as CD from Dress Circle in the UK or CDBaby in the US, with downloads available from CDBaby and (I just discovered, though CDBaby had never told me, the iTunes store).’ Thanks Mark!!
Christ Execution Document: Rayg brings up a reference: I just had a brief search: the story kicks off around 1839 in French journals (see Google Books – “Lord Howard” “Denon” – for that period). The sale itself did exist: this must be the 1826 sale of the Baron Vivant Denon’s museum collection after his death. See Museum Masters, page 104), which says there was a catalogue … and here it is: Jay meanwhile has a wanted poster to go with this. Thanks Jay and Rayg!
Dark Age Scotland Without Oxygen: Gary V writes in: The bend is documented as far back as Ptolemy’s Geography, here is the relevant section of John Pinkerton’s An enquiry into the history of Scotland: preceding the reign of Malcolm III But the bend is common knowledge among people familiar with ancient and medieval geography. Who are you going to believe? Ptolemy or your lying sextant?‘ Thanks Gary!
New Jersey Coincidence: An old friend of the blog George T writes in: I discovered another coincidence that also involved the Lincoln family that might interest you. As background, in 2004 the first Transit of Venus since 1882 occurred. I was going to be in Africa when it would happen and remembered that in 1903 the Canadian/American astronomer Simon Newcomb had written about observing the 1882 Transit from Wellington, South Africa and expressed a desire to have someone observe the 2004 event from the same location (quote below). I located a South Africa astronomer who had a similar idea and after some sleuthing involving the US National Archives we were able to pinpoint Newcomb observing location and fulfill his request. “On our departure we left two iron pillars, on which our apparatus for photographing the Sun was mounted, firmly imbedded in the ground, as we had used them. Whether they will remain there until the transit of 2004, I do not know, but cannot help entertaining a sentimental wish that, when the time of that transit arrives, the phenomenon will be observed from the same station, and the pillars be found in such a condition that they can again be used.” While researching for this project, I found out that Julius Ulke, the photographer of the expedition, had, along with his more famous brother Henry, lived across from Ford’s Theatre. After Lincoln was shot he was brought to their boarding house and both brothers aided in the efforts to save him by boiling water and bringing it to his bedside. After Lincoln died, Julius took the famous photo of Lincoln’s death bed. In 1881, Simon Newcomb attempted to locate the assassin’s bullet in President James Garfield using a metal detector he had invented. He was unsuccessful, according to some accounts because he was unaware that Garfield had installed metal spring mattresses in his quarters Link. So by coincidence, of the four members of the expedition, two had been involved in unsuccessful attempts to save assassinated US presidents. They must have had some interesting conversations. Rhys writes: There were some other presidential coincidences involving Robert Lincoln. He had been invited to join his father at the theatre on the night of Abraham’s assassination but declined. Had he gone, he would most likely have been seated where John Wilkes Booth would have encountered him first, perhaps giving him the opportunity to intervene. Some years later he witnessed James Garfield’s assassination and later still, was at the Pan-American Exposition when William McKinley was shot. You might also like this photograph of Abraham Lincoln during his second inaugural speech with, supposedly, John Wilkes Booth, other co-conspirators and possibly the owner of Ford’s Theatre looking on: Next up is Wade with proof: Lincoln Booth further citations towards the bottom of the discussion, Bonnie lists Chicago Tribune 25 April, 1865, The Washington Post 28 November, 1886, and Century illustrated Magazine, November,1893. Wow! I think we need to recruit Bonnie to Bizzare History!‘ Thanks Wade, Rhys and Howard!!
Princip’s Conscience: Adrian Sterling of Anomalist fame writes: Back in February you mused upon the fate of Gavrilo Princip. Today I saw this article. “Curveball” was asked if his lies started a war that killed many, he simply answered “yes”. Anyway I saw a weird correspondence there. It’s unfortunate that “Curveball” avoided a similar fate as Gavrilo.’ Thanks Adrian!
Night Climbing: Forrest writes in: ‘I just read your book review of “Nightclimbers of Cambridge”, and did a little poking around and ran across the following webpage containing some more info on the topic of night climbing: It includes a transcript of the “Roof Climber’s Guide”. Thanks Forrest!
Chick Peas: Adrian (of anomalist fame) has the menstrual lump down as a sootikin a new word for Beach’s vocabulary. Then Invisible dances with a feather crown: The “little garlands” in your post about the struggle to save young Francesca from evil influences brought to mind the “feather crowns” of folklore. They are circular feather formations found in pillows and featherbeds. I have always associated them with witchcraft or thought of them as an omen of death, but apparently they are also a sign that the dead person has gone to heaven. ( I can’t help but think that this is a later interpretation, meant to comfort those left behind. After all, if a loved one has died, which is more productive: assuming that the feather crown is a crown of glory or an artifact of witchcraft that must inevitably lead to investigations, trials, and lynch mobs?) Apparently there is a museum with a large collection of these items. Here is an excerpt from The Superstitious Mind: French Peasants and the Supernatural in the Nineteenth Century, Judith Devlin, which tells a similar story of an overlooked child—from 1954 France. And this excerpt from Hoosier Folk Legends, by Ronald L. Baker gives both interpretations of the feather crowns. And one more set of tales about feather crowns as the result of a curse: Isaac Bashevis Singer also wrote about feather crowns in the Jewish tradition in the short story, ”A Crown of Feathers”. Thanks Adrian and Invisible!
Honey and the Anvils of Women’s Thighs: Invisible writes in on a sceptical note and Beach can’t bear it. Don’t know about the other ingredients in this concoction, but I was told by a Middle Eastern Studies librarian that (Richard Burton’s translation aside) many of the stories in the 1001 Nights were the equivalent of our Traveling Salesman/Farmer’s Daughter tales–full of male fantasy sexual stereotypes and light smut. Thanks Invisible!!
Nanny Coincidence: Mike Dash writes in with this fabulous one! ‘I had not heard the Churhchill/Attlee story. But it put me immediately in mind of the astounding link between Kerensky and Lenin, two successive leaders of Russia (Kerensky as head of the Provisional Government that ruled from February to October 1917 and Lenin as… well, we know what Lenin did). At a time when Russia was a country of 100 million people, both these men were born in the same small town, Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) on the Volga, population 36,000. Moreover Kerensky’s father was Lenin’s headmaster, and wrote the famous (perhaps famously wrong) summary of his character, in Lenin’s final school report, that one sees mentioned in every Lenin biography: Quite talented, invariably diligent, prompt and reliable, Ulyanov was first in all his classes, and upon graduation was awarded a gold medal as the most meritorious pupil in achievement, growth and conduct. There is not a single instance on record, either in school or outside of it, of Ulyanov evoking by word or deed any adverse opinion from the authorities or the teachers of the school. More than this: when Lenin’s father died, Kerensky’s father became Lenin’s guardian. And the two families got to know each other well enough for Kerensky and Lenin to have mixed as boys. Hence: in 1914, Kerensky notes in his memoirs, he unexpectedly bumped into Lenin’s sister shortly before the outbreak of war. “Don’t worry,” he remembered telling her – this while Lenin was living in exile in Switzerland, and before the assassination in Sarajevo – “you will soon see him again. There will be a war and it will open to him the road to Russia.” By which point shivers have begun to travel up and down my spine, at least. Thanks Mike!
Witty Gravestones: Ricardo sends in an epic cemetery story: This is not an epitaph but is somehow related. The grave digger from my parents village come from a wealthy family. His management of the family wealth was not so good and he was throw into poverty. The village administration took care and gave him the job of grave digger. He seems to be known has harboring the wittines of someone who has been up there and now is down here. My parents village has one of those coffee places near the street, where old men stay baking in the sun outside, looking at each other and now and then exchanging some words. That is the setting. One day (I like to think of it during the summer) the grave digger went to the café, stopped for a brief moment in the street before entering and ‘Look here, oh, where all my money is waiting.’
(Vejam lá onde tenho o meu dinheiro empatado). And Invisible has a photograph. Thanks to both!
War in Dollyland: Penny writes in with this information. I came across your blog when I was doing some family history research on Harry Golding. I was wondering if you found out any more information.The Harry Golding that I know of was married to my Great grandmothers sister, Gertrude Rowland. According to census records he was, in 1871, a publisher,and 1901 an Editor and Publisher and at other times an editor. He was born between 1868 and 1871 to George and Phoebe in Kilburn and lived in Willesden, Middlesex. He and Gertrude had two children Cyril and Florence. Gertrude died in 1928 but I can’t pinpoint Harry’s death. (too many with the same name). I have been frustrated that there doesn’t seem to be any information about him on the web considering that he was so prolific. This is of course, assuming that he is the same Harry Golding of the Wonder book series. Although I have seen nothing to make me think otherwise. I live in Australia, so I am relying entirely on the internet for research. Beach would gladly pass messages on. In the meantime, thanks Penny!!
Newspaper Archives: Invisibile writes in: ‘You mention using the newspaper archives to try and verify stories such as the mermaid tales. I should think that the reverse would obtain: that anything found in a 19th century newspaper should be regarded with the utmost suspicion. It was the golden age of hoax stories, the best of which are difficult to distinguish from true forteana even today. I’ve been wrestling for some time with the veracity question and still haven’t got the hang of it. I’ve enjoyed obvious hoaxes, but have also verified stories that seemed patently impossible. It’s the more reasonable, plausible hoaxes that drive me mad. To state the obvious, some caveats in using 19th century newspapers: Distrust and verify. Damnably, hoax stories often contain names of real people and places. Context can be everything. One doesn’t cite an apparently serious account of an early flying machine if the author was known to have previously written only tall tales. Local knowledge can be invaluable. When a newspaper article mentions secret treasure caves in a place called “Mt. Nebo” in the northeastern corner of Ohio, it’s useful to know that a) Mt Nebo is in the southeastern part of the state and b) the caves, as situated by the article, do not exist and cannot exist due to the local geology. Recurring lurid stories about neighboring communities may reflect rivalry, rather than reality. Genealogy sites are useful, if tedious, for verifying the reality of persons mentioned in a story. However, they are not infallible. It is astonishing how far tales traveled–even the smallest of small town newspapers have articles about killer meteor showers in Persia or the habits of ostriches in South Africa. The degree of exaggeration is a natural tip-off. I think it is safe to say that the 200-foot-long Hideous Ice Worm was a journalistic invention. But what about the Two-Headed Baby of Morrow County? Or the Girl Buried Alive For Three Weeks? (Both actual events, although the burial was a publicity stunt for a “fakir.”) Sometimes, maddingly, stories will have no endings. I’ve been collecting stories about panics and local sensations (“Ghostly Woman in White Seen Again!” “Women Fear the Gum-Shoe Man!”) Some run over a series of weeks or even months. Others run for a few days and then stop. Nothing is ever heard on the subject again. Are these just hoaxes that had run their course? Newspapers weren’t shy about exposing supernatural hoaxers, as you might have gathered from the file of “joke” ghost stories I sent you a while back—they were very severe on sheeted young men jumping out of the bushes, scaring the womenfolk. So why did these stories have no official end? Or did they merely trail off in real life with no satisfactory ending? That said, I’m very grateful I can search and retrieve 18th- and 19th-century newspapers without going through microfilm motion-sickness. And sometimes you just want to enjoy a good yarn. To use a much later example, in response to your suggestion about studying historical anecdotes in the light of newspaper reports, I was struck by the irregular media coverage of a tragic local story. The story went that a number of teenagers had been hit by lightning at a mysterious stone structure known as Frankenstein’s Castle or Witches’ Tower. Naturally the marks of the burns were still visible on the stones and the ghosts of the victims were to be seen at the tower on stormy nights. It was an excellent ghost story, but I assumed it was the sort of folkloric tale that is told about any strange castle-like structure—except that I kept hearing it from librarians and public officials who had remembered it for 30 years and who swore that it was true. So I went in search of documentation. There was absolutely no news coverage in the Dayton/Kettering papers, even though the tower stands on the edge of downtown. I spoke with some older local firefighters and police officers who said they remembered the case, knew it had happened in the 1960s, but nobody had any specifics. Eventually I wrote about it as a local legend. It wasn’t until several years ago that Curt Dalton, a local historical researcher, found a small article about the tragedy in a Van Wert paper—a community over 90 miles north of Dayton. Armed with the names in that article, Curt located this article http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/frankenstein.html in a Xenia paper—a community about 30 miles from the death site and about 10 miles from the dead girl’s Bellbrook home. It is a mystery to me why this sensational story never made it into the local papers. Thanks Invisibile!
Force-feeding Queens: KHM writes in ‘The preference for the fat female seems to go back far into prehistory as the article below from Wikipedia on venus figurines indicates. Since thin females are less likely to conceive than fatter ones, the preference may be rooted in reproductive advantage, perhaps as in the cultural concept of the “earth mother.”The further back we go, the more important the earth mother, matriarchy and polyandry is relative to the male sky or heaven gods controlling the weather. It is quite possible that before the Biblical Fall both culture and religion revolved around the female rather than the male. (Adam was defined as includingboth male and female genders.) These extremely old traditions die very slowly – I think the Ottoman Turks were one of the last cultures to favor artificially fat females, but not to the same degree as the Ugandans, of course. Now that the biosphere is suffering from extinction of many species, especially those in the wild, the earth as a mother will be unappreciated andunrecognized. Free food derived from hunting, fishing and gathering in the wild will be replaced by human effort and intervention at all stages of the food production process. Expect females to lose much of their distinctive physical appearance as they dress and act more like males in the long-term future.’ Thanks KHM!!
Adult Changelings: Count Otto writes in.Concerning adult changelings – what exactly do you mean by this? Does the adult in question have to be actually done away with, or at least permanently removed, and replaced by a totally different person who may or may not look the same? If so, examples are probably very rare indeed. However, if the physical body remains the same, but the person inside is generally reckoned to be somebody else, does that count? And if so, does the transformation have to be absolute, or are there degrees of separation? Consider one of my favourite unashamed fraudsters of all time, Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. When it transpired that his physical body was in no way Tibetan, either genetically or in the sense of ever having been there, a convenient explanation was forthcoming whereby his soul was indeed that of a Tibetan lama, but his body was in every legally provable sense that of an Englishman who, thanks to a bizarre bird-watching accident, was now somebody else. Now, you may not believe that. Not many people do. Though you have to admire a man who with a perfectly straight face published the telepathically-dictated autobiography of his cat.However, a huge proportion of all the people who ever allegedly went to Fairyland were literally “not quite the same person” when they came back. And sometimes they didn’t come back for years. There is a very good case for suggesting that every fairy abductee was replaced by an actual fairy, and since fairies are generally reckoned to be highly intelligent, most of them more or less pulled it off, but they’re not perfect, so a few of them didn’t.Which ties in extraordinarily well with the modern alien abduction phenomenon. You’ve got your bog-standard abductees. Then you’ve got your star-children, who are in every biological sense human until the aliens whisk them away, and after that they suddenly announce that they aren’t human and somehow never were, and start displaying a combination of hitherto unadmitted artistic ability and rather vague psychic powers that would have come as no surprise at all to anyone who knew Thomas the Rhymer.And then you’ve got your “walk-ins” – biological humans who are suddenly somebody else because they have a totally alien consciousness. Effectively, 100% different people who happen to be identical in every way that you can actually prove. When you compare that with the medieval notions of possession and obsession (in its original sense of being demonically compelled to do things for no halfway logical reason), I think you’ll find that a very tangled can of worms has been opened.’ Thanks Count!!
Escaped Lions: Barry H writes in. As always with genealogical story Beach has carefully stored Barry’s email away and will be very happy to pass on any correspondence: This is an old family story, and it revolves around my great-grandfather who lived in the US, he was a wagonmaster at some point in his life; I know little else about him, his name was Mark Lilibridge Homan (b 1860 - d 1937). I’ll tell the story briefly, but remember that this could be a tall-tale that gets passed down through generations, and the facts get distorted along the way – I’ve tried researching the history, using the net, hoped to find some old, scratchy newspaper-accounts; but so far, I’ve had no luck in verifying any part of this tale. So goes the story, told to me by my father: Mark Homan was attending a travelling circus, this would probably have been somewhere in the American southwest, possibly California. At the time, he was presumably still a young man and in his prime, with his wits about him and courage to match. Mark was sitting up in the bleachers, under the circus tent, enjoying the show with many other patrons. When the lion act came on, a disaster happened: a lion escaped right in the middle of the act, was on free-foot and scowling at the fear-stricken crowd, calculating its next move. The crowd panicked, everyone jumped up and scurried up the bleachers, jumping off the backside, trying to escape from the tent. My great-grandfather, however, kept his head. He stood up and moved down the bleachers, jostling his way through the panicked mob, heading towards the lion. The lion hadn’t attacked anyone yet, it was probably a little confused by the sudden change in events. Great-granddad bustled his way towards the lion, the whole time fumbling with the buttons of his overcoat, until he finally managed to reach inside his coat and pull out his piece – have gun will travel, as the tradition was in those days. Mark Homan stepped up until he was quite close to the lion, as close as comfort would allow; with a steady hand, he levelled his gun, took aim, and fired. Dead on, he hit the lion right between the eyes, first shot - I know, it sounds like a line from a Rudyard Kipling book, but that’s how the story goes: disaster averted, beast slain, peace restored and my great-grandfather a hero, presumably. Mark Lilibridge Homan was laid to rest in a small cemetery in Phoenix, Arizona, in an unmarked grave. If I ever find concrete verification and proof of his involvement in this event, and should I be able to spare the funds, I may erect a tombstone at his gravesite - with a pictograph of his fearless deed displayed upon it. Tombstone, how apt, because if the story is true, then it was done in the real Wyatt Earp fashion! Thus endeth the tale. If you happen to come upon anything that might be related to this story, I’d love to hear from you. We’ll let you know Barry!
Human Confetti: KMH writes ‘Jim Jones had a similar charisma to Hitler who was often accused of being possessed. The same would apply to Jones even though his community was basically religious -communist. He and his followers were convinced that the Northern Hemisphere was destined for nuclear destruction, but life would go on more or less in the south. His followers drank the Kool-Aid (Flavor Aid) readily because they had drunk it ritualistically (for death) a number of times before with no cyanide, of course. This is where the phrase “don’t drink the Kool-Aid” originated. Kool- Aid and its imitators is made with sugar and mixed with a fruit flavour that came in an inexpensive packet of dry concentrate. In the fifties it was popular in the USA. Today we would call Jim Jones a classic example of a false prophet. The question is, did he have any real spiritual gift besides mesmerizing his audience with speaking ability. The evidence isn’t entirely conclusive. If so, he would fall into the line of Simon Magus of Acts 8:9-24 and qualify as a precursor to the false prophet of Revelation. Thanks KMH!
Accidentally Obscene: Invisible sends in this extract from a major British newspaper. It seems that that Austrian village is about to cave in. ‘A pictured postcard Austrian village is being forced to bow to the power of the English language by changing its name. The good people of F*****g hadn’t had a problem until pranksters began making fun of them, with phone calls and joke postcards. Now the village is set to vote on a switch and the 16th century version of the name ‘Fugging’ is likely to be adopted. It may be an end to the random telephone calls which recipients find considerably less amusing than the people making them.’ Thanks Invisible!
Britain as Isle of the Dead: First up is Wade: This link yields a long discussion of Celtic death beliefs. At page makers p.341, p.342 and p.343, the Procopius tale is discussed. While it doesn’t suggest an explanation, it indicates that this a local Breton coast belief.’ Then Invisible on the same lines: From The Fate of the Dead, A Study in Folk Eschatology in the West Country after the Reformation, Theo Brown, in Chapter VII “Entrances to the Other World” (pp 63-64) “On the continent, it seems possible that Britain itself was the Land of the Dead. In parts of Germany the Wild Hunt was called die Engelske Jagd, and, according to Hardwick [Charles Hardwick, Traditions, Superstitions and Folklore, Manchester, 1872, p. 177], the name of England was used to denote the realm to which the dead had gone. One cannot tell to what extent such notions may have been derived from Procopius, who wrote early in the sixth century A.D. that souls were conveyed in boats from Gaul to Britain on certain nights, and Souvêtre found that Breton fisherman around the Ile de St Gildas (off Port-Blanc, near Treguier on the Channel coast) remembered a similar tradition. [Emile Souvêtre: Les Derniers Bretons, 2nd edn, 1836, vol. I, pp. 37-8] Sébillot heard that on the sabbath, a boat would appear on the beach. There was no one aboard, but a voice would cry:’Embarque, allons en Galloway!’ Then the boat would slip off, so filled with invisible passengers, it seemed almost ready to sink.” [Paul Sébillot: Legendes locales de la Haute Bretagne, Nantes, 1899, I, ix.] Invisible also included a long but pertinent bit from Kipling: I wonder if Kipling knew his Procopius; this passage about the Dymchurch Flit from Puck of Pook’s Hillis very reminiscent, although perhaps any ferrying of invisible beings story would ring the same changes. ‘Now there was a poor widow at Dymchurch under the Wall, which, lacking man or property, she had the more time for feeling; and she come to feel there was a Trouble outside her doorstep bigger an’ heavier than aught she’d ever carried over it. She had two sons—one born blind, and t’other struck dumb through fallin’ off the Wall when he was liddle. They was men grown, but not wage-earnin’, an’ she worked for ’em, keepin’ bees and answerin’ Questions.’ ‘What sort of questions?’ said Dan. ‘Like where lost things might be found, an’ what to put about a crooked baby’s neck, an’ how to join parted sweethearts. She felt the Trouble on the Marsh same as eels feel thunder. She was a wise woman.’ ‘My woman was won’erful weather-tender, too,’ said Hobden. ‘I’ve seen her brish sparks like off an anvil out of her hair in thunderstorms. But she never laid out to answer Questions.’ ‘This woman was a Seeker like, an’ Seekers they sometimes find. One night, while she lay abed, hot an’ aching, there come a Dream an’ tapped at her window, and “Widow Whitgift,” it said, “Widow Whitgift!” ‘First, by the wings an’ the whistling, she [pg 245]thought it was peewits, but last she arose an’ dressed herself, an’ opened her door to the Marsh, an’ she felt the Trouble an’ the Groaning all about her, strong as fever an’ ague, an’ she calls: “What is it? Oh, what is it?” ‘Then ’twas all like the frogs in the diks peeping: then ’twas all like the reeds in the diks clipclapping; an’ then the great Tide-wave rummelled along the Wall, an’ she couldn’t hear proper. ‘Three times she called, an’ three times the Tide-wave did her down. But she catched the quiet between, an’ she cries out, “What is the Trouble on the Marsh that’s been lying down with my heart an’ arising with my body this month gone?” She felt a liddle hand lay hold on her gown-hem, an’ she stooped to the pull o’ that liddle hand.’ Tom Shoesmith spread his huge fist before the fire and smiled at it. ‘“Will the sea drown the Marsh?” she says. She was a Marsh-woman first an’ foremost. “No,” says the liddle voice. “Sleep sound for all o’ that.” ‘“Is the Plague comin’ to the Marsh?” she says. Them was all the ills she knowed. ‘“No. Sleep sound for all o’ that,” says Robin. ‘She turned about, half mindful to go in, but the liddle voices grieved that shrill an’ sorrowful she turns back, an’ she cries: “If it is not a Trouble of Flesh an’ Blood, what can I do?” ‘The Pharisees cried out upon her from [pg 246]all round to fetch them a boat to sail to France, an’ come back no more. ‘“There’s a boat on the Wall,” she says, “but I can’t push it down to the sea, nor sail it when ’tis there.” ‘“Lend us your sons,” says all the Pharisees. “Give ’em Leave an’ Good-will to sail it for us, Mother—O Mother!” ‘“One’s dumb, an’ t’other’s blind,” she says. “But all the dearer me for that; and you’ll lose them in the big sea.” The voices justabout pierced through her. An’ there was children’s voices too. She stood out all she could, but she couldn’t rightly stand against that. So she says: “If you can draw my sons for your job, I’ll not hinder ’em. You can’t ask no more of a Mother.” ‘She saw them liddle green lights dance an’ cross till she was dizzy; she heard them liddle feet patterin’ by the thousand; she heard cruel Canterbury Bells ringing to Bulverhithe, an’ she heard the great Tide-wave ranging along the Wall. That was while the Pharisees was workin’ a Dream to wake her two sons asleep: an’ while she bit on her fingers she saw them two she’d bore come out an’ pass her with never a word. She followed ’em, cryin’ pitiful, to the old boat on the Wall, an’ that they took an’ runned down to the Sea. ‘When they’d stepped mast an’ sail the blind son speaks up: “Mother, we’re waitin’ your Leave an’ Good-will to take Them over.”’ Tom Shoesmith threw back his head and half shut his eyes. ‘Eh, me!’ he said. ‘She was a fine, valiant woman, the Widow Whitgift. She stood twistin’ the ends of her long hair over her fingers, an’ she shook like a poplar, makin’ up her mind. The Pharisees all about they hushed their children from cryin’ an’ they waited dumb-still. She was all their dependence. ’Thout her Leave an’ Goodwill they could not pass; for she was the Mother. So she shook like a asp-tree makin’ up her mind. ’Last she drives the word past her teeth, an’ “Go!” she says. “Go with my Leave an’ Goodwill.” ‘Then I saw—then, they say, she had to brace back same as if she was wadin’ in tide-water; for the Pharisees justabout flowed past her—down the beach to the boat, I dunnamany of ’em—with their wives an’ children an’ valooables, all escapin’ out of cruel Old England. Silver you could hear clinkin’, an’ liddle bundles hove down dunt on the bottom-boards, an’ passels o’ liddle swords an’ shield’s raklin’, an’ liddle fingers an’ toes scratchin’ on the boatside to board her when the two sons pushed her off. That boat she sunk lower an’ lower, but all the Widow could see in it was her boys movin’ hampered-like to get at the tackle. Up sail they did, an’ away they went, deep as a Rye barge, away into the off-shore mistes, an’ the Widow Whitgift she sat down and eased her grief till mornin’ light.’ ‘I never heard she was all alone,’ said Hobden. ‘I remember now. The one called Robin he stayed with her, they tell. She was all too grievious to listen to his promises.’ ‘Ah! She should ha’ made her bargain beforehand. I allus told my woman so!’ Hobden cried. ‘No. She loaned her sons for a pure love-loan, bein’ as she sensed the Trouble on the Marshes, an’ was simple good-willing to ease it.’ Tom laughed softly. ‘She done that. Yes, she done that! From Hithe to Bulverthithe, fretty man an’ petty maid, ailin’ woman an’ wailin’ child, they took the advantage of the change in the thin airs just about as soon as the Pharisees flitted. Folks come out fresh an’ shining all over the Marsh like snails after wet. An’ that while the Widow Whitgift sat grievin’ on the Wall. She might have beleft us—she might have trusted her sons would be sent back! She fussed, no bounds, when their boat come in after three days.’ ‘And, of course, the sons were both quite cured?’ said Una. ‘No-o. That would have been out o’ Nature. She got ’em back as she sent ’em. The blind man he hadn’t seen naught of anything, an’ the dumb man nature-ally, he couldn’t say aught of what he’d seen. I reckon that was why the Pharisees pitched on ’em for the ferrying job.’ Thanks Invisible and Wade
Severed Head: Invisible writes with this calling into question the anecdote and its identification with Owen: I’m sorry to say that Ms. Cadbury seems to have been misled. I pulled up the reference from >shudder< Google Books and it says nothing whatever about Richard Owen, but is part of a series of comic vignettes written as fiction, apparently to mock popular superstitions about ghosts, goblins, haunted houses, etc. I’ve been unable to find out anything about the author as yet. I tried to attach a PDF of the relevant passage which is “Recollections and Reflections of Gideon Shaddoe Esq IX pp. 294-303. Signed by “Silas Seer” but it was taking hours to load. Perhaps you can pull the plain text from the link above so you don’t have to transcribe. It’s a lovely tale to attribute to Richard Owen, but I don’t think it will hold up. And given Owen’s propensity to appropriate other scientists’ research, it’s ironic that his name somehow should have become attached to this fiction. Then later the same day. Here’s a bit more about Hood’s Magazine and Comic Miscellany which makes it’ pretty clear that the Gideon Shaddoe series was written by Hood himself. He apparently wrote many satires on events of the day so it IS possible that Richard Owen was supposed to be recognized as the anatomist mentioned in the piece. I just haven’t found the clef to this comic roman if that’s what it is. Owen was such a prominent figure; he would have been ideal topical material Hood’s Magazine and Comic Miscellany was a monthly journal originally published by Thomas Hood. A total of 61 issues were published from January 1844 to June 1849. Hood made most of the original material for it. After his death in 1845, Charles Rowcroft became the editor. The magazine was not particularly successful, partly due to the refusal to take on a publisher. Hood wrote humorously on many contemporary issues. One of the most important issues in his time was grave robbing and selling of corpses to anatomists–another reason Owen might have been a target. Thackeray and Dickens mention Owen by name in The Newcomes and Our Mutual Friend respectively, briefly and in a mildly satirical vein. Richard Altick, in The Presence of the Present: Topics of the Day in the Victorian Novel has this to say about Thomas Hood. ‘With the exception of numerous treatments of public issues of the day in the form of ‘addresses’ to their respective proponents, Hood’s kind of topicalities did not relate primarily to news events. Instead, they took the form of witty improvisations on the trivia of everyday life, ‘manners’ as we would call them. From the perspective of a century and a half, they are closer to the weekly contents of Punch than to Byronic comedy. Buried in them are uncountable ‘in-jokes’ from which posterity is excluded. Only Hood’s contemporaries would have recognized them and welcomed their humor for whatever it was worth.’ Again, I suppose it is possible that Owen was the person alluded to in the severed head incident. But if he was, I’d just like to know how Ms. Cadbury deduced his identity. I spent the morning photographing the 20 B-25 bombers here for the Doolittle Raider 70th (and final) reunion and my computer is locked up loading them to my FB page. Otherwise I might have more answers for you! I still think, given the context of the Gideon Shaddoe series, which positions itself as a satire on the superstitions of the ignorant lower classes, that it’s reaching (without further proof) to assume that Owen was the target of that satire.’ Thanks Invisible!
Japanese Torpedo Boats: Celeste Culpepper writes in: ‘Am I the only person (I can’t be. I’m not that old) to be reminded of the 1964 Tonkin Gulf incident? Those Russian reports sound suspiciously like those of the US Navy at the time and, yes, the USN vessels did fire on each other, too. In other words, given a sufficiently belligerent context all vessels seem armed enemies just as at night all cats are black. I can’t be too judgemental about the Russian officers involved.’ Thanks CC!
Osiris and Mad Dadd: Invisible writes in: You undoubtedly have run across the fairy art of Charles Altamont Doyle (father of Arthur Conan Doyle). Also mad (he was an alcoholic, had seizures, and was periodically institutionalized) but his fairies are more whimsical and certainly less dire than Dadd’s whose work I cannot contemplate without feeling like I want to throw myself under a train. I can recommend The Doyle Diary: The Last Great Conan Doyle Mystery with a Holmesian Investigation into the Strange and Curious Case of Charles Altamont Doyle. There are very cheap used copies on bookfinder.com. More of a sketchbook than a diary–written/drawn while in a Scottish lunatic asylum. He seems to have been a loveable lunatic–the book is full of his witty appeals to his doctors, trying to prove he was not insane. Here are some pictures. Southern Man writes in with some suggestions for the corridor. The Cottingley Fairies (of course), engravings from nineteenth century books particularly Sykes, some of the early modern engravings of fairy hills, modern photographs with bits of luminous dust floating through the atmosphere, fairy sites on antique postcards, Neil Gaiman’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, particularly his version of Puck, Victorian stage girls dressed as fairies – preferably floating through the air. Thanks Invisible and SM!
Style Guide: This one comes from Invisible and is a lot of fun from an experienced writer. On writing introductions: a) get someone famous or amusing to do it for you. b) do it only after the entire book is written. In teaching writing I’ve found that the one thing that stops people absolutely dead is trying to start at the beginning. Quotes from Advice to Writers: A Compendium of Quotes, Anecdotes, and Writerly Wisdom from a Dazzling Array of Literary Lights by Jon Winokur “The only way to write is well and how you do it is your own damn business.” –A.J. Liebling “Best advice I’ve ever received: Finish.” –Peter Mayle One of the best sets of advice for fiction writers is “Notes for a Young Writer” by Shirley Jackson. Not advice, but a look at the “unspeakable horror of the literary life”: The Unstrung Harp or Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel by Edward Gorey: Several other memorable quotes: I just sit at a typewriter and curse a bit. - P G Wodehouse Remember that once something is written down it becomes truth. – Gary Henderson And my own line, which I often quote to would-be writers, but don’t always live by: A page a day is a book a year. Literally!’ Thanks Invisibile!!
Did Christ Exist? SY writes in with this link to a controversial argument about this controversial passage alleging that it is a later interpolation. Phil P comes close to this as well: While I am not a Christian either, I tend to treat Jesus much like the Buddha: as someone who had a great awakening. That having been said, Your quote from Paul troubles me in that he says, “He was buried, and three days later he was raised to life, as the Scriptures say’. What scriptures could he be referring to in 50 CE? A messiah is foretold in Hebrew scriptures but not the resurrection. Is this a translation error? Something added in by the church later?’ The great Ashley Pond writes in with more general thoughts: I haven’t seen the God Movie but keep meaning to: I have read all the original drafts and excerpts of The Rejection of Pascal’s Wager: A Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible and the Historical Jesus and know the author (the way I “know” you): (academically really sound with deeply detailed citations and sources; embarrasses me for how lazy my “scholarship” is). I of course have my own opinions on the Hebrew! Huge tracts of both story outline and even verbatim text attributed to and about THE CHRIST are anything from Babylonian to Egyptian—a laundry list of paganism’s perpetual and uncomfortable grafting onto theunderstand, not a single document of any variety supporting Jesus of Nazareth’s literal existence outside the gospels which, as I’m sure you know, don’t bear up well historically under disinterested scrutiny.’ And finally KMH A problem with the scholarly approach is that it is so difficult to empathetically enter in to epochs existing thousands of years in the past. The attitude toward written documents and the ease of their creation has changed substantially with advancing technology, so the likelihood of deliberate or inadvertent written falsehoods can be difficult to assess by modern standards. We know that the 20th century’s propensity for deliberately false statements and documents is without parallel in recorded history. This, unfortunately, affects the attitude toward any and all historical writings. In considering whether Christ actually existed, we need to determine whether any religious figure qualifies for existence according to the standard applied. If Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, or even Muhammad, etc., are accepted as actually existing, it can strengthen the implicit case for Christ. Of course, I believe there is no doubt that Muhammad existed, so there is some additional documentary evidence from the Koran concerning Christ’s existence, besides Christian documents. From my point of view, the important question isn’t whether Christ existed, but whether he really is who he said he is. This will be where the battle rages as false christs, false prophets, and anti-christs gain more and more of the public’s attention.’ Greg also writes in: ‘I just thought I would throw out some suggested reading on the existence of Christ. I’m sure you have heard of N T Wright. His series on Christian Origins and the Question of God series is massive and stimulating. Maybe some of your readers would like to check them out. N T Wright is a Christian Anglican Bishop of course, but his examinations especially in the first book (The New Testament and the People of God) of the various approaches to the early Christian sources and Roman Palestine are fascinating for anyone. Lots of great philosophy of history in there. As well as an interesting case for the resurrection based on readings of the ghost mythology of Romans and Jews.’ Thanks Greg, Ashley, KMH, Phil and SY!
Singing Enemy Songs: First on the subject of LM Howard M writes ‘I thought you might enjoy — if enjoy is the right word — this version (attached) of 07 Lilli Marleen recorded by Goebbel’s own propaganda swing band, Charlie and His Orchestra. It’s a bit atypical for Karl Schwendler’s outfit, since this is performed straight and sentimental. Nonetheless, the Reich seemed to feel that a German song popular with Allied soldiers had some propaganda value, or they wouldn’t have recorded it. Note that it’s not the usual English translation, and was probably written by Schwendler himself. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the music of Charlie and His Orchestra; their best-known recordings are parodies of popular American and British dance numbers, characterized as much by exceptional musicianship as by lyrics full of antisemitism, racism, and frequent boasts of Aryan supremacy. The history of jazz and jazz musicians under the Third Reich is fascinating in and of itself (Jews! Drug addicts! Negermusik!), but I’m a little too steeped in jazz history to know if it qualifies as “strange” for your purposes.’ Katie J writes in ‘After the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, the Union regimental bands started playing at twilight. They played pro-Union songs, naturally. After a while, Confederate band started playing their songs. Finally, the Confederates started to play, ‘Home, Sweet Home’ and Union bands joined in. It’s recorded that soldiers of both sides joined in. I’m pretty sure that ‘Home, Sweet Home’ was a neutral song, but Fredericksburg was a horrific battle and oddly enough, there are a few well-documented acts of kindness and mercy between the opposing armies. Perhaps the combatants felt the need to reassure themselves of their common humanity.’ On the Civil War there is, as Tacitus points out, that beautiful story about Dixie. Abe Lincoln was said to be rather fond of Dixie Invisible writes in with an example of the Battle of the Bands also from the CW: See Battle of the Bands and the Battle of the Bands at Stone River. ‘As’ Invisible continues ‘for soldiers being brought together by music, (but not on opposing sides) you can do worse than think of all the regimental pipers who stood their ground in the face of charging cavalry, rallied the wavering when badly wounded, and piped their men over the top or onto the beaches. Here’s the obituary of one, The Mad Piper, Bill Millin JEC writes ‘When I think of incidents of one side singing the enemy’s songs, I’m reminded of a scene from the book Das Boot and the movie of the same name in which the crew of u-boat U-96 lustily sing ‘Its A Long Way To Tipperary’. The book was written in 1973 by former Kriegsmarine propaganda officer Lothar-Günther Buchheim and, while fictionalized, closely follows his mission on the real U-96 in 1941. In the scene, the politically reckless captain clearly enjoys ordering his over-formal First Officer, a committed Nazi, to replace a Berlin propaganda broadcast being played over the p.a. system with the old English music hall song. The crew’s enthusiastic singing tells the reader/viewer that they heartily approve of the little tweak of the young Nazi’s inflated ego. Because the book and film are so well documented as having been heavily autobiographical, I feel safe in submitting this as a real-life incident.’ As a sidenote, the captain of the actual U-96, Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, was awarded the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernes Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub) for conspicuous and multiple incidents of gallantry, and, although wounded in action, survived the war to serve as a consultant on the masterful 1981 Wolfgang Petersen film based on Buxhheim’s book.’ KMH writes: Music itself does have a particular quality of rising above national distinctions. Is it possible to imagine a world where German music was appreciated only by the Germans, Russian music only appreciated by the Russians, etc.? Music, as the world’s foremost international language, seems to have done its share in promoting a global reluctance to indulge in genocidal thoughts and activities. The exception seems to be the Muslims, who have their own music, but non-Muslims aren’t aware of or familiar with it. Problem nations aren’t musical nations. The same goes for problem ideologies. This may be one reason why they inevitably fail to achieve their objectives.’ And to round off perfectly Grand Old Partisan, Michael Zak sent in this video of that famous Cold War Warrior Edward Rowny playing LM on his harmonica. Mike Zak also writes in: ‘Yankee Doodle was originally a British mockery of the American colonials’ Thanks to MZ, KMH, Invisible,Tacitus, Katie J. and Howard!
Strange Museums: JB writes in ‘Dear Beach, my guess is that you are befuddled with old age and that you are thinking of the Gnome Reserve in Devon (rather than in Cornwall). And I quote from their very entertaining website: For a completely unique 100% fun experience, simultaneously 100% ecologically interesting, with an extra 100% wonder and magic mixed in, visit The Gnome Reserve. Set amid truly rural countryside between Bideford and Bude just 7 miles from the Devon Cornwall border. the 4 acre Reserve comprises woodland, stream, 30 yard pond, meadow and garden – home to 1000+ gnomes and pixies, and about 250 labelled species of wild flowers, herbs, grasses and ferns. Gnome hats are loaned free of charge together with fishing rods, so you don’t embarrass the gnomes! Take your cameras and embarrass the family with some truly memorable photos for the family album! The children will love it because there is so much for them to discover from a woodpecker in a tree to a pixie flitting over clumps of comfrey. Recommended also for adults whose sophistication can have robbed them of a freshness of vision…The Gnome Reserve will rejuvenate you!’ Pam makes the same point: ‘Is the gnomereserve the place you’re searching for, Dr. B? They have a Gnome Museum there. I remember driving by it on my way to and from Tintagel. (The yard was *filled* with gnomic statuary.) I didn’t get a chance to visit the reserve as I was with two non-gnome/fairy fetishists and they weren’t interested. Since my friends had indulged my Arthur mania, including climbing up to Tintagel Castle, I thought I should leave well enough alone. I also have a vague memory of reading something in Fortean Times about a lady who had a museum and communed with gnomes (or fairies or pixies or…), but a search of their site yielded a big zero in that regard. Perhaps the gnomes have fogged my memory, or there’s some Big Conspiracy to suppress the Truth. It couldn’t be that I have a bad memory.’ The gnome reserve still hasn’t written back. Heidi Fury comes up with Marshsfreemuseum ‘It’s not terribly museumy, but maybe something there will catch your fancy.’ Lehmansterms writes (seconded by Dennis): It’s probably not among the oddest of all museums, but it contains some of the more bizarre items in what is a decidedly bizarre museum genre, the Mutter Museum at the University of Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia museum/campus has a few of the odder medical marvels Lehmansterms ever saw on public display – and in it’s heyday in the 60′s he saw and toured, more than once, the Army Medical Museum and Library in Washington D.C. At one time just across Independence Ave. from the Smithsonian’s venerable “castle”, it was moved to a far less visible location at the Walter Reed Medical Center (and, I believe, recently closed for good). The Mutter’s collection includes, among other items, the shared liver of Chang & Eng – Barnum’s original “Siamese Twins”, the “Soap Lady” – a saponified Colonial-era corpse unearthed in the 19th century, and an enormous collection of objects removed from the throats of choking victims rescued from the brink of death by the first revolutionary 19th century optical “endoscope”-type looker-grabber device. There are also a few skeletons of legitimate, non-hoax, physical bones (and not concrete castings or stone carvings) of actual human giants, to refer to a subject evidently of some interest to the good Dr. B. Photos on Google from the Mutter. A more informative, official website on the Mutter. The old Army Medical Museum - Lehmansterms also recalls what he found to be an extremely unusual exhibit in another of his original hometown, Philadelphia’s museums. Otherwise to be considered unusual only for the vast breadth and wealth of its collections (and for being the largest example of Classical Greek archtecture in the world, including Greece), this is the noted and notable Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the mid 90′s, while on a visit with his 3 daughters and a Swedish exchange student his ex was then hosting, we encountered in a back stairwell a large vitrine full of Victorian-era (lehmansterms believes he recalls) plaster casts of human genetalia. While the “plaster-casters” were a short-lived phenomenon recording the endowments of some of the more famous musicians of the early Psychedelic rock era - and, lehmansterms supposes, could be considered “Art” in an era in which handicrafters the like of Robert Mapplethorpe, et als, are considered to be artists - these were of a different time altogether, if not of dissimilar substance.’ Bennett has more on the phallic museum Ervy sends in this classic from Alberta: ‘Strange but true, Torrington is the home to the infamous Gopher Hole Museum. This attraction features stuffed gophers (Richardson ground squirrels) posed in a series of 47 anthropomorphic scenes, from a hair dresser to a preacher to an RCMP officer. Located north of Calgary, east of Olds on highway #27. Open daily from 10am to 5pm. Admission $2 for adults.’ Thanks to Lehmansterms, JB, Pam, Bennett, Ervy and Heidi Fury!!!
Irish Invade Canada: The great Mike Dash writes in: There are “men who would be king” stories, and then there is the saga of William Walker, the American journalist who led several private armies – the “filibusters” – into central America in the 1850s. A great believer in white supremacy and Manifest Destiny, Walker kicked off with a 45-man invasion of Baja California and managed to hold it briefly as the Republic of Lower California before being ejected by the Mexicans. Seeking a softer target, he raised a second tiny force and invaded Nicaragua in 1854. Opportunely arriving in the middle of a civil war (perhaps not such an unlikely coincidence in the Americas of that period) with a mere 60 men, he recruited a few more locally and took sides, backing the Democrats against the Legitimists and fairly rapidly succeeding in installing himself as the power behind a Democratic government. From there he was but a short stab in the back from setting himself up as President of Nicaragua. Walker controlled the country for about a year, thanks in part to the financial backing of good old Cornelius Vanderbilt, and made plans to extend his rule to neighbouring countries. He also tried to recruit more men from the Southern US states by proposing to reintroduce the institution of slavery, outlawed in Nicaragua in 1824. His career ended messily; expelled by a coalition of Guatamalan, Honduran and Salvadorian troops, Walker made an attempted comeback in 1860 only to fall into the hands of a Royal Navy squadron based on the Mosquito Coast. The British handed him over to the Hondurans, who shot him in September 1860. I am sure there must be quite a few other examples – the founders of quite a few Chinese dynasties started out as minor league peasant rebels, for instance – but Walker is probably the most spectacular relatively recent one; and despicable as his intentions were, his military successes, however short-lived, do faintly echo those of Stout Cortez. I thought enough of Walker’s story to pitch the idea as a book a few years back, but oddly enough American publishers weren’t interested in a study of maverick right-wing American Exceptionalists wreaking havoc in less technologically advanced nations on behalf of the nineteenth century equivalent of Big Oil. Thanks Mike!
Happy May to all!
B
Beachcombed 22 April 1, 2012
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
Dear Reader,
The Beachcombed post is normally the moment when Beachcombing takes pause. Today, however, there is simply no time. Mrs B is back, but until Easter there is no danger of things slackening. Perhaps by then we’ll have an aupair?
So enjoy the following ten thousand best words from readers’ emails from this month.
Huge apologies for unanswered emails. Beachcombing hopes to get to these as soon as term will allow. Many have not yet been opened…
Beach
Escaped Lions: Leslie writes in: This instance of an escaped lion only happen a year ago, so it’s not as historical as the other fun instances. But it is still fun (if you can call escaped lion stories fun). It happened in Zanesville Ohio, not far from where I live. This guy owned a private zoo, and someone made a very unfortunate mistake . . . well, long story short there were so many animals that escaped that wildlife expert Jack Hanna said it was like “Noah’s Ark wrecked in Zanesville.” They had to shoot to kill, since Jack Hanna informed them tranquilized lions would only get angry and they are very good hunters in the dark. I found the story from the BBC to make it seem more international. Tacitus from Detritus writes on the same topic: Zaneville is more or less the Battle of Somme regards escaped wild things. Happened last year and if I recall rightly the low life owner of this mangey menagerie committed suicide after opening the cages. Final toll more one sided than day one Somme: 18 tigers, 17 lions, 8 bears, three cougars, two wolves and a baboon who might reasonably be considered the brains of the outfit. The Zanesville SWAT team got a lot of good stories to tell.’ Invisible has four New York Times archive stories: (1), (2), (3) and (4). Colleen, meanwhile, is thinking of the tragic figure of Harold Davidson. As she points out it is not an escaped lion story as such but a lion features prominently. Davidson had been sacked as a vicar for supposed dalliances with prostitutes. In his attempts to clear his name he went to eccentric ends. ‘For the summer season in 1937 Davidson worked at Thompsons’ Amusement Park in Skegness, where he was billed as “A modern Daniel in a lion’s den”. He would enter a cage with a lion called Freddie and a lioness called Toto, and talk for about ten minutes about the injustice he felt had been meted out to him. On 28 July, he was moving through his act when he accidentally tripped on the tail of the lioness. Presumably perceiving this as an attack, Freddie the lion attacked and mauled him. Renee Somer, the 16-year-old lion attendant, entered the cage and fought the lion back using a 3 ft whip and an iron bar. Davidson was taken to Skegness Cottage Hospital with a neck injury and broken collar-bone and lacerations on his upper body. The lion had mauled him at the neck leaving a gash behind his left ear.’ Thanks Invisible, Colleen, Tacitus and Leslie!!
Irish Giants: MacMac writes in with this brilliant piece: The Irish Giant is an enigmatic character to be sure. But the creator of the Giant, and the back story associated, would test the fancies of Munchhausen. I can also address for you the fate of the body. I have researched for several years an Australian petrified giant displayed to the public of Sydney in May 1889. He was known as the “Marble Man of Orange”. His creator was one Guiseppe F. Sala. In tracing his exploits, I discovered that Sala under the pseudonym Salle was in fact one of the carvers of the original Cardiff Giant. He was not the originator of that hoax, the honour of which belongs to George Hull, who intended to lampoon religious zealots faith in the literalness of the Biblical “there were giants in the earth”. Sala confessed his part in 1902, and Hull named him that year just prior to his own death. Sala was one of two stone carvers engaged in Chicago and kept on site with “buckets of beer” so that they wouldn’t wander off for a drink and give the game away. Having observed the success of the 1869 Cardiff Giant in gathering coin from the curious, Sala moved to Troy NY where gainful employ as a monumental sculptor (the Clock Tower in Buffalo NJ is adorned with his statues) soon gave way to a hoaxing of his own with a “petrified man” in New Hampshire. I’ve traced his (and his sons) exploits through at least six more hoaxes, including the Irish Giant (see below) and the Australian Marble Man, and even a second Marble Man after debts forced the sale of the first. If you would indulge me, rather than re-write the episode, I’ve lifted from an earlier draft article of mine (with footnotes) not as yet having found a publisher. I hope you find some amusement in the story. “Back in 1876, New York had been scandalised by the exhumation and abduction of the body of the recently deceased retail magnate Alexander T. Stewart. While ransoms had been sought for return of the body, accusations levelled and rumours floated, the corpse had still not been found by 1879. In August of that year, Guiseppe Sala put in a clandestine appearance before one Judge Hilton with a confession to a tale of treachery involving international grave robbing, petrifications and a New York femme fatale.[35] Sala claimed that towards the end of his time in Troy [1876], he had fallen in with a gang of three men and a woman of “rare beauty” and “notorious past”, both banker and controller of the gang. Sala had bragged to the woman of knowing the secret of petrifying bodies, seeming to imply he could turn old or fresh corpses to stone. Soon Sala found himself discussing schemes of substituting petrifications for buried celebrities, or “resurrecting” bodies for a ransom. For a sum, Sala then embarked with the gang for London with no less an intention than digging up the body of the infamous American traitor Benedict Arnold and ransoming the body. The local police confounded their plans, and Sala with two members of the gang departed for Ireland. Sala traveled there with another stone-cutter named Dye or Dyer, and another gang member named E. J. Ford, whose father had been Superintendent of the Poor back in Troy county.[36] An initial scheme once in Ireland was to disinter a statue to be secreted on the property of the Earl of Leitrim that would be exhibited as “the true St Patrick”. This idea quickly gave way to another equally audacious. In May 1876, Sala carved a limestone colossus at the coastal village of Green Isle, located about 10 miles north of Belfast and 2 miles from Carrickfargus. The body was secreted away on a farm owned by an accomplice named Coleman located close to the Giant’s Causeway. In June, the figure was unearthed in County Antrim and claimed, to the great astonishment of the Irish who flocked to the site, as the petrified body of none less than the mythical Irish Giant, Finn MacCoul. With due apologies to purists of the Feanna myth cycles, MacCoul will forever be mainly associated with the more populist legend involving the creation of the Giant’s Causeway. This story goes that the geological feature was created by the hurling of rock’s at a rival Scottish giant Fergus during a legendary feud. With the close association by geography, the claimed petrified body was also known as the “Causeway Giant”. [37] The giant was a sensation at first, and was attended by a throng of sightseers intent on viewing the 12 foot 2 inch [3.7 metres] high figure with the heroically non-petite 6 ft 6 inch [2 metres] chest, weighing in at over 2 ton (2.03 tonnes) and with six toes upon one foot.[38] The gang appeared not to have heard of the legends of an entire “petrified city” beneath the waves of Lough Neagh just a few miles south of their chosen location, or they could have swollen the petrified population.[39] Sala claimed that he departed Ireland at the end of May 1876 just before the “discovery”. After a successful exhibit in the area local to the find, the “Irish Giant” was taken by Dye or Dyer to Dublin, thence to Liverpool and Manchester with viewing at 6 pence per head [40]. An interest in the Giant was sold to a local entrepreneur named Kershaw, and the giant shipped to London. The strangest item in left luggage history was occasionally reported upon in local papers through the years. The Strand of 1895 claimed it had been abandoned by Dyer without Kershaw’s knowledge, and ownership was disputed in the courts. Sala’s story instead was that suspicion had been aroused concerning the Giant’s genuineness and the police had prevented further exhibition until this was resolved. The Irish Giant’s unfitting demise in the 1940s was noted recently in Fortean Times, which reported that the body—cleverly nicknamed “Patrick”—had apparently been used to fill a WWII bomb crater [see Fortean Times 217:72]. RIP Patrick the Causeway Giant. Sala went on to tell Judge Hilton that on the return to New York the gang soon plotted robbing A.T.Stewart’s body from its vault. The idea developed over several more meetings almost up to the actual event, but when Sala demanded more money to play his part in the scheme, the lady banker cooled his involvement.[41] Sala’s accusations against Ford and others soon quietened when he was paid a small stipend and travelled to Troy with detectives to point out accomplices. On arrival there, Sala claimed the money was not sufficient to betray the culprits, fearing reprisals. Judge Hilton and his detectives lost patience, and the grave robbing tale eventually appeared to be little other than a false lead.[42] Stewart’s remains were never recovered. [35] New York Times, 14 August 1879, p. 2 [36] New York Times, 15 August 1879, p. 5 [37] The Galveston Daily News, 2 January 1878, col G [38] The Strand Magazine, December 1895, pp. 646-647. The Leeds Mercury,1 June 1876, p. 2. [39] See James Joyce, Ullyses. It is an Irish superstition based on frequent discovery of petrified wood [known locally as “petrified potatoes”] along the shore. See Buckland, W., ‘On the Occurrence of Nodules [called Petrified Potatoes] found on the Shores of Lough Neagh in Ireland’, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1846, v. 2, issue.1-2, pp. 103-104. [40] Liverpool Mercury, 8 July 1876; Fortean Times 215:75 [41] New York Times, 14 August 1879, p. 2 [42] New York Times, 15 August 1879, p. 5; Fanebust, W., The Missing Corpse: Grave Robbing a Gilded Age Tycoon, 2005.’ We are in awe of Mac Mac!
Snakes and St Patrick: Karen writes in: In response to “Snakes, Fairies, and St. Patrick” wherein you were wondering about prechristian Irish mythology regarding snakes, this seems to be applicable. I say seems to be, because the author, A. V. Koltypin, did not give the reference on this page. However, since Fomorian lore is of Irish origin, if this quote is valid it must have come from Irish myth. Mr. Koltypin does mention that sources are in his book, apparently written in Russian.It mentions “holding an arm in a snake nest” a curious thing in a land without snakes. “Truly, to fight against Fomorians was all the same to punch a wall by head, to hold an arm in a snake nest, or to substitute a face to flame.” One more interesting note: here we might have the first source for the saying “It’s like beating your head against a wall” which we all still recognize to this very day… Thanks Karen!
British Obsessing about WW2: KMH writes: Since the USA has engaged in politically difficult conflicts since WWII, (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) the war has receded from the public consciousness. The only ones left who participated in it are now approaching their nineties. If the British had suffered through another period of hostilities in the 70 odd years since WWII it might also have had the same effect. The economic recoveries of Japan and Germany (and perhaps also Italy) may have helped to redirect their political attention away from the war. And now China has entered into its economic boom era. Russia is still focusing on WWII perhaps because its communist leaders rejected help with economic recovery through the Marshall Plan. The large quantity of military aid to Russia in the war seems to have been forgotten about. To both forget and forgive can take quite a while, but without learning lessons from history we are bound to repeat it. Battles from the US Civil War are still being re-enacted – a reflection of the traumatic effect of this war on the American spirit. Thanks as always KMH!
Humber Stone: Southern Man writes in with this extract from Colin Wilson’s Poltergeist. A huge ancient stone called the Humber Stone, near my home town, Leicester, as similar legends associated with it. It is also known as the Hell, Holy and Host stone, the last two suggesting it was once used for ritual purposes. It is believed to have been washed down the valley of the River Soar by an ice-age glacier. At the time of writing (1981) the Leicester planning authorities are thinking of building a housing estate around the site of the stone, and the Old Humberstone Historical Society has been approached about the possibility of excavating it and superintending its removal. In the Leicester Mercury, Mrs J. Bailey of the Society is quoted as saying that the Society doesn’t want to excavate because of what has happened to others. She speaks of a young man who placed a clock on top of the stone – and it promptly stopped; a clockmaker could find nothing mechanically wrong with it, but it still refused to start. Mrs Bailey had an interesting suggestion about moving the stone: ‘Talk to it. I believe that if you told it that it would be removed to a safe place where no damage would come to it, there would be not trouble. I believe there would be disastrous results otherwise… The article mentions events that sound similar to the ‘curse’ on the Irish stone circles: in the nineteenth century, William Pochin of Barkby investigated the Humber Stone, and then had an accident with a firearm in which he blew off half his hand. The farmer who owned the land allowed his plough to break off parts of the stone in the eighteenth century; legend has it that he never again prospered and died in the workhouse. A curate who covered over the stone (it was almost totally buried in the ground in the early nineteenth century, as it is again today) was thrown from his gig shortly afterwards. Another issue of the Leicester Mercury specifically suggests that the stone is associated with ‘supernatural’ forces. A ten-year-old boy named Billingham startled his art teacher by drawing a creature with a goat’s head, long curving horns, a man’s body and cloven hoofs. He explained that it was a thing he often saw at the end of his bed. The house he lived in was close to the Humber Stone. The boy’s mother subsequently decided to move from the house, alleging it was haunted; the people who took it over also moved within two months . Mrs Billingham said that she and her husband had once heard crying when the children were in bed; they went to investigate and found they were quietly reading. ‘My husband and I saw a cat which jumped on our bed. We searched for it but couldn’t find it. We never owned a cat. I felt I was never alone in that house’. In this case, the Humber Stone seems to affect several houses in the area. When they told their neighbours why they were moving, the neighbours described waking up in the middle of the night and seeing a monk in an attitude of prayer in their bedroom. Two exorcisms had been carried out in nearby houses. A few days later the Mercury followed up the earlier story. Mrs Billingham’s parents still live in the area, and they contacted the reporter to report their own experience. On one occasion, they stayed in the house overnight, looking after the children while the Billinghams were away. On the night in question we went to bed about 11 pm and fell asleep. However, I was roughly awakened, feeling that my life was being choked out of my body. Although I couldn’t see anyone in the darkness, I suffered the terrible sensation of being strangled and could actually feel someone – something – exerting a vice-like grip around my throat , so much that I was forced back into the pillow. It was not a nightmare. I was fully awake, but unable to scream. I shook my husband from seemed a trance-like slumber. He immediately switched on the light, and although we couldn’t see anyone in the room, the temperature had dropped considerably. I was unable to utter a word… [I don’t know] whether it was because I am slightly psychic that the presence was drawn to me. I only know that I could sense evil in that house. Her husband, like Mrs Billingham’s, never experienced anything unusual, but ‘did witness the extremely disturbing effects on his wife, daughter and grandchild’. Thanks SM, particularly for the typing!!!
Dutch Mermaid: Trevor writes: In 1403 there a major dyke breach from the Zuiderzee leading to extensive flooding, 50 years after William V had awarded Edam civil privileges and the right to build a harbour, which led to a rapid increase in wealth but afaik no great problems with Haarlem. The first known reference to the mermaid is 200 years later on a gable stone on the old Purmer Gate in Edam, 60 years after Charles V had ordered the connection with the Zuiderzee to be dammed to prevent flooding, putting an end to Edam’s maritime ambitions. So I figure her function is wistful, rather like pub signs of Queen Vic in post-imperial Britain. The Muiden mermaid also deals with shifting sands. Before Muiden was fortified and before the munitions factory it was presumably a small collection of filthy fishers’ hovels with a toll house, and the rhyme she speaks to the fishermen after they’ve let her go is Muden sal Muden bliven, Muden sal nyet becliven = more or less There’s always be a Muiden, Muiden will not endure. How poetic, the contradiction, say van Gouw & ter Lennep None of this answers the question as to how a woman with the tail of a fish coped with clogs.’ Thanks Trevor!
White Ladies: Invisible sets off the chase with what a very useful handlist: all hail Invisible! ‘You ask: Any other white women ghosts? Surely you do not want to open that particular can of ectoplasm? One could write a wholeseries of books on Ladies in White as they are ubiquitous in world ghost lore. Explanations? No more than for any other kind of ghost.Take your pick from some of the following options: 1) The nun (either walled up for sexual dalliances or as a memory of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.) I’ve always thought that some of these “nun” ghosts were simply medieval women in their habitual wimples/coifs read by romantic 19th century witnesses as religious garb. While some nun ghosts do appear in medieval literature (usually as souls requesting prayers to spring them from Purgatory), they are primarily a post-Reformation vision, with their heyday in the 19th century. Think The Nun of Borley, with her planchette-driven saga of illicit love and bones in the basement. 2) Murder victims, usually aristocratic ladies or servant girls seduced and abandoned 3) The ghostly bride, either left at the altar or dying on her wedding day. 4) Willow-the-wisps/Swamp gas. There are tales from the Gettysburg battlefield (many from soon after the battle) about human-shaped, luminous apparitions. It has been suggested that these were the methane of decomposition rising from shallow graves. 5) Earthquake lights in a portal area interpreted as human figures (See Michael Persinger) 6) Apparitions of the Virgin Mary 7) “Stone tape” recordings of Druid priestesses or Vestal virgins 8) A “nymph” “recorded” in a “field” of water (See T.C. Lethbridge in Ghost and Ghoul) 9) Something to do with the custom of burying the newly baptised in their chrism robes. 10) Echoes of the Burial in Woolen Act—the dead were shrouded in white/whitish cloth, so their ghosts must return in white as well. White was a preferred burial garb color for women and children from the 17th century (and possibly earlier) through the 1920s, perhaps because women were often buried in their (white) nightclothes and young childrens’ clothes were primarily white, signifying innocence. Look at a collection of post-mortem photographs or portrait miniatures for confirmation. In many parts of Asia, white is the mourning/funeral color and white-clad ghosts are the rule rather than the exception. The Philippine Islands have a particularly rich tradition of vampiric white lady ghosts. 11) A reflection of the pallor of death My question is: if witnesses see a veiled woman in white, what factors determine whether that apparition is interpreted as a classic ghostly woman in white, a ghost bride, a ghostly nun, or the Virgin Mary? Women in white are often seen as an omen of death, such as the White Lady of Falkenstein or the Hohenzollern White Lady. The Habsburgs also have a White Lady who appears at Schoenbrunn Palace. The idea of White Ladies as an omen of death naturally leads us to the famous Australian “White Ladies” funeral directors. Here’s a useful overview of some US White Lady legends. One of the more fascinating ghosts in this category is that of Lady Hoby, who appears with a black face and white clothing, like a photographic negative. Oh and a white lady meets the fairy tree! Blanching in horror…. Radko meanwhile comes in with a Czech version (just so no one is tempted to get parochial here) ‘Hi Dr Beach, After reading your last entry about the white women ghosts I thought I’d share a legend from my home town, Cesky Krumlov. The legend states that the white lady disappeared and never appeared again but there are numerous reports of sightings to this day. My former neighbour who is a skeptic in all things supernatural swears that when working in the castle he saw the white lady also. I’m bigger skeptic than him and believe he was hallucinating. RadkoTale of the White LadyPerchta Rosenberg, graceful, lovely daughter of Jindrich II. Rosenberg, spent a happy childhood on his father’s castle in Cesky Krumlov. When she grew up, the daughter of the powerful lord had many suitors. Her father married her off against her will for John of Lichtenstein, although noble lord and powerful, yet very rough and rude, who had recently widowed. Fine, gentle Perchta’s life by his side was full of slights and suffering. In the castle of Lord of Lichtenstein lived mother and sister of his deceased wife. They persecuted and harrased Lady Perchta whenever they could. Slandered her to her husband, imposing hard work on her, having no kind words for her. Her marriage has become her hell from which there was no way out. In vain she prayed for her husband’s heart soften, in vain she wrote desperate letters to his brother: “Deliver me from these evil people, and thou shalt have merit, as you deliver the soul from purgatory.” She had no help, because the manners of the day did not allow a woman to leave her husband, even if he treated her the worst way. Only the man’s death broke the bars of her prison. Happy to return to the paternal castle, there she was the good spirit and its kind patron of all that suffered. Experienced grief wrote her face indelible features of suffering and banished forever laughter from her cheeks . Serious, thin, prematurely faded, bearing gold, wavy hair in white veil, she passed through halls and courtyards of the castle, overseeing her brother’s estates. Death, that she met here in 1476 in the forty-ninth year of her life was a painful blow to both Rosenberg Lords, but also the poor all over the wide region. They never stopped weeping for her and soon they saw her in their dreams. White Lady, as she was called, appeared at the castle in Czech Krumlov, in Rožmberk and the other Rosenberg castles in white, flowing dress, with keys at her belt passing through corridors, the halls toward future events. Her smile was a sign of coming happy times.She had the black gloves and a face covered with sadness if bad luck or death was approaching. White Lady watched over children of her relatives and protected them from all evil. When nannies fell asleep from tiredness own babies in his arms, cradled and soothed them. Nannies who knew her, she in no way interfered with in this behavior. Great care the white lady gave especially to the last descendant of his family Peter Wok. Once, when nannies fell asleep again, came to the cradle and caressed with little Peter so he wouldn’t cry. Among the nannies was one, which only recently came to the castle and did not know anything about the White Lady. She woke up and saw the baby Peter in the hands of a stranger, an unknown lady and snapped at her: “How dare you, take your hands of small baby Peter? What is that baby to you?” She wanted to take the child from the white lady, but she held it closer and she replied angrily: “That I care about this child because it is my family. How dare you question me?” She turned to the maids that woke up with the noise and rebuked them: “Why are not doing their duties, as is right and proper? From now keep yourselves in charge of the child!” She went to the nurse and she said to her: “Look after the child, as required. Once he grows up tell him how much I loved him. And show him the place through which I approached to his cradle and walked away again.” When these words were spoken she bent over the cradle, the baby smiled, she kissed him and then disappeared in the wall, turning in a light, white cloud. Since then she hasn’t appeared in the castle. When Peter Wok came and heard the message from the White Lady, he had the wall, in which she disappeared torn down and allegedly found in those places a great treasure. Here’s a link to the Cesky Krumlov castle website with the story in Czech and there are couple of pictures of Lady Perchta and one picture of Petr Vok, the baby mentioned in the story, though he is all grown up in the pic. I should also mention that despite him allegedly finding the big treasure according to the story he bankrupted the Krumlov Rosenberg estates.’ Thanks Invisible and thanks Radko!!
Patrick and Confusion: Jonathan Jarret from a Corner writes in with a new Patrician theory from a Cambridge scholar. ‘Roy Flechner’s argument more or less requires on an early fifth-century floruit for Patrick. The Life of St Germanus appears to show a Roman civil hierarchy functioning as late as 429, and London was still defensible around 457 if the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s entry for that year can be trusted (which is hard, given the path that any such date must have had to written record even in the Chronicle’s obscure sources), but how much longer could a decurionate have persisted? Who on earth would have been *taking* the taxes they were supposed to raise, and for what? There is some case for the structures of government hanging on longest in the north-west of England, though, where Carlisle seems still to have had a bishop as late as the 630s, so those who see Patrick as a Strathclyder might line up with Roy anyway… All so much conjecture, of course, given what you rightly say about the sources, but it ties up with several of your regular topics so I thought it was worth pointing out to you!’ Thanks Jonathan!
Invisible Libraries in Computer Games: Wade writes: I’m not sure who started including books within video games, but from its beginning World of Warcraft, like Skyrim, has had books scattered throughout the game, most dealing with WoW lore. Someone should be able to identify the Ur-game that started this. I looked online, but had no luck. Here though some real experts step in. Howard writes: It never occurred to me that your “Invisible Libraries” series might include videogames/computer games. I’m not sure where you draw the line, but I’d draw your attention to The Sims 3 suite of games. Now, The Sims 3 is the largest-selling computer game franchise in history, but most players tend to be adolescent girls, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re not familiar with it. The library in The Sims 3 is a true invisible library, in that you can’t actually read the books, but your characters and the non-playing, in-game characters can. Here’s a partial list of books that characters can read in-game. It’s in an ugly table format, and I can’t easily copy it into an email. Many of the book titles contain in-jokes and pop-culture references. For example, Grant Rodiek, Point Farmer, is a reference to the lead software developer for the series. Game of Thorns is a reference to Game of Thrones. For “Jimmy Sprocket” read “Harry Potter.” And so on. I believe there’s a TV Tropes article about this, but I know better than to look that up. Unlike most other invisible libraries I’ve seen, The Sims 3 also includes cookbooks, how-to and self-help books, sheet music, and other books which actually help your in-game character achieve higher skills. Progressing in the game actually requires reading books, either to gain skills or simply to keep your character entertained enough that they don’t become depressed and pee on themselves. Also, your in-game character can learn “writing skill,” and create new books that you can add to the invisible library. If your character sells these to the bookstore, you can subsequently find NPCs reading the books you’ve written. On the subject of literary invisible libraries, I don’t believe you’ve mentioned The Book of Hali, (an ancient disquisition on soul, mind, and body, and the clear inspiration for the Necronomicon) which appears in several tales by Ambrose Bierce, got namechecked by Dunsany, Chambers, Lovecraft, et al, and is consistently ignored by the legions of Lovecraft scholars who seem to have sprung up like eldritch, rugose mushrooms in the last few years. Tony also adds an angle to this: Having readable books in-game is actually a fairly well established mechanism for establishing the ‘lore’ of a gameworld in computer role playing games (cRPGs). It has the advantage of allowing players who are interested in such things to read the neato backstory, and allows the players who want to just hack at goblins to get on with business. Here is a list from Baldur’s Gate (BioWare, 1998) the books labelled ‘History‘ were all readable: Here is the list from Morrowind (Bethesda, 2003)… Morrowind was installment 3 in the Elder Scrolls series, of which Skyrim is V. I’m not sure what the first game to have used in-game literature would have been. If you get too deep into the ’80s, storage limitations made what could be put on disk fairly limited. When a game had a more text than could be packaged in software, a separate manual would be published and when some event happened, the player would be instructed to “Read paragraph 27″. A good example is Wasteland (Interplay, 1988). Apparently at least one book item in that game triggered a direction to read a specific paragraph. I suspect Might and Magic IV (New World Computing, 1993) would have had in-game readable lore (probably packaged as scrolls rather than books though), but I haven’t been able to find a list of non-combat items for that game. And Ultima probably had them by Ultima VII (Origin, 1990), but same problem. (Not that I’ve devoted ton’s of time to looking for item lists for cRPGs that were published two decades ago… they’re probably out there somewhere) There’s probably an interesting phylogenic tree of the cRPGs that could be drawn, but I don’t think I could get funding for it. 
‘ SY finally notes: I was thinking how many strategy games – this moves beyond invisible libraries – actually include rule books as ‘trading guides’ etc in the box. The most dramatic example of this was the novella The Dark Wheel, included in that hoary old classic Elite.’ Thanks to Howard, Tony, SY and Wade!!
Churchill and Waterloo: Wade did a lot of the necessary spade work here, though as he notes still no real sources. First website Wade links has: ‘On January 15, 1965 Churchill suffered another stroke — a severe cerebral thrombosis — that left him gravely ill. He died nine days later on January 24, 1965, 70 years to the day of his father’s death. His body lay in State in Westminster Hall for three days and a state funeral service was held at St Paul’s Cathedral. This was the first state funeral for a commoner since that of Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar in 1914. It was Churchill’s wish that, were de Gaulle to outlive him, his (Churchill’s) funeral procession should pass through Waterloo Station. As his coffin passed down the Thames on a boat, the cranes of London’s docklands bowed in salute. At Churchill’s request, he was buried in the family plot at Saint Martin’s Churchyard, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England.’ Beach loves the ideas of the cranes of London bowing to their dead master. And another site that is sceptical. Beach can’t help but thinking someone with a good knowledge of British railways could kill this legend – not that we would want to, of course: As his coffin passed down the Thames on the Havengore, the cranes of London’s docklands bowed in salute. The Royal Artillery fired a 19-gun salute (as head of government), and the RAF staged a fly-by of sixteen English Electric Lightning fighters. The state funeral was the largest gathering of dignitaries in Britain as representatives from over 100 countries attended, including French President Charles de Gaulle, Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, Prime Minister of Rhodesia Ian Smith, other heads of state and government, and members of royalty. It also saw the largest assemblage of statesmen in the world until the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. It has been suggested it was Churchill’s wish that, were de Gaulle to outlive him, his (Churchill’s) funeral procession should pass through Waterloo Station. This is complete myth. Though President de Gaulle did attend the service and the coffin departed for Bladon from Waterloo Station, there is absolutely no connection. In fact, Churchill did not plan his own funeral as commonly believed; he made a few suggestions, but there was a private committee which made the plans, and he was not on it.’ FP writes in ‘Hello, After reading your recent post “Churchill, De Gaulle and Waterloo” and particularly the line that a railway expert could kill the myth, I thought I would write in with a comment. At first sight, railway geography would seem to support the myth. To get from London to Bladon, Waterloo would not be your first choice of station. The obvious departure station would be Paddington, from which a train can get to central Oxfordshire very directly. However, if the organisers definitely wanted to include a journey down the Thames, the problem is that Paddington is a long way from the river: it would be a case of a road procession from St Pauls to Tower Hill, a barge from there to the West End followed by a second road procession through Mayfair and Bayswater. Waterloo is not only almost on the riverbank, but there is a fairly direct rail route from there to Reading, where the train can join the main line from Paddington and on to Oxfordshire. Moreover, for obvious reasons the train was hauled by the locomotive “Winston Churchill”. Although the railways were nationalised in 1947, in England and Wales the former railway companies had survived as largely-autonomous “Regions” within British Railways. “Winston Churchill” was built by the Southern Railway, and in 1965 (although only a few months from withdrawal) was based at Salisbury, on the Southern Region’s lines out of Waterloo. It is probably safe to say that at that time there were no loco crew at all on British Rail who were qualified both to drive “Winston Churchill” and to drive trains from Paddington to Reading; on the other hand almost all Waterloo-Reading line steam crews would have been able to handle the engine. It is also likely that special work would have been needed to make sure that a Southern Region engine would even have been able to run on the Paddington-Reading line safely. In other words, using Waterloo solved two issues: how to get the procession from boat to train easily, and also how to ensure the right engine could be used on the train with minimal special effort. I hope the above is helpful to you. On balance, I think it is highly unlikely that the use of Waterloo was purely to annoy De Gaulle – although I can imagine that when it became apparent that Waterloo would be the most straightforward terminus to use, it would have raised a few wry smiles on the planning committee!’ Thanks FP and Thanks Wade!!!
Romani in Eleventh Century England: Karen writes in: Phoenicians were traders for tin, and travelled to many countries. Perhaps they also traded in slaves. Celts were known to hire themselves out as mercenary warriors at times. Even to distant lands. (Galatia was a settlement of Celts, and although these were probably not from Britain, certainly it shows that mercenaries could and did go far afield for opportunity.) Warriors are known to take slaves as booty. There is no reason to think that Celtic people had no slaves from other countries. There were soldiers in England from many areas of the Roman world. Higher ranking officers sometimes had slaves, or brought wives. Royalty, especially, was known to have slaves, and often a taste for exotic ones. Also English royals did marry royals from Europe. In those days, DNA tests did not exist, so it would be impossible for a king or prince or lord to tell if a baby was really his, especially if he were Spanish, Portuguese or a swarthy Eastern European himself. The era of the gravesite is a time marked by wars and pestilences, with rough knights hardly more than terrorists of the peasants in Europe. In such confusing times, who knows who was brought to England or by whom? This Romani DNA, while found in a gravesite from 950 or 1000, could have been passed down for many many generations in England, and indeed may still be in some small population of very “white” English persons.’ thanks Karen!!
Somehow Still Walking: Ricardo sends this in from Escaping the Bonds of Earth The Fifties and the Sixties by Ben Evans “Aboard Voskhod 1, four years later, he would sit shoulder-to-shoulder with two men from very different backgrounds. Neither Konstantin Feoktistov nor Boris Yegorov possessed test-piloting credentials, but had established themselves as experts in the fields of physical science and medicine. Feoktistov, indeed, was lucky to be alive at all. Born on 7 February 1926 in the south-western Russian city of Voronezh, close to Ukraine, he was caught up in the Great Patriotic War shortly after the defeat at the Battle of Moscow. Amidst the retreating remnants of the Red Army, his mother gathered her belongings and, with the young Feoktistov, joined the steady stream of refugees fleeing eastwards. At a village where they stopped to rest, Feoktistov met a group of Red Army soldiers, one of whom remembered him trying to enlist a short time earlier and offered to make him a scout. In early July 1942, Feoktistov provided his first information to his superiors; information which earned him a commendation from his commanding officer. Then, walking the streets of Nazi-occupied Voronezh, he was stopped by a patrol, marched around the city and ordered to stop near a pit. Shortly afterwards, Feoktistov felt a sharp pain close to his chin, as a bullet grazed his throat, after which his legs caved in and he toppled face-first into the pit. The Nazis, thinking him dead, left. Feoktistov waited until nightfall, crawled out of the pit and returned home. In later life, a scar on his neck and the proudly-worn medal `For Victory Over Nazi Germany’ would be his mementoes of the day – and night – when `Kostya’s’ luck held out.” Thanks Ricardo!!
Stalin Suffering the Children: Wade writes in with this youtube link to an interview with the elderly Gelya (she made it!: go to 4.50). Merv writes, meanwhile, ‘Geyla survived into adulthood well into her seventies. (?) She died in 2004 during a trip to Turkey. You can find more information here, you need to do google translate from Dutch.’ Tacitus from Detritus includes this photograph for tyrants with children.Thanks Tacitus, Wade and Merv!!
Procopius: Michael Z, a grand old partisan has written in with this objection: ‘DB, why can’t Brittia be Ireland? Ireland is indeed a major island, close in size to Britain. Not to be overlooked is that the term Great Britain was coined to include Ireland as part of (greater) Britain. Also, if Thule is Greenland, then an estimate of it being ten times larger than Britain is about right (excluding the northernmost part, too cold for the Romans to have accessed).’ Beach would take the point about Thule, though had the Romans got that far to the north? But with Brittia, Brittia seems to be on the wrong side of Britain. However, it is interesting that Procopius does not mention Ireland, something that had appeared in every classical guide for the previous seven hundred years (though with different names).’ Thanks as always Michael!
Fairies and Vegetation: Invisible very kindly sends in fragments from a chapter of Katherine Briggs entitled ‘Forgotten Gods and Nature Spirits’. Beach is not particularly struck by any connection between these nature spirits and vegetation. They seem more the personification of certain forces in nature: particularly unpleasant and dangerous ones. However the Gwyllion and the goats come close to the idea of assistance in livestock terms and the final tale, dating from 1900 (?), might fit into the idea of a connection between a fairy and growth? ‘The nature spirits are the rarest of all the fairies in these islands and yet traces of them can be found in many places. The Calleach Bheur, the Blue Hag of the Highlands, appears to be the personified spirit of Winter. She herds the deer, and fights Spring with her staff, with which she freezes the ground. When at length Spring comes, she throws her staff under a holly tree under which green grass never grows. It is the Cally Berry in Ulster who is in perpetual conflict with Fionn and his followers. Black Annis of the Dane Hills of Leicestershire is a hag-like creature of the same kind. Her name is said to be derived from Anu or Danu, the Celtic goddess, mother of the Tuatha de Danu. In Wales, the Old Woman of the Mountain leads travellers astray. She is one of the Gwyllion, the hill fairies of Wales. They are friends of the goats, as the Cailleach Bheur is of the deer. Occasionally they come down from the mountain and enter human houses, where they must be hospitably entertained. A gentler and more benevolent mountain spirit is the Ghille Dubh of the Gairloch district. He was seen in the second half of the eighteenth century dressed in leaves and moss. He looked after lost children and led them home. In spite of his kindness five lairds of the Mackenzies set out to shoot him. Fortunately, they found no trace of him. A more excusable attempt was to poison the Each Uisge, who lived in Loch na Beiste in the Gairloch district by putting hot lime into the water. In this they did not seem to succeed as he was seen again in 1884…. In Germany there are spirits which guard the cornfields; the only trace of such a belief which I have found in Britain is in a tale told to me in 1959 by Jeannie Tobertson, the folk-singer who is one of the travelling people of Aberdeenshire. It was told her by her grandmother as a personal experience. Mrs Robertson’s grandmother, when she was a girl of fifteen, had, like the other girls of her family, a pony of her own. Hers was a little beauty, of whom she was very fond, and she looked after it very carefully. This particular year there was a poor harvest, and the farmers were unwilling to part with their grain, even for money. The girl was determined that her pony should not want, even if she had to steal for it. One night they camped near a fine field. Where the corn was standing in shocks, ready to be led. That night, after the rest of the camp was asleep, she stole out and went to the field. It was a bright moonlight night, as clear as day. She stooped to pick up a sheaf, and something moved beside her. She glanced aside, and saw a wee, wee woman, as big a year-old child. The little creature did not seem to notice her, but jumped on to one of the sheaves, and leapt from shock to shock. The girl drew back. Though her horse starved, she felt she could not steal from that field. Step by step she crept away, and still the little woman leapt from sheaf to sheaf. So they girl went back empty handed.’ Pam adds ‘Also, I’ve been poking around (in a rather distracted manner, I admit) regarding the subject of nature spirits, as discussed in your blog of March 16. If Evan-Wentz is to be believed, the idea that fairies help in the growth of plants is a Neo-Platonic one and goes back to at least the 16th century (if I’m remembering correctly!). Which suggests to me that it was probably a belief amongst the scholarly occultists rather than something the local cunning man or woman might adhere to. (Then again, who knows?) (I believe there was also some reference to this Neo-Platonic idea in Paul Devereux’s Fairy Paths, but he may have gotten it from Evan-Wentz as well.) I’ve been meaning to copy out the passage(s) from Celtic Faith (& etc.) for a week and a half, but things are rather chaotic on my home front as well. I’ll try to get to it soonish. (Any excuse to comb through the fairy lore, et al., is welcome.)’ Thanks Pam and thanks Invisible!!
Japanese Torpedo Boats: First Ricardo writes in with this superlative site on the war of 1904-1905. Then Mike Dash with some background information. ‘Back in the 1980s I had cause to investigate some of these rumours for a study of the ways that the “moral influence” of the torpedo and the submarine affected naval strategy prior to the Great War. As a result I have a file which reveals the following: One can certainly say that the Russians were not simply misled by sightings of Hull fishing trawlers – they reported being tracked or attacked by both Japanese torpedo boats and Japanese submarines (which in 1905 were even less seaworthy than TBs) off the coast of Denmark, and again in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Sumatra. There were also reports of minelayers and even lights in the sky that were interpreted as Japanese balloons seen scouting at night – early UFO reports, if you will, which tie in well with a number of contemporary “airship scares” across the world. Prior to the disastrous Dogger Bank incident, in consequence, the Russians had already opened fire on French, German, Swedish and Norwegian merchantmen in the Baltic – the only difference in these cases was that they missed. The Russians put several men ashore at Vigo to give their side of the Dogger Bank story to the outraged British (it did not help that the incident had occurred on the 99th anniversary of Trafalgar). These men proceeded to Paris where an international court of enquiry was convened. Their leader, Captain Klado, stuck firmly to their story and argued that if no torpedo boats had in fact been present, lookouts on five different ships must have been simultaneously struck by identical hallucinations. To be fair to the Russians, there was one way in which Japanese torpedo boats might have operated in the North Sea without access to friendly ports: a class of warship known as the torpedo boat carrier, which carried very small TBs on deck. The British had one such ship called HMS Vulcan, which carried six small TBs and could winch them out and launch them as required. The French had a similar ship called the Foudre. The Japanese didn’t, but perhaps it didn’t seem impossible that they could have adapted a ship to carry out this task – by 1905 they had already proved themselves surpassingly competent at everything else. To be even more fair, the underwater threat from torpedoes was very much an unknown at this point. The Japanese were equally jumpy, and fired wildly at suspected Russian submarines off Port Arthur in May 1904. And I should close by pointing out that poor old Rozhestvensky’s men were not simply making these demons up from nothing. The scare was actually set in motion by a useless Tsarist agent by the name of Captain Hartling, who was sent to Copenhagen with 300,000 roubles and 540,000 French francs to spend on acquiring intelligence. Some of this money was disbursed on paying locals to report sightings of anything suspicious, and one is tempted to suspect Hartling and his hapless Danish coast-watchers felt a certain pressure to justify the disbursement of this remarkable budget. At any rate, the captain began to wire back alarmist reports of sightings and of Japanese plans to attack with submarines, torpedo boats and mines to Russia daily. These were forwarded to St Petersburg without being checked. What happened in the North Sea seems to have been men giving shape to imagined demons – but the imagination was Hartling’s, not their own.’ Then Tacitus from Detritus of Empire has this comment. ‘A partial analog to the Japanese torpedo boats in the north sea might be found about ten years later. In the panic stricken days of August 1914 rumors were rampant regards the tens of thousands of Russian soldiers who were landing in Scotland and boarding trains for London. Supposedly they were going to shore up the collapsing Allied front in Belgium. Lots of folks believed this, and even the Germans were a little concerned. As to how the hopelessly inefficient Russian military managed to marshall these redoubtable legions through Murmansk or Archangel in such a short time, well, nobody cared. But perhaps the North Sea contains some interdimensional transit portal?’ Thanks Tacitus, Mike and Ricardo!!!
Fairy Sighting: Fey writes: ‘The question of fairies, belief and fairy experts is a fascinating one. Let me give some examples. There are out and out believers: e.g. Signe Pike and Eddie Lenihan. They are not scholars and can get away with it. Janet Bord author of Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People is a serious type and I suspect that she believes. ‘My personal view is that traditional fairy lore had developed from various stimuli, namely belief in nature spirits, primitive races, pagan gods and the spirits of the dead. Personal sightings, on the other hand, could be the results of imagination, fabrication, or the externalisation of unconscious archetypes. If these were the only explanations, then none of the Little People seen were objectively real. Can this be true? I honestly do not know, and I am not going to pretend that I do, but if I were to allow myself a flight of fancy, I would speculate that some of the Little People might be real, and that they live in another world which exists parallel to ours.’ Katharine Briggs says in some place – can’t find it! – that the Cottingley Fairies don’t seem real to her because they look too much what Edwardian Fairies should look like. Does this not imply a certain patience that fairies can exist? Perhaps, perhaps not. Or what about this from Welsh scholar Robin Gwyndaf? ‘Once upon a time there was a boy who lived on a farm, high in the hills of north Wales. Occasionally when he was not needed to help with the housework or on the farm, or when he just felt like wandering over his ‘country estate’, he would leave the farm yard, walk along Cae Bach (the little field) until he came to Y Giat Goch (the red gate. Once through this he was right in the centre of a circular piece of land about ten yards in diameter . The grass there was always green – unusually green – and always fine and even, like velvet. There the young lad would sit for hours and dream his time away. Nowhere would he be happier than in that green circle of land near the red gate, because there the fairies would come and take him with them on a long journey, over the Foel Goch hill, Llangwm village nearby, and the Berwyn mountains, to a wonderful land of beauty and plenty, sweet music and dance. The author of this essay was that yong boy! I mention my childhood recollection not to emphasise the power of imagination, but to point out that the belief in the fairies persisted in Wales into the late forties and early fifties of this century.’ This surely implies belief in a scholar?’ Thanks Fey!
Breathing out Last Breath: Invisible writes: ‘On the subject of last breaths, behold! the Last Breath of Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park. On the subject of breath as power, of course, there is Genesis 2:7 for the ultimate breath transfer. And John 20:19-23 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” There is also a tradition among watchers at the deathbeds of Victorians and saints to catch the “last tear” of the dying. I think I remember this detail from the life of St. Therese of Lisieux. There is a medical explanation for this last tear, which, given my unsettled files, escapes me, but it was common practice to wipe the tear with a piece of linen and preserve it in a crystal vial/reliquary. Mere sentiment or collection of a powerful primary relic? I suppose the same spirit motivated secret royalists to dip handkerchiefs into the blood of King Louis at the guillotine. One wonders which has more power: breath or blood? Obviously breath was considered more ephemeral or the witch could have breathed into a quickly sealed container instead of into her successor.’ Thanks Invisible!
Pulling Things Out of Rivers: First is Louis with some corrections for the tank story. ‘Actually BT tanks were notorious for their thin armor, which became very clear during the Winter War and the Nomohan incident and which prompted the Red Army to change to the T34 faster then previously scheduled. And, the tank was probably on its way to the Neva Bridgehead, on a pontoon, during a relief offensive for Leningrad, as can be read in this English language website: Second is Tacitus from Detritus: Here is a link to one of my favorite river finds. An early confederate submarine of which no reliable record has ever been produced. Dredged up by accident in 1878. Technically found in a bayou coming off of Lake Ponchartain, but clearly designed for use against an impending Union attack on New Orleans. Even the thought of entering the treacherous muddy waters of the Mississippi in this glorified tin can alarms me! Then Jakub: ‘How about the opposite: pulling boats out of the ground? This happened a few years ago not far south from Warsaw, Poland. In a pond in an apple orchard a 500-year old ship was found and dug out: a 34m-long grain-punt. 500 years earlier Vistula, which is notorious for changing its course (and thus a most unsuitable container for long-lost artefacts), flowed through what is now the apple orchard on the border of a place called Czersk – once the capital of an entire province, dwindled into a tiny village once the river that gave it its prosperity decided to pack up and move a few miles eastward, leaving boats like this one in the middle of a sandy plain (link in Polish). Next is Invisible: My personal favourite [creepy warning!]: I visited the Steamboat Arabia museum a couple of years ago. The amount of organic materials – leather, cloth, foodstuffs – that survived is simply astounding. Apparently the sites of several other wrecked steamboats buried by the shifting river are known and await excavation. The remarkable thing about the Arabia excavation and museum is that it was done entirely without public funds – the Hawley family (with friends and supporters) paid for the arduous, large-scale excavation, the conservation of the artifacts, and the museum out of their own pockets. The book The Treasures of the Steamboat Arabia by David Hawley gives a step-by-step account of the difficulties involved in getting the steamboat and its cargo out of the tons of mud that covered it and includes color photos of many artifacts. An extraordinary story.’ Some great stuff from Jim W here. ‘Similar to the Arabia steamboat recovery was the USS Cairo sunk in the Yazoo River during the Vicksburg Siege of the US Civil War. Found by old-style geophysics (magnetic dip needle) nearly intact but broken in half during recovery. Massively displayed in National Military Park as half original and half reconstructed. Museum contains quantities of personal and military gear recovered in very good state of preservation. On the other side, the CSS Arkansas is still buried under a mainline levee near Sunrise, LA. She was badly damaged during the Vicksburg Siege and escaped downriver to her coup de gras at Baton Rouge. Steamer Desoto discovered under a bean field near Missouri River, IA, again by 1960s vintage geophysics (flux-gate magnetometer). Excavated and on display with large quantity of personal and trade goods. Carried supplies and equipment to Montana gold rush before snagged. Meandering, large-flow, high sediment rivers like the Mississippi/Missouri system do this kind of thing as a matter of course, generally leaving the wrecks hundreds of yards to miles from the present courses in old meanders. Reference the Mississippi Confederate submarine: The Grand Gulf State Park Museum, Port Gibson, MS has (or had several years ago) a submersible home-built from an old boiler that was supposedly used for bootlegging from Louisiana to Mississippi back in the good/bad old days of Prohibition.’ Norman writes: Haven’t had any luck tracking an image of it down yet (still working on it), but I remember once seeing a crucifix in a museum in New Brunswick (Canada) that had been recovered from a river. It was made of bone (or maybe ivory, I misremember), and was of the type that missionaries would give out to the local Indians (in this case either Mi’kmaq or Maliseet). The cool thing about it was that the wrists and ankles of the figure, where they were attached to the cross, had been scraped so thin that they had nearly snapped off. Archaeologists conjectured that the natives had scraped thin shavings of the figurine into a broth which would then be fed to sick people – apparently a conflation of religion and magic, or perhaps a misunderstood interpretation of the old “this is my body…” routine that the indians took literally.’ thanks Norman!! Thanks Norman, Louis, Jim, Tacitus, Invisibile and Jakub!!
Earliest Roman Ghost in Britain: Invisible writes in From More Ghosts & Legends of the Wiltshire Countryside, Kathleen E.E. Wiltshire, p. 48 Many people believe a Roman Centurian is sometimes seen riding along the Roman road at Bulkington, near Poulshot. He is said to be wearing a full red or crimson cloak, which streams from his shoulders as he gallops alone. (Collected at Hilmarton Women’s Institute, November, 1975) p. 156-7 A very strange story is told of a gentleman who lived in the Salisbury disrict, but at the time was engaged in excavations of a late Bronze Age field near Bournemouth. he was returning home one evening, and had reached a spot near the Roman road, between Sixpenny Handley and Cranbourne Chase, just before the Wiltshire border. He saw in the distance a horse-man, going in the same direction as himself, and as they came nearer he was surprised to see that, though a beautiful animal, with flowing mane and tail, the horse had neither bridle nor saddle. Its rider seemed chiefly clad in a long cloak, his arms seemed to be bare, and he was waving some armament over his head in a threatening manner. He kept up with the car for about a hundred yards, then suddenly vanished. The next day the archeologist drove along the road again and found the spot where the rider had disappeared was a low round barrow which he had not noticed before. He looked for some object, such a bush, which he might have mistaken for this man, and found nothing. A friend of his who lived near Sixpenny Handley asked a number of people int eh district if anyone had seen such a ghost, and an old shepherd had said, “Do you mean the man on the horse that comes out of the opening in the pine-wood?” The gentleman said he had no doubt that the pre-historic rider, with his horse, lies buried in the “low, round barrow.” Kings Barrow, two hundred yards north of Boreham, near West Wood and East Kennet, is one of the largest in Wiltshire. It is 206 feet in length, 56 feet in width, and 15 feet in height. It was opened in 1800, when two human skeletons, the horns of a stag, the tusks of a boar, and fragments of pottery were found. p. 158’ Thanks Invisible!!!
A happy April to all who have got this far!
B
Beachcombed 21 March 1, 2012
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
A Happy 1st Mar to All Readers and Any Random Visitors!
Feb was cold in the Beachcombing household. We slept four in a bed in for five days when the temperature dipped below 10 degrees. But now all is changed. The tortoises are coming out and rabbit is mating with his water dispenser: in short, spring is in the air.
Beach has added another advert to his desultory collection – the Thai massage agencies and Russian bride bureau are holding out unfortunately – and he still hopes that March will see the first Beachcombing fairy book. Negotiations are ongoing ongoing with a local artisan printer.
The most popular post of the last month in terms of emails and visits was the witty gravestones. Beachcombing has a soft spot for Princip and the Valley of Elves. The greatest error of the month was a misdating in the article on the Aberystwyth Mermaid. Sorry…
Offsite Beach has a couple of suggestions that has brought him joy. A picture of the whole universe: one for the screen savers… He also enjoyed this post (from Invisible) on stereotype maps. There was also a call for papers about ghosts in Spanish film! Finally, for the first time in about two years tears came to his eyes as he listened to a new musical phenomenon: they are the Unthanks and they are well worth a visit, perhaps particularly this pub video of Monday Morning.
A happy March to all and thanks to those who produced the ten thousands words below, as always the most important part of this site.
B
Hindoestanen: Southern Man writes in (and the emails below substantiate this in different ways): ‘Two groups that have moved endless times. First, the Jews who have been kicked around like a football from country to country: there was recent news, for example, of the evacuation of the last Yemeni Jews from their country now heading to the New World. Second, African slaves who were moved around through sales and then by daring escapes for freedom. Think of those slaves brought to the US and then their grandchildren brought back to Liberia in Africa.’ Andy the Mad Monk writes in: Jakub has a fascinating side light on this. Following your post on the Hindoestanen, here is another many times moved community that might be of interest: a slave settlement. Speaking of Paramaribo, there’s also a significant and quite ancient community of Jews in Surinam. Louis K, meanwhile, writes in about the Hindoestanen: ‘Being Dutch myself, I could not help notice that there are some trends within the Hindoestaanse Gemeenschap (Hindustan community) that seem to have escaped your attention. As the subject of ‘Identity’ (thanks to mr. Geert Wilders) is now ‘hot’ within Dutch society, for all different immigrant and non-immigrant cultures, a lot of Hindustan teenagers are turning to ‘Mother India’ to pronounce their ‘Indianischness’. Which is in turn roundly condemned by the older generation, who still remember that THEY came from Surinam. However, in The Netherlands, the Surinam Identity was, until recently, seen as a negative thing, and was splintered along ethnic lines (Indonesians, Hindustani, Ex-Slaves and Escaped Slaves, with a smattering of Chinese and Levantines) and the younger generation only knows The Netherlands. But I have read that they suffer from the same problem as US Afro-Americans that “return” to the motherland: Next to no knowledge about what is going on, and culture shock, because all they know about India is from the Bollywood movies that they see.’ Then pulling in the other direction there is Chames: I remember a recent meeting of the Hindustan community in Netherlands organised, in part, by the Indian Embassy there. One Hindustan speaker stood up and said words to the effect that ‘we are Dutch not Indian’ and was cheered ‘to the rafters’. Thanks SM, Andy, Jakub, Chames and Louis!
Cats’ Eyes: Invisible writes in: I was wondering if the cat clock had something to do with the same polarisation mechanism as the Viking sun-stones, but I find to my astonishment that the pupil dilation is a well-known phenomenon. The folk of East Anglia were, apparently, far too busy putting cats up the chimney and concealing them behind walls to tell time by gazing into their eyes. ‘ Then Dennis M: ‘In Japanese ninja lore the cat eye clock is rather well known. I first saw it in some ninja book years a ago‘. Thanks Invisible and Dennis!
Scarred Buildings: GT sends in this memory of Gettysburg: ‘You might be interested in this link that shows some damage to a building in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, sustained in the Gettysburg Campaign.’ Thanks GT!! Then Ricardo with the Carmo Convent: It remains as a testimony to the big Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which rippled across Europe, affecting science, culture and arts (Voltaire even wrote a book related to it, “Candide”). Thanks Ricardo and GT!!
Anne Frank: First up is documentary-maker and author Chris Hale: ‘I once made a series of films with Prof. Steve Jones, ‘In the Blood’ – including an episode called LOST TRIBES which was about the way we all want and need high quality ancestors – and sometimes use genetics to find them. There are many peoples scattered from Utah to Burma who claim to be descended from one of the Biblical lost tribes: a myth of a myth if you like, almost certainly fostered by Christian missionaries. Mormon mythology – set down by Joseph Smith in ‘The Book of Mormon’ – refers to some native Americans as a lost tribe, I believe. I am not sure: we would need to ask the angel Moroni, who appeared to Smith and pointed him towards the location of some golden tablets, and now resides on top of the Temple in Salt Lake City. I remember being told by a Mormon gentleman that Smith used a pair of ‘granite spectacles’ to translate the Book of Mormon which he had unearthed from an old Indian mound. When Steve and I visited the genealogical centre in Salt Lake City, we discovered that a Welsh ancestor of Steve’s had been baptised more than a century after his decease. Just outside SLC, we drove up to the main gates of the ‘Mountain of Names’ – an immense subterranean archive which stores the results of all that global genealogical research by Mormon missionaries. I believe Mormons also wear weird underwear when they attend Temple, but can’t be sure. Some believe the Welsh to be a lost tribe, of course – and once upon a time there was a flourishing society that promoted the idea that the British were in fact Israelites. Having disparaged this religious lunacy, it’s worth mentioning that scientists at the University of Utah (not the same as Brigham Young Uni, the Mormon college) used some of the Mormon family records to track down one of the breast cancer genes. Is Mormonism – the fastest growing religion in the world – any odder than others?‘ Then here is Invisible: Where to start in terns of post-mortem rituals to correspond to Mormon baptisms? Of course saints are forever raising the unconfessed dead so that they may be absolved and then die again. There is also a Japanese tradition in some sects of Zen of post-mortem ordination. The dead person is symbolically shaven and ordained as a Buddhist priest and transformed into a Buddha: look for motsugo sasõ In Thailand , Buddhist monks celebrate the post-mortem birthday of their Abbot. As for post-mortem “marriages,” there was the exceedingly distasteful case of Carl Von Cosel/Tanzler and Elena Hoyos: The Portuguese post-mortem coronation made me think of the story of Elizabeth of Hungary. When her relics were transferred in 1236, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who once asked Elizabeth to marry him, came and laid his crown on her tomb (some stories say, on her head), saying: “Since I could not crown her as Empress in the world, I will at least crown her today, immortal queen in the Kingdom of God.” Then I thought of the uses of the dead in the legal system and remembered cruentation—the idea that the blood of a victim will flow in the presence of the murderer [and at sacred texts]. But my favorite (admittedly legendary) story of post-mortem hi-jinks comes from Legends of the City of Mexico, collected by Thomas A. Janvier, 1910. “The Legend of the Obedient Nun”: where a Mother Superior charges a very tall dead nun-– under her vow of obedience – to shrink enough to fit into her mis-measured coffin. Saints’ lives are full of tales of religious obeying nonsensical orders from their spiritual advisors (plant a staff and water it or eat worms) but this story, as far as I can see, is unique‘. Southern Man writes: Your comparison with the Middle Ages is particularly well placed. Do you remember the passage in the tripartite life of St Patrick where Patrick brings a good giant back from the dead to baptise him?’ Thanks Southern Man, Invisible and thanks Chris!!
Witty Gravestones: Southern Man writes in with another professional gravestone, this time a dentist: Strange! Approach this spot with gravity! John Brown is filling his last cavity’ Invisible meanwhile has ‘ Junior Glover and a picture: ‘For almost forty years for a nasty wife and her three kids I was a slave, So please God let me find rest in this grave.’ Don’t believe it? Invisible has, true to form produced a photograph. Mike L writes in with this photograph of Gordon Bell in Highgate Cemetery.
Mike Dash meanwhile writes in about cricket. ‘The quote is from Byron Rogers ‘The cricketer’ in An Audience with an Elephant (London: Aurum, 2001) pp.160-2. The quote is correct bar the actual year (1926) [now corrected]. The date of the wreath was, March 1987, the village, Napton Hill in Warwickshire, and the cricketer’s name was Sydney Hill. Rogers adds: “Homer could have written that.” I think he is right. And he says: “Who would they have been? Carpenters, labourers, farmers, perhaps the village schoolmaster. You will not find their names in Wisden, but that does not matter, as 60 years on one man remembered he had seen the gods saunter down that hill, before whom the teams of Warwickshire must have gone down like grass.” What a writer Rogers is. Author Paula de Fougerolles writes in: Here’s a gravestone I’ve always loved (and which I’ll be stealing for my own unless I can come up with something better). Don’t know date or provenance, sorry, except that it’s from an English cemetery and wonderfully prescriptive. The wonder of the world. The beauty and the power, The shapes of things, their colours, lights, and shades; These I saw Look ye also while life lasts.’ The Mike L writes in again with this gem. I can’t find it anywhere on the web but I have a memory of one for a sewer worker which went something like: ‘Fred Smith, sewer worker, is here interred. In death as in life.’ Thanks Mike (x2) and Mike, Paula, SM and Invisible!
Operation Mincemeat: Chris F. writes in with a US intelligence wheeze: Not quite as dramatic as the body shipped around on ice, but another well-known example: In the runup to the Battle of Midway, which many will agree was the most decisive battle in the Pacific War, a codebreaker’s clever idea may have made all the difference. Saying (falsely) that U.S. forces on Midway had a problem with their water supply, he watched for a spike in the use of the word water and was soon rewarded with unwitting confirmation that Midway was indeed the Japanese objective. A couple of days more and it probably would have been too late. The following is from an internet source I remember only as ‘Ultra’, sorry….: ‘Admiral Nimitz had one priceless asset: cryptanalysts had broken the JN 25 code. Since the early spring of 1942, the US had been decoding messages stating that there would soon be an operation at objective “AF.” Commander Joseph J Rochefort and his team at Station Hypo were able to confirm Midway as the target of the impending Japanese strike by having the base at Midway send a false message stating that its water distillation plant had been damaged and that the base needed fresh water. The Japanese saw this and soon started to send messages stating that ‘AF was short on water’. Hypo was also able to determine the date of the attack as either 4 or 5 June, and to provide Nimitz with a complete IJN order of battle. Japan’s efforts to introduce a new codebook had been delayed, giving HYPO several crucial days; while it was blacked out shortly before the attack began, the important breaks had already been made. As a result, the Americans entered the battle with a very good picture of where, when, and in what strength the Japanese would appear. Nimitz was aware, for example, that the vast Japanese numerical superiority had been divided into no less than four task forces. This dispersal resulted in few fast ships being available to escort the Carrier Striking Force, limiting the anti-aircraft guns protecting the carriers. Nimitz thus calculated that his three carrier decks, plus Midway Island, to Yamamoto’s four, gave the U.S. rough parity, especially since American carrier air groups were larger than Japanese ones. The Japanese, by contrast, remained almost totally unaware of their opponent’s true strength and dispositions even after the battle began.’ Thanks Chris!
Jeanne Barret: Invisible references a FT article on Hannah Snell. Thanks Invisible!
Lancashire Kick Boxing: Chris B writes in with this ITV programme that touches on shin kicking. An annual event in Gloucestershire, the Olimpick Games dates back to 1612, when in the tiny village of Chipping Campden, Robert Dover held a sporting fair in honour of the ancient games of Greece. Fairly eccentric in nature, with events such as jumping in sacks, singlestick and shin-kicking, this was the pre-dawn to the modern Olympic movement. The Cotswold Olimpick Games are now held on the Friday after Spring Bank Holiday. Ade spoke to James Wiseman, a shin-kicking expert. After competing for four years, James is now a stickler, or referee. Shin-kicking has been part of the games since they first started in 1612 and has been played in Chipping Camden longer than any other place.’ Chris suggests that Beach goes to check it out: and I’m sorely tempted!!! Thanks Chris!
Vikings Vikinged: Invisible write in with an update from a BBC piece: ‘Dr Britt Baillie, from the University of Cambridge, said she believed the killings could have taken place during the reign of Aethelred the Unready. Following a series of Viking attacks he had ordered all Danish men living in England to be killed on 13 November, St Brice’s Day in 1002. The killings which ensued became known as the St Brice’s Day massacre. Remains have been found in Oxford and it is thought that massacres also took place in London, Bristol and Gloucester. However, Dr Baille said in some respects the killings at Ridgeway Hill were unique. Unlike the frenzied mob attack that took place at Oxford, all the men were murdered methodically and beheaded in an unusual fashion from the front. The Cambridge academic said she believed the skeletons belonged to a group of Viking killers who modelled themselves on a legendary group of mercenaries. They were the Jomsvikings, founded by Harald Bluetooth and based at Jomsborg on the Baltic coast.’ Thanks Invisible and notional thanks to the BBC!
Cat Music and Cat Organs: Andy the Mad Monk is expanding his range. He came across the following source about the pig organ. ‘The Abbot of Baigne, a man of great wit, and who had the art of inventing new musical instruments, being in the service of Louis XI, king of France, was ordered by that prince to get him a concert of swine’s voices, thinking it impossible. The abbot was not surprised, but asked for money for the performance, which was immediately delivered him; and he wrought a thing as singular as ever was seen. For out of a great number of hogs, of several ages, which he got together, and placed under a tent or pavillion, covered with velvet, before which he had a table of wood, painted, with a certain number of hogs, he made an organical instrument, and as he played upon the said keys, with little spikes which pricked the hogs he made them cry in such order and consonance, as highly delighted the king and all his company.’ Thanks Andy!
WW1 Countdown or Surprise: KMH writes in here ‘It isn’t wrong to ponder the circumstances leading up to personal or global tragedies. Unfortunately, man’s religions do not condemn war in itself, possibly because they contain no viable alternative taking human nature into account.So, in forcibly resolving international problems the choice seems to be frequent smaller wars or infrequent large wars or a combination of both. Europe in 1914 had not experienced a continent-wide conflict since the Napoleonic era.There was almost a century for accumulating irreconcilable differences. WWII in this sense was simply a continuation of WWI (with a pause of 21 years). Delaying WWI for a generation may have meant that nuclear weapons would have been employed by both sides. Our 45+ years since the last major war guarantees that the next global conflict may be much worse than anticipated unless there is one or more smaller wars to let off steam (such as Israel-Iran). The sad element is that most of the casualties in future wars will be non-combatants, especially women and children.’ Thanks KMH!
Fake Fairies: Mike G. writes in on Orbicular sparry bodies. ‘I rather think that what is meant are geodes – or “concave sparry balls” as “The Natural History of Northamptonshire” calls them, with
many a long S. See link (scroll to bottom of page). Not wholly unrelated: fossil crinoid stalk sections were called “fairy money”, at least the round ones were; pentagonal ones were “star stones”. Invisible is also on the trail and has come to similar conclusions: Here’s an example of a ‘sparry’ crystal so I assume that orbicular sparry bodies are round formations of some mineral with protruding crystals, which sounds like a glittering hedgehog. Or possibly they are geodes? In any case, I thought fairy money would turn to dried leaves if you didn’t spit on it or turn your pockets inside out or something like that… There is also a belief that fairy money wll be good as long as you don’t mention it. Is that the meaning of: But not a word of it, ‘t is fairies’ treasure; Which but reveal’d, brings on the babbler’s mine.’ ?’I went looking for Tyne geodes and found instead this site with some interesting folk belief artifacts. Next up is Kithra who has been squinting at the ‘Cornish’ fairy photograph: ‘Someone may already have emailed you about this, but I strongly suspect that one of the pictures is a picture from the famous surrealist Doc Shiels, taken in the 1970s. He took many photos of a ‘witches coven’ that included his daughter, when he lived here in Cornwall. He also played a large part in our local Owlman and Morgwar legends when they were reported seen again during that decade. And, he held a coven to try and raise the sea monster. I found a very similar photo here. Cornish Witches – The Coven of Tony ‘Doc’ Shiels in ritual in woods below Mawnan Old Curch, most probably a ritual associated with ‘The Owl Man of Mawnan’. On the far right is Cait Sidhe. Above: Another photograph of the Coven.’ Finally, the great Mike Dash writes in: ‘My recollection – it’s a strong one but I hope I am right about it – is that it contains an account, plus photos, of a case from East Prussia in the late 1920s. I read it maybe 30 years ago, so little detail remains in my memory. The images seemed more gnomelike than fairy per se, and I am sure it was a shameful rip-off of Cottingley, but I don’t recall seeing the photos reproduced anywhere else.’ Then Mike backs up Kithra’s point ‘The only person I know of who shot photos of naked (“skyclad”) girls in “witches’ covens” in Devon and Cornwall is Doc Shiels, the 1970s “Wizard of the West” who faked several sea serpent and Loch Ness photos. The people he shot were his own daughters and his wife – yes, odd. I wouldn’t mind betting he had something to do with the photo you ran the other day. Mark Chorvinsky did a memorable demolition of him over two issues of Strange Magazine.‘ WKJ writes meanwhile on those orbicular things: ‘As a geologist I have to put in my 2 cents (pun intended) on the “fairy money”. In my area (Louisville, Ky) and in much of the eastern US we have Devonian age organic rich black shales that formed in a anoxic (low oxygen) environment sometimes favoring the deposition and growth of various minerals, the most pertinent being FeS2, known as pyrite (or marcasite). Better known as fools gold. In some places the shales have various sized flattened pyrites that are, locally at least, called pyrite (or marcasite) dollars or medallions (found a few photos online under those names). “Orbicular” too sounds more flattened to me, and more like money, rather than more spherical as a geode can be. The “sparry” part would well fit many of the “dollars” I’ve seen too. They occur in older and younger age anoxic shales as well , if Northumberland has anoxic shales, “pyrite dollars” might = “fairy money”. Thanks WKJ, Mike and Mike, Kithra and Invisible!!
Changeling in New York: The great Boria Sax has written in with an article not to the changeling case in question but from the New York Times in 1895 and referring to Bridget Cleary, perhaps the last changeling killing. What Beachcombing finds fascinating is the way that changeling violence had to be explained to Anglo-Saxon audiences. It is this that makes Beach think the missing ‘article’ was not, as two readers have suggested, an invention. ‘An Irish correspondent of the London Spectator writes to inform the readers of that paper that the English papers seem to have missed the real point of that horrible chapter in the history of superstition – the murder of Mrs Cleary in the County of Tipperary. She did not fall victim to the belief in witchcraft or in demoniacal possession – neither has any real hold in Ireland. She perished owing to the belief to this hour singularly prevalent in Munster, and, I am told, also in the West. A prominent tenet of the believers in the fairies and their powers is the superstition of ‘the changeling’. Spenser in the Faery Queen writes. From thence a Fairy thee unweeting reft, There as thou slepst in tender swaddling band/ And her base elfin broods there for thee left; Such men do changelings call, so change’d by fairies theft. In Munster when a child appears delicate or a young woman consumptive or hysterical, the conclusion often is that the child or woman has been carried off by the fairies, to be made a playmate or nurse to the young fairies, and that a fairy substitute resembling the person taken away is deposited in its place, which belief is that if the changeling be tortured by fire, its fairy parents will hear its cries, rush to its aid, carry it back to fairyland, and at the same moment restor the real person, who will be found sleeping calmly on the bed. Cleary and ‘the neighbours’ evidently believed that the being they tortured was not Cleary’s wife, but a changeling. He addressed her ‘In the name of God, are you Bridget Boland?’ (her maiden name) believing that thus adjured the being would confess it was a fairy. He said when he set fire to her: ‘You will soon see my wife come down the chimney’ believing that the fairies would snatch away the tortured fairy and restore his real wife. Again, after the burning, many of the men of the locality sat up all night in a ‘fort’ (earth embankment of ancient Irish village) armed with black-handled knives [this detail is incorrect, Beach!]. These poor people thought that a fairy procession would pass by; that in its midst would be Mrs Cleary riding on a gray horse, and that if any one rushed forward and cut her bonds with a black-handled knife (a potent weapon against all evil spirits) she would at once be restored to the world. In the tales of Terror Wonder it was thus that Fair Janet rescued Tam Lin from the fairies. She sat at Giles Cross on Halloween at the ‘murk and midnight hour’ when she sees the fairy host go by. ‘First she let the black pass/ and next she let the brown/ But quickly ran to the milk-white steed, And drew its rider down’ Thus fair Janet rescued Tam Lin; thus the poor dwellers on the slope of Shere-na-mon (the witche’s Hill, a haunted mountain) believed they would rescue Bridget Cleary.’ Invisible writes in with this from The Democrat and Standard Coshocton , Ohio 12 May 1903 from a story called “Something About Ghost Stories, People Who Believed in the Supernatural.” By James Mugness. ‘The author talks about the ghost of Caesar, jack-o-lanterns, and ghostly folklore, but also mentions ghost stories told by local men, including a black dog story, which I have seen in earlier newspapers. I don’t know if this tale is something local or, more likely, folklore which he had read somewhere. Another man, we are told, lost his wife in child bed. She was a beautiful woman in life, but in death looked haggard and cadaverous. He buried her, but afterwards a spectre haunted him which purported to be the ghost of his wife, telling him she was not really dead, but was living: and that haggard figure he had buried was not his wife, but was substituted by some fairies for her. This spectre haunted him nightly, claiming to be his wife, and one night, to convince him more fully, she let the babe she had left with him nurse at her breast, and dropped a few drops of breast milk on the bed-clothes, which was plainly visible in the morning. The husband believed it an illusion but couldn’t get rid of the phantom. He told the matter to his pastor who told him it was an illusion and to shake it off if he could. But the man never fully got rid of it.’ As Invisible goes on to note this is a classic changeling tale. It would be fascinating if this was recorded in the US! Thanks Invisible and thanks Boria!
Slave Free Centuries: Ricardo with some thoughts on slavery: ‘Serfdom does seems to be ‘cleaner’ for consciences that slavery. I think we still are too close to those society arrangment in time. Even in the 80s you could get stabbed in my village for asking a man who his father was (well, not so common but doing the question to the ‘right’ person could get you in such predictement). A large differential between those who had lands and money and those who served them meant that lots of people had incognito fathers (who everyone knew who they were in fact, albeit not officially admiting so)… I got into a discussion the other day about the civilization of ours and some idea is still nagging me, that the most tolerant societies (at least for their own members) are, on average, from merchant pendant.’ Here’s to the merchants. Thanks Ricardo!
Oxford and Dragons: Rayg has come across a relevant poem: I found one, A Ballad on the Gyants in the Physic Garden in Oxon: page 108 in Hyder Edward Rollins’s 1927 Pack of Autolycus:’ This is then picked up by Invisible though as she (and Rayg in a later email) notes: there aren’t any dragons. ‘Did the descendant find the poem and put it in this book? – no idea if this would contain any dragons Edmund Gayton wrote the poem mentioned. (Yew-man poem below) Online access? There is no mention of a dragon–real or otherwise–in the various Oxford University science museum collections, which would have absorbed those of the Anatomy Museum. A dragon is mentioned in the following poem, but I don’t know if this is one of the “fine verses” created in honor of the faux-dragon. I seem to recall a “dragon tree”. That may be what is referred to in the poem. This poem fits in nicely with the subject of giants from last week. These two topiary giants are, I assume, Gog and Magog,. I have taken from Oxford Gardens. Two large yews were clipped to represent two giants guarding the entrance to the Garden, which were the subjects of much rival wit in the University. Three ballads appertaining to them are preserved in ” Wood’s Collection ” among the Ashmolean books. (For one, see Appendix A.) [There follows the poem, Beachcombing has not corrected all scanning errors] Here is a door way lately broke through the middle of ye South wall, but the gates spoken of by Mr Bobert are in the East West & Northerne sides, that in the North wall wch admits entrance from the City being fairest built, by this Old Jacob some years past got two yew trees which being formed by his skill are now grown up to be Gigantick bulkey fellows, one holding a Bill th’ other a Club on his shoulder which fancy made an Ingenious person strow this Copie of verses on them. Upon the most hopefull & ever-flourishing Sprouts of Valour, The Indefatigable Centrys of the Physick-Garden. Although no brandish’d Cherubins are here, Yet sons of Adam venture not too near, Nor pluck forbidden fruit, if with intent To visit Paradise be innocent. Here’s your (nil ultra) else; in each of these Is both a Pillar and an Hercules. If you do not dread their looks, yet may you fear The many strange fatalities they bear. The Embleme of mortality the Yew Does likewise now y e armed Agent shew; And if unwearie Mortals slight their guard They doubly make the Garden a Church-yard. In this coniunction mischief’s never grant, The Saturnine’ s become a martial Plant: far off, in heaven it selfe are those bad stars; What here at hand, when Saturn clubs with Mars? Th’ Hyperian Dragon, were it not a fable, Then these our Porters is lefs admirable. Their blood is poyson; pestilent their breath; And very shade the shadow is of death. But since in England they can do no harm Internall, they for outward mischief Arm; Desperate poyson in most foreign ground Instead of sicknefs here they mean to wound. (As lately Rebels serv’d that blessed Head, When Poyson might not do, they struck him dead). Who dares be safe ? no Turk is armed so, When every member of them is a Bow. Even Arms are Armed ; Bows charg’d with Mars or Bill, So that at once with stroake & shot they kill. And lop each limb you can not strike them dead; Each limb will multiply like Hidra’s head. Some vegetables do themselves protest With prickles, stings, or stinks the game effect. Our garden Genii, more generall, Do not defend themselves alone, but all. Old heroes hung their weapons, so as these, for signal victories on signall Trees: But, sure of Conquest, these presumptuous Sophy es Do antidate: are Victors both and Trophyes. If quibbling Cambridge, when they next Commense, Shall say, here’s Terra? fllii without sense, And uery Block-heads: know that these were meant for Military not a learn’ d intent. Valour and wit at equall Honour fly, Yet valour often, seldome wit dwels high. As wisemen are Cowards ; so ’tis fit That combatants haue neither fear nor wit. Their Education tho they may not brand Bred in the Gardens Garden of the Land. Manners makes men, of men, means Wickham’s Box Our Yews declare they may be- made of Stocks, By culture too: And Trunks afsume of late The grand proprieties of Human state: Couch’ d in an Oake the Soveraignty ye knew Soe here appropriate valour in the Yew; Say, they are speechlefs too : the men of Words They murmur though, & shake their crests disturb’d By fancy winds : nor would their rage be curb’d, Were’t not in vain their Honor to repair, When ’tis to fight the winds, and beat the Ayr: Jove whispers peace ; or else we well might wonder He go secure, lets rust his Dasdard Thunder. These Earth-born Giants take a distant course By plots more perilous than was their force. Each man’s an Ambuscado ; and may well Be said at once Perdue and Centinel. How they advance tow”rds Heaven night and day And strenghth increeses still upon the way, Yet moves unseen : But Joves all-kenning eye Did from these wily stratagems espie Else might th’ All-conquerour haue been surpris’d As was our own by men in Boughs disguis’d. So that Apollo sent a league to treat And to Caress them with a gentle heat; With numerous presents of his golden Rayes; With farther promise of serener Dayes. Else would their force crack Heavens Chariot wheels, But prostrate Earth too hangs about their heels; And as an Ancient loyall Sabine Wife Ventures to intercede, and part the strife, So men, whose humbler scope is heavens Crown, With darling Earth are clog’d and fetter’ d down. Could we believe but what old people do They were not only men but Christians too, Who fright the Div’l himself; had God but set In his first Colony this Amulet; No work for Cherub had there been : no doubt The fliend had been, and not poor man cast out, And Proserpine might here haue fil’d her lap With only flowers and not an after-clap: from sons of Adam now we must retrieve Our warning to the daughters next of Eve. Gardens of Beauties, many in pursuit Are of your own choice flow’rs, & rarest fruit: Weak is your Sex ; you know the Div’l in swine Was nere repuls’d by hedge of Eglantine. If yet the Courtier flox, or Ruffian Bore That Mound haue never undermin’d and tore, Thus fortifie y or selves ; in your defence Set Giant Honour, Giant Conscience. So shall you never keep, by this advice, Knaves Kitchen Gardens but ffools Paradise. So farewell Heroes; who shall sing of you, When as Heroick is Georgick too?’ Thanks Rayg and Invisible!
Sweet Music: WJ writes: ‘If Odoric was in Peria, could he be giving us his misinterpretation of the Zoroastrian practice of exposing bodies of the dead? Maybe with some fantastic story elements added by the Muslim neighbors such as “men subiect vnto the deuils infernall”. Then Invisible has another explanation entirely: Frankly, the first thing I thought of when I read your post on sweet bells and dead bodies was not “human sacrifices” but “poison gas.” Hear me out… Think of the Grotta del Cane and Lake Nyos in Africa. In each location, invisible and odorless carbon dioxide gathers in a low area (a valley) and kills those who breath it. Which is possibly why the locals in this case avoided going into the middle of the valley, but went up one side. Odoric may have been preserved, not by God’s grace, but by a favorable prevailing wind. Or, as in the case of Lake Nyos, the site might only be intermittently toxic. The silver on top of the mountains might be mineral deposits/slag thrown out of a volcanic vent. Colorful and metallic deposits are noted around vents and hot springs in Yellowstone Park, Japan, and other seismically active regions. Possibly the sweet music was gases whistling through openings in the earth. See this site and scroll down to “Music in the Air” for mysterious musical sounds perhaps produced by seismic activity . (That does not explain the actual citherns, though, if I am reading Odoric correctly.) So which came first, the terrifying god carved on the stone or deadly seismic activity that encouraged the locals to placate the death-dealing deity? How fresh were these dead bodies? The biggest difficulty for this theory is that we don’t know the exact location. However if I’m correct in assuming North Persia to encompass modern-day Turkey, the area is, of course, very seismically active.’ Should note that some commentators believe that Odoric was hallucinating in part here (which doesn’t seem necessary to Beach), if so then this would fit into Invisible’s explanation too? Thanks WJ and Invisible!!
Hippocratic Cobblers: Mikulpepper writes: ‘Many medical schools in the US (don’t know about Europe) quit using the Hippocratic Oath in the 1870s because it was old-fashioned or something. Some substituted other ancient oaths (Maimonides, for instance), others wrote up a new version. The man who saved the Oath was William Osler whose book The Evolution of Modern Medicinecalled it the “high-water mark of professional morality”. He quotes the orginal version, too. Osler invented the ideal of the family doctor/general practitioner which has slowly been fading the last forty or fifty years. Osler taught at McGill, Johns Hopkins, and Oxford, thus spreading his vision to three nations and, probably, the entire English-speaking world. His use of the Hippocratic Oath as a moral standard made it a monument.’ Leslie H. writes in with this thought: I recently did some research on the Hippocratic Oath for a story I was writing. I seem to remember seeing a version that mentioned not charging exhorbitant amounts for healing, but only reasonable fees, or even working for free, as even the poor had a right to good health. Did you come across this at all?‘ On the basis of this and some other comments Beach would like to look at a good critical edition of the ancient Greek. So where is the best one? Thanks Mikukpepper and thanks Leslie!!
Slave Sales: PP takes the time to write in with some expert knowledge. ‘Your post on slave adverts today sent me to the bookshelves for The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-bellum South by Kenneth M. Stampp (1956, Knopf), a thorough and readable treatment of what slavery was really like in the American south. Several adverts for runaways are given in Ch. III: A Troublesome Property, which begins with this interesting passage: ‘According to Dr. Cartwright, there was a second disease peculiar to Negroes which he called Drapetomania: ‘the disease causing negroes to run away.’ Cartwright believed that it was a ‘disease of the mind’ and that with ‘proper medical advice’ it could be cured. The first symptom was a ‘sulky and dissatisfied’ attitude. To forestall the full onset of the disease, the cause of discontent must be determined and removed. If there were no ascertainable cause, then ‘whipping the devil out of them’ was the proper ‘preventive measure against absconding.’’ (p 109) This book fueled my interest in the subject, coming, as I did, from a southern-derived family some of whose members still apologize for the practice – ‘they were better off on the plantation than in Africa; all their needs were provided for; they received Christianity,’ etc. Same justifications made at the time! Stupid old lies die hard. Another excellent book is Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves by Adam Hochschild (2005, Houghton Mifflin.) Plenty of description of slavery conditions in the sugar islands is given, in the story of how an unlikely band of 12 guys schemed to bring down the economic engine of England of the time, inspiring the American abolitionists to use what we now call grassroots organizing in their efforts to do the same. I hope this feeds your interest in the topic– but be prepared for heartbreak’. Then Invisible: ‘You asked for other slave adverts. The Virginia Gazette, published at Williamsburg Virginia, is a prime source for such material It is particularly useful for information on clothing, either slave clothing or articles stolen by the runaway. The index is a bit cumbersome. Look at S, then at Slaves. There are a variety of topics including “Slaves – runaway” from a variety of Virginia counties. “Run away from the subscriber” was the usual heading of such advertisements. Young black servants dressed in exotic livery with turbans were a popular fashion accessory in the 18th century. This article mentions their role as decoration: There are several images of these orientalized slaves in this article, which has some other interesting images of 18th century slaves as well as information on the role Josiah (not Thomas) Wedgwood played in abolishing slavery in Britain.’ Thanks to PP and Invisible!
I was afraid to move: First up is Crolex with the extraordinary story of an Austin local hero, Rwandan runner Gilbert Tuhabonye: On October 21, 1993, the centuries old war between the Tuti and Hutu tribes erupted in horrific reality one afternoon as Gilbert and his classmates were in school. The Hutu classmates at the Kibimba school, their parents, some teachers and other Hutu tribesmen, forced more than a hundred Tutsi children and teachers into a room where they beat and burned them to death. After nine hours of being buried by the corpses of his beloved friends, and himself on fire, Gilbert used the charred bone of one of his classmates to break through a window. He jumped free of the burning building and ran into the night, on charred feet, surviving one of the most horrible massacres in the long Tutsi-Hutu war. He ran from that horror into a new life. KHM writes about the survivors of Wounded Knee, recalling to Beachcombing’s mind Black Elk’s horrific memorial of that slaughter. I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream . . . . the nation’s hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead. Invisible writes in with this: On March 8, 1782 96 Moravian Christian Indians were murdered in cold blood by members of a Pennsylvania militia group, supposedly in retaliation for Indian murders of settlers. There were two survivors. This account comes from a 12-page booklet: A True History of the Massacre of Ninety-six Christian Indians at Gnadenhuetten , Ohio , March 8, 1782. Published by the Gnadenhuetten Monument and Cemetery Association, 1882. Only two lads of fourteen or fifteen years of age effected their escape from the hands of the murderers. One of these was knocked down and scalped with the rest in the slaughter-house of the brethren. Recovering a little he looked around, and beheld on all sides the mangled corpses of the dead. Among them he observed Abel attempting to rise, whom the white men, coming in soon afterwards, dispatched. With great presence of mind he lay quite still among the heaps of slain, and when they had departed, crept over the bodies to the door, still keeping himself in such a position as easily to feign death, if any person should approach. As it began to grow dusk, he quickly got out at the door, hid himself behind the house until it was quite dark, and then escaped. The other lad had loosed his bonds, soon after it was ascertained that they were to die, succeeded in escaping out of the house where they were confined, and crept by a small cellar window under the house where the women were subsequently butchered. Here he remained undetected, and as the butchery proceeded, saw the blood flow in streams into the cellar. He kept himself concealed till evening, when he with much difficulty made his way out of the narrow window into the woods. These two lads met providentially, and staying awhile to watch the movements of the white party, journeyed together to Sandusky. The boys are not named in any source I have seen although author Allen Eckert, who wrote about the massacre in Dark and Blood River, says that the boys were named Thomas (the scalped one) and Adam Stroud (which is also the name of a real 18th-century Pennsylvania German whose family was murdered by Indians.) I think these names are probably just literary license. More details and the full text of the booklet on the massacre at archive.org. It is painful reading. Thanks Invisible, Crolex and KMH!
Rocking Stones: KMH remembers Coral Castle in Florida. The 9-ton gate is nicely balanced so that a child can move it. Laurence has Teetering Rock in Dog Patch in mind.
Invisible writes in: I had to laugh out loud at the Admiralty getting involved with the Lieutenant and the rocking stone. Here’s an article about the cursing stone of Cumbria: And another cursed stone. Sword and Beast writes in: ‘300 km south of Buenos Aires, there is a pampean city named Tandil, which, in the indigenous mapuche language, means “beating rock”. This is a reference to a 300 ton boulder which stood, quite impressively, on the edge of a rocky foothill, the “piedra movediza”. It was common practice to place bottles or other things under its base to see them break. There are good pictures. Among the many legends that surround the moving stone, there is one involving a mapuche human sacriffice of a lover (whose heart would then beat in stone) and a mention that General Rosas, the then Governor of Buenos Aires and “conqueror of the desert” (actually mostly the Pampas), has tried to bring it down with several horses, without success. The bolder toppled on February 29th, 1912, probably due to vandalism or mine explosions nearby, and split into three pieces at the bottom of the hill. In 2007, a hollow replica was cemented in the same place where the original stood, creating the world’s first “moving rock” that does not move.’ Then Moonman sends in some precious pages from Corliss. ‘Of course, Corliss has a section in Ancient Infrastructure 63-68 on this topic. He mentions the New York USA Peekskill rocking stone which shows people can’t help but try to destroy wondrous things as well as Cromwell’s armies purposely destroying rocking stones because of Druid association. I include scans of the section of interest for your examination only, not sharing on the Internet due to copyright.’ Beach is going to infringe just a little to include some of Corliss’ thoughts on British material: ‘Rocking stones have received the most attention by British amateur and professional archaeologists. This is understandable because standing stones and stone circles dot much of their countryside. France also boasts a few rocking stones. More are found in Asia but we have no details. The British enthusiasm for rocking stones infected New England, which, like Britain, is strewn with glacier debris. Some of these North American boulders either rock today or have been rockable in the past. The older American scientific journals carry many accounts of these unstable stones. Today, though, rocking stones are relegated to amateur archaeology publications… It is also true that rocking stones present a challenge to vandals, and numerous unstable stones have been pushed or levered off their bases. In addition, rocking stones have pagan affinities. Oliver Cromwell’s armies, for instance, deliberately destroyed rocking stones for their connections to the Druids. For several reasons, then the record of rocking stones is incomplete.’ Thanks Moonman and S&B and another salute to the great Corliss! Thanks also KMH, Laurence and Invisible!!
Valley of Elves: Invisible is all a flutter with fairy names. There’s a database of US place names. Here are the fairy ones (mostly natural features/wonders). I’d be interested to know what went on at ” Fairy School ” in South Carolina , but it is probably a family name. And the elf names Hmmm, ” Elf Cemetery ” in Pennsylvania? In my old newspaper researchers, I found a woman named Fairy Coffin (Mrs. Lynd, daughter of Mr and Mrs Harry Coffin of 214 N School Street , Fayetteville , AR.) This was in the1930s-40s. Surprising number of Elf/Elvin in Alaska . There is an “Elves Chasm” in Arizona . It is a “valley.” Of course, Loren Coleman and others have played the “name game” with Fay/Fayette and the weirdness that seems to gather in spots with some variation of these names. 1, 2, 3 and 4. An article about Lafayette/anomalies. I’m very fond of the Ave Maria Grotto, built by a Benedictine monk, but I didn’t realize it included “Hansel and Gretel’s Temple of the Fairies“. Some other fairy name sites: at Norcia, standing stones in Eire, and this run from 1865 by the Sisters of Saint-Maurice, who coined the present name! The there is the Grottes aux fées and Les Grottes aux fées dans l’ancienne Gaule, by Max Gilbert, 1976. JJ from A Corner Writes in: I was delighted to find your piece about elves, not just because of you being perhaps the first person ever on the Internet *knowingly* to pun on `canon’, but also because it gives me the chance to tout the work of a friend, Alaric Hall of the University of Leeds, whose Ph.D. was on this very matter, the Anglo-Saxon belief in elves. This has now become a very well-received book, previewable on your pet odium Google Books here: and reviewed by _The Fortean Times_, no less, here: but if Boydell’s prices should prove too high (or the fact that I also have a book with them too suspicious), then you may be pleased to know that Alaric has put his original Ph.D., along with much else, online for free. Thanks for the tip Jonathan and Invisible!!!!!
Irish Giants: PJT has some good giant material here: Your Irish giant reminds me of the Cardiff giant, an infamous American ‘petrified man’: The world seems to be awash with giant bones, if YouTube is to be believed: Nothing fakey or photoshopped in this presentation–no sirree. 
‘ Thanks PJ!
Monalisa Madness: David B writes in ‘In addition to the mysteries surrounding the Mona Lisa is one surrounding Marcel Duchamp’s “defacing” of what was purportedly a crudely made postcard of the original. According to Rhonda Roland Shearer (wife of the late Stephen Jay Gould), the face in Duchamp’s ML is actually his own modified to look at least somewhat like ML. I’m not sure if the Leonardo self-portrait theory was known at the time of Duchamp’s efforts but it creates a nice parallel which would be all the more interesting if Duchamp did make it as a self-portrait without knowing of the Leonardo self-portrait theory. Here’s a link about it: If you’ll forgive the self-promotion [forgiven], I did a very badly drawn comic (in two parts and with at least one glaring spelling mistake) about the Duchamp story which starts here. ’ Then Invisible sends in a Mona Barbie. Beach has no words.
Thanks Invisible and David!
Anticipating Email: Thanks to Invisible for this piece from the Telegraph about the man who seemed to anticipate an international media platform like youtube. ‘Lomax dreamed of a “global jukebox” to disseminate the material he had gathered during decades of fieldwork and the New York Times reports today that, 10 years after his death at the age of 87, technology has finally caught up to Lomax’s imagination. His massive archive – some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts – will soon be able to be accessed online, much of it free and some for sale as CDs or digital downloads.’ Thanks Invisible!
Fairies and Golf Balls: Hallelulah! Invisible writes in with the news that the Fairy Stone is still standing. ‘To the north of Humberstone village, next to a roundabout and close to the Porsche Garage, is a standing stone – Leicestershire’s only ancient monolith known today as the Humber Stone’ Throughout history the stone has gone by many names, Humber Stone being the most recent, named after the closest village. The village being named after the stone is a common misconception.’ Thanks Invisible!
Vintages Past: And here is Andy at it again with a past beer recipe. Thanks Andy!
Ancient Rats: Prof Mayor herself has written in with this. Beachcombing should say that this is his failure for not putting this passage in better context, apologies to Neville and the prof. ‘If Neville were to read the chapter and notes of Greek Fire/Scorpion Bombs, ancient understanding of the connections between rodents and epidemics in the Near East/Mesopotamia are widely attested in numerous religious texts and dedications to “gods of plague and mice.” The Philistine example is just another bit of evidence for this ancient, pre-scientific of course, understanding. The passage in Samuel shows, as I stated, that the we can safely surmise that the Philistines did recognize a link btw mice and their swollen “emerods,” because they dedicated small figurines of both of these specific objects in a direct response to the epidemic. Other cultures in the Near East also connected rodents and epidemics in their worship of gods thought to send and cure rodent-borne plagues, Apollo and Ptah are just two examples given in my book in the context of the story of the Ark and the Philistines.’ Thanks Prof Mayor!!
Ancient Humour: Ruththeunstoppablycurious writes in with this interesting reflection. ‘I‘ve often wondered at humor, both modern and historical. Slapstick and bathroom humor seem to work most widely and across time, even today within the Anglo world, and I would surmise among other close linguistic and cultural groups. I find comedies that I revisit from the 60′s to be flat and slow, with some exceptions. I remember my dad telling me a joke that he found hysterical — I could see what was supposed to be funny, but it didn’t tickle. These days the humor is often obscure to me — we don’t have television, so I have my daughter explain it — and often then it falls flat. I wonder if my sense of humor is a bit frayed around the edges or just out of date; maybe not; my smart-mouth still gets me in trouble sometimes. Anyway, I have often wondered how often historians have not realized that the primary writings they were studying were actually humor. Some satire is in-your-face, even across centuries, but others might not be so obvious. What might future historians think of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, absent sufficient context? Today there are people who don’t get that The Onion is satire. http://www.theonion.com/ And yet, humor still says something about the society from which it springs because it IS so contextual. Parsing that out is VERY tricky, even today. Note that gentle humor becomes more popular at times, to be overtaken by harsh, mean humor at other times. (Just a general observation on my part over several decades!) Perhaps it has to do with what’s hurting, or perceived as hurting at the time. Robert Heinlein, the science fiction author, went to some lengths in Stranger in a Strange Land to illustrate the purpose of humor as an alleviation of pain.’ Then we have the lightbulb jokes. There were about ten and here are the four best of the crop. Beach would vote for Ray, but they are all of Platonic calibre. Ray: how many Greek intellectuals does it take to change a lightbulb? Twelve. One to change the bulb, ten to sit chained looking at the shadows on the wall, and one to lecture them on how the world isn’t like that.’ Then PJ: How many Greek intellectuals does it take to change a lightbulb? Zero, for verily that is the job of a slave, not a man of learning. Besides, can we not learn as much from an absence of illumination as we do from a brightly glowing but artificial luminescence?’ Or Adrian Sterling from the Anomalist: How many Greek intellectuals does it take to change a lightbulb? One to change the lightbulb and the other to diddle the catamite. Then Southern Man: One to smash it, ten to argue over whose fault it was and one to hand out the hemlock. Thanks Ruth, Ray, Adrian S and PJ!
Unusual Riots: Invisible writes: ‘This from the “Quite Interesting Facts” column in the Telegraph. In the US in the Twenties a strange craze grew up around “Felt Hat Day”, September 15. Anyone who wore a summer straw hat after that date risked being physically attacked. When President Coolidge wore one on September 18 1925, it was front-page news. In 1922, police reserves were called into handle a “straw hat riot” in New York in which scores of straw hats were destroyed by marauding “rowdies”. To prevent these attacks some people destroyed their own hats first.’ Thanks Invisible!
Public Domain: Ricardo R writes in with a (free) pdf on this topic at the publicdomain.org. ‘It also has the story of the guy who wanted to be paid because airplanes were going through ‘his’ airspace. It’s one of the best books around to sum what is thought and studied about the subject so far.’ Then Phil P. ‘Here in the USA the term of copyright is extended every time Micky Mouse is at risk of falling into the public domain. I am not joking.’ Thanks Phil and Ricardo R!
Owen’s Death: Several names came up for death at the moment of victory including (again and again) Nelson. M. Zach, the grand old partisan gave Horatio Nelson, Yonatan Netanyahu and Abraham Lincoln. SY gave Wolfe at Quebec in 1759. Thanks SY and MZ!
Soul Zoo: SY writes in to say: remember the Taliesin poems that describe constant mutation from animal through animal that ends up as the change scene in Sword in the Stone. Then Adrian sterling of Anomalist fame. ‘Not really anything regarding history but the follow-up to the Soul Zoo by Virginia reminded me of this poem by Rumi. I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e’er conceived. Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, To Him we shall return.’ Beach loves the last line. Thanks SY and Adrian!
Princip’s Conscience: First up is Ricardo R. who has an objection shared by many readers, his email will hopefully serve for all: I can’t help think that WWI was just something awaiting to happen and to ascertain any kind of blame to the man who puts the last drop in the glass a bit unfair. In a loose link I’m reminded of the infamous “football war” between El Salvador and Honduras (which sprung to my mind yesterday while getting news on the deaths in Egipt, after a football match). Some occasions just work like photographic chemicals, bringing whatever is hidden to the surface and making it visible.’ Beach would agree with all of this. WW1 was going to happen given France and Germany’s attitude to Strasbourg and their recent shared history. But what interested Beach here was the poor dolt who put himself at the apex of ‘cause and effect’. Just because it was going to happen anyway doesn’t make photographs taken moments after any less chilling. Or does it? Then comes RR: ‘These ‘hinge moments’ you mention can only be seen in history’s rear-view mirror, imo. If only the nexus of crucial human events could be foreseen. On the other hand, that might not be such a blessing. Que sera, sera. Your essay’s last paragraph made me think immediately of the short story, The Adjustment Bureau, by Phillip K. Dick. It is absolutely on point with your wish. The film of that work with Matt Damon is very much worth viewing. If you have not seen it, the entire film is about hinge moments for an individual, Damon, and how/why those moments occur. My distaste for most of Hollywood’s offerings is immense, but this movie overcame it. For a short while. 90 minutes, perhaps.’ Then Adrian Sterling of Anomalist fame writes in: ‘If you’re interested in hingepoints of history, check out a little card game by Looney Labs called Chrononautshttp://store.looneylabs.com/Chrononauts. You have a timeline (it’s a touch provincial, sad to say) going from the Lincoln Assassination up to the David Koresh/Waco disaster. Among these is the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. There are three ways to win. Collect 3 artifacts on your mission, make the timeline fit your home timeline or have 10 cards in your hand at the end of your turn. You get your timeline by flipping over history cards, creating paradoxes then patching them up. For example Archduke Ferdinand was just wounded instead of killed which changes other points of the timeline. Not to mention the superparadox where nuclear war happens in 1963 meaning the timeline beyond that is completely unchangeable. If you’re playing a cockroach or space alien chrononaut you usually want that to happen. It’s a cool history game and a nice way to get kids interested in history.’ Mikulpepper, meanwhile, is shouting cobblers and he may be justified. ‘That picture got me going on a sort of stream-of-consciousness googlefest (stream-of-search?). Anyway, some folks doubt that the photo actually shows Princip’s arrest. One site goes so far as to identify the arrestee as one Ferdinand Ber, a friend of Princip’s. But that site loses because it cites Princip’s Sandwich, an apparent urban legend that is dissected here. That mythic sandwich is now the subject of art and a sign that, perhaps coincident with the passing of anyone who can remember this event, it has become Legend. Princip’s Remorse? Probably non-existent in fact, but a worthy subject for Myth.’ Invisible writes in with this link to the unlucky car. Thanks Ricardo, RR, Invisible and Adrian!
Beachcombed 20 February 1, 2012
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
A Happy 1st Feb to All Readers!
Jan has now passed and strangehistory continues to grow. This was the month that Beachcombing published (electronically) his first volume and March should (?) see the first proper publication on this site. Negotiations are ongoing with a local artisan printer. Beach hopes in the end to draw even with such products and a few carefully targeted adverts.
The range of adverts on the site will be few and pertinent: no massage parlours, no viagra and no snoring cures. To this end his faithful friend and WEBMASTER Raoul has just put up the first tab. Note that Beachcombing would also like to have a couple of adverts from charities: if any readers have any worthy causes (no politics though) then Beach would love to hear about them, drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
The most popular post of the last month was certainly the religion of fairies that produced some very unusual comments even by the happy standards of this site. Beachcombing’s favourite was the bewildering Soul Zoo and the first British Roman Ghost. There was one terrible error: the misuse of the word anodise.
Offsite Beach wants to give another plug to this very important article on the public domain and how to defend it. He also discovered – how had he missed it? – Hathi, a site that should be ranked close behind archive for internet researchers.
Fortuna and thanks to those who wrote the ten thousand words below!
B
Soul Zoo: Virginia seems to have cracked this. ‘Clearly a Buddhist belief that some souls reincarnate as animals in the next life. Buddhists teaching is that there are 4 possibilities for reincarnation until one finally achieves nirvana and stops the wheel of perpetual reincarnation. One can reincarnate into a) the realm of the demi gods until good karma is used up, b) another human life, c) an animal, d) as a hungry ghost. Ringing of bells is quite common in a buddhist monastery. Also Kubla Khan the emperor of China was a protector of Tibetan Buddhism.’ KMH has, instead, a more general reflection: ‘If you think about it, any religion or ideology, especially Christianity, spreads more readily if a few or more doctrinal errors are included to make swallowing it easier. Immediate examples might be Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, etc. This also applies in the political arena with Communism, Nazism, etc. In fact, it might be said that certain groups, like the German tribes accepting Arianism, need to experience a less than perfect version so the final step to the perfect one will not be prohibitively difficult. This is where “heresy” is temporarily useful. So it is not at all surprising to me that these Asian Christians retained a belief in reincarnation or transmigration of souls.’ Thanks KMH and Virginia!
Roman Ghosts: First of all an apology, I put up the wrong passage from Grant Allen! ‘It’s a very odd fact,’ Dr. Porter, the materialist interposed musingly, ‘that the only ghosts people ever see are the ghosts of a generation very, very close to them. One hears of lots of ghosts in eighteenth-century costumes, because everybody has a clear idea of wigs and small-clothes from pictures and fancy dresses. One hears of far fewer in Elizabethan dress, because the class most given to beholding ghosts are seldom acquainted with ruff’s and farthingales; and one meets with none at all in Anglo-Saxon or Ancient British or Roman costumes, because those are only known to a comparatively small class of learned people, and ghosts, as a rule, avoid the learned – except you, Mrs. Bruce – as they would avoid prussic acid. Millions of ghosts of remote antiquity must swarm about the world, though, after a hundred years or thereabouts, they retire into obscurity and sense to annoy people with their nasty cold shivers. But the queer thing about these long-barrow ghosts is that they must be the spirits of men and women who died thousands and thousands of years ago, which is exceptional longevity for a spiritual being don’t you think so, Cameron?’ Then KMH on the metaphysics of ghosts. ‘There is much confusion over ghosts. They are left behind after death, rather than being escorted to another realm, because they are not ready to go due to some tragic event or psychological condition. Ghosts are more likely in the primitive religions than the modern ones and more likely in degenerative times than positive ones. Contrary to popular opinion they do not exist forever as ghosts since they gradually lose their energy as the years pass. Eventually they are picked up (what is left of them) by a higher being and sent to their appropriate realm. Any ghost over five hundred years is infrequent and any over one thousand years (the adamic limit) should not be thought of as simply a ghost. They may have been given ‘demonic’ ability to function as a spirit much in the same way a poltergeist – a human spirit given demonic powers – would. So, the apparitions of ‘roman soldiers’ are not really ghosts.’ Leif A writes in making a connection that Beach should have thought of ‘Another (fictional, sorry) reference to Roman ghosts in Britain can be found in Arthur Machen’s novella ‘The hill of dreams’ [written 1895-1897, published 1907]. Since you mentioned him on your ‘HP Lovecraft’s invisible library’ page, you may be interested. This novella is freely available on the web. Search ‘ghosts’, but in fact the theme runs throughout the entire work. Late 19th century archeology brought a series of discoveries about ancient Rome, and there was a popular fascination with the subject. Years ago, I toured a reconstruction of a Roman fortress in the Taunes (near Frankfurt am Rhein), and I remember hearing that it was constructed by Wilhelm II, who had a strong interest in the period.’ Thank KMH, Leif and apologies again!
2012 an all that: The Count has strong views on 2012: I think it’s worth pointing out that everybody forgets one very important detail about this whole 2012 business. The Mayan Long Count is a repeating cycle of approximately 5126 years, therefore, assuming the Mayans to be absolutely correct about cosmology (which is debatable to say the least), whatever occurs on December 21st 2012 will be precisely as apocalyptic as the events of August 11th 3114 BC. If that date doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry – professional ancient historians will be scratching their heads too. Though almost all of them will agree that the world didn’t end on that particular day. I should add that, if I remember the details correctly (it’s quite hard to exactly recall things which make no sense whatsoever on any level at all), what allegedly happened on that date, as it did on several previous occasions, was that the Sun was eaten by giant winged space jaguars (the animal, not the classic car, unfortunately), but was almost immediately replaced by another one of a different colour. So that was alright then. I think we can all agree that this isn’t going to happen – though if it did? WOW!!! However, I won’t be stocking up on the Batspray Flying Space Jaguar Repellant any time soon. What I think should be done instead is for people everywhere to realize that this is a fantastic excuse for a really spectacular party! 21/11/12 happens to fall on a Friday, so an End Of The World Party that becomes at the stroke of midnight a Not The End Of The World After All Party could get pretty wild. Go on, you know you want to! And while you’re waiting, you might like to have a look at this very splendid website which does exactly what it says on the tin and lists all known Ends Of The World in a convenient format, including rather a lot that have already occurred: I admit to experiencing the merest tingle of apprehension concerning the fact that apparently this is the one thing about which the Mayans and Mother Shipton are in total agreement. However, Thomas the Rhymer’s Doomsday prophecy is both very precise about the conditions and completely unhelpful about the date, but given our current understanding of plate tectonics, and the long-term lethargy of Scottish geology, I would estimate that his condition of certain huge Scottish boulders moving a mile or so unassisted will not be fulfilled for tens of millions of years. So no immediate cause for concern there. Unfortunately, no excuse for a party either, so we’re probably better off falling back on the Mayans, if only for that. So: we have less than a year to plan the Ultimate Party. Or at any rate, the Ultimate Party for the next 5126 years. As the late great Randolph Scott said (and also James Garner in a slightly different context), there are some things a man can’t ride around. And as Prince said (more or less): “We’re gonna party like it’s 2012.” So what if it doesn’t scan? That never stopped William McGonagall. And anyway, who cares? It’s a PARTY!’ No arguing with this. Thanks Count!
Dog-headed Saint: Howard writes in: ‘Anyway, I’ve just read this post and it seems to me you’ve overlooked one potential explanatory filter — Cynicism. It seems to me a short leap from “Christopher was a Cynic [κυνικός]” to “Christopher had a dog’s head.” Of course, no “just-so” story will ever provide a complete explanation of a legend, and it’s likely that any given symbol will evoke different responses for different audiences. But I find it hard to believe that at least some Hellenized Romans didn’t associate a dog-headed saint with the assimilation of Cynicism into the early church’. Thanks Howard!
Sidonius and Ecdicius: Tacitus from over at Detritus sends some good Sidonius stuff in from his own site. Then RG, an old friend of the blog, writes – vis-à-vis ‘certainly this was the way that legends were made: in the excited imaginations of populations who had despaired at salvation’ – There’s an interesting brief exposition of this theory about heroic myth in MK Joseph’s experimental/SF novel The Hole in the Zero. In one segment, the character Paradine becomes a mythic hero, and finds himself described in a book: ‘Lord Paradine is, in fact, a typical example of the kind of heroic superman almost invariably invented in cultures undergoing a final period of steep decline, as compensation for the experience of cultural overthrow. They are then normally taken over and elaborated in the romance cycles of the succeeding culture’. Thanks Tacitus and RG!!
Buildings with Scars: Umbriel has some nice examples here: ‘Regarding your recent post on Bologna Station — There are, of course, major building preservations of bomb damage from WWII. The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall have both been preserved as war memorials. A couple of my examples of my own experience, however, seem closer to what your post had in mind. The J.P. Morgan Building on Wall Street (a stone’s throw from the World Trade Center site, as most things in downtown Manhattan are) still bears shrapnel scars from the anarchist bomb detonated in front of it in 1920, as shown in this article. Another scarred former train station is Kansas City, MO ‘s Union Station (now a civic and shopping center) the facade of which bears bullet scars from an attempt by ’30s gangster Pretty Boy Floyd to rescue one of his gang members from Federal custody (as referenced in this old New York Times article about the plans to redevelop the disused station, bullet holes unfortunately not pictured)‘ Then Southern Man: ‘You forgot the most beautiful of all the preserved ruins: the blitzed and roofless Coventry Cathedral. ‘May God forgive us all’! Ricardo writes: Your post on Bologna reminded me immediately of a project a friend of mine is working on, about the Portuguese massacre of Mueda, in Mozambique. This was in the beginning of the our modern African wars and, since Mozambique independence to some years ago, this massacre was re-enacted by the locals. The is a film, called Mueda, by director Ruy Guerra that documents one such re-enactment. And a link to my friends project, about the manipulation of archives and memories [in Portuguese but well worth the read]. Then Mike weighs in with some lovely London examples. Beach particularly enjoys the last: 1) the west-facing wall of Stone Buildings in Lincoln’s Inn – heavily scarred with bomb shrapnel from WWII; 2) the wall of Bart’s Hospital in Smithfield next to the Wallace Memorial – ditto; 3) the North East end of St Clement Danes Church facing the Royal Courts of Justice – ditto; and a slightly relevant anecdote. A director of Ercol Furniture told me that years ago they bought up a number of trunks of lime trees that had been removed from the Mall in London because of disease etc, hoping to produce a limited edition run of furniture from those trees. Apparently the quantity of shrapnel embedded in the wood played havoc with the saws that Ercol used to cut them up.’ Then Charlotte Frost via Twitter ‘Tanks chipped wall and kerb stones in Havant, Hants during WWII. Under ‘Bombed out’ Thanks Ricardo, Charlotte and Mike, Southern Man and Umbriel!
Modern Ghosts: First up is Invisible who has reflection upon reflection on this. ‘It is a little odd that while there are accounts of phantom trains, planes, and automobiles, there does not seem to be an increase in ‘tech hauntings’: haunted computers, Blackberries, video games, or I-phones although there do seem to be a fair number of reports of haunted radios. See, for example, news.stv.tv and paranormaldatabase. (And if you want phantom fighter pilots and planes, see Bruce Halpenny’s “Ghost Stations” series.) There are few reports of haunted computers (The Vertical Plane case where Ken Webster supposedly had a 16th-century gentleman communicating through his word-processor is one case that springs to mind.) Despite the scene in the movie Poltergeist, TVs rarely figure in ghost stories. I have heard a number of anecdotes about TVs turning on and off by themselves and mysteriously switching channels—often interpreted as ghostly activity, but more likely to be the result of a neighbor’s garage door opener being on the same frequency as the remote. But for the most part ghosts seem to favor more low-tech gadgets: the tape recorder for collecting Electronic Voice Phenomenon, the digital cameras to snap photos of orbs, and the ubiquitous EMF detectors of the ghost hunters with which the country seems overrun. I’m not sure why these items are so popular since there is no manual with which to calibrate said ‘ghost detectors’—no table that says, ‘if you get a reading of .7501, it means there is a ghost.” instead of, say, old furnace ductwork in the walls. If you look at the items in the average ghost hunter’s kit, they would not differ much from the stopwatches, thermometers, and cameras of the 1950s Ghost Club. One wonders if this means that ghosts are inherently conservative late adopters… What’s the latest trend in the spirit world? One thing I’ve noticed recently is a ghost hunting ‘protocol’ where one sets up a flashlight and commands any spirits present to turn it on and off. (The electrical version of ‘rap once for yes; twice for no’ of the séance room?) While headless ghosts and phantom cavaliers are completely passé, unfortunately ‘demons’ and ‘dark entities’ seem to be the newest fad with the title ‘Demonologist’ replacing the term ‘ghost hunter’ or ‘parapsychologist’. One can’t just have a harmless ghost; it has to be an Evil Spirit in a House of Horror where a Portal to the World Beyond has attracted a Vortex of Malevolent Entities. I blame the Evangelicals. That and all the loose apocalyptic talk that has been going around.’ Stella writes: Telemarketers calling from beyond the grave to try to sell people obsolete products or ask them whether they plan to vote for Roosevelt or Hoover certainly have excellent urban legend potential. I predict that the psychically inclined will soon be able to contact the dead on their iPhones. Who knows, there might even be a ouija board app.’ Mccp writes, meanwhile: This isn’t about ghosts, per se, but the Denver (Colorado) International Airport is the strangest in the world. It features a mural by Leo Tanguma that depicts an apocalypse, a sculpture of a demonic horse with red eyes that light up, and gargoyles. It is a frightening place, more like one of those Asian theme parks that depict Buddhist Hell than an airport. No one has ever explained the odd decoration scheme. The DIA is cited in many places on the Net. Then Tony has this to say: the Tiger tank captured in Tunisia 1943 , and now restored to running condition at the Bovington Tank Museum (Wool, Dorset) is supposedly associated with the ghost of Herman the German, who is sometimes seen in the buildings . I heard tell of him as a schoolboy in about 1964.’ Thanks Tony, Invisible, MCCP and Stella!
Rhyming with Death: Ricardo sends in this blog on war poetry which is well worth a visit: in fact, Beach just wasted half an hour there. Thanks Ricardo!
Christ in Japan: KMH writes in a comparative key: ‘To rise above the written revelation of Moses, Christianity had to appeal to the truth itself. Therefore, nothing in writing can be definitive for Christianity just because it has been written. This is one reason there are so many formal mysteries associated with the religion. The most that can be said for the Japanese claim is that it might be a work of an early Christian who had some inspiration about the life of Christ and made it to Japan. There are plenty of apocryphal works concerning early Christianity. These unsupported documents and traditions around the world evidently exist to provide some basis for Christianity in deeply-rooted cultures naturally opposed or oblivious to the religion. It is widely accepted that Thomas, one of the 12 apostles made it to India. Of course, there are claims that Christ, Solomon, and Moses are actually buried near that region. Also, a document discovered by a Russian claims Christ visited Tibet. The whole topic of these interesting claims (including Christ visiting England and Ethiopia) would make for a good book. You might thoroughly enjoy it.’ Thanks KMH!
Outlaws on Ice: Mathias writes in: ‘It’s interesting the story of Glímu-Oddr should mention Sprengisandur. That area is the topic of a well known (probably even the most famous)Icelandic folk song: Á Sprengisandur. (You can listen to the (beautiful) song here: Lyrics and a translation here). On listening to the song for the first time in a while I realized that it even mentions outlaws. They are being heard calling for sheep in Ódàhraun, exactly where Oddr meets one. It seems there is a longer tradition of útilegurmenn in this place. What’s interesting is that a hraun is a barren lava field (even more barren than the rest of Sprengisandur) so I doubt you could even keep sheep there. Then again hraunar have alway been seen as the domain of trolls, outlaws and other unsavoury persons… The other thing I noticed was the fact that the girl in Suðurferða Ásmundurs story was tied down by her hair. I don’t know how prevalent that motive is in western European tales but in Iceland it is found in several of the later sagas (the more fanciful, less realistic ones of the late middle ages which rather disparagingly used to be called ‘lygisögur’ ‘sagas of lies’ and which we now prefer to call ‘legendary sagas’). An example I can think of off the top of my head is Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss. The name Gestr being used by an outlaw is also a topos that goes back a long time. It is a name often used by Oðinn when he doesn’t want to be recognized but it is also used for the same purpose by other characters in sagas.’ Thanks Mathias!
Jeanne Barret: Invisible writes: ‘Your post on Jeanne Baret reminded me of Hannah Snell, The Female Soldier, whose ‘autobiography’ I recently read at Gutenberg. Here’s some general background: How much of it is true and how much tarted up, I am not qualified to say. ‘ DC writes in with a new story (at least for Beach). ‘The story of Charlie Parkhurst is real. I grew up at a grade school adjacent to the graveyard where Charlie Parkhurst is buried. One year we went out and took tombstone rubbings. One rubbing that was shared in class was that of Charlie Parkhurst. By some accounts she was the first woman to vote.’ Thanks DC and thanks Invisible!!
Fairy Religion: Phil P writes in to say ‘One other possibility comes to mind. The Rom as presumed to have originally come from India. (Romany is related closely to Sanskrit) Is it possible that they brought a bit of Hindu cosmology to Scotland? I don’t know how far back their presence in the isles goes.’ Invisible is next: ‘The first excerpt you quote—it seems very “literary” rather than coming from genuine folk/fairy tales. What is the location and date? Who “collected” the tale? [Beach: Robert Hunt, 1865] I’d almost suspect some Theosophist/Yeats-ian interpolation. [Beach: about ten years too early?] As for the second 1671 quote, I’d see it as more of a reflection on the rising interest in science/molecular theory and microscopy. Here are a few tidbits on the subject: In Religion and the Decline of Magic, Keith Thomas p. 725 One sixteenth-century wizard stated that the fairies had power only over those lacking religious faith. p. 729 Most of those who remained sympathetic to fairy-beliefs admitted the Roman Catholic character of the fairy kingdom. ‘Theirs is a mixt religion,’ wrote Robert Herrick, ‘part pagan, part papistical.’ [The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick, ed. L.C. Martin ( Oxford 1956), p. 91] Goodwin Wharton, who was tricked by Mrs Parish into believing that he had extensive relations with the fairies, or ‘low-landers’, as she sometimes called them, was told that they were ‘Christians, serving…God that way, much in the manner of the Roman Catholics, believing [in] transubstantiation, and having a Pop who resides here in England.’ [ British Museum , London Add. MS 20,006, f. 36v.] Although I cannot quickly find the source, the Elves of Iceland (huldufólk/hidden people) are believed to come in both Christian and pagan varieties. Here is the info from the Huldufolk FB page. Note the tiny churches: Huldufólk (Icelandic hidden people from huldu- “pertaining to secrecy” and fólk “people”, “folk”) are elves in Icelandic folklore. Building projects in Iceland are sometimes altered to prevent damaging the rocks where they are believed to live. According to these Icelandic folk beliefs, one should never throw stones because of the possibility of hitting the huldufólk. In 1982, 150 Icelanders went to the NATO base in Keflavík to look for “elves who might be endangered by American Phantom jets and AWACS reconnaissance planes.” In 2004, Alcoa had to have a government expert certify that their chosen building site was free of archaeological sites, including ones related to huldufólk folklore, before they could build an aluminum smelter in Iceland . In 2011, elves/huldufólk were believed by some to be responsible for an incident in Bolungarvík where rocks rained down on residential streets. Icelandic gardens often feature tiny wooden álfhól (elf houses) for elves/hidden people to live in. Some Icelanders have also built tiny churches to convert elves to Christianity. President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has explained the existence of huldufólk tales by saying: “Icelanders are few in number, so in the old times we doubled our population with tales of elves and fairies.” Hidden people often appear in the significant or prophetic dreams of Icelanders. They are usually described as wearing 19th-century Icelandic clothing, and are often described as wearing green. I remembered reading Icelandic tales [repeated in Ireland again and again] that told of elves despondent over their salvation. Here’s a site that gives some of those tales. The Count writes in: ‘Concerning the intriguing though staggeringly pointless question of which religion is adhered to by creatures who don’t exist in the first place, I found myself, very surprisingly, stimulated to give the matter some serious thought, since, as you say, this is an extraordinarily intriguing subject, even if it has no bearing on anything that matters in any way whatsoever… Here are my conclusions, which unexpectedly turn out to have some possible bearing on reality. Since this missive has turned out to be quite long, I am not suggesting that you publish the whole thing on your blog – it is merely food for thought. But do with it as you will. Anyway… You don’t give a source or a date for your curious quote about fairies being “star-worshippers” [1865 Robert Hunt, Cornwall UK], but assuming this is a genuinely old folk-tale as opposed to a bit of random nonsense made up for the kiddies, this whole paragraph could be read as a garbled description of the beliefs of the Cathars. The Cathar élite, the Perfecti, led extraordinarily ascetic lives and actively tried to belong less and less to this horrible sinful world, longing for the time when they would die and rejoin the Godhead. Catharism was one of the few religions that encouraged ritual suicide when you reached what you considered to be your condition of peak holiness! Since this ferocious level of holier-than-thou-ness was very hard to maintain for one’s whole life, most of the Perfecti were old men, and many Cathars only took the final vows on their deathbeds. The Perfecti may very well have been scarily fanatical ultra-pessimists whom everybody else was in awe of. And the “star-worshipping” thing could easily refer to a misunderstanding of their belief that humans – and to some extent every living creature – contained tiny bright specks of the actual substance of God, the entire point of their religion being to render themselves so far removed from this horrible wicked world created by the Devil masquerading as God that these little pieces of God (which surpasseth all understanding – ha ha! – theological joke!) would be able to return to the Divine Light, which existed unreachably far above us, instead of being recycled to continue their miserable existence in this vale of tears, which actually constituted torture of God. It all fits rather well, does it not? You say this tale is from the “south-west”, which I take to mean Britain. Since prior to the Albigensian Crusade the Cathars had no significant presence in Britain, it would have been a logical place for small bands of them to flee to. Even if they were officially heretics there just like everywhere else, the average peasant wouldn’t have heard of them and wouldn’t automatically get worked up about them being in the neighborhood. Living in forests would not be a problem for people who embraced asceticism in all its forms, and the very fact that they were deliberately poor and humble to a downright excessive degree struck a chord with poor people who had come to associate the Catholic Church with greed and oppression (which was why there was a crusade against them in the first place, of course). So we’re talking about mysterious people who are obviously from somewhere else who live in the forest and aren’t Christians, and are therefore actively persecuted by the church. And since they regarded getting their message across as more important than life itself, they wouldn’t have been shy about attempting to explain their weird beliefs to an uncomprehending farmer who could probably barely understand their accent. Note also that since the Cathars believed that creating more life was a sin (for the reasons stated above), sex was heavily discouraged even within marriage, and was utterly out of the question for Perfecti. Thus a small group of Cathars devout enough to hold out to the bitter end in a forest would presumably have a birth-rate somewhere between “very low” and “non-existent”. This would tend to doom them to fairly speedy extinction, but it would also explain the belief that fairies have trouble reproducing in the usual way. Of course, fairies supposedly existed long before the Albigensian Crusade. However, existing beliefs could have been modified by subsequent events. Especially if the original fairy stories were based on a similar but longer-lasting situation where tiny pockets of Druids continued to dwell in forests, which is known to have been the case well into the early Christian era, mostly in Brittany and to some extent in Wales, but quite possibly elsewhere too. Note that the Druids had an all-male priesthood and lived in all-male communities so that women wouldn’t find out their holy secrets, whatever they were. For a dying religion with a dwindling trickle of recruits, this must have been a problem, and may well have given rise to that whole thing about fairies having trouble reproducing and being forced to steal babies – which desperate Druids may actually have done a few times. On a related note, the official Christian position on fairies was that, not being humans or angels, they had to be devils, because there were no other alternatives. However, the common people had strong beliefs in these creatures who, though scary and sometimes malicious, were nowhere near relentlessly evil enough to be proper demons, and could sometimes actually be nice. Therefore a totally unofficial belief grew up that fairies were angels who had refused to take sides in the original war in Heaven, and as a punishment for fence-sitting, didn’t fall as far as the really bad guys, but instead were condemned to wander the Earth forever as a morally ambiguous and totally irrelevant third party mainly preoccupied with apathetically wishing Doomsday would come around so it would all be over. Not unlike the Liberal Democrats. This idea does fit in quite well with some of what your sources say about fairy religion, but it also states quite categorically that fairies are failed angels. If you know for an absolute fact that there are no gods but God because you used to live with Him, it’s a bit silly to waste your time worshipping stars! Interestingly, Islam incorporated a lot of untidy Middle Eastern popular beliefs by officially embracing this idea from the start. The djinn are neither divine nor infernal, just an irresponsible bunch of random supernatural beings who mostly just do their own thing. The famous variety who usually seem to end up imprisoned in lamps for some reason are the most powerful djinn, but there are dozens of other varieties, ranging all the way down to trivially unpleasant monsters that are basically supernatural animals. Djinn are more strongly inclined towards evil than fairies, perhaps because they were never angels in the first place and therefore don’t sit around all day moping, so they’re much more energetically amoral, and that sort of thing tends to end badly for somebody. Also, the most powerful djinn are so terrifying that they don’t really have counterparts in Fairyland. But other than that, djinn and fairies are basically identical. Since Islam and Christianity partially agree, certainly on the entire monotheism issue, I would have to say that as far as the official position of the world’s major religions goes, fairies are lapsed Muslims. KMH writes ‘Contrary to popular opinion, none of man’s or fairy’s religions in the beginning worshipped physical objects such as the stars, the sun, or animals. What was actually worshipped was the spirit, or higher entity, intrinsically associated with these objects. Unfortunately as cultures and religions decline their own adherents may not truly understand what they are doing. So we are given these simplistic explanations of religious beliefs from sources not understanding their real basis. Before astrology there was an ancient tradition of star gazing to obtain inspiration from these higher entities which Christians would say are no more than angels. See. Rev. 1:20 for an example of the identification of stars with angels. Today we have the UFO-alien connection with stars (or their planets) which seemingly corroborates the ancient beliefs, except that the angels have been replaced with beings deviating enough from the human form for the ancients to classify them as demonic. There is a lot of literature today from star-beings which has been channelled by mediums or obtained by direct contact.’ Precious stuff from PJ: ‘I was very interested in your post on the religion of fairies. I’ve been reading Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar by Robert Lebling. Throughout it I haven’t been able to help comparing/contrasting the way Islam views their versions of fairies and the way fairies are often regarded in such books as Eddie Lenihan’s collection, Meeting with the Other Crowd. Often the priests in those Irish stories tell of fairies being a rather sad lot, knowing they’ll never gain salvation (because they aren’t human). This makes them inimicable to good Christians everywhere. One of your other correspondents mentioned a similar theme in the Icelandic tradition. I must say, if I knew that the accident of my birth (as a fairy) would mean I’d be condemned at the End of Time, I might feel rather peeved myself and tend to act out in unpleasant ways against ‘the lucky ones’. I know someone else already brought up the djinn/Islam connection, but I wanted to share an interesting passage from Legends of the Fire Spirits:The earliest Muslim interpretations of jinn regard them as having free will, like humans, able to choose between good and evil. The Qur’an itself has a chapter devoted to these spirit beings: Sura 72, Al-Jinn. This sura begins by mentioning a group of jinn who listened to the recitation of the Qur’an and decided to accept Islam… An ancient mosque in Mecca is dedicated to the jinn who accepted the Prophet’s message. Masjid al-Jinn (Mosque of the Jinn) is either the locale where the jinn actually listened to the Prophet recite the Qur’an, or the place where he received revelation of the sura called Al-Jinn… [Richard Burton visited this mosque and wrote of it in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah.] Legends of the Fire Spirits again: These jinn made a commitment to monotheism, the core of Islam. Other Qur’anic passages indicate that jinn had heard of earlier revelations, such as that of Moses and the Trinitarian doctrine of Christianity. For Muslims, the beings we call jinn—however they may be conceptualised—are an integral and ever-present part of the language and theology of their faith. The existence of these creatures is assumed and reiterated numerous places in the Qur’an. The book, at its very outset, calls Allah rabb al’-alamin, ‘lord of the worlds,’ understood from the earliest days of Islam to mean all possible worlds that could exist, including the worlds of humans, of jinn and of heaven. The Qur’an often mentions mankind and jinn together as the two types of creatures capable of receiving—and accepting or rejecting—the divine message.’ RPJ meanwhile connects fairy religion with other things: ‘Your article about the vague notions of ‘star worshiping’ among the faerie folk remind not about astrology, but about the concept of ‘psychic channeling’ of messages coming from intelligences that ‘dwell’ out in the Cosmos. Like Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger, and his speculations that he was receiving messages coming from Orion. Similar ideas can be found elsewhere in the counter-culture —e.g. Philip K. Dick’s ‘Valis’. And about ‘soul transmigration’, this resonates with that encounter Facius Cardan had with 2 sylphs, and how one of them told him that nothing of the person survives after death. Might this arcane passage be related to the others you wrote about?’ Then we have the legendary Da-da. ‘Hey, Beachminster. Be careful when you apply that crusty word, ‘religion’, for things like elementals and beings who may be ABOVE us spiritually. A religion is merely a set of theories based on what some people believe about another person who had the actual experience — and they’re usually not the same people who had the original experience that brought about the ‘religion’. (Indeed, when that does occasionally happen, Da-da smells a rat.) The key word here is EXPERIENCE that leads to real KNOWLEDGE (forgive the capitals, Da-da’s weak). Take Buddha and Jesus, for example, two guys who would have done anything while alive to keep us from making them the centers of religions. Da-da for one has a few key mystical experiences which led to knowledge of what is really going on in the universe and beyond. These were rather startling and challenging events, so Da-da typically keeps them to himself (Da-da has seen the angry villagers at the end of ‘FRANKENSTEIN’). However, if he told some people about an experience and they started to congregate and talk about said experience with actual eyewitnesses to Da-da *having* the experience, and that group banded together to group-remember what Da-da said and created rituals to commemorate it… well, that’s religion: a rather severe celebration of someone else’s experience that has very little to do with the experience at all, and certainly doesn’t lead to real knowledge. So, in terms of The Good Folk, they may not necessarily have a religion per se, as much as they have something that hinges on knowledge based on direct experience of something we have no inkling of. The point is really moot, as we won’t know what’s going on until we recognize and absorb all our various macules into what we once were, reaching that certain point where the carousel of time stops, as it will no longer be needed, and it’s last call at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. AND it needs be said that enquiries into Good Folk subject matter are fraught with peril (again, more direct experience), as the beings we’re talking about are, well… INHUMAN about their privacy. Any of that make sense? Da-da can say that, given his own knowledge of the near- and far-ancients, that they themselves were intractable and adamantine fanatics about the sky and stars, and about astronomical observation and calculation and the numbers describing same. We as a hominid group used to be soooo much smarter – and yet just as foolish – but we’re learning. Now all we need do is drop the savagery. A Man Called Da-da. P.S. In terms of the KNOWLEDGE Da-da possesses, suffice to say that we are non-local beings having a local experience. –AMCD’. This post has probably produced the most unusual comments Beach has yet read on this site and that is saying something. Thanks guys! Thanks KMH, Phil, Invisible and the Count, RPJ, PJ and Da-Da!
Medieval and Ancient Rats: MCCP writes in with an objection: ‘Well (harummph) the account of the capture of the Ark in I Samuel as it is currently translated has “tumors” as opposed to swellings of the buboes, and, the King James version I first read it had “emerods” which, as a boy, I imagined were some precious stone similar to emeralds but turn out to be King James’ pronunciation of hemmorhoids. Now it’s true that modern scholars try to rationalize the mice, rats, and swellings into plague, but I wonder if Yahweh didn’t have other, less deadly but more irritating curses in mind (cf., the scabs, emerods, and itching which, with the “botch of Egypt” is mentioned in Deuteronomy 28:27 right before madness and astonishment of the heart). After all, King James’ scholars were more familiar with swollen buboes then most people today. (BTW, I wonder what a gold emerod crafted by a Philistine would look like. This is the sort of thing to contemplate with a glass in your hand.) And those scholars trying to denigate bubonic plague as the Black Death have been pretty much silenced by DNA analysis of corpses. So: Black Death = bubonic plague, yes; bubonic plague = curse put on Philistines, not proven.’ Neville has a serious objection: Sorry to muck in on the plague and mice bit, but really “Adrienne Mayor, in her recent book Greek Fire, Poisons, Arrows and Scorpion Bombs, really should do the decent thing and actually check up on her sources for mice and the Philistines mentioned in I Samuel 5 and 6. There is no talk there whatsoever of a plague of mice, simply that the Philistine chappies needed to make little golden mice to accompany little golden ‘emeroids’ (and not ‘buboes’) as an offering to Jehovah. A strange requirement on the part of the unnamable One, but no mention of a pestilence of mice. Unless, of course, there is something hidden in the Hebrew text that hasn’t come through in the English translation, revisions, revisions, revisions …’ Then KMH: If the Black Death were so important (and I believe it was) why is it not found in the Bible? There happens to be a verse which may apply. It is found in Revelation under the message to Thyatira, which is generally considered to apply to the time period of c. 800 to c.1500. The verse is 2:.23 “And I will kill her children with death…If it is true that this disease was a divine retribution, then the extremely rapid spread across Europe may be due to non-natural causes.’ Thanks Neville, KMH and thanks MCCP!
Dogheads a Medieval Account: First up KMH wants to remind readers that we’ve had dogheads and this debate before. Beach should have put the links in: here is St Christopher and here are Indian dogheads. KMH then continues. ‘My suggestion is that these people suffered from what we call a genetic defect which covered their faces with hair. Rare examples exist even today. The disease is called hypertrichosis.’ Grammy, has no theory but points to some unusual passages in the Bible. ‘The puzzle of human faces resembling dogs has intrigued me for decades. In I Chronicles 12:8 (KJV), there’s this: ”And of the Gadites, there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains;” There is also a mention of “lionlike men of Moab” in 2 Samuel 23:20, which is repeated in I Chronicles 11:22. I always thought that lions’ faces looked like dogs. The make-up staff produced a believable “lion-like” face for the old TV series Beauty and The Beast by simulating the divided upper lip. And the whole subject is fascinating!‘ Finally, Greg offers this: ‘Concerning your post on reports of dog-headed and dog-faced people living in the Adaman Islands and other locales to the south and east of India, I suspect the witnesses were referring to the skull shapes of the peoples they encountered, which often differed from European and North African norms. Aboriginal peoples of the Adaman Islands, Australia, Melanesia and sub-Saharan Africa tend to possess jaws which protrude outward from the facial plane to a noticeably greater extent than the average European or North African. The extent of jaw projection is sometimes referred to as prognathism and is measured statistically (by those who do such things) by the “Alveolar index”. A couple of webpages that discuss this subject can be found at feminine beauty and racial reality and . Variations in physical appearance between ethnic groups is a sensitive subject with a long and shameful history. In the nineteenth century, Havelock Ellis noted the higher frequency of prognathism among what he referred to as the ‘lower races’. It is easy to imagine our medieval correspondents, insensitive to their own biases and ethnocentrism, describing peoples with protruding jaws that they encountered as ‘dog-headed’ or ‘dog-faced’.Hopefully, these noxious, racially-based norms of physical beauty will continue to fade into obscurity‘. Hear, hear to that! Radko writes One thing I would like to point out is that Odoricus was born in a family of a Czech soldier serving during time when Czech king Premysl Otakar II controlled that particular part of Italy and I therefore can’t help but claim Odoricus as a Czech, being Czech myself, not an Italian. You place Moumoran to Philippines but I don’t think it follows the flow of the journey. Would it be possible that Moumoran is in fact Malabar or Malayalam?’ Thanks Greg, KMH, Radko and Grammy!
Cottingley: This comes from the Count and is just too delicious to pass up: ‘You’ve recently been much concerned with fairies, and the idea that fairies and aliens are similar in many ways has been touched on. One extremely far-out theory I heard put about in ultra-paranoid UFO circles a few years ago was that the Cottingley fairy photos were part of the vast all-encompassing conspiracy of the dastardly Reptoids. Oh, the fairies were cardboard cutouts to be sure (the David Icke crowd don’t believe in fairies ‘cos that’s just silly). But both the girls were Reptoids! One of whom was having a bit of trouble with its shape-shifting space hologram on the day the photos were taken. Look at the snap of Elsie and the gnome – could her hand possibly be that shape if she was human? Proof positive!’ Thanks Count!
Accidentally Obscene: The Jannie writes in with this: ‘Further to Shitlington, Yorkshire seems to have a wealth of dodgy names. Within easy reach of here we have Penistone, Wombwell, Grimethorpe and Greasbrough.’ JC reminds us of an Austrian town whose signs keep disappearing Ray G writes in about Exeter: ‘Shitbrook Street (named because it ran down toward the Shit – aka Shute – Brook, a stream that was the city’s open sewer) is now called Paris Street. The date of the renaming isn’t clear, but it was pre-Victorian.’ Marvin has some State-side examples: ‘In Michigan there is a small town of Hell which, appropriately, is a considerable distance south of the town of Paradise. Pennsylvania also has a town of Paradise along with Intercourse and Blue Ball, and it is well known that the best way to go from Blue Ball to Paradise is through Intercourse.’ [!!!] Mike L puts us onto some rude name sites at telegraph, newslite and irgenius. Then Rick at the Anomalist has Athol. ‘It’s a town in Massachusetts, and it’s always amusing to hear someone mention it, especially if they’re the sort prone to call a spade a thpade.’ [!!!!] Pascal meanwhile remembers ‘On an album by Paul Young (wherever I lay my hat, love of the common people) called No Parlez (1983) there is a photograph of a sign saying “SHITTERTON”, it’s not a ‘Welcome to…’ type, looks more like a street name but the word stands alone, it’s not followed by road, street, lane or anything. Terrible shame it never had avenue at the end of it ‘cos that would make a questioned sentence in itself, chortle mirth’ Andy the Mad Monk and Invisible write in with a Swedish version of the obscene name problem. Invisible adds: On a similar note, Vicks VapoRub, a decongestant remedy, had to have its name changed to market it in Germany, as the German pronunciation was “fick.” As an undergraduate studying medieval exempla, I ran across a tale of a lecherous cleric named something like ”Henry Fickerer.” My dear professor, no doubt seeking to spare my schoolgirl innocence, told me it meant “deceiver.” Thanks Andy and Invisible, Jannie, JC, Pascal, Rick, Mike L. and Ray G!!!
Electrocuting Tribal Leaders: Sword&Beast writes in ‘I´ve just read your post on gifts from explorers and it reminded me a passage from the history of Brazil. Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva was an explorer from the 17th century then village of São Paulo, one of many who went deep inland to fetch for natives, gold or diamonds. The 1987 movie The Mission gives a good impression of these slave-hunting expeditions called ‘bandeiras‘. In 1682, Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva run into a tribe where the women were richly adorned with gold. As they refused to tell were the gold came from, the explorer threw the strong Brazilian run called “cachaça” (which today is used for milder uses such as “caipirinha”) into a pound and set it on fire, saying that he would burn all rivers and water sources if he was not taken to the gold sites. Although not as threatening as Swiss music boxes, it worked and the explorer passed into history known as Anhanguera, which means ‘old devil’ in the local amerindian language.‘ Thanks S&B!
Ike and de Gaulle: The Count remembers Patton and battlefields and reincarnation. Patton’s curious views on his past lives deserve several posts of their own. As often with reincarnation believers he seems to have been a series of famous people. ‘You want to know if other modern commanders have made a point of visiting the sites of historical battles – well, surely the ultimate example must be General Patton? According to the movie Patton, he not only loved to visit such places, but believed that in a long succession of previous incarnations, in all of which he seems to have been a soldier, he actually fought in those battles, some of them over 2000 years ago! Of course, that’s just a movie, but since I understood it to be an exceptionally accurate biopic with no really major distortions of the facts, I was inspired by your latest post to do a quick google, and apparently Patton really did have these beliefs, and according to some sources, seemed to have an uncanny familiarity with ancient battlefields he had never visited before. Also, he wrote poetry, some of which is quoted in the film, explicitly describing his previous lives in a totally non-metaphorical way. Perhaps you might like to look into this. I’m no military historian, but it does appear to be true. Indeed, the first site that comes up if you google ‘Patton + reincarnation’ makes a very sincere and surprisingly good case for Patton and Hannibal being the same person.’ Thanks Count!
Vintages Past: WKJ writes in ‘It’s fictional and not drinkable, but your post on vintage wine sent me back to reading “a vintage from Atlantis” by Clark Ashton Smith. (which is online, Eldritch Dark website I think). Next up is Andy the Mad Monk ‘This is a quote from the book The Blandys of Madeira: 1811 – 2011 by Marcus Binney. Churchill visited Madeira in 1950 and was royally entertained: Graham Blandy describes how towards the end of dinner Churchill ‘asked me what was the best Madeira on the list, to which I replied I believed that it was the 1792 Blandy Solera’. When it arrived at the table Churchill said, ‘I must do honour to this,’ and stood up, put his napkin over his elbow and poured the wine for each of his guests. Then he sat down and talked of the year 1792, three years after the French Revolution, when Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were still alive. The bottle came from a pipe (105 gallons) taken on board HMS Northumberland as it sailed south carrying Napoleon to exile in St. Helena. The Emperor had not drunk the wine and, as it had never been paid for, the pipe returned to Madeira. And this might tickle your fancy on ale from Edward VIII’s coronation. And on Sumerian beer. Adrian Sterling, meanwhile, from the Anomalist writes in with some ancient recipes or as he puts it ‘Who needs to import when you can make it at home and thumb your nose at customs? You can make a batch then have your friends over to watch Arsenal kick some Manchester butt while loudly musing ‘I can’t believe they DRANK this stuff.’ Inimitable! Thanks WKJ, Adrian and Andy!
Scary Fairies: A few emails worth putting up immediately including some from consultations with readers in the last days. First the bad/good news and thanks to Southern Man for this. Seems that Scary Fairies has already been used as a title: several times… One of these though is a free Juno ebook which includes four neo-traditional tales: ‘The Child that Went with the Fairies by Le Fanu’ (will be in Beachcombing’s Scary Fairies), ‘The Adventure of Cherry of Zenor’ (entertaining but hardly frightening), ‘Ethna the Bride’ by Lady Wilde and ‘Tam Lin’ as told by John Joseph Shaun K has the following suggestions: ‘Not on your list is a work by George MacDonald, ‘Phantasies’ (1858). I haven’t read it myself, but I do note it has one of the earlier references to a place called Fairyland, an Other World. The summary I have read paints it more as a fantasy than a weird tale. Not sure it is right for this work, but there you go. As for other ideas, might I suggest a reference to Georges Méliès A Trip To The Moon. Not a fairy story per se, but a marker in time, as the mystery of the paranormal is first transitioned to the stark (if still amazing) technicality of science fiction. The story certainly bears comparison to Other World visitations, though now in distance rather than dimensions. The depiction of the Moon dwellers combined with the novelty and realism of the moving picture would certainly have sent a few viewers up the aisles in fright. i have in my collection a small tome called Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor, by Ruth St. Leger-Gordon (1972, Bell Publishing Co.) It has a chapter or two about fairy (pixie) lore in the area, with accounts that mostly fall into the overwhelmed-and-freaked-out category. NO idea where you might get this book today, but if you have any friends in Dartmoor I would recommend making inquiries. Phil P while not coming up with many titles as such points in the direction of the ‘usual suspects’. Beachcombing will be dredging through their collections and will report back. ‘Here is a list of the authors whom [might be useful]. This would be a good source for possible period stories. (From their Wikipedia page) Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, and Derleth himself; classic genre fiction by authors such as William Hope Hodgson, Algernon Blackwood, H. Russell Wakefield, Seabury Quinn, and J. Sheridan Le Fanu; I would also check the horror of Ambrose Bierce. Finally, (for now) A very scary modern fairy story that I commend to you: Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist. It is a novel and still in print in paperback. It is good enough that I gave bought copies for several friends.’ Invisible meanwhile points out that there is a Saki Story, Music on the Hill. Thanks to Invisible, Shaun, Phil and Southern Man!
South Africa’s First Flier: George T very kindly sends in this reference to JGH, South Africa’s legendary (in every sense) first flier. It is in Lawrence Green’s last book When the Journey’s Over, chapter ten. Here follows the relevant extract. As George writes: I am not sure he adds much to the story but does quote a supposed eyewitness. ‘South Africa’s first airman is more of a legend than a reality. His name was Goodman Household, he was a Natal farmer and – if the story is true – he left the earth in a glider years before Lilienthal of Germany. Here I must point out that the story of air pioneering has been confused by patriots of the various nations concerned and historical accuracy has suffered in the process. There are many South Africans who like to believe that Household took to the air in the seventies of last century. Frenchmen declare that Clement Ader flew a steam propelled monoplane successfully in 1890; only one hundred and sixty feet, to be sure, but over level ground with daylight under the wheels. Some of the leading authorities on aeronautics have supported Ader’s claim. Thirteen years later came the Wright brothers, regarded by Americans as the first men to fly power-driven aircraft. I should also mention an early British glider called the Bat, designed and flown successfully in 1895 by a Clydeside shipbuilder named Percy Pilcher. He crashed and was killed four years later. Goodman Household certainly built a glider but I doubt very much whether he flew it. This, after a century, is a mystery that will never be solved. ‘The family farm was in the Karkloof district of Natal. There young Household started his aviation research by shooting vultures and other birds, weighing them, measuring the wings and calculating the wingspan needed to carry his own weight. His parents encouraged their inventive son when he designed a mechanical sawmill that replaced several native labourers; but they strongly disapproved of his interest in flying. ‘Crazy and un-Christian’, they said. So the dedicated Goodman went on with his experiments secretly. Dr Colenso, Bishop of Natal, checked his mathematical calculations. After ten years of research Goodman Household started building his glider. According to one account he used steel tubes and silk imported from Switzerland. Apparently he made an error in the wing loading and the first glider failed to lift him. The second glider seems to have had a bamboo frame covered with paper or oiled silk. It had enormous wings. Household made a seat for himself like a swing, suspended below the wings by four ropes. He hoped to control the glider by tilting his seat in various directions; surely the most precarious control system ever planned. Viewed from any angle, I find the legend of Household’s pioneer flight incredible. It becomes all the more dubious when you learn that Household decided to fly by night to avoid distressing his parents. He and his Zulus are supposed to have carried the glider up a hillside near the homestead and launched it in total darkness. Details of the flight vary widely. One account says that Household ‘threw himself from a high cliff and landed safely near a yellow-wood tree’. The tree has been pointed out to credulous visitors as clear proof of Household’s feat. It stood about five hundred yards from the launching site on a krantz. Another version has Household running down a slope until he was able to level out, climb a little and fly triumphantly over the tall gum trees in the valley. He tried to land on rising ground but crashed in a dam and hurt his ankle. After this adventure his mother made him promise that he would never fly again. The glider went into the farmhouse loft; and no doubt the strange contraption was inspected by many visitors who helped to embroider and spread the legend. Goodman Household died in 1906 and it has been stated that he left instructions in his will that the glider and all his plans and calculations should be destroyed. Certainly nothing has been found. Natal newspapers have been publishing the story at intervals ever since Household died; but the so-called eye-witnesses are at variance and no authentic record has ever been discovered. Even the year of Household’s experiment has not been fixed; some said 1871, others 1875. A native herdsman employed by a Mr Jack Logan claimed to have been present and pointed out ‘the exact spot’. The herdsman recalled many failures before the dramatic night when Household flew. ‘He leapt into the wind and was carried away like a bird about eight feet from the ground,’ declared the herdsman. ‘He landed in a mealie-field eight hundred yards from the start.’ The scene of Household’s adventure has been marked by the Historical Monuments Commission and the vague reports have been officially recorded. But I cannot imagine any serious historian being deeply impressed by the century old Household legend. Goodman Household was a dreamer, an inventor, a clever pioneer aircraft designer – but not the first glider pilot.’ Thanks George!
Dud Ghosts: Diana writes in with a small correction and a story. ‘Ghost’ Gets a Beating. Soundly Trounced By Young Man He Tries to Scare From Girl. Philadelphia , PA July 23 With his eyes blackened, his head and face cut and bruised, and his body aching from blows rained upon him, John Shelmerdine is convinced that playing ghost is not the proper method of frightening away a suitor for the hand of his daughter. Incidentally Shelmardine, who lives in Mahyunk, The neighborhood in Philadelphia where he probably lived was Manayunk. I’m guessing the newspaper type was difficult to read, so thought I’d send you the correct spelling. I am also guessing the origins because I don’t know a lot about Manayunk, but many Philadelphia “neighborhoods” were originally separate towns that the city grew out to meet, for instance Germantown, Brewerytown, Fishtown, etc. Manayunk is undoubtedly an originally Native American word. My whole family is from Philadelphia although I grew up outside the city nearby. I’m not surprised the suitor beat up the ghost because these people don’t take any guff. The sports fans are still remembered for throwing snowballs at Santa Claus several years ago. The guy beating up the ghost immediately reminded me of a story several years old, I looked up the details: Some high school girls have taken revenge on a suspected serial flasher. There had been several reports of a man exposing himself to students from St. Maria Goretti’s High School for Girls in Philadelphia. The man would hide behind a van and wait for girls to walk by. Then he’d jump out, expose himself and run away. Police told the Philadelphia Inquirer he was suspected of flashing 13 victims in seven different incidents. The same thing happened Thursday, but this time, police say some store owners saw what the man was doing and began yelling at him. Then, three of the girls who’d been victimized a few days earlier saw the man and also began to yell at him. At that point, a group of about 20 students from St. Maria Goretti chased the suspected flasher down the street, wrestled him to the ground and held him there until police could take him into custody.The suspect suffered a cut lip. He will face a variety of charges once he is arrested on a warrant charging numerous counts of corrupting the morals of a minor, stalking, harassment and indecent exposure, police spokesman William Colarulo told the Inquirer.’ Thanks Diana!
Lovecraft Invisible Library: Mark L writes in with these welcome corrections: ‘I don’t usually email bloggers out of the blue, but you DID ask for corrections… The Book of Eibon was a creation of Clark Ashton Smith, not H. P. Lovecraft. Smith wrote a few short stories describing the adventures of Eibon, including one which was supposed to be an excerpt from the book. The Eltdown Shards were first dreamed up by Richard F. Searight, but I believe HPL was the first to actually use them in a story. Searight was a horror writer whose work has, as far as I know, only been reprinted in a series of chapbooks by Necronomicon Press in the 90s and the occasional anthology appearance. Also, you might consider including Cultes des Goules, by the Comte d’Erlette, which was invented by either Robert Bloch or August Derleth. (Wikipedia claims Bloch, but I know Derleth claimed it as his own.) Pretty much all of Lovecraft’s circle had at least one book that they made up, and part of the rite of passage of every Cthulhu Mythos writer is inventing their own. (I have myself.) Wikipedia has a good list on Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature and Cthulhu Mythos miscellaneous books. ‘ Thanks Mark L.
Apple Down Cemetery: Tony F writes in. Beach can confirm that Apple Down came after the publication of this article. ‘Also from the Am. J. of Phys. Anthropology this (er, last) year was a review article which says that all 54(?!) pre-Columbian syphilis cases are misdiagnosed, or temporally misplaced. Don’t know if that includes the Apple Down skeleton. Unfortunately, the article is behind a paywall, so I can’t read it. Harper, K. N., Zuckerman, M. K., Harper, M. L., Kingston, J. D. and Armelagos, G. J. (2011), The origin and antiquity of syphilis revisited: An Appraisal of Old World pre-Columbian evidence for treponemal infection. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 146: 99–133. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.21613 Abstract: For nearly 500 years, scholars have argued about the origin and antiquity of syphilis. Did Columbus bring the disease from the New World to the Old World? Or did syphilis exist in the Old World before 1493? Here, we evaluate all 54 published reports of pre-Columbian, Old World treponemal disease using a standardized, systematic approach. The certainty of diagnosis and dating of each case is considered, and novel information pertinent to the dating of these cases, including radiocarbon dates, is presented. Among the reports, we did not find a single case of Old World treponemal disease that has both a certain diagnosis and a secure pre-Columbian date. We also demonstrate that many of the reports use nonspecific indicators to diagnose treponemal disease, do not provide adequate information about the methods used to date specimens, and do not include high-quality photographs of the lesions of interest. Thus, despite an increasing number of published reports of pre-Columbian treponemal infection, it appears that solid evidence supporting an Old World origin for the disease remains absent.’ Thanks Tony!
Beachcombed 19 January 1, 2012
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
A Happy 1st Jan to All Readers!
2011 was the year that Beachcombing moved off word press and ventured, however, tentatively onto twitter: Strange History has rated between the sixth and the third history blog on google.com since the summer with between 1500 and 2500 hits a day. 2012 will see the first Beachcombing books and there is no link to that for the sad reason that none are quite ready yet. They will be modest ‘edited’ affairs (ahem!).
In his family the single worst memories of the year were the the mice under the stairs and the headlice – which means it was hardly bad at all. The best memories were reading fairy stories to his elder daughter and reading nineteenth-century records of fairies to himself: general good health was also a pleasant surprise. As the Euro crisis thundered on Beach felt like a French coastal dweller in the Longest Day alternatively cheering as the Allied bombardment begins and screaming as his house is destroyed. The coastal road, the grains of sand and the Allies themselves will all likely be blown to pieces in 2012. Tomorrow, meanwhile, our new aupair arrives and will be paid in what passes for currency in Italy: poor girl…
The most popular post of the year was Black Cats, Queen Victoria Drinks Blood from a Skull in Tibet and Jesus Christ and an Egg from Leeds. Beach has to say that he particularly enjoyed the Immortal Champagne Toast, the Zambian Space Programme and the Mid Atlantic Taxi. Biggest mistake was his appalling slandering of Silvio Berlusconi and a few others errors (Shetlands do not equal Orkney etc etc) that he is trying hard to forget.
Offworld he would like to give a plug to Detritus of Empire and A Man Called Da Da He also cannot get this short video of the Polish Cavalry in the September War out of his head: his best viewing of the year and one that has already been offered up.
Below there are the ten thousand words of readers emails from readers over the last month. Beach was particularly excited by the email about the ‘ghosts’ of the British Museum and Katharine Briggs unlikely lack of fact checking. He also liked the advancing knowledge about the FIS: but then anything faery…
Thanks!
B
Haunted Chessmen: SC an assistant at the British museum writes in (in reply to an email from Beach) with the following observation: ‘I have spoken with my colleagues who have looked into the story before and I am afraid to say that it is completely untrue! My colleague, who is extremely knowledgeable on the history of the Museum, told me that ‘dogs are not allowed in the British Museum and never have been. Security staff do not use dogs. The only dogs who ever come into the building (apart from guide dogs) are sniffer dogs when we are expecting a VIP visit. There was a story which I had first-hand from the then Keeper of Greek &Roman Antiquities, Brian Cook, that he saw a sniffer dog which spotted one of the stone lions in the Nereid room out of the corner of his eye and went for it. Fortunately, as Brian said, the dog was on a lead. The tale was related to me as an example of the quality of the carving and, although I have sometimes mentioned it to others, I have never seen it in print. I have also heard tales of warders on patrol who did not like to go into the mummy reserve collections. I have never heard a story of dogs and the Lewis chessmen – and would not expect to do so!’ Thanks to SC and the British Museum. Apologies to the departed spirit of Katharine Briggs for ruining a good story with the truth.
Amerindian Iceland: Stephen D writes in with still more and it is wonderful stuff: ‘I’ve dug down a bit further into the online data, and it seems that while it is true that the Icelandic mitochondrial DNA falls into a unique subclass, C1e, with at least 14 mutations separating it from C1a (eastern Siberian) or C1b-d (Amerindian), and with no known complete corresponding sequences anywhere, there are a number of partial mitochondrial sequences that may well turn out to be C1e. These are: 2 ancient Tainos sequences, Dominican Republic (good preColumbian seafarers, from Lesser Antilles to Bahamas: largely extinct: strong candidate in my opinion); 1 ancient Ciboney sequence, Cuba (mostly driven out of Antilles by Tainos: extinct: weaker candidate); 2 ancient American Midwest sequences, Oneota: wrong place?; 2 modern samples, Brazil: probably wrong place; 3 modern sequences, Chile, 1 modern sequence, Peru, 1 modern Canadian sample (Nuu-Chah-Nulth, Vancouver), 1 American sample (Apache): definitely wrong place; 2 modern sequences, origin unknown, no use to anybody; And then it gets interesting; 1 modern sequence, Canary Islands: probably descendant of Amerindian brought there post-Columbus; 1 modern sequence, Germany of all places: probably as above but Ebenesersdottir et al don’t completely rule out older C1e component in European populations; DNA does get around. You may have come across the Tuareg mitochondrial component in modern Hungary (presumably brought there in retinue of some Turkish pasha), and Thomas Jefferson’s Y chromosome DNA found in his lawful white and bastard coloured family, which despite the Jefferson’s Welsh ancestry turned out to come from Egypt or thereabouts (presumably via some merchant, official or soldier in Roman times).’ Thanks Stephen!
Run Rabbit Run: Tim from Detritus of Empire sends in ‘Lyrics from the seminal stoner album “Dark Side of the Moon”, by Pink Floyd Breathe (Waters, Gilmour, Wright) 2:44 Breathe, breathe in the air./ Don’t be afraid to care./ Leave but don’t leave me. / Look around and choose your own ground. / Long you live and high you fly/ And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry / And all you touch and all you see / Is all your life will ever be. / Run, rabbit run. / Dig that hole, forget the sun, / And when at last the work is done / Don’t sit down it’s time to dig another one. / For long you live and high you fly / But only if you ride the tide / And balanced on the biggest wave / You race towards an early grave.’ Run rabbit run onwards is from the original song. Mike G writes in to point out that this was Shetland not Orkney (Beachcombing brain made a silly mistake here). According to local lore one rabbit not two were killed: Beachcombing seems to remember a photograph of two rabbits but contemporary reports refer to one? Then what about this link: it seems that the rabbits were dropped over Germany by a RAF bomber addressed to Goering! Then Marvin writes in about the Jimmy Carter killer rabbit incident. Thanks Marvin and Mike and Tim!
Don’t Play with Fire: Jon K: ‘I’ve just read your post on fire superstitions and have one for the pot. It was a common practice for those in out Northern climes to keep a fire burning in the hearth all year round. In some communities they would smother the fire on Beltane/ Bealltainn and relight it using a brand from the bonfire. Quite evocative! Naturally, many superstitions and customs were generated by such a focal point. Preamble aside, there’s an inn in Dartmoor that has kept their fire burning for centuries. Somehow, local tradition holds the belief that the devil was tricked and remains trapped beneath the hearth. Should the fire ever be extinguished, Old Nick will will spring forth and make merry mischief with the world again. Unfortunately, the great winds of 1987 flooded the inn and the fire was doused. It later re-opened and, as far as I remember, continues to keep the fire going; whether civic duty or a good draw for the tourists is anyone’s guess. This legend exists in another pub on the N Yorkshire moors. Alas, I have to leave for work and can’t provide the names of either despite having visited the Dartmoor one.’ Thanks Jon!
True Lies: DB writes in ‘I submit that in the Carter v Reagan election of 1980, Reagan was accused of secret negotiations with Tehran to prevent any early hostage release becoming an october surprise in Carter’s favour. This was widely pooh poohed (and is still officially denied). However I’m sure that most reasonable historians now agree that negotiations did take place (I recall reports of Bush the greater meeting Iranian officials in Paris), and Tehran (??) has verified that this is the case.’ Thanks DB
Eating Flags: Jay writes in about one of the most famous flags of all ‘Your post on surrendering flags makes me wonder about the fate of Hitler’s Blood Flag. This was the most ‘sacred’ symbol of Nazism, being the swastika-blazoned banner that was carried during the failed Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923. It was called the ‘Blood Flag’ because it was stained with the gore of fallen Nazis. Hitler used this flag to consecrate other flags, including the battle standards of the SS. The rather spooky ceremony can be seen in “Triumph of the Will” of him touching it to the banners one by one. Anyway, as far as I know, the flag was not found at the end of the war. I imagine it decorates some bunker in Argentina or secret Neo-Nazi Fortress of Doom in Antarctica.’ Thanks Jay!
Future of English: KMH writes in ‘My idea for English is that it will eventually assume the same status Latin had for written material, especially for religion, science, technology and academia. For speaking it will further fragment into more dialects although it may never mutate into the equivalent of the romance languages. Each dialect may incorporate elements of a native language with English, the most widely known second language. The long-term cultural future belongs to the Asiatic peoples and their languages, especially Mandarin. The ideographs would be good to leave behind since they aren’t as precisely interpretable as true words using an alphabet. Ultimately we will need a new language for the new kinds of situations and humans of the far distant future when we have exhausted the current ones. Zephaniah 3.9 actually predicts such a new language. Anyone interested in Esperanto?’ Adrian S meanwhile is taking an even longer view with futurese: From ‘Wé cildra biddaþ þé, éalá láréow, þæt þú tǽce ús sprecan rihte, forþám ungelǽrede wé sindon, and gewæmmodlíce we sprecaþ…’ to ‘We children beg you, teacher, that you should teach us to speak correctly, because we are ignorant and we speak corruptly…’ to ‘Wi txìldran beg yu, titxar, dat yu xùd titx as tu spik karektli, bikaz wi ar ìgnarant and wi spik karàptli…’ and finally ‘*ZA kiad w’-exùn ya tijuh, da ya-gAr’-eduketan zA da wa-tAgan lidla, kaz ‘ban iagnaran an wa-tAg kurrap…’ Or for a more lighthearted view (also via Adrian). Southern Man writes in ‘Your readers (and you) should go and look what Burgess did in the Clockwork Orange.’ Thanks KMH, Adrian and Southern Man
Laughing to Death: MM writes in ‘I know you’re looking for true-life examples. But the literary case that comes to mind is the death of the picaresque figure Margutte, in Pulci’s epic Morgante. It’s near the end of Canto XIX. If you don’t know the scene already: The giant Morgante has befriended the wicked, hilarious half-giant Margutte. The whole Canto is an account of their adventures, and of several practical jokes Morgante plays on his friend. The last joke is fatal: while Margutte sleeps, Morgante gives his boots to a monkey. Beginning at stanza 146 of Tusiani’s translation: He said, “Morgante, you’re a trustless man:/ well can see you took my boots away,/ being the vile and gross man that you are.”/Morgante said, “Now guess where I have hid them:/ they cannot be too far from where we are./ With this I’ll let you pay for countless wrongs.”/ Searching for them, Margutte looked in vain,/ and, ever mumbling, yet he searched again. / Morgante laughed still more, the more he fumed. Margutte finally could see his boots/a little monkey had got hold of them,/ and had already tried them on and off. / Ask not if then he laughed! He laughed so hard, / his eyes began to swell and, swollen so, / seemed just about to burst out of his head - / yet at that play he looked, amused and glad. / Excited more and more by such a play,/ he kept on laughing, and his laughter grew / so loud, his chest, which needed some relief, / could not at all some respite ever find /so much impeded and constrained and blocked. / The little monkey tried them on again: / Margutte’s laughter reached such a commotion, / there was right in the end a great explosion, / which soon rebounded like a cannon blast, / such was the mighty thunder all around /Morgante ran to see what had occurred, /gazed on Margutte whence that sound had come, / and was so sorry for the trick he played/ when on the ground he saw him lying still;/ and when he saw the monkey right beside,/ he knew that from much laughter he had died.’ Later on, the Archangel Gabriel assures the dying hero Orlando that Margutte is in Hell. And that “he is still laughing, and will laugh forever.” Then Linda B: ‘Your post today… reminded me of ‘The Dying Ode of Ragnar Lodbrog’ (a very popular poem in the eighteenth century and which appeared in, for example, Thomas Percy’s Five Pieces of Runic Poetry). Although Ragnar’s death is not caused by laughter, he laughs as he dies: ‘Tis with joy I cease. The goddesses of destiny are come to fetch me. Odin hath sent them from the habitation of the gods. I shall be joyfully received into the highest seat; I shall quaff full goblets among the gods. The hours of my life are past away. I die laughing.’ Tim from Detritus writes in ‘The causes of syncope-and perhaps on occasion worse-are legion. Cough syncope for instance is fairly common. As are the related conditions of defecation and micturation syncope. The loo is a high risk zone, so much hard porcelain to crash into.’ Thanks Tim, MM and Linda!!
H.P.Lovecraft’s Invisible Library: Phil P again to the rescue ‘One minor correction, Unausprechlichen Kulten actually was invented by Robert E. Howard, who gained fame as the father of Conan The Barbarian. He also wrote in the Lovecraft mythos. In fact, he contributed enough short fiction to fill a book.’ Mikulpepper from Shrine of Dreams writes in with this on the Necronomicon: ‘Not only have there been various claimants to the Necronomicon title, one of them actually reprinted a text of Aleister Crowley’s and titled it The Necronomicon. I don’t know what the copyright situation was about this but I argued long and unsuccessfully with a person who thought that this was indeed the writings of the mad Arab Abdul al-Hazred. (Late 1960s, early 1970s?). Al, meanwhile, writes in ‘You should include De Vermis Mysteriis, (Mysteries of the Worm) by Ludwig Prinn. Created by Robert Bloch, “the tome first appeared in his short story “The Shambler from the Stars” (1935), in which a character reads a passage from the book and accidentally summons an extradimensional horror’. Thanks Al and Mikulpepper and Phil P!
Bearded Saints: Invisible is, as always, unbeatable: ‘While I regret that I cannot find my original source, I remember a medieval account of the body of a female saint who had also grown a beard to fend off a suitor. The body was on display as a relic when a curious visitor lifted her skirts and discovered that “she” had other male attributes. When the visitor indignantly pointed this out to the custodian of the relics, the monk replied, “God be praised! When the Saint prayed to be rendered undesirable to her suitor, an even more complete miracle occurred!” There are a couple of books on the extreme fasts that many female saints undertook, inviting comparison with modern-day anorexics who sometimes grow abnormal hair (lanugo) all over their bodies, including on the face. See Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women, Caroline Walker Bynum and Holy Anorexia, Rudolph M. Bell. Possibly a fasting princess might have grown a beard…. I was also reminded of this poignant painting of a bearded woman nursing her child by Ribera: As for strange saints, I suggest Christina of Liege?Christina Mirabilis, whom the Jesuit Father Herbert Thurston calls a “theopathic personality.” Her Latin life is here Information from Butler’s Life of the Saints is here: . Another levitating saint was St. Joseph of Cupertino. He, too, perched in the tree-tops like a bird, supposedly in front of impeccable witnesses.’ Thanks Invisible!
Fairies and Smells: This from Mish M ‘I don’t think of that part of the world being particularly volcanic, but perhaps there was some kind of *event*?… That led to sulphurous steam to seep out? Or perhaps there are some hot springs in the area.’ Thanks Mish!!!!
Syphilis: JCE writes in with this, ‘While I can’t speak to the somewhat dubious experiments of Signor Fioravanti and am unsure of his theory (there weren’t a flood of new cases of syphilis among the survivors of the siege of Leningrad, were there? Wait – Stalin: maybe there were), I note that the symptoms of the inhabitants of the besieged city of his tale are very similar to those of scurvy, which one might expect in an encircled city deprived of fresh fruits and greenstuffs. As for the hair loss, while I am uncertain of its association with vitamin C deficiency, I believe it may be related to a lack of protein, which of course is also to be expected. Might the problem with the afflicted have been that they didn’t eat enough man-pies?’ Then JJ has this on the origins of syphilis, a hugely controversial topic, from Rivers Ran East by Clark: ‘It has been established that prior to the discovery of America and the ancient Incas, syphilis was unknown in Europe. Nearby pre-Columbian Incan graves were at the moment producing – under the spades of a Lima scientist – the bones of syphilitics, due, he believed to the Andean Indians’ working with llamas and the ancient instinct for sodomy. Very likely humanity owes this curse to Pizarro and the Andean llama. There was a national law which forbade any male Indian from travelling with a herd of llamas on a trip exceeding twenty-four hours, unless a woman went along. And since all available women were working shifts in the mines, the llama trains were stalled indefinitely.’ Thanks JCE and JJ!
Faun’s Library: PcCB writes ‘Surely, The Life and Letters of Silenus reminded you of The Screwtape Letters? Of course, Lewis was making fun of himself. Tumnus’s fear of the WW is not so very different from Wormwood’s fear of Screwtape and Co., is it?’ Spot on PcCB, Thanks!
Fairies and Church: James writes that ‘Sir Walter Scott wrote that the Pope was indulgent of fairies. The connection between Protestantism and the flit of the fairies is often found in the seventeenth century onwards. John G and Invisible point out that a late reflex of this is from Kipling’s Puck of Puck Hill: ‘An’ old!’ Tom went on. ‘Flesh an’ Blood have been there since Time Everlastin’ Beyond. Well, now, speakin’ among themselves, the Marshmen say that from Time Everlastin’ Beyond the Pharisees favoured the Marsh above the rest of Old England. I lay the Marshmen ought to know. They’ve been out after dark, father an’ son, smugglin’ some one thing or t’other, since ever wool grew to sheep’s backs. They say there was always a middlin’ few Pharisees to be seen on the Marsh. Impident as rabbits, they was. They’d dance on the nakid roads in the nakid daytime; they’d flash their liddle green lights along the diks, comin’ an’ goin’, like honest smugglers. Yes, an’ times they’d lock the church doors against parson an’ clerk of Sundays!’ ‘That ’ud be smugglers layin’ in the lace or the brandy till they could run it out o’ the Marsh. I’ve told my woman so,’ said Hobden. ‘I’ll lay she didn’t beleft it, then—not if she was a Whitgift. A won’erful choice place for Pharisees, the Marsh, by all accounts, till Queen Bess’s father he come in with his Reformatories.’ ‘Would that be a Act o’ Parliament like?’ Hobden asked. ‘Sure-ly! ’Can’t do nothing in Old England without Act, Warrant, an’ Summons. He got his Act allowed him, an’, they say, Queen Bess’s father he used the parish churches something shameful. Justabout tore the gizzards out of I dunnamany. Some folk in England they held with ’en; but some they saw it different, an’ it eended in ’em takin’ sides an’ burnin’ each other no bounds, accordin’ which side was top, time bein’. That tarrified the Pharisees: for Goodwill among Flesh an’ Blood is meat an’ drink to ’em, an’ ill-will is poison.’ ‘Same as bees,’ said the Bee Boy. ‘Bees won’t stay by a house where there’s hating.’ ‘True,’ said Tom. ‘This Reformations tarrified the Pharisees same as the reaper goin’ round a last stand o’ wheat tarrifies rabbits. They packed into the Marsh from all parts, and they says, “Fair or foul, we must flit out o’ this, for Merry England’s done with, an’ we’re reckoned among the Images.”’ ‘Did they _all_ see it that way?’ said Hobden. ‘All but one that was called Robin—if you’ve heard of him. What are you laughing at?’ Tom turned to Dan. ‘The Pharisees’s trouble didn’t tech Robin, because he’d cleaved middlin’ close to people like. No more he never meant to go out of Old England—not he; so he was sent messagin’ for help among Flesh an’ Blood. But Flesh an’ Blood must always think of their own concerns, an’ Robin couldn’t get _through_ at ’em, ye see. They thought it was tide-echoes off the Marsh.’ ‘What did you—what did the fai—Pharisees want?’ Una asked. ‘A boat to be sure. Their liddle wings could no more cross Channel than so many tired butterflies. A boat an’ a crew they desired to sail ’em over to France, where yet awhile folks hadn’t tore down the Images. They couldn’t abide cruel Canterbury Bells ringin’ to Bulverhithe for more pore men an’ women to be burnded, nor the King’s proud messenger ridin’ through the land givin’ orders to tear down the Images. They couldn’t abide it no shape. Nor yet they couldn’t get their boat an’ crew to flit by without Leave an’ Good-will from Flesh an’ Blood; an’ Flesh an’ Blood came an’ went about its own business the while the Marsh was swarvin’ up, an’ swarvin’ up with Pharisees from all England over, striving all means to get through at Flesh an’ Blood to tell ’en their sore need.’ Thanks James, John and Invisibile!
Dunkirk and Golden Bridges: Louis writes ‘There is, as far as I can see, a good explanation for this Inhis book: The Blitzkrieg legend: the 1940 campaign in the West von Karl-Heinz Frieser,John T. Greenwood, Mister Frieser gives his analysis of what happened during 23 and 24 May. Von Runstedt gave a halt order on the 23rd, (probably because he either very anxious about his flanks, or jealous of von Manstein and his Sichelschnitt plan and wanted it to fail), and was sidelined by the GeneralHQ (OKH), and deprived of the Panzer Army group. When Hitler came to von Rundsteds HQ, he was appalled, because he did not know of this decision to deprive von Rundstedt of the Panzer army group. And Hitler then made a political decision. He confirmed the halt order of von Rundstedt, and chastised the GeneralHQ (OKH) for not informing him (of the change in command of the Panzers), and not waiting for his input on this. HE, Hitler, was the master of Germany and he did not want an independent army that could take decisions like that without his knowledge and OK. The way it is stated in the book, and with all the rest of the “Options” more or less unlikely (both militarily and political) this looks to me the only viable option. Below is the paragraph from the German Wiki about the Battle of Dunkirk, which more or less says the same thing, about this being a political decision, and not a military one. Die Gründe für den Haltebefehl vom 24. Mai werden noch heute kontrovers diskutiert. In der Regel wird der Haltebefehl Hitlers auf dessen eigene Autoritätsdurchsetzung zurückgeführt. Da er während des bisherigen Westfeldzuges als militärischer „Führer“ völlig außen vor gelassen wurde, nutzte er den Haltebefehl dazu aus, seine eigene Autorität zu festigen. Andere Gründe, beispielsweise die eingeschlossenen britischen Truppen könnten als Unterpfand für eventuelle Friedensverhandlungen mit den Briten dienen, werden allerdings als Erklärungsversuche häufig zurückgewiesen. But whatever the reason, it did save a lot of British, and also lots of French, troops from going into captivity’. KMH writes, meanwhile, ‘I am in favor of the last idea because I don’t believe Hitler wanted war with his equals or superiors. According to his master race theory, he was completely justified in conquering and enslaving the inferior races such as the Poles, Slavs, etc., mostly in the East. Engaging Britain, if necessary, should have only come after all other objectives had been achieved, not at the beginning. The suspicious flight of Hess to Britain supposedly to discuss ending the hostilities may support this argument. However, the vainglorious visions of Hitler ended in a two-front war he originally vowed never again to be caught up in. For what it is worth, even the witches in England were devoutly praying for calm weather to rescue the BEF in addition to the customary believers. Philosophically, without these initial disasters such as Dunkirk and Pearl Harbor, the later true successes such as decoding the enigma machine, and new inventions such as the proximity fuse may not have come as quickly.’ Several readers wrote in to say that the golden bridge is a way to dampen British and French heroism at Dunkirk. Thanks Louis, KMH and others!
Zambian Space Programme: David B writes in with this ‘Reading your article on The Zambian Space Programme of 1962 I was reminded of the Idi Amin space program. What sticks in my mind are pictures of a space ship fashioned from garbage cans and the official comment when the projected launch date came and went that ‘The white man has stolen the magic‘.’ Beach would love to know more. Thanks David!!!
Rhyming with Death: Eire writes: ‘Beach you missed out, with the exception of Iwo Jimma, the beautiful poems written by soldiers before they believe they are going to die in battle. What about T.M. Kettle who died in 1stWW just a few days after writing this! In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown/ To beauty proud as was your mother’s prime/ In that desired, delayed, incredible time,/ You’ll ask why I abandoned you, my own,/ And the dear heart that was your baby throne,/ To dice with death. And oh! they’ll give you rhyme/ And reason: some will call the thing sublime, / And some decry it in a knowing tone./ So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,/ And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor,/ Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,/ Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,—/ But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed,/ And for the secret Scripture of the poor.’ Thanks Eire!
Geese on the Moon: TF writes in: ‘Not quite in the same league, but there are fly powered model airplanes in
the Smithsonian Air&Space collection. And in 1887, the US patent office issued patent 363,037, ‘Means and Apparatus for Propelling and Guiding Balloons’, where the means were ‘one or more eagles, vultures, condors, &c” restrained in a harness. The applicant states at the end “I do not claim a device for holding birds that are to carry and hold suspended a car or other aerial vehicle. Birds have not the power to do this for any reasonable length of time.’ Which I find an amusing bit of lucidity in an otherwise fanciful document.’ Thanks TF!!!
Cottingley Fairies: PJT writes in ‘Re: your recent blog about the Cottingley Fairies, I wonder if you’ve seen this? It’s quite a charming BBC Antiques Road Show interview with the daughter and granddaughter of Frances Griffiths. Thanks PJT!
FIS: Beachcombing must, as so often, thank Invisible for tracking down this precious text. From Between Two Worlds, Nandor Fodor, (West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing Company, 1964) [third printing 1965] pp. 171-174, the chapter: Fairies Should Be Seen But Not Heard Of. He has taken the liberty of putting in bold the passages relevant to the FIS – was it actually called then, in an earlier phase, the Faery Investigation Society? Had Arthur Conan Doyle heeded the advice that fairies should be seen but not spoken of, he would have saved his reputation from the reflection that the fantastic story of the Cottingley fairies cast upon it. In folklore or in romantic stories fairies cut wonderful figures and the Fairy Godmother-whether considered a Jungian archetype or not-is beloved by all of us, but try to prove that fairies really exist and millions of people will shake their heads in compassion. The author of Sherlock Holmes did make such a try in the Christmas number of the Strand Magazine, of London, in 1920 and in a subsequent book, The Coming o f the Fairies, in 1922. He boldly stated that the series of incidents set forth in his book ‘either represent the most elaborate and ingenious hoax ever played upon the public or else they constitute an event in human history which may in the future appear to have been epoch making in its character’. A heroic declaration, indeed! The background was furnished by two children, 10-year-old Elsie Wright and Frances Griffith, 16, in a small village called Cottingley in the summer of 1917. The two girls consistently claimed that they were seeing fairies and gnomes in the woods. Borrowing their father’s camera they took two snapshots in the woods, allegedly for the first time in their life, and got some astonishing photographic support of their stories. The first photograph showed Frances with a group of four fairies dancing in the air before her. The next showed Elsie, seated on the grass, with a quaint gnome dancing beside her. The fairies appear to be a compound of the human and of the butterfly, while the gnome looks more like a moth. Under magnifying glass, the hands of the fairies seem to be fin-like and the beard of the gnome is an insect-like appendage. The publication of these photographs created a sensation, promptly followed by the accusation that they were faked. However, expert examination could discover no positive evidence of tampering with negative. When Edward L. Gardner, of the Theosophic Society of London (who first called Conan Doyle’s attention to the story), presented the girls with a good camera, some more pictures were obtained of leaping, flying fairies and a fairy bower. The latter–something between a cocoon and an open lightly suspended amid the grass with several fairy forms about-was declared to be beyond the possibility of faking. But attempts to secure more photographs at a subsequent period resulted in failure. Elsie Wright passed the pubertal age and with that, it was said, she lost the power that may have helped the fairies to ‘materialize’ in her presence. Conan Doyle thought that the fairies represent a separate line of evolution and noted that children often claim to see them; which was factually established by Dr. Evans-Wentz in Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, in 1912, 10 years before Conan Doyle’s book, by a record of 102 first-hand cases in which living individuals claimed to have seen these legendary creatures. I can subscribe to fairy visions both from my analytic and my parapsychological experience. One of my patients from Boise, Idaho, stated in all earnestness that she had seen fairies in her childhood. They were tiny people, up her extended palm, dressed like human creatures. She took them for and used to tell them all she learned in school that day. Nothing could persuade her in later life that the experience was not real. In England I used to have a friend who organized a Faery Investigation Society. He was the late Capt. Quentin C. A. Crauford, R.N., a man of considerable scientific acumen combined with a mystic disposition. Lady Molesworth was the President, and the program of the society was to accumulate knowledge and to classify the various orders of nature spirits. According to Crauford, research of this kind was much like making friends with the wild creature: the woods. A spiritualistic touch could be added here from a statement of ‘Feda’, the child control (infantile regression?) of Mrs. Osborn Leonard, a trance medium: Yes, they do exist. They are the nature spirits and there are many classes of fairies. Clairvoyance is needed to see them. They belong to another vibration. They don’t have quite the same soul as we do. But they have spirits. All forms of life are used again. Nature spirits don’t die like us. Some are created out of earth or fire or friction. They are all activity and movement. The honorary secretary of the Faery Investigation Society was herself a trance medium by the name of Mrs. Claire Cantlon. I have interviewed her in my journalistic days for the Sunday Despatch and she picked for me out of the amazing letters that the society had received this priceless statement: I was staying at an old house in Gloucester, and the garden at the back ended in the forest of Birdlip Beeches which covers part of the Cotswold Hills. It was before the days of the “shingle,” and I had washed my hair and was drying it in the sunshine in the forest, out of sight of the house. Suddenly, I felt something tugging at my hair and I turned to look. A most extraordinary sight met my eyes. He was about nine inches high, and the most dreadfully ugly, dreadfully misshapen, most wrinkled and tiniest mannikin I have ever seen. He was the color of dead aspen leaves, sort of yellow brown-with a high, squeaky voice. He was caught in the strands of my hair. He was struggling to escape, and he grumbled and complained all the time, telling me I had no right to be there, troubling honest folk, and that I might have strangled him with my hair. Finally, he freed himself and disappeared. I mentioned my experience afterwards to a professor of Bristol University. He was not surprised and told me that Birdlip Beeches was one of the few places left where there were fairies, and no one could go there because of it. I enjoyed the story and was even more delighted when Mrs. Cantlon added: I need not go to strangers for testimony. My house and garden in Putney are overrun by fairies and gnomes. The other day, Robin, my boy of ten, ran to me in great fright. He thought there was a pig in the room. It was a fat gnome, sitting on the chair, looking very cross and grunting. A few days after I heard the noise myself. It was a blend between the growling of a dog and grunting of a pig. I thought it was the dog going at the cat. Last week I saw the gnome. Just as I was putting out the light, I noticed a queer shape trying to climb up the blind cord and fall with a fearful flop. He glared at me, for I had an impulse to laugh, and vanished. June, my 11-year-old daughter, who is very psychic, saw some little time ago a gnome in a circle of light, sitting on the knob of a bedpost and hammering at a ring. He wore a cloak and had a long, white beard. Needless to say, I was fascinated by this extraordinary story. I thought of Andrew Lang who considered fairy belief ‘a complex matter from which tradition, with its memory of earth-dwellers, is not wholly absent,’ though he was more inclined to consider the survival of fairy belief to ‘old imaginings of a world not yet dispeopled of its dreams’. So let us have more of these dreams. Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, musician, singer, elocutionist, later a well known inspirational speaker and medium, quotes in her Nineteenth Century Miracles (New York, 1884) a compatriot of mine, Mr. Kalozdy, a Hungarian author on mineralogy and teacher in the Hungarian School of Mines. He was a kind of folklorist and had collected many narratives of knockings in Hungarian and Bohemian mines. He and his pupils often heard these knockings. The miners take them for signals of the kobolds, a warning not to work in a certain direction. The materialized appearance of these kobolds was seen by Mme. Kalozdy, an authoress, in the hut of a peasant called Michael Engelbrecht. Lights the size of a cheese plate suddenly emerged; surrounding each one was the dim outline of small human figures, black and grotesque, flitting about in a wavering dance and then vanishing one by one. Such visits were announced to Engelbrecht by knockings in the mine. A pretty story, with the suggestion of a psychic element. Going back farther into the past, we come across increasingly great wonders. The great authority on fairies was Robert Kirk, M.A., whose MSS, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, is dated 1692. In a 1933 edition we read of women who had been taken away to nurse fairy children. The prize story, however, is that of a midwife from Sweden. Her husband, Peter Rahm, a Swedish clergyman, made a legal declaration on April 12, 1671 that a little man, swarthy of face and clad in grey, begged for help for his wife in labor. Peter Rahm recognized him as a troll, blessed his wife and begged her in God’s name to go with the stranger. ‘She seemed to be borne along by the wind. After her task was accomplished … she was borne home in the same manner as she had gone.’ This story takes us back right into the mediaeval lore of fairies that were said to be responsible for teleporting people, kidnapping them and holding them prisoners in a fairy mound and permitting them, finally, to escape after a supernatural lapse of time. Hartland [1 From The Science of Fairy Tales, by Edwin Sidney Hartland, London, 1891, p. 39] suspects that the idea of the supernatural lapse of time in Fairy Land was invented by the Catholic Church to frighten people from unhallowed contacts. I have written a chapter, Kidnapped by Fairies, in my book, Mind Over Space. In it I developed a totally different idea. It is based on the symbolism of the Fairy Mound or Fairy Ring. I consider it an excellent representation of the pregnant uterus. He who is teleported by the diminutive creatures living in the underground kingdom, is reduced to their size, which is anywhere within the size of the fetus. The enduring feasting, dancing and merry-making in which he joins is also descriptive of the life of the unborn, for whom everything is provided bountifully and without effort on its part. Time does not exist in the womb. It is a postnatal concept. The unborn, at the very best, could feel the rate of its own growth as a form of biological time. Hence, the supernatural lapse of time in Fairy Land is a fetal characteristic, and the motive for fairy fantasies is a psychological one: projection of strength unto the weak (the Little People) whom, in our inadequacy, we wish to dominate, and use thereafter as substitutes for the fulfilment of unattainable dreams of power. Thanks Invisible!!!!!
Jung and the Active Imagination: First, Southern Man writes to defend Colin Wilson: ‘Beach, active imagination is so well established as a Jungian idea that it has its own Wikipedia page!’ Then Phil P: ‘A couple of years ago Jung’s legendary, but seen by only a very few, Liber Novus was finally published. You might be interested in it. It is a folio and a bit pricy, but I thought it worth buying and have one’. The LN it transpires is Jung’s artwork from his ‘mad’ years and his own personal acts of active imagination. Still on Jung Harold Arrow in the Eye: ‘That Jungian Joseph Campbell wrote about schizophrenics going on their own personal hero quests created by their visions and madness. This would be another example of active imagination breaking through into the real world. James writes in with this comment: ‘Some sympathy with what you write but let me present two big and obvious problems: first, how do you explain multiple sightings (five children see a fairy) and, second, how do you explain different people seeing the same thing at the same place (a ghost in that room).’ Judith M writes in with some interesting considerations and experiences, Beachcombing, and this is the highest compliment, is as confused as ever: ‘I am compelled to post some musings about active imagination: a) What is the demarkation line in terms of a person’s schizophrenic status or “normalcy”, regarding visions, “hallucinations”, or in fact, “active imagination”? b) Are not artists — particularly “visionary” artists (say, Redon) slightly schizoid, however “normal” folk define it? c) And about children’s capacity to see the “unreal” — is it not that children’s minds have yet to be encapsulated and channeled by School, into little left-brain thinkers and thus still have an intact, undamaged, innate and unfortunately (I suppose) vestigial human capacity to fully experience active imagination? A capacity that has been relegated to the useless functions file and hence is now quite dormant. and, on a personal note or two: I’m an artist and see my visions/images very clearly before I begin getting them onto canvas/paper, etc., (you guessed it — I do not do still lives or lone pines by the seaside en plein air), and bring them into as “real” a form as I’m able to. They are somewhat beyond the Pale, “reality”-wise! But I’m wondering, in a completely non-confrontational way and in uncritical self-examination, whether I am in the “schizophrenic” camp? Admittedly there are other non-worldly ways in which I don’t conform (baaaad with numbers, money, keeping up w/the stock market — also, I lack the gene for housekeeping) but no one other than my mother has accused me of being completely non-functional. No doubt I’m quite average but with an odd extra spyglass attached to my inner eye, or a broken sieve in the Great Corpus Callosum Divide. Finally, as a child, two friends and my brother and I played in an meadow in Vermont which we called “Invisible Meadow”; we truly believed that we saw many phenomena out of the scope of adults — we had a section called the “Dryad’s Dancing Plain” and “Darkest Brook” and so forth. That was appallingly long ago but still, I wonder……and as a adult myself I have experienced unusual occurrences that others might call “active imagination”. While not wishing to take your time up with long-winded recountings, there have been times when these peculiarities, for lack of a better term, have come to my aid in times of danger. Perhaps they were urgent projections from my personal unconscious, brought up as warnings to my gormless conscious.’ Thanks Judith, Southern Man, James, Phil P and Harold!
Everliving Boy: First up is James M who writes: ‘I do not know anything further about the African child, but it isn’t just uncultured Africans who think such a being exists. Jesus himself may have predicted something of the sort: Luke 9:27, Mark 9:1, Matthew 16:28’. Southern Man also knows nothing but reminds us of the tradition of the Wandering Jew (see above) and also of Taliesin (of British Celtic myth) who existed from the beginning of the world. Thanks James and SM!
Turkish in Cambodia: ML writes in with a ‘long shot’. Of course, for a maniac problem like this there are no others! ‘I’ve just come back from a holiday in Myanmar and I was told there by our Burmese guide that the Burmese people are descended from Tibetan peoples. Tibet = Western China Burma = East of India. Maybe Burma rather than Cambodia.’ Thanks ML
Dud Ghosts: Invisible writes: Dipping into my file of 19th and early-20th-century ghost hoaxes, I find the following exposes: Xenia Daily Gazette 6-11-1897 p. 1 MEN GRABBED The Ghost and It Proved to Be a Man, Who Confessed. Winchester, O., June 10 The mystery of a ghost haunting the old graveyard and the residence of James Williamson, six miles north of this city, was satisfactorily solved by a posse last night, divided up in squads of two and three, covering every possible point. About 11 o’clock the apparition appeared near where Samuel Wilson was standing, and almost instantly it sank to the ground. Wilson threw himself upon the figure, striking it wherever he could with a club which he had for the occasion. Loud cries came from the supposed ghost, and when an examination was made it was found that the ghost was none other than Frank Johnson, Wilson ’s nearest neighbour, whereupon the posse tied him to a sapling, and under switches made him explain why he had for the last year terrorized the community. He said that he had been trying to buy Williamson’s farm, which adjoins his, and by using the ghost scheme thought that he could scare him into selling it at a sacrifice. After his explanation he was given 20 lashes and warned to leave the neighborhood. Johnson is a wealthy farmer. Semi-Weekly Reporter, 7-24-1908 p. 3 Waterloo , IA “Ghost” Gets a Beating. Soundly Trounced By Young Man He Tries to Scare From Girl. Philadelphia , PA July 23 With his eyes blackened, his head and face cut and bruised, and his body aching from blows rained upon him, John Shelmerdine is convinced that playing ghost is not the proper method of frightening away a suitor for the hand of his daughter. Incidentally Shelmardine, who lives in Mahyunk, discovered that Allen Malcolm of Tiogo, his would-be-son-in-law, is not afraid of ghosts and believes in meeting them with swings, hooks, and uppercuts. Papa Shelmerdine, wrapped in a sheet, lay in wait for Malcolm early Wednesday morning when the young man left his home, and imitating, as best he could, a voice from the other world, croaked, “Beware!” Allen did beware a bit. Instead he lit into the “ghost” and quickly had it crying quits. Shelmerdine applied to Magistrate Greliss for a warrant against Malcolm charging him with assault and battery. “Not so,” said Greliss. “You ought to be proud to have such a husky prospective son-in-law.” After awhile Shelmerdine was convinced. Now Malcolm can stay as long as he likes. The Van Wert Daily Bulletin 1-4-1908 p. 2 CHARITY INDUCING SPOOK. Ghostly Appeal After a Raffle That Produced Results. When John Hickey left a raffle at a house in West Caldwell , N.J. , on Christmas morning and started for his home in Little Falls he carried slung over his shoulder three turkeys and four geese which had fallen to his fortune, says a West Caldwell special dispatch to the New York Times. The others at the raffled had asked him to leave at least two of the fowls to be sent to the homes of poor families, as they had done, but Hickey grinned and said his wife had a good appetite. Just before he departed the others lapsed into ghost stories. So as he walked down the overshadowed road near the carpet mill his nerves were not so very steady. As he reached the old mill dam and heard the drop, drop, of the water Hickey felt he was not alone. He turned about quickly. As he did so he felt a touch on his arm. A white object stood close to him. Give to the poor!” said a hollow voice. The object vanished. Hickey began to run, but the white thing kept close behind him—so close that it was able to touch him several times. “Give to the poor!” repeated the voice. Hickey faced about and swung his bundle of fowls at the shape. It vanished. Then he began to run again. Still the thing followed. Whenever Hickey stopped the ghost would touch him and then vanish, although Hickey could not have seen even a white object very far off, the road lying beneath trees that meet overhead. After numberless efforts to shake off his pursuer Hickey stood. “Give to the poor,” said the ghost, “or I’ll drive you to your grave.” Hickey threw all of the turkeys and geese in the ghost’s direction. “Here, take the things,” he said and ran back to West Caldwell , where his adventures excited mirth among those still at the raffle. When it was daylight Hickey went home without discovering any solution. After he had been in his home for some hours Mrs. Hickey found two turkeys and three geese lying on the rear veranda. Hickey explained to his wife, who hadn’t heard of the ghost. ‘I won those birds at the raffle. There was one more of each, but I left them to be given to the poor.” “John has had a change of heart,” Mrs. Hickey told her neighbour. “He was scairt to death,” said the neighbor. And then Hickey’s wife heard about the ghost. 12-5-11 The Indianapolis Star 1-3-1921 p. 1 Champaign, Ill., Jan. 2 The mystery of an invisible choir which has stirred the congregation of a Paxton (Ill.) Lutheran Church was solved today when it became known that Clarence Lundeen, 16 years old, a student, had been experimenting with a wireless telephone. Lundeen connected a phonograph with a wireless sending set in his workshop. Then he transmitted the music produced to a large horn connected with an amplifier which was concealed in a tree just outside the church. The church was in direct line for the sound of the horn and for this reason the concert seemed directly above the congregation. For several days the “phantom music” has been the talk of the town.Naugatuck Daily News 9-14-1899 Naugatuck , CT They Caught the Ghost Noroton, Sept. 14 It was 10 years yesterday since Ronald D. Lyon and Charles Frederick Dillon captured the ghost that terrorized residents of Noroton. Upon examination it proved to be a canvas covered dress form with pulley wheels attached to each end. It was run on inclined wires from Spring Grove cemetery to the old Hocker graveyard. For a long time, it was on exhibition at the postoffice. The vigilante say they have never been able to collect the reward of $100 which was offered at the time for the capture of the spook. AMPUTATING LIMB PUTS QUIETUS ON DUNHAM GHOST Spectre that held Domain on West Sixth Street No Longer Heard RELIC OF HOSPITAL Home was a part of old hospital building and awesome tappings (of dead limb) drove out family. From Elyria Evening Telegram X1 no. 286 Sept 1, 1909, p. 1 and 6 Pearl Dunham’s ghost has been captured by a woman from Lorain who, on hearing that there was a haunted house on Sixth street in this city, secured a lease of the property, just because she wanted to live in a home which boasted a real spectre. The woman’s name is Mrs. Graham, the house is one reconstructed from the old hospital building from whose portals the ghost was supposed to roam from some poor soul whose life flickered out at some time in the dim and misty past. When Pearl Dunham, the well known grocer rented the home about a year ago he little thought that his nights rest would be disturbed by the indiscreet action of something born neither of flesh and bone. But friends of the Dunham’s set up and fought off chills when they heard how doors opened and shut, notwithstanding that the doors were secured with ye old Yale locks. Visitors to the Dunham home arose in the morning without having closed their eyes on account of the way chairs and tables moved about in various sections of the house and the never ceasing footsteps which pattered up and down the hall almost nightly. When Dunham told how he stood revolver in hand for two hours one night and listened to something roam about the house and finally to a point directly outside his bedroom, his friends began to think there was more truth than fiction to his remarks. Dishes, which had been left on a tray in the hall just outside a room where a sick person was confined were heard to move about and clash against each other although upon investigation there was nothing to be seen which could account for the animated conditions. It was too much. The Dunhams decided to move. The stories were suppressed because it was feared no one would rent the house but as soon as Mrs. Graham heard the strange tales she at once decided to locate in Elyria and revel with the spirits of the departed in the former Dunham home. The first few nights the ghosts did not wander probably because they were too modest to butt in on apparent strangers who had hardly become acquainted in the neighborhood, but the following night Mrs. Graham was favored with a visit from the unwelcome thing which made life miserable for the Dunhams. Did Mrs. Graham become frightened and wish she had not remained in Lorain where only the live ones are to be feared? Not the woman with a hankering for ghosts. She hit the trail for ghostdom and finally after she had climbed up through the garret to the roof of the house she caught Mr. Ghost red handed while plying his weird trade. The next morning when a limb was sawed off a tree which stood near the house, the neighbors asked Mrs. Graham what was being done. “Only amputating a limb from the Dunham Ghost,” she replied as she turned to inquire whether the roof would have to be reshingled where the branched had been rubbing upon it. The Daily Gazette 11-03 1900 p. 8 Janesville , WI Scare Woman to Death Rochester , NY , Nov. 3 The authorities of Allegany County are looking for the persons who manufactured a skeleton out of animals’ bones which frightened May Oldfield of Karrdale to death Wednesday night. Miss Oldfield, accompanied by two friends, was returning from a Halloween party, where they had listened to grewsome stories until their hair stood on end. When about to enter the woods a rattling of bones was heard overhead, and looking up, the trio were overcome with horror at seeing a skeleton of gigantic proportions sweeping down on them from above. With a cry of terror. Mary dropped dead. A searching party found a wire leading from the ground to a tree top, to which was attached a skeleton by a pulley. [I have my doubts about the strict veracity of this last item, but haven't had a chance to look at the genealogical records to see if such a person actually existed and died in that year.] Other stories include ghosts that turn out to be a) roaming madwomen in white nightdresses, b) white cows or goats in the graveyard, c) gnawing rats, d) disgruntled servants or stepchildren, e) conmen claiming to be wizards, and f) elderly females in antiquated black garments selling Catholic prayerbooks door to door.’ Thanks Invisible!
Wife-Swapping: Southern Man writes in recalling how the ancient European peoples and particularly the Celts viewed sovereignty as a woman to be seduced. There are precedents then! Thanks Southern Man
Enigma: Invisible sends this in about discretion in the WWII generation from NPR, Breaking the Code is now available. ‘AUDIE CORNISH, host: On Murray Fisher’s 81st birthday, he gave his daughter, Karen Fisher-Alaniz, a gift of sorts. More than 400 pages of letters he had written to his parents while serving in World War II. Karen spent nearly a decade sifting through the letters and uncovering her father’ past. And she learned something she never knew about him. Murray Fisher was part of a secret intelligence group in the Navy, trained to break Japanese codes transmitted in Katakana during the war. Karen’s discovery, her father’s memories, and the lingering trauma of his war-time experiences, are the basis for her new book “Breaking the Code: A Father’s Secret, A Daughter’s Journey, and the Question That Changed Everything.” I spoke with Karen Fisher-Alaniz, and her father, Murray Fisher from Walla Walla, Washington this past week. I asked Murray if he had a reason for holding onto his secret for so long. MURRAY FISHER: Well, not especially. Of course, I was brainwashed from right at the start to not reveal any of this information, ever. So I think my brain just said don’t talk, so I didn’t. KAREN FISHER-ALANIZ: I think it also got tied up in he experienced a great loss of one of his friends during the war, and he just wasn’t able to talk about it. CORNISH: Murray, was there a time when you wanted Karen to stop looking into these letters, especially like when nightmares returned and things like that? I mean, did you feel as though it was dredging up too much? FISHER: No. I didn’t feel that way. I didn’t feel good about it, but I didn’t feel bad either. It’s kind of hard to describe. I didn’t want to stop. I didn’t want her to forget the whole thing. FISHER-ALANIZ: But he would shut down. I mean, he’d reveal so much and you got a feeling there was more, but then, you know, should I ask more about this, should I tell him what I found in the letters, I mean, different things like that. During this whole time, he would not read the letters, even when we were transcribing them, we would do them in bits and pieces… CORNISH: One thing I found interesting, Karen, is that there is a generational difference in terms of I think people in our generation tend to think that sharing and talking things out is the way to heal, and I wonder what that was like for you and your dad to adjust between that different point of view of not talking about something versus really wanting to talk about every bit of it. FISHER-ALANIZ: Well, at first it was very awkward. I mean, at first I wanted to just say tell me about the war. Tell me how you’re feeling about this. Like you’re saying. But that’s not something that this generation did. I mean, when he came home from the war he hung up his uniform and that was it. They went back to their normal everyday lives. So that whole story would’ve remained untold. CORNISH: Murray, how did you feel about that? FISHER: Well, I mean, it was just all right with me. I had nothing to talk about especially except I was in the Navy and I came out and I was OK and we were sworn to secrecy about everything I did. And one of the meetings we went to a sergeant in there laid a sidearm down on the desk and I heard the clunk. And he said if any of you talk about this to any of your friends and word gets out that you did this, you’ll be put in solitary confinement for the duration of the war and hard labor. If you say anything that reveals top secret information of advantage to the enemy, he said, you’ll be shot. You’ll be shot and there’ll be no trial. We’ll allow you to go on liberty but if you go out in the tavern, trying to have any beer, you’re up at the bar and somebody’s sitting beside you there, you can be assured that he’s one of our operators. He was so emphatic about it that it scared the daylights out of us and we – I don’t think any of us ever said a word. A couple of years after I got out of the service a couple of men came up to the door. They had black suits on and shiny black shoes and I thought they were going to preach me a sermon or something, but it turned out they said you’re now released from secrecy for this one thing but the other, what you were doing, you can’t – that’s never been released so far. As far as I know, someone might come up in this room and shoot me because I’ve been talking about it.’ Thanks Invisible!
Beachcombed 18 December 1, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
Fraternal greetings to all readers! 1 dec
Beachcombing has had a bit of a tense month with various family members falling ill and repeated dreams about escaping from prison. This blog has, as so often, been a welcome distraction, growing appreciably in terms of regular visitors: indeed, a correspondent wrote in a couple of weeks ago to say Google now rates strangehistory as the fourth history blog in the world. But would you trust Google? No, but really…
The most popular post of the last month was on an episode of human combustion and witchcraft in eighteenth-century Suffolk. Most email was received over the DNA of Iceland and the possibility that an Amerindian woman was brought to the island sometime in the Middle Ages. Beach, meanwhile, if forced to choose, would point new or passing readers in the direction of the FIS, self decapitation in the middle ages and papal orgies.
Offworld there is a wealth of stuff to choose from. Beachcombing hopes to write soon about the Zambian space programme, but in the meantime here is To Mars! Or what about a breakdown of our television viewing on the serious stations? Ricardo sent in this fabulous piece on Wikipedia. And KMH kindly sent in a piece on the aether that is remarkable and exciting: at least, if Beachcombing understood correctly – no scientist he.
Then there is below a round up of the best emails from the last thirty days, the ten thousand most important words added to the blog in November. Look out for such highlights as CCBC on the British sasquatch, Invisible on marriage advice (the Irish nuns are wonderful) and David Counsell on cocaine (or lack of) in Egyptian mummies.
Thanks again to all and happy December!
Beach
DNA Champion: Rhys, Heather and Adrian all write in to suggest Genghis Khan signalling two different write ups: one from discovermagazine and the other from national geographic. Heather noted ‘though he wasn’t hot on mutual consent’!! Then Tim gives a more recent case: Was surprised in your blog about DNA Champion that you missed Yitta Schwartz, who had a New York Times article dedicated to her last year after she passed away. ‘WHEN Yitta Schwartz died last month at 93, she left behind 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren and so many great- and great-great-grandchildren that, by her family’s count, she could claim perhaps 2,000 living descendants.’ Thanks Rhy, Heather, Adrian and Tim!
British Sasquatch: First up is CCBC ‘In 1978 the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia held a Sasquatch Symposium and various papers were presented and later collected in Manlike Monsters On Trial, Halpin and Ames, UBC Press, 1980. These include ‘Medieval Monsters’ by David Lyle Jeffrey. Jeffrey notes that there were two medieval monster traditions: one derived from St. Augustine who saw these creatures as part of ‘the deliberate diversity of creation in which each rational being is still descended from Adam’. The other tradition is from north Europe, Germanic, and pagan; it holds that these monsters embody evil forces. As the North became Christian, so the traditions melded and ”the Germanic monsters became ‘descendants of Cain’’. Jeffrey notes that both the Tiberius and Cotton Vitellius mss contain drawings of humanoid monsters and points to a particular man-eating monster as a type of þyrs, a term used (once) to describe Grendel. Jeffrey also notes that, though these hairy giants were always evil in the North, in the South they were often more benign and that some of the Northern names for these creatures seem to indicate a derivation from more gentle concepts. (Which may also have to do with differing concepts of wilderness, if you accept – and you needn’t – that Grendel and similar creatures are projections of wilderness.) Anyway, Jeffrey develops the notion that Grendel is a thinking being, a monster but ‘not wholly outside the human condition’. ‘In placing Grendel as ‘of the race of Cain’ the poet at once accomplishes two things. First, he heightens our appreciation for the violation of hospitality and sanctuary which is taking place by alluding to a figure from biblical literature who is profoundly associated with such a violation. Secondly, by using Cain he applies specific Christian traditions concerning pollution of family order and outcast experience which at once strengthens the human character of Grendel and elevates the character of his depredation to that of a conscious moral agency’. So Grendel is human-ish, a soul-bearer, who has been cast out of the human community and is thus non-human in a profound way. Whew! I didn’t think I was going to write all that! This just shows that I’ve spent too much time thinking about the Christian/pagan divide in Beowulf. I just want to add that the creatures that Grettir the Strong fights in his saga are not in the same category of being, although they are mentioned in various places, as sasquatchi: they are walking dead, if you will, not hairy forest giants. Now, as to your actual question: was there such a creature in Britain c. 700? I doubt it. Bears don’t make the cut, I think. My thoughts on this follow some forty years of following sasquatch stories in British Columbia. We have bears, sasquatch are human creations. There are no such creatures outside of human myth, no zoological specimens. (Disappointing to a guy who loved Ivan Sanderson’s books, but such is the price of knowledge.) On the other hand, I try to maintain an open mind on Yeti matters, though that has become more difficult as my opinions ossify with age.’ Then there is Jon K. ‘Ignoring the possibility that the Beowulf legend is a fictional narrative in entirety, I like the idea of a residual bear population. The behaviour of brown bears in N. America is sometimes problematic as they are drawn to human populations for their resources. In that light, it isn’t difficult to imagine a dwindling population coming into conflict with settlements in their territory. Sheep and goat had been domesticated for centuries and would present easy prey. I looked at the etymology of bear and this isn’t so encouraging. In Koch’s Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopaedia (p121, p129 ) he notes that Welsh and Celtic words for bear were rooted in variations of ‘arto.’ This doesn’t go far in shedding doubt on the idea of a bear, but it makes me wonder why, if Beowulf had pre-Anglo-Saxon origins, ‘art/arto’ isn’t part of Grendel’s name? Let’s face it, if it was real, what else could it have been? Perhaps it was an early iteration of the Sawney Bean mythos whereby some cannibalistic family stalk the darkness on the outskirts of settlements? Such tales litter regional folklore and appear to have no basis in reality. A bear is likely the most parsimonious explanation beyond rural legend. Incidentally, beyond Bullfinch’s Mythology and childhood encyclopaedias, my abiding love of the Grendel story comes from a Marillion B-side where they played it live. Between that and the animated movie, the cultural impact of the story is rather impressive.’ Beowulf is certainly Germanic, my understanding though is that there is no consensus as to what the word means: though coming up with cooky theories is always good for bating Anglo-Saxonists. Thanks Jon K and CCBC!
Baltic Treasures: Carter from Across Difficult Country writes in with a fascinating point that sheds some light on Greek and Roman confusion about the Baltic, ‘The writer Avram Davidson speculated amber convinced the ancient Greeks Hyperborea had a warm climate‘. Thanks Carter!
Marriage Advice: Invisible writes in ‘You asked for historical marriage advice. Here are a few snippets, mostly 18th century. But let’s start in 11th century Japan. In The Tale of Genji, the young courtiers often discuss what makes a perfect woman: long, smooth, thick hair; exquisite handwriting; musical talent; the wit to write poetry replete with classical allusions on the spur of the moment and recognize those allusions in her suitor’s poems; a refined sense of fashion in which colors, shading, textures, and weights of textiles tell a story of taste and elegance. (Women could be criticized if even one layer of the 12-layer robe was a shade too pale or if they wore a ‘spring’ color combination in the autumn.) Most importantly, a woman must be completely free of jealousy, no matter how many the man’s amorous adventures or other wives he brings into the home. Prince Genji himself finds this paragon only in a young girl—Lady Murasaki–whom he rears and grooms to be his wife, a relationship which has very unpleasant overtones to a modern-day reader. Here is an excerpt giving some other insight into choosing a wife in Heian Japan. Then Rules to Choose a Wife from The Gentleman’s Magazine 1740. The Young Man’s Guide, 1839 (hint: avoid novel-readers). And since turnabout is fair play, the female equivalent: The Daughter’s Own Book, 1833 ‘Never marry a Fop.’ Words we can all live by… An 1899 sermon on the proper virtues in a wife. “A busy bee, rather than a gaudy butterfly.’ Advice on choosing a wife from nuns in 1960s Ireland. And, I just can’t resist this modern list of rule.’ Thanks, Invisible!
Letting off steam: KMH offers this beautiful idea: ‘You might want to add to your list the Refrigerium, a notion mentioned in a book by C. S. Lewis called “The Great Divorce” and derived from the Catholic Church father Prudentius. The Refrigerium, or refreshment, is the idea that the souls in Hell are given days off every now and then to visit Heaven or Earth. I find the idea particularly appealing even though it may be at odds with reality for our times. The corresponding practice on earth may be the sabbatical, (or even the holiday) but it normally lasts much longer.’ Invisible writes in, meanwhile, ‘Your letting off steam post naturally suggested the custom of electing boy bishops (sometimes conflated with the Feast of Fools). The object was to subvert the normal order of things and ‘put down the mighty from their seats’. Here’s a rather tame article on boy bishops. Things often got very profane, with old shoes or excrement being burnt for incense, animals being brought into church (I think I recall a donkey being goaded to “sing” the responses), and young men drinking and exposing themselves. Your post also suggested the Amish teenage rebellion period, called by some Amish rumspringa or “running/jumping around.” This is a time for the young Amish to “sow their wild oats” before they commit to the Amish life by adult baptism. I have seen articles about young Amish men being arrested for driving their buggies while intoxicated.’ thanks Invisible and thanks KMH!
Big Bones: Beach is grateful to Lisa who has written in on this: ‘Your post on giant bones at English churches was surprising to me! I thought this was just something at the cathedral in Krakow. Here’s some of the story behind the bones. This site has a great photo. I was too lazy to search through my computer to find the one that I took when I visited. The bones aren’t the only interesting thing about Wawel Hill, where the cathedral is located. This hill has been continuously occupied since the seventh century, and artifacts clear back to the paleolithic have been found there. It is ruin, upon ruin, upon ruin. It is supposed to be one of the Earth’s chakras. Quite a mysterious place.’ Then Amanda writes in with some fossils in a church, though not where you would expect… Thanks Lisa!
WW2 poems: Randy writes in to point out that when Churchill was heading north Camp David had the name Shangri-La. It seems that Eisenhower renamed it. Thanks Randy, for the correction!
Women Warriors of Benin: SY writes in: ‘for the study of warrior women. The following appears in The Travels of Ibn Battutah: ‘On the second day after our arrival at the port of Kailukari [Cambodia?] the princess summoned the captain, officers and merchants to a banquet she had prepared for them, according to her custom…. When I greeted the princess she said to me in Turkish, ‘How are you? Are you well?’ She seated me near her…She asked me from which country I came. I said ‘From India’. She said: ‘The pepper country?’ I said yes. She asked about that country and events there and I answered her. She said ‘I must invade it and take possession of it. Its wealth and its soldiers please me.’ I said to her ‘do so…. The ship owner told me that this princess had in her army women, serving women and slaves, who fought like men, and that she goes out among her troops of men and women, invades the territory of her enemies, is present at the fighting, and engages the champions. He told me there was a fierce battle between her and one of her enemies in which many of her soldiers were killed and her army was on the point of fleeing; but she forced her way forwards and broke through the armies till she reached the king against whom she was fighting, pierced him with a lance thrust and killed him. At this point his troops fled, and she brought his head on a spear, which his family recovered from her for much treasure.’ Invisible writes ‘At a local booksale today, I saw a book called The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. (She writes fantasy and sci-fi). I just glanced at it – it wasn’t in very good shape – mostly entries of a paragraph or two, but seemed to have a wide variety.’ Thanks Invisible and SY!
Cocaine in Ancient Egypt: David Counsell writes in with what looks like a vital corrective. ‘I am a medical doctor who has worked with the Manchester Mummy Project since the Mid 1990s. I looked at this as part of my PhD on Intoxicant use in Ancient Egypt and my results have been published in 2 sources in addition to my thesis - check out Chapter 13 in Egyptiam Mummies and Modern Science, Editor Rosalie David; which gives a full explanation. In a nutshell the amount of these drugs found in the mummies was overestimated as rather than being presented in the common unit, nanogrames per mg of sample material (ng/mg) they were presented as nanogrames per gram of sample (ng/g) giving a figure 1000 fold exaggerated. When you adjust the unit you find that the level of nicotine found is not as high as in smokers and is consistent with a dietary source of nicotine eg Celery which was known to the Ancient Egyptians. Similarly the cocaine level once corrected is so low as to be considered negative by most labs in the mid 1990s and is most likely a trace contaminant form the lab where the work was done. Overall the explanation is quite dull which perhaps explains why it hasn’t had the same publicity as the original ‘discovery’.’ Thanks David!
Amerindian in Iceland: Invisible writes in with a sensible objection: ‘My question arising from your post is: is Amerindian DNA the same as Inuit? Since you’ve got Inuit settlements in Greenland from (approx) the year 1200 – just a hop, skip, and a kayak away from Iceland–I don’t see why Inuit DNA in the Icelandic population would be remarkable. But if the Amerindian DNA is something different: say, Sioux or Apache or Mayan, that would be startling. I don’t know enough about the gradations of DNA to know how finely the genetic/tribal boundaries can be drawn.’ Beachcombing luckily has a colleague at hand who has dabbled in DNA. He claims that the genetics of the Inuit and the Amerindian population should be similar as they are essentially the same people: Asian emigrants from the New World. The question he would have is whether lapplanders DNA is all that very different… Stephen D writes in support of Invisible. ‘No, it can’t be an Inuit connection. The Icelandic American DNA is haplogroup C, Inuit is A or D. Interesting detail from the Ebenesersdottir paper though: it’s a new subgroup, C1e. C1a-d are already known, and Amerindian; but nobody can say whether C1e is Mayan, Algonquin or whatever (Sioux or Apache are, um, geographically implausible). A wild guess might be Beothuk (right part of world, idiosyncratic language so possibly ditto genetics, now extinct and so DNA not readily accessible).‘ Thanks Invisible and thanks Stephen!
Spitfires and Radars: Several comments on this. Open Sesame ‘There is an interesting article to be written about German air-crashes in Britain and the way German crews (dead and alive) were treated. The following is an interesting example. A bomber came down at Findon village in 1941 and all four Germans on the plane were killed. There was then a debate as to whether they deserved a Christian burial or not. The villagers seem to have come down strongly in favour and they were actually given a military funeral (photos as link) with a North Country Regiment standing in. The minority voice against stated that they had no God but Hitler and that they should not be interred in the cemetery. As it was they were in any case repatriated after the war. Can I also ask your readers a favour. Somewhere in the UK there is a monument from a village to a German crew who, they said, avoided their village when crashing down and who as such deserved to be remembered. I suspect they were just trying to survive but it is a nice example of ‘fair play’. Is it cobblers though?’ Next is Invisible with a remarkable example from WW1: ‘I also ran across a painting “To the Death! A Glorious Incident of Aerial Warfare on the Western Front“, William C. Boswell, The Tatler 27 March 1918. The caption reads “The outcome of this dogfight is grim yet ‘glorious’ in that the British airman, in combat with the famous German pilot Mesinger, realised his plane was in flame and decided to deliberately crash into Mesinger, ensuring that he would bring his opponent down with him.‘ Beachcombing should note here that the effect of the picture is rather that the British plane is mating with the German one: Beachcombing has tortoises. In any case, Invisible continues: According to The Tatler, this knight of the air was part of ‘one of the many incidents of heroism and devotion with which the record of the war in the air is so rich.’” I don’t know who witnessed this or if the illustration is imagined, but perhaps another incident reported by the Germans as well as the British. A quick search online does not show an reproductions of the painting. It is from Brushes & Bayonets, Cartoons, Sketches and Paintings of World War I, Lucinda Gosling. (In Association with The Illustrated London News Picture Library). A rich collection of practically unknown works’ For examples of chivalry between the airforces in WW1 see an earlier post on air mines. Thanks Invisible and Open Sesame!
Cursed Treasures: Amanda writes in with some exceptional cursed archaeological artifacts. First an extract from a BBC news story. A Belgian tourist who took a stone from an ancient Scottish burial site has returned it after complaining it had cursed his family. Surprised tourism staff received a parcel containing the 2lb stone and an anonymous letter which urged them to return it to its rightful place at Clava Cairns. The man said that since taking the stone his daughter had broken her leg, his wife had become very ill, and he had lost his job and broken his arm. Bob Hunter-Dorans, visitor services assistant at Inverness tourist information centre, said: ‘He thought he was cursed, definitely. He said in the letter ‘I know you will probably be laughing at me, but while you are laughing could you please take this stone back to Clava Cairns’. That site, near Inverness, dates from the Neolithic period and was an extensive burial ground comprising three circles of standing stones with burial chambers in the middle.’ This second tale came originally from the Peak District Magazine ‘One of the strangest stories in the folklore of the Peak District concerns a group of ancient carved stones found on a hill near the town of Glossop during the reign of Queen Victoria. Visitors to Buxton Museum can inspect the stones which are built into an archway in the permanent galleries, but they will learn nothing about their power to generate fear and suspicion from the caption which accompanies them. The Museum says ‘their precise origins are unknown, but the consensus of opinion is that they are of Celtic (Iron Age) origin, and may have belonged to larger groups of carvings of cult significance.” The stones take their name from Mouselow Castle which is a prominent landmark above Old Glossop. Archaeologists have found the site, known locally as ‘Castle Hill’ was used by native tribes as far back as the Bronze Age. The hilltop may have remained a Celtic stronghold when the Romans arrived in the 1st century AD and began work on their fort at Melandra, on the opposite side of the River Etherow. It was at Mouselow, in 1840, that a Wesleyan Minister, the Reverend George Marsden, discovered ‘some curiously marked stones’ whilst searching the ruins of an old building which local tradition said had once been the foundations of a Catholic chapel. Having removed them from the hill Marsden built them into the gable end of his house in Hadfield, where they remained for a number of years before they were taken out and presented to the Glossop Antiquarian Society, and finally Buxton Museum. Even at this early stage the stones were surrounded by mystery because they were decorated with carvings and symbols that had connotations of superstition or witchcraft. Perhaps in a bid to downplay their power, in 1905 a local historian described the stones as being of ‘early Anglo-Saxon origin’ and wrote ‘some of the symbols have been recognized as representing the river of life, the wind blowing from the four quarters of the earth, Thoth, one of their gods and other objects which they worshipped’. Unfortunately, Thoth was an Egyptian deity, not an Anglo-Saxon god! Today, archaeologists believe the stones were produced not by Anglo-Saxons, but by native Celts whose traditions had been influenced by the brief Roman presence in the High Peak. The most striking is a rectangular block featuring a crudely-incised face with what appear to be horns sprouting from the brow of the head. As horns were a symbol of the devil to Christians, this stone may have been regarded as a focus evil power. In fact, it is similar to other crude native carvings found on the Roman wall, and may represent a Celtic warrior or the god known as Cernunnos (‘the horned one.’) Their reappearance in Glossop, in 1985, triggered a series of bizarre phone calls which led an archaeologist to temporarily suspend an exploratory excavation on the hilltop where they were found. The archaeologist, Glynis Reeve, herself a local woman, had always been intrigued by the history and folklore of the valley, particularly the ‘dark ages’ between the departure of the Romans and the Norman conquest. In 1984, with the backing of Manchester University and the Peak District National Park, Glynis undertook an extensive fieldwork survey and planned a small excavation on the summit of Mouselow in a bid to learn more about the age of the earthworks. The work was overshadowed by a series of strange events that has left a certain amount of ill-feeling in the district to this day. For it seemed the archaeologists had unearthed something more than they had bargained for. Glynis described how it was not long after volunteers began work that things began to go wrong. ‘We had not been up there for very long when we started to get anonymous phone calls, quite late in the evening from people obviously very concerned that we were digging on a site which had some special significance to them.’ The calls asked ‘why are young digging up there?’ and ‘what are you trying to find?’, and there were warnings about horned figures and ‘the Old Ways.’ The dig was based in a small field centre in Glossop and soon a number of people began to come in demanding to know what they were doing, some of whom were “quite annoyed.” Relations with local people worsened when Glynis began to research the history of Mouselow Stones and arrangements were made for them to return for an exhibition in the field centre. ‘I thought we would perhaps arouse some local interest and maybe find out some more about them,” said Glynis. “But I was totally unprepared for the reaction.’ One man visited the display and looked at the stones for a long time. When Glynis said she wished she knew what she wasn’t supposed to find on the hill, the visitor turned and said: ‘What you did not find was the entrance to hell.’ For the rest of the tale follow this link. Then there is the curse of the Croesus Treasure ‘The Croesus Treasure, a collection of artifacts from the time of King Croesus’ rule of the Lydian Kingdom between 560 and 547 B.C., has had a turbulent history since its discovery back in the ‘60s, causing many to believe that the treasure, also known as the Lydian Hoard, is cursed. It was smuggled from its home in Turkey, displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and then taken back by Turkey following a legal battle…. The curse of the treasure dates back to 1965, when it was discovered in the village of Güre in the western province of Uşak by five villagers who dug up the tumulus of a princess from Lydian times and stole the jewelry that had been buried with her. Villagers robbed the rest of the treasures in 1966 and took 150 artifacts consisting of gold jewelry and silver pots, followed by a final theft that took place in 1968 where the fortune seekers could not find jewelry but wall paintings. The villagers illegally sold the Lydian artifacts to a smuggler, but instead of getting rich and living a happy life, they came across many misfortunes, leading villagers in the area to believe that the treasure was cursed. The villagers were first captured by the police after one of them reported the theft and smuggling of the artifacts to police following a quarrel over how to divide the profit. Later on, a detailed investigation led police to an İzmir-based smuggler named Ali Bayırlar, but by that time the artifacts had already been sold to buyers overseas. In the 1970s, Boston Globe journalist Robert Taylor and one of the directors at a museum in Boston, Emily Vermeule, had alleged that 219 pieces of Lydian artifacts had been purchased by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art between 1966 and 1968… Villagers from Uşak told one reporter that one of the thieves had lost three of his sons, one of whom was gruesomely murdered with his throat slit. His two other sons died in two separate traffic accident and in different countries. The thief was later paralyzed then died. Another went through a bitter divorce that was followed by the death of his son, who committed suicide. The last thief went mad and now tells people stories of how he hid 40 barrels of gold. Bayırlar, who sold the artifacts overseas, was also alleged to have gone through terrible times in his life and died in pain‘. Then one final article: If the Warehouse 13 agents are apt at their jobs, it is safe to assume that the paranormal storage facility will contain a number of items from Britain. For over a thousand years, relics and artefacts have featured in our myths and legends, some giving their user immense power, some cursing whoever toys with them, and others are, well, just a little redundant in the 21 century. The UK can proudly boast a large number of cursed items. A chest at Cornwall’s Stanbury Manor is said to contain an evil spirit with telekinetic power, which moves nearby furniture. Prior to being delivered at the manor, two elderly women who owned the chest were struck deaf when they first opened it. Other furnishings are also cursed. The Great Bed, designed in the 1460s for English Monarchs, is housed at the Victoria & Albert Museum and contains the spirit of its creator Jonas Fosbrooke. Fosbrooke is said to attack anyone who tries to sleep in the bed that does not possess royal blood, unless a toast is drunk to him before lights out. One execration legend has it that a child who sleeps in a particular four poster bed at the castle on St Michael’s Mount will never awaken, while the Oast House pub in Southport declared one of their chairs cursed after eight people who perched on it died. The Venerable Bede’s Chair, at St Paul’s Church, Jarrow, has the opposite effect; any newlywed bride sitting on his chair will soon fall pregnant. Overall, flat pack furniture has never looked so tempting. Paranormal skulls are abundant. One of the famed crystal skulls resides at the British Museum, and although once thought to be Aztec in origin, tests have revealed the item to have been made with nineteenth century tools. The same story holds true for other crystal skulls scattered around the globe, though many people still maintain they have mythical power. But who requires crystal when bone can be just as magically powerful? A pair of skulls belonging to a married farming couple who were executed for a crime they did not commit returned to Calgarth Hall to haunt the man who framed them. The man threw the craniums away, buried them, cast them into deep water, and smashed them into tiny fragments, but the following day the skulls would return intact, and he lived with them until his own death. During the 1970s, Ripley’s Odditorium in Blackpool displayed the skull of a local girl. Several people reported seeing a female spectre standing by the remains, and the owner of the skull became convinced that the item was cursed. He may have been right, for he died a week after giving the skull away. Arthurian legend provides a veritable hoard of Warehouse 13 potential. Excalibur, also known as Caledfwlch, may be the most distinguished article; the sword wielded by King Arthur was reputed to possess magical power, and could burst into flame or generate lightning. As Arthur lay dying, he requested Excalibur be return to the Lady of the Lake. Several places claim to be this site, including Dozmary Pool at Bodmin Moor (Cornwall), Poole Harbour, and Broomlee Lough in Northumberland.’ Thanks Amanda, for these treasures!
Against All Odds: Radko writes in with some battles from the Hussite wars. ‘I am aware that not many people outside of central Europe know much about the subject and that there isn’t much English literature on the subject. I find it surprising since it was the Hussite movement that in essence started wave of church reformation movements in Europe. While the Hussite church reform didn’t spread beyond Czech borders, for the most part, even the US is lucky enough to have offshoot of it in the Moravian church. The Hussite wars were also notable for widely employing gun powder weapons and groundbreaking warfare tactics thanks to Hussite military leader Jan Zizka. There were a few battles I can think of that would fit into your rules for “against the odds” battles. True, in some of them the smaller force was 400 people but there is no question that the battle was a real battle and not an ambush. 1. Battle of Sudomer – Hussites (400 strong – men, women, children included) against 2000 catholic cavalry 2. Battle of Vitkov – Hussites (12,000 strong) x Crusaders (50,000 – 100,000+) 3. Battle of Domazlice – Hussites (30k – 50k) x Crusaders (100k – 120k) – this wasn’t much of a battle, more of a slaughter. Also notable is Battle of Tachov about which historians still don’t agree whether it actually happened or not because much like in battle of Domazlice the Crusaders started running as soon as they heard the Hussites sing. 4. Battle of Nemecky Brod – Hussites (400) x Crusaders (2,000) ’ Thanks Radko!
Gunfire in Notre Dame: KMH writes in, ‘The perception of great leaders being immune to the effects of gunfire in war (and possibly fully aware of it) isn’t limited to de Gaulle. I remember the same was evident with Douglas MacArthur and George Patton in WWI who went on to participate in WWII. And perhaps the same applied to Montgomery, but I am hazy here. Throughout history the same notion has applied whether with bullets or bows and arrows. So you see there is a distinct difference between us, the commoners, and great military leaders.’ Thanks KMH!
Marengo: Southern Man wants a post on Mr Ed and Champion the Wonder Horse. KMH writes ‘The obvious answer to your question is Bucephalus,the famous horse of Alexander, who, I believe unlike Napoleon, never lost a battle. The greatest conquerer rides the best horse, a notion that the modern mind may find all too self-serving.’ Tim, meanwhile, writes: Regards famous horses you would have to put Bucephalus up there. And here in the states, Robert E. Lee’s horse, Traveler.’ Invisible references an unusual book on horses: Judith from Zenobia writes in with tongue firmly in cheek: Marengo may also be the only horse to have been honoured by an imperial recipe: Chicken Marengo (now, more often, Veal Marengo), first prepared by Napoleon’s Master-chef. The story is given in the Larousse Gastonomique. I’m only kidding, of course. The dish – and the horse – are both named after the battle. On the other hand, if the horse were bought and named in 1799 and the battle only took place in 1800, perhaps, after all, there’s something in my version ’ Woops. Perhaps the battle was named after the horse or the chicken dish? Thanks Judith, Southern Man, Invisible and KMH!
30 April 1945: Gerrard Williams has written in with some details about his book: Grey Wolf – The Escape of Adolf Hitler ‘We’re published in English worldwide by Sterling (wholly owned By Barnes and Noble) and have shifted almost 40,000 copies worldwide in the last three weeks. We have had extensive media coverage here on Sky News, The Sun, Express, The Mail and Western Mail as well as many articles in Foreign Newspapers and web-sites. I’ve been interviewed by Sir David Frost for Al-jaz’s “Frost over the world”, RTL 4 [about 1800], am doing a piece with ZDF in the coming weeks, talking to Dan Snow at “the One Show” and Ch7 Oz are doing an hour long piece on the book in February for their top rating Sunday Night Current affairs show, filming with me in Argentina, London and Berlin. I’ve also appeared on Deutsche Welle, and numerous other radio stations here and in Canada. I’m also due to do a piece with CNN(I)’s Becky Anderson in December on “Connect the World.” Although the book is now available in Barnes and Noble Stores across the States I’m finding it difficult to get any mainstream coverage there. I can promise you I haven’t “lost it”. This really is the exposure of one of the most incredible lies in history. There are over 500 sources in the book. There’s more about me on My Author’s page on Amazon.co.uk plus a video of my interview with Sky news and a clip from the film we’re currently producing. On Tuesday I did a long interview with Michael Harris at CFRA Ottowa , and today we got a full page in the Jewish Telegraph. I’ve also attached a review from the ‘states. Here you can find the first fifty pages or so of Grey Wolf…. and here you can find my interview with Deutsche Welle.’ Thanks Gerrard and good luck!
Silly Sieg Heil: Stephen B has a fascinating email here: ‘You might enjoy some photos of the Bellamy salute which sprang from a totalitarian dogma, so much so that it was the origin of the Nazi salute adopted later by the National Socialist German Workers Party (You discounted the Bellamy salute by saying “Second, the salute has to be totalitarian: the Bellamy Salute, for example, whereby generations of young Americans pledged allegiance to the flag with what looks like a Nazi salute does not count.”) Isn’t this a silly sieg heil and/or totalitarian? It shows segregated African-Americans, as small children, forced to do the “American salute” (the origin of the German national socialist salute) in a government school (socialist school) that they were forced to attend, and forced to attend while the government imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official policy (policies that outlasted German national socialism), and the children were forced to robotically chant in unison the Pledge that was written by Francis Bellamy to sell socialism in the USA and worldwide (Bellamy was America’s Leni Riefenstahl). There are real examples of children being persecuted, attacked, expelled, and of adults being lynched and jailed, for defying the forced ritual. That photograph screams ”totalitarian”!! Most people have never seen the photo and never will because of many reasons including that no government official, school or media outlet will ever show it, discuss it or explain it, nor the pledge’s putrid past. It is a practice that continues to be dictated by law and dictated in schools (regardless of whatever the US Supreme Court has ever said) each day, only the gesture has changed in order to hide its sick history. Children continue to be persecuted if they refuse to comply. It is funny that schools claim to work against bullying, when they begin everyday with bullying and a witch hunt. It would be more appropriate if the USA’s pledge were performed with its early Nazi salute, as it would help everyone understand the purpose and history. If the schools taught the truth, the pledge would cease to exist. It would be more accurate to refer to the salute as the “American salute” and NOT the “nazi salute.” See the video. Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy (author of the Pledge) were American national socialists and touted “military socialism” (their term. they wanted all of society to emulate the military) and their dogma was the origin of the German national socialist salute when Francis Bellamy began the Pledge of Allegiance with the military salute that was then extended outward to point at the flag. They influenced the National Socialist German Workers Party, its rituals (robotic chanting to flags & leaders), dogma, and symbols (including the use of the swastika to represent overlapping S-letters for “socialism” under German national socialism). The above are some of the discoveries in the work of the historian Dr. Rex Curry. Think about all of the implications of the pledge’s background that remain hidden. Here is only one: Ernst Hanfstaengl “Putzi” (“Hitler’s piano player”) grew up in the USA where he was forced to perform the “German national socialist salute” everyday, long before the German national socialist party existed, and then he went on to advise Hitler on ways to rally crowds and create loyalty. American socialists, including the Bellamys, influenced Stalin, Mao and Hitler, the worst mass murderers of all time in the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part) – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with ~60 million dead; the Peoples Republic of China with ~50 million dead; and the National Socialist German Workers Party with ~20 million dead. There is a book about Edward Bellamy and the Bellamy dogma called “Authoritarian Socialism.” It was not an ancient Roman salute. That is a debunked myth. The ancient Roman salute myth came from the USA’s pledge of allegiance.’ Thanks for taking so much time on this Stephen!
Rhino: First there is Mark L. ‘You might find this item to be of interest. The URL linked below points to an item on a site I maintain for the benefit of the academic community. It shows a Quadrans - or 1/4 of a As – the smallest denomination of Imperial coin ever used in the Roman Empire. You might think of it as equivalent to a Farthing, although it is difficult to assign it a relative value. All Roman base-metal coins were token or fiduciary issues (yes, as far back as that – and earlier still) so its real purchasing power was a function partially of what was decreed for it and partially as the amount at which the market accepted it. You might recall the story about Vespasian, who when challenged about charging an admission price for the public “conveniences” (still called “Vespasianos” in some parts of Italy, I am told) held up a coin – presumably a quadrans, and as the smallest coin of the realm is most likely what the charge for use was – and said “Yet, this has no bad odor.” (or Latin to that effect). This piece with a main device of a rhinoceros was one issued by his son, Domitian – under whose reign a large number of small denomination types were issued. PS – Quadrantes almost never carried the portrait of the Emperor – perhaps due to their lowly status?’ Then up comes Invisible: ‘Here is a reference to the earlier rhino of 1684. This is a quote from The Shows of London, Richard Altick p. 37 “the strange Beast called the Rynnoceros’. Evelyn, like most of the learned, identified the breed with the fabled unicorn, although the reality somewhat belied the myth, for ‘it more ressembled a huge enormous Swine, than any other Beast amongst us.’ Arriving aboard an East Indiaman in August 1684, the ‘rhinincerous’ (the spelling presented insuperable difficulties to contemporary pens) was valued at £2,000—an impressive indication of its worth as a commercial showpiece. The Rhinenceras was immediately put up for sale and was ‘bought for £2320 by Mr. Langly one of those that bought Mr. Sadlers well at Islington & in a day or two will be seen in Bartholomew faire.’ But Mr. Langley was unable to raise the money and lost his £500 deposit; whereupon the owners took back their Rhinonceros and put it up for resale, ‘but noe person bid a farthing soe lyes upon their hands.’ By the end of September the Rhynonceros was at the Belle Sauvage inn at the foot of Ludgate Hill, where the proprietor was said to take in 15 a day at a price of 12d. for a look and 2s. for a ride. The Rhynoceros continued to attract crowds until its premature death two years later (September 1686); ‘the severall proprietors having Ensured £1200 on her life the Ensurers are catched for much money.’” Here is an ad for said Rhino. The inimitable Jan Bondeson on the famous Clara. And a whole crash of early rhinos from this site‘. Ricardo writes in ‘You know, certainly, that image was made by Durer from descriptions of the rhino King Manuel of Portugal brought to Europe (or gave orders to be brought) in 1515. The king allegedly walked the beast in the Lisbon streets and the next year sent it as a present to the Pope but it perished in a shipwreck near Italy. A half century would elapse before another rhino would set foot again in Europe. Just imagine the Portuguese King, XVI century, walking his newest pet through the streets of the capital…’ Actually I found the image in the Gentleman’s Magazine (where this article originates) and was completely unaware of its provenance! Thanks Mark and Invisible and Ricardo!
Hare: Sy sends in this ‘The romantic glen was in the first instance the retreat of a beautiful Irish maiden, Monacella (in Welsh, Melangell), who had fled from her father’s court rather than wed a noble to whom he had promised her hand, that here she might alone serve God and the spotless virgin. Brochwell Yscythrog, Prince of Powys, being one day hare-hunting in the locality, pursued his game till he came to a thicket, where to his amazement he found a lady of surpassing beauty, with the hare he was chasing safely sheltered beneath her robe. Notwithstanding all the efforts of the sportsman to make them seize their prey, the dogs had retired to a distance, howling as though in fear, and even when the huntsman essayed to blow his horn, it stuck to his lips. The Prince, learning the lady’s story, right royally assigned to her the spot as a sanctuary for ever to all who fled there. It afterwards became a safe asylum for the oppressed, and an institution for the training of female devotees. But how long it so continued cannot be said. Monacella’s hard bed used to be shown in the cleft of a neighbouring rock, while her tomb was in a little oratory adjoining the church. In the church is to be found carved woodwork, which doubtless once formed part of the roodloft, representing the legend of Saint Melangell. The protection afforded by the saint to the hare gave such animals the name of Wyn Melangell – St. Monacella’s lambs – and the superstition was so fully credited that no person would kill a hare in the parish, while it was also believed that if anyone cried ‘God and St. Monacella be with thee’ after a hunted hare, it would surely escape.’ Thanks SY
Middle Kingdom: Invisible sends in this chilling fairy tale (look out for the weasels) THE TWO PONIES, from Ruth L. Tongue, Forgotten Folk-Tales of the English Counties. ‘When I was fourteen years old, I went as under nursery-maid to the Hall to look after her Ladyship’s two little children. Beautiful little children, Miss Ailsa and Master Ian were, with yellow curls, and pink cheeks. The nurse was Mrs Sinclair, who’d come from the North of Scotland with her Ladyship when she married. She was very severe, but kind with it. She was my mother-in-law later on, and I loved her as much as my own mother. Her son Donald, who was to be my dear husband, was, like me, then just fourteen, and an under-groom. Her Ladyship’s mother sent the children a pair of tiny ponies, all the way from the Shetland Islands, dear, friendly little pets, with heavy coats that mustn’t be clipped. And Donald Sinclair had the sole care of them, and hours and hours of brushing their coats and long tails and manes did he put in, and even the Head Groom, Mr Wooton, allowed they looked a picture. Then, one day when the little children had been led up and down the garden paths (for they had to be held, they were so small, and Donald had Master Ian, and I had Miss Ailsa, and those dear good ponies knew how to walk on and where to go without being led), my Donald said to me, “Lizzie, how can I get a word to her Ladyship?” It wasn’t to be heard of, of course, and it must have been very important, for Donald looked frighted at the very daring of it. “Won’t Mr Wooton do?” I said. “He is Head Groom, and the proper one to be told.” Donald shook his head. “Or your mother?” I said. “He wouldn’t believe me, and give me a guid clout, and ma mither, she’d be all in a terrible fright for the bairns. Oh, what will I do?” says poor Donald, and the tears stood in his eyes. “They’ve tellt me to turn the ponies graze (they were never stable-kept) in yon field fornenst the Oak Wood.” Well, I’d heard Mrs Sinclair myself, and what she thought of the Oak Wood, and I was never to go near it with Miss Ailsa and Master Ian. She believed there was a wicked band of fairies there, black-hearted, and all in black, and they stole pretty little children right away for ever—especially if they had yellow hair. And I took great pains to mind, for I was frighted myself. Her Ladyship was away, and the next morning I slipped down to the stable yard, where I was not supposed to go, unless I had a message, and I got there to say to Mr Wooton that the ponies were not to be used that day. Mr Wooton was giving my poor Donald half a dozen with a leather belt, because their coats were tangled and dirty, and the ponies were worn out. “D’ye call that grooming?” says Mr Wooton, and Donald had been brushing for hours. “I was at the brushing an scraping and strapping for three hours the morn. They’re soaked wi’ sweat,” says my Donald. I was almost crying, too, but remember I mustn’t. “They’re sweating still, you idle good-for-nought,” says Mr Wooton, giving Donald another cut. “I’ll make a good groom of you yet!” Now Mr Wooton was really very proud of my Donald, and had trusted him over the heads of other grooms to look after the children and ponies, for a steady, trustworthy boy, as he was. So he lost his temper, and what would have happened I don’t know—perhaps Donald would be turned away from the Hall, but old Mr Venn, the head gardener, came by for water, and he took one look at the ponies, and says straight out, “Did ‘ee tell the lad to graze by Oak Wood? You ought to know better than that. Look at ‘Their’ (fairises’) stirrups in their manes, and the burrs ‘They’ve’ throuned to spoil their tails, and been hard-ridden all night I don’t wonder. You listen to me for once, and ask others why the Oak Wood Pasture is never used.” Donald and me felt much better to find Mr Venn wasn’t blaming him at all, and then they both told him to take the ponies to the lower lawn, where there were apple trees, and sweet grass, and would be under their eyes too—and so could we see them from the nursery window, and the little children liked that. The ponies weren’t ridden that day, but left to dry off in the sun, and rest, while Donald kept watch and was able to give them a brush-down before dark, and pull the burrs from their manes and tails, and untangle the fairises’ stirrup knots. Next morning, when I looked out, I couldn’t see the little ponies quiet and happy on the lawn, but after breakfast I saw them, and somehow they looked bad—quite different like. Her Ladyship had come the night before, and came out on the terrace to see the ponies was safe and well, and wanted to know why they were there. I had brought the little children down to ride, but the ponies weren’t even saddled yet, and Mrs Sinclair couldn’t think what ailed Donald to be so late, and come to tell her Ladyship so. Now, when she saw the ponies, she caught hold of Miss and Master tight, and tried to stop Donald putting a hand on those fierce, pretty creatures, but her Ladyship was looking too, with a white face, and cried out to him to come to her at once.”I nearly caught them, ma’am,” says Donald, very upset, but she says, “Stay here!” and she steps forward and calls in a clear, brave voice. “There are no bairns here for you to carry away,” and Mrs Sinclair stood by her, and called too, “Tangye! Shoopiltee! I’m naming names! Off with ye, back! Gang awa’ tae the North, noo!” And the fierce, wild ponies were not there any more. Then her Ladyship took my hand, and said, “We need three who love the bairns to call.” And then they called, and I tried, too, and while Donald held the little children, we cried, “Leave Oak Wood, and go—in the Holy name.” And Mr Venn told us later, the keepers saw the great crowd of black weasels running away to the north, and they couldn’t shoot one, but they brought our own poor, lame, over-ridden little ponies back from the wood. The story dates from 1832. Written down during various visits by a district visitor, and told by a bedridden old housekeeper, aged 85 (verbatim). She was a Mrs Donald Sinclair, but was Warwickshire born. The tale was sent to Miss Tongue’s uncle at Streetley. “The Shetland water-horses appear strangely in an English oak-wood. They seem to have been imported by the lady and the nurse.” Thanks Invisible!
FIS: Invisible has gone above and beyond: ‘Quentin Craufurd may well be: ‘Captain Sir Quentin Charles Alexander Craufurd of Kilbirnie, 6th Bt. was born on 11 February 1875. He married Anne Blackwell, daughter of Thomas Blackwell, on 1 October 1899. He died on 8 May 1957 at age 82, without issue. [Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003)] He was the son of Sir Charles William Frederick Craufurd, 4th Bt. and Hon. Isolda Caroline Vereker.[Charles Mosley, Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition] He was invested as a Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (F.R.S.A.). He gained the rank of Captain in the service of the Royal Navy. He was registered as a Associate Member, Institution of Electrical Engineers (A.M.I.E.E.). He was invested as a Fellow, Institute of Physics (F.Inst.P.). He succeeded to the title of 6th Baronet Craufurd, of Kilbirney, Ayrshire [G.B., 1781] on 6 January 1956. From Organized Obsessions: 1001 Offbeat Associations, Fan Clubs, and Microsocieties You Can Join (1991): ‘Fairy Investigations Society (FIS) 1 Lakelands Close, Stillorgan, Dublin, Ireland. Ah, the wee little people are making their visits again, you say? Time to contact the FIS. Members are persons who sincerely hold the fairy faith (the Society is appropriately located in Ireland, where those with the faith ounumber without). Reports of fairy sightings are welcomed by the society’s Fairy Investigation Bureau (FIB) and for eventual publication. Anonymity of contributors is respected. Founded in 1927. Contact Mr. Leslie Shepard, Executive Officer.’ The Fairy Investigation Society has a Facebook page [though this seems a cut and past of the Wikipedia page]. For Leslie Shepard’s publications. I regret that I don’t have Lord Dowding’s Lychgate or Many Mansions (although I read them a long time ago) and it apparently is not available online. The books are primarily books on spiritualism and life after death. I don’t recall anything about fairies. Dowding did write though the preface to a book entitled a True Fairy Tale. Someone wrote a play about the Society.’ Invisible also puts us onto the annual Fairy and Human Relations Congress. Then just for good measure a fake fairy discovered in Derbyshire. Next up is Louise Yeoman: ‘A few years ago I made a radio programme on Arthur Conan Doyle and Spiritualism, where I was delighted by the way the 20th century spiritualists saw the discovery of speech radio as proof that it was quite plausible that you could hear the voices of the dead. It’s quite commonplace to me that my programmes are full of dead people whose voices I’ve snaffled from the archives but in the 1920s it was a novelty and people were excited by the idea that radio might put us in touch with the dead. Your fairy investigator is one such enthusiast – you want to search for him as QCA Craufurd. You may already have them, but I’ve bunged you some links underneath. Some stuff on the forteana blog. And he also took out a bunch of patents on communicating with submarines! and meditated on communications with animals Then look at the The Electrical journal: Volume 108: ‘Craufurd, Quentin Chas. Alex, Done, John Paul Cusson, and Summers, Reginald, carrying on business of manufacture and sale of wireless sets …Physical Society. — Imperial College of Science, Imperial Institute Road, South Kensington.’ Theo, meanwhile, is sceptical about the Lewis Spence record. ‘You write: The Fairy Investigation Society appears in Lewis Spence’s Encylopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology which seems to date to 1978… I have the first edition of Spence’s Encyclopedia, dated 1920. In there there’s an entry on Fairies, but, as far as I have been able to ascertain, there’s no entry on the Fairy Investigation Society. Leslie Shepard’s Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology was published by Gale in 1978 with a 2nd edition in 1979 in two volumes. On page 430 of volume I is an entry on Fairies, but again, nothing on the FIS.’ Beach does not have these books to hand but by good fortune it seems that google books carry the relevant pages. Does this mean then that Spence himself did not write the record in question? Then Michael S from The Big Study writes in: Nandor Fodor mentions the FIS in Between Two Worlds. He includes at least two stories/encounters from it which seem to me to have a chance to be veridical. I can’t say more without memory-glitch pollution as I am out of town and the bulk of my library is elsewhere. For what it is worth, I have been accumulating some of these tales for a small number of years [outside of the compilations of WY Evans-Wentz, MacManus, Sikes, Bord etc] and found at least claims to be ongoing. I have a few hundreds of these things, some from the files of UFOlogy, when the reports sound more like the paranormal than the technological. A slim non-scholarly publication by Ron Quinn called Little People [largely tales called in to a radio station when he was giving a talk on such matters in upper New York] might be of small additional interest. I, reading UFO reports, came across some small percentage of encounters wherein the main characters seem more like folkloric entities than ET Aliens. And my intuition, unlike Vallee’s, is that there are two separate “piles” of case types. You have doubtless read Moyra Doorly’s account from Arran’. Amanda writes in with some important links for modern FSI equivalents in the UK and the Republic. Fairyland Trust, Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy, 3 Wishes Fairy Festival, National Leprechaun Museum. She also points readers in the way of The Travellers Guide to Fairy Sites by Janet Bord which has not only folklore but recent sightings as well. Janet Bord also wrote Fairies Real Encounters with Little People (1997) which I have a copy of as well. It has a chapter on 20th century reports in the UK plus others world wide. I come originally from Kent which has no fairy folklore as far as I’ve been able to find out. Sussex next door however seems to have quite a lot of fairy sightings and lore. Then Jan writes in from the Fairycongress in the States: ‘The annual Fairy & Human Relations Congress has been held (on the earthly realm) since 2001. Everything that we have published is on the website www.fairycongress.com. “Forty Years with the Fairies” vol.1 of Daphne Charters’ Collected Fairy Manuscripts” was published in 2008, and is available at www.rjstewart.net/other-authors.htm‘ Thanks Jan and Amanda, Michael, Invisible, Louise and Theo!
Thugs: Radko sends in Mark Twain’s Following the Equator that has some typical Twainisms on the subject of the Thugs. We quote one paragraph. ‘Here is the tally-sheet of a gang of sixty Thugs for a whole season–gang under two noted chiefs, ‘Chotee and Sheik Nungoo from Gwalior’: Left Poora, in Jhansee, and on arrival at Sarora murdered a traveler. On nearly reaching Bhopal, met 3 Brahmins, and murdered them. Cross the Nerbudda; at a village called Hutteea, murdered a Hindoo. Went through Aurungabad to Walagow; there met a Havildar of the barber caste and 5 sepoys (native soldiers); in the evening came to Jokur, and in the morning killed them near the place where the treasure-bearers were killed the year before. Between Jokur and Dholeea met a sepoy of the shepherd caste; killed him in the jungle. Passed through Dholeea and lodged in a village; two miles beyond, on the road to Indore, met a Byragee (beggar-holy mendicant); murdered him at the Thapa. In the morning, beyond the Thapa, fell in with 3 Marwarie travelers; murdered them. Near a village on the banks of the Taptee met 4 travelers and killed them. Between Choupra and Dhoreea met a Marwarie; murdered him. At Dhoreea met 3 Marwaries; took them two miles and murdered them. Two miles further on, overtaken by three treasure-bearers; took them two miles and murdered them in the jungle. Came on to Khurgore Bateesa in Indore, divided spoil, and dispersed. A total of 27 men murdered on one expedition.’ Twain then rights. Chotee (to save his neck) was informer, and furnished these facts. Several things are noticeable about his resume. 1. Business brevity; 2, absence of emotion; 3, smallness of the parties encountered by the 60; 4, variety in character and quality of the game captured; 5, Hindoo and Mohammedan chiefs in business together for Bhowanee; 6, the sacred caste of the Brahmins not respected by either; 7, nor yet the character of that mendicant, that Byragee.‘ Well worth the read. thanks Radko!
Beachcombed 17 November 1, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
Fraternal greetings to historians, archaeologists, anomalists and bizarrists!
First of all an apology is due: Beachcombing fell behind on correspondence in October. He enters the second half of the term contrite and determined to do better.
Of the posts in the past month Cocaine and Ancient Egypt drummed up the most visitors, though surprisingly little mail. Most mail was produced by the Wold Cottage Meteorite. Beach’s three personal favourites, meanwhile, were Nag Hammadi and Yemeni Wives and Blondie at Cresson. But, as we have noted before in this place, there is no accounting for taste.
As to best offworld things there were many instances sent in by readers and in, one case, family. Mrs B is presently having a crisis of vocation: to be or not to be a think tank coordinator. She put Beachcombing onto this Jungian vocational test: that is neither historical nor bizarre but that riled the present author by telling him that he should become a social worker! Another of the highlights passed our way has to be this flow chart created for one of the less bright European leaders to explain the recent Euro rescue scheme. Keynesian Voodoo? Or what about the psychological solution to an Australian WW2 mystery? Another class act was revealed by Ricardo, namely, this beautiful work of internet archaeology. Or what about some eternal love from six feet under? We must ask too: any Mayan Shamans out there? If so check out this ad at Freelancer and scroll down for the replies. Then, finally, Chris Ostlund sent in ‘The Baptism of Christ‘ by Aert de Gelder (1645-1727). Beach is, as in most things, a sceptic here, but if he was going to start to pick out hunks of intergalactic or interdimensional metal in grand masters, he’d start with the Baptism.
Next the news round up, then we print below the best emails posted this month with thanks to their various authors from Geoff Holder and Louise Yeoman sorting out Maggie Walls to Dianne Purkiss and Invisible on fairy eggs and mermaids. Gratitude and kudos to correspondents! These are the ten thousand most important words from the blog in October.
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BH News Stories
- A) Brothels in Trenches
- B) Lost Da Vinci?
- C) Bits and Pieces of French Kings
- D) Hysterical Blindness and Hitler?
- E) Bizarre Diplomatic Gifts
- F) Burying Difficult Leaders
- G) Black Death Genetics
- H) Shakespeare, Oxford and Public Education
- I) Eating Mexicans in Mexico
- J) Excavating in GeoCities
- K) Royston Cave and Bad Archaeology
- L) Where Harold Really Died
- M) A Picture to Weep Over
- N) Modern Pacific Cannabilism
- O) Psychology and Sunk WWII Ship
- P) Frankenstein and the Moon
- Q) Maya and Alleged Aliens
- R) Mexican Canniabls
- S) Hitler’s Lost Speeding Ticket
- T) Ancient Airships
- U) The Dog and the Mammoth Bone
- V) Money Trees
- W) In Memory of the 50
- X) Earn Money Solving A Historical Mystery!
- Y) Irish Spontaneous Combustion
- Z) Throw That Television Away…
Maggie Walls: Geoff Holder has very kindly been in touch on this to fill in some of the gaps. ‘The full story of ‘Maggie Wall the witch who wasn’t’ is told in my book Paranormal Perthshire . The book also contains the photograph you allude to, taken around 1910, with the words clearly visible. There is no carving on the monument. The words have been repainted at regular intervals by local people. I know the names of both the previous and current painters, although I have undertaken not to reveal the identity of the currently living painter. The earliest record of the monument, in the Ordnance Survey Name Book of the 1850s, also records the words. The painted words presumably precede the 1850s but there is no evidence of this. There’s more at www.geoffholder.com’ There is also an email from KMH who is getting lyrical: ‘This posting brings to mind thoughts not visited for decades. But first, we need to know how common it is for witch burnings to be commemorated with a monument. The monument must be at least somewhat unusual because this is the first one I have heard of. Perhaps the monument was built for something else, but since the witch may have been killed somewhere in the general vicinity (if she actually existed) the words don’t really apply to the exact spot of the monument. Generally speaking I feel that permanent structures marking episodes of human tragedy, stupidity, or egotism do not actually serve their purpose of telling us what to avoid in the future. Instead they tend to prolong the problem and ingrain it permanently into the human psyche. For example, instead of preserving the remains of Hitler’s concentration camps (and other Nazi structures), they should have been completely destroyed and the land turned over to farming. Today the public is still fascinated by the Nazis, and neo-Nazis continue to flourish, perhaps because there is so much left over to see, study and contemplate. The Romans knew what to do with Carthage. They would have succeeded with Jerusalem also if it had been just another city. A land or country can physically contain only so many monuments to its history. Like Egypt, once there is no more room for monuments, the country is effectively over with and it can only serve some other, foreign, purpose. So we need to be careful with monuments – each one can represent another nail in the coffin of the country. It is better to choose the nails quite carefully and exclude those of a negative nature.’ Now Louise Yeoman writes in to add a few more thoughts, and they are, for the most part, skeptical ones. Louise has a strong background in early modern manuscripts and witchcraft research. ‘Geoff the local historian may well have found an earlier mention on a map for which I applaud him! But the monument’s story was first publicly debunked in 2004, and it’s worth telling for some extra info for you. Myself and archaeologist David Connolly examined this as a query sent to us for BBC Radio Scotland’s Past Lives programme and broadcast our findings. The monument is apparently a clearance cairn topped by a late 18th century lintel and the cross is likely to be a later date than that. The inscription is not in 17th century Scots or a script it would be written in… I can say with a fair degree of certainty that there are no 17th century witch memorials, and if you look at other sorts of 17th century memorial, it’s easy to see this doesn’t fit. I ended up pointing the finger indirectly at Walter Scott, as you’ll see below and more directly at the 19th century Rollo of Duncrub family. At the time I did a bit more research into the local history, and looked at estate plans from the Rollo papers in National Archives of Scotland which led me to the same conclusion that the placename pre-dated any monument.(BTW Last year I was contacted about this by a journalist Heidi Soholt for Scotland magazine and she published a story based on this research then for their winter 2010 number. It was the local historical society who asked us about it in 2004, so I think this is known locally!) Anyway for the sake of completeness here’s what we came up with in 2004 and sent to Heidi last year. Maggie Walls brief. The contemporary evidence – There is nothing in the records to indicate that Maggie Walls ever existed but record survival is not good for the protectorate in Scotland. There was some witch-hunting in that period, but no major panic – so to begin with, we can’t rule anything in and we can’t rule anything out. It could be there was such a case and that the records were lost or it could be that it never existed [If there was, she would be in the era of Sir Andrew Rollo d.1659] What do we know? There was a serious witch panic in Perthshire in 1662. There was sporadic witch-hunting in Perthshire up to then but in 1662, it goes through the roof (probably insecurity and settling of scores after the Restoration of Charles II and end of the civil war period). Six witches are accused in the parish of Dunning: Isobel Goold, Agnes Hutsone, Anna Law, Isobel McKendlay (executed), Elspeth Reid (executed), Janet Toyes (executed). They are tried by a commission of the local gentry: including two Rollos: James Lord Rollo and his brother Laurence. The Rollos also sit on other local commissions trying a total of 17 women. This doesn’t make them extraordinary witch-hunters – it’s just their job as local lairds and they believe in it the way anyone else does. Do the 17th century Rollos repent of trying witches? There is no evidence that they do – it would be surprising and remarkable if they did, but highly unlikely. The first person to really denounce witch-hunting in Scotland was George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh – who publishes in 1673. He’s a lawyer who’s seen a lot of abuses – and who’s warning against abuse in witch cases – but he’s in a tiny minority. It’s only in the 1700s that the legal elite start rejecting witch cases – eg Pittenweem 1704-5 and that leads to a local lynching of the accused women. So at this point the elite are beginning to get out of step with the people who are still strong believers that witches are nasty harmful beings who deserved all they got. Hence I agree that the most likely person to put up the monument is a Rollo – but not a 17th century Rollo. Changes in witch belief – attitude towards witches probably continues to change over the 18th century. By the 19th century we get some interesting indications of how far things have moved: Walter Scott’s Letters on Demonology published 1830 were very influential, many witch trials are reprinted in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials which is very popular, and it’s at this time that other Perthshire legends surface like the Grahame of Inchbraikie tale about Kate NicNiven (who’s a completely mythical character!). They and the Oliphants of Gask talk about witch-hunting as a superstition carried out by an ignorant Presbyterian Church of Scotland– and like the Rollos they are Episcopalians. If you read the Graham of Inchbraikie tale, it gives the laird a (false) heroic role in trying to rescue the witch. So I think that by the 19th century – if not slightly before – the local gentry are trying to rewrite history. They’re aware of witch-hunting and perhaps a bit ashamed. They may be trying to re-write their part in it. They may also be buying into the glamorous world of Walter Scott and his tales, especially Ivanhoe (1819) where the hero rescues the beautiful Rebecca (accused as a witch) from the dastardly Templar, Brian de Bois-Guilbert – lo and behold, that’s exactly the era in which the monument most likely emerges. Documentary evidence the monument is definitely there in 1866 – it’s on the ordnance survey map.The dyke is there by 1859. The placename ‘Maggie wall’s wood’ is there by 1829 ( Rollo of Duncrub papers). The wood is there by 1783 but is not on Roy’s Military Survey (1747-55) No evidence for the monument before the 19th century. Even the feature the name attaches to (the wood) isn’t there before the late 18th century. Physical evidence – David Connolly, the archaeologist examined it and (if I recall correctly) reckoned the monument was a clearance cairn with an 18th century lintel on it (making the shaft). The lintel would only have been re-used for the monument after the building it was in was torn down – so that points to at least the later 18th century for its re-use. The cross on the top seemed even later to him – 19th century. I looked at the language and form of the inscription and monument and they were definitely not 17th century. We came to the conclusion it was 19th century. Conclusion – The monument can’t be earlier than the late 18th century, and everything points to it being early-mid 19th century. It’s a symbol: perhaps of lairdly regret for what their ancestors did, perhaps a fashion statement, maybe both, but real accused witches, innocent people, were executed in the parish, so it’s quite a nice symbol. It would be nice if they had the names of the real documented witches commemorated there too! The mythical Maggie is doing duty for them – but it’s still a shame that their names are so often forgotten.’ Thanks KMH and Geoff and Louise for taking the time!
Caterina Sforza’s Skirt: Ricardo writes in. ‘Reading Herodotus on Ethiopia and Egypt, probably you know the story. Quoting from memory, the Egyptian king had left a garrison of a few thousand to guard the borders with Ethiopia. Well, he ‘forgot’ them there so after some years they got upset, packed up and decided to cross to the other side. And so the word reached the King who decided to run over and get them back. He rounded them up and made an appeal (ah, some nice Hollywood speech?) about their homeland and the women who soon they would be leaving behind. One from the army them come forward, holding his testicles in hand and saying: ‘where these go, my sons and daughters go’ and so they left. Herodotus gives this a reason for an increase in culture in Ethiopia about this time!’ Thanks Ricardo!
Meteorite Hits Pub: Now it is the legendary Ed Murphy’s turn. ‘Re: your item on meteorites striking buildings, one such just happened here recently. It was in Lorton, Virginia, a few miles from Washington DC and my home in Arlington. A small meteorite plunged through the roof of an office building and landed in the suite of some doctors (fortunately harming no one). The docs donated the rock to the Smithsonian Institution. But then the owner of the office building claimed that the object belonged to him, not the MDs, since they were only renters, and he claimed that as property owner he had the mineral rights. This left the Smithsonian in the embarrassing middle, and the last I heard, all 3 parties were still trying to work things out. Also, here’s a link on the Meteorite that killed a dog.’ Thanks Ed!
Seventeenth-century Icarus: Neville writes in with one that Beach had never heard before: (story taken from SAPFA page: only first paragraph quoted here). ‘There is a belief that, in the early 1870s, John Goodman Houshold and his brother built a glider and launched it from the top of a 300 metre precipice on the farm Der Magtenburg, in the Karkloof area of KwaZuluNatal [in South Africa]. The first flight was just over 1 kilometer and a height of 50 to 80 meters was achieved. During the second flight the craft soared for a while before beginning a rapid descent in which it clipped a tree and crashed, breaking his leg in the process.’ Thanks Neville!
Last Witch Killing: Shaun writes in bringing up an old friend of this blogger. ‘Your recent article on witchcraft trials in Western Europe does not mention the case of Bridget Cleary, who in 1895 was burned to death by her husband and several others who suspected her of being a Changeling. While not a witch in the strict sense, being more inclined as it is to Faerie superstition, it does rather distressingly follow the usual pattern: independent woman who has some success and assets is tortured and killed by men who seemed threatened by her very existence. The crime is then covered up with supernatural proclamations to scare away the inquisitive. Sadly for the husband, such malarkey does not cut the mustard in the Industrial Age, and he got a nice jail cell for his reward.’ Thanks Shaun!
Deviant Burials: Judith of Zenobia fame wrote in with a link to the San Cerbone digs. Seems there was a mysterious bag of dice too! Thanks Judith!
Wold Meteorite: Several of you (Invisible, EdM, Southern Man, SY) have sent in this great report from the Telegraph describing a recent meteorite attack on a French home. KMH (who also noted the report above) has kindly boiled down the Wikipedia article on historic ‘interventions’ of meteorites: ‘There is a Chinese record describing the death of 10,000 people in 1490 from ‘falling stones’. The Wabar craters in Arabia may be just a few hundred years old. There is the Tunguska blast in 1908. ‘The only reported fatality from meteorite impacts is an Egyptian dog that was killed in 1911 by the Nakhla meteorite, although this report is disputed. The meteorites that struck this area were identified in the 1980s as Martian in origin. The first known modern case of a human hit by a space rock occurred on November 30, 1954, in Sylacauga, Alabama. There a 4 kg (8.8 lb) stone chondrite crashed through a roof and hit Ann Hodges in her living room after it bounced off her radio. She was badly bruised. Several persons have since claimed to have been struck by ‘meteorites’ but no verifiable meteorites have resulted.’ Thanks to KMH, Southern Man, EdM and Invisible!
Destroying Cassino: Larry put us on to the science fiction novel A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller. This work that talks about the destruction of knowledge and the collapse of civilisation was allegedly inspired by Miller’s part in the bombing raid on Cassino. Thanks Larry!
Mermaids, Fairies and Eggs: James writes about witches and the sea and notes that Reginald Scot’s catalogue in Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) states that witches could ‘saile in an egge shell, a cockle or muscle shell, through and under the tempestuous seas. ‘(Bk.I ch.14 p.6) This is how the witches travel in Jonson’s Masque of Queenes: – ‘we all must home i’ the egg shell sail’. So there you are. Invisible also has been doing her research: ‘I dipped into A Dictionary of Superstitions (Opie and Tatem), to see what it says about eggs and found some interesting points about eggs being unlucky for seafarers: “EGG” taboo word 1875 Notes & Queries 5th series II, p. 204 [Flamborough, Yorks.] The fishermen…had a great fear if…eggs were spoken of. 1923 P S Jeffrey, Whitby Lore, p. 138 [Staithes, York., 1885] An egg is deemed so unlucky that the fishermen will not even use the word, but call the produce of the fowl a “roundabout.” EGGS on board ship 1885 Folklore, p. 55 [Rosehearty, Aberdeen ] Eggs are [supposed to cause contrary winds], and there are fishermen that would not allow a single one on board. 1853 Notes & Queries 1st series VII p. 152 [ Somerset ] Always poke a hole through your egg-shell before you throw it away. If you don’t, the fairies will put to sea to wreck the ships. [same thing said of witches] 1887 ‘Speranza’ Wilde Superstitions of Ireland II p. 102. People ought to remember that egg-shells are favourite retreats of the fairies, therefore the judicious eater should always break the shell after use, to prevent the fairy sprite from taking up his lodgment therein. Thinking practically, given the food value of chickens on a long sea voyage, I find it interesting that eggs are considered so unlucky by mariners (of course many things were unlucky onboard ship including pigs, whistling, red hair—and mermaids.). If even mentioning eggs onboard was unlucky, it must have been doubly unlucky to overhear a mermaid discussing them. Further, I find that this statement in Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland , Collected Entirely from Oral Sources, Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, 1900. p. 230: It is unlucky to use for washing your hands or face water in which eggs have been boiled or washed. It is a common saying when mischance befalls a person through his own stupidity, “I believe egg water was put on me.” I also remembered a fairy tale read in childhood called “The Sea Maiden” in which the life of the sea maiden was contained in an egg. An old soothsayer tells the hero how to kill the mermaid, who has kidnapped his princess: “On an island in the middle of the loch is a white deer whose slender legs are swifter than a cry. If you catch her, from her mouth will come a black crow, a hoodie, that is strong of wing. If you catch it, from its mouth will come a trout that can swim faster than a racing salmon. If you catch it, out of its mouth will come an egg. In the egg is the life of the sea maiden. Crush it and she dies.” [This is a Scottish tale found in Popular Tales of the West Highlands by John Francis Campbell and Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Both of these are available online.] If a mermaid’s life was contained in an egg, then what is special about the water it is boiled in? And yet, aren’t the mermaids in the tales speaking of ordinary hens’ eggs? Still more food, as it were, for thought. Cracking under the strain of trying to find an answer’ Diane Purkiss author of the brilliant Troublesome Things (At the Bottom of the Garden in the US) writes in: ‘I liked your webpage on eggs and mermaids and changelings. It’s a recurring motif in folktales about changelings, and nobody has really explained it, but it’s interesting to note how little folklore there is on eggs in general. Chickens very rarely get bewitched – it does happen, but not often in comparison with dairy animals and pigs – so I wonder if the egg has some kind of power derived from being an enclosed but living thing? But I don’t REALLY know, and people often do rituals without really understanding how they came into being – why a rabbit’s foot, why unlucky thirteen? – though the latter is also VERY recent.’ Thanks Prof Purkiss, Invisible and James!
Jesus Christ and an Egg from Leeds: Over the last several months Southern Man, Invisible and Leeds Laura have all written in to report that Mary Bateman’s history is set out in S. Baring Gould’s Yorkshire Oddities. We’ve only just got down to reading the chapter and from this it is clear that MB was a singularly unpleasant con lady. E.g. ‘Mary Bateman next became acquainted with a tradesman’s wife of the name of Cooper. She persuaded this woman that her husband was about to abscond, and take with him all the property he could raise, and that she might not be left quite destitute, Mary prevailed upon her to convey as much of the furniture as she could out of the house, including an excellent clock, and to lodge all this furniture at Bateman’s. There it did not remain long. Mary took it all to the pawnbroker’s, got for it what it would fetch, and left the abused husband and his credulous wife to redeem it at their leisure.’ But as to those famous eggs, SBG gives us a little more information: ‘Blown upon as the credit of Mrs. Bateman’ witchcraft then was, she removed from Timble Bridge to the Black Dog Yard, at the Bank. While she lived here one of her hens laid a wonderful egg, remarkable for bearing this inscription— ‘Christ is coming’. But as so singular a phenomenon was not likely to obtain all the credit necessary for carrying into effect her fraudulent intentions unless supported by some kind of proof, she had the ingenuity and cruelty to contrive that two other eggs, bearing similar inscriptions, should be deposited in the nest by the same unfortunate hen. Persons flocked from all quarters to see the wonderful eggs, and they who dared to disbelieve stood a good chance of being maltreated by the credulous multitude. Mary’s motive for producing those eggs is not well made out, but it is supposed that she had at that time a notion of following the example of Joanna Southcote, as she was then in the habit of attending the meetings of the sect founded by that extraordinary woman. Mary succeeded in realising no inconsiderable sum by means of these eggs, for she made those who came to see the miracle pay a penny each for the gratification of their curiosity.’ Thanks Invisible, Leeds Laura and Southern Man!
Cocaine in Ancient Egypt: Open Sesame writes: ‘Just one initial reaction. I personally am ready to believe just about anything if the evidence takes me there. But where I start to have problems is with the quantity of tobacco and cocaine that would be needed to create these readings across Euro-Asia-Africa. It is the equivalent of every burial in antique Europe having strips of silk from China. Items from far away were extremely rare and valuable. We would expect occasional readings not the kind of numbers you’ve offered here. Perhaps we really are looking for a local source of nicotine and ‘cocaine’ then.’ SY also writes in ‘I quote the abstract of the following piece by Balabanova from 2001 that suggests that she is rapidly going in the ‘native crop solution’: at least for nicotine. ‘Nicotine use in early Mediaeval Kirchheim/Teck, Germany’, Journal of Comparative Human Biology 52 (2001) 72-76, Human bone samples of 123 Alemans of the 5th to 7th c AD were investigated for nicotine. In 23 individuals nicotine was found at levels between 31 and 150 ng/g, and in 49 others nicotine was found in traces. The results indicate that in Germany plants of the genus Nicotiana should have been present, known and used, well before Columbus. The purposes behind this use might have been domestic/medical or ritual, or possibly even as a luxury as occurs today.’ Thanks OS and SY!
Archaeological Fantasia: Irish Archaeologist wants an Irish codex or something recognisably Irish from either Iceland or Greenland ‘but don’t hold your breath’. Jimmy wants to find the brass plate that Drake left in his Californian New England, possibly in the bay of San Franciso and no, he writes, the present brass plate is NOT genuine. Invisible writes: Your post on archaeological fantasias made me want to dig out Richard Halliburton’s Book of Marvels, with its tales of treasure lost and found. Although it can’t be classed as a discovery, since the site is known, I would like to live to see the actual tomb mound of the First Emperor excavated at last. According to Ssu-ma Chi’en/ Sima Qian, the tomb included a clay model of the “world” including lakes and flowing rivers of mercury. Above, the ceiling was moulded with a map of the heavens with stars represented by jewels and oil lamps fed by a reservoir of oil so they would burn eternally. Apparently archaeologists have found high levels of mercury in the soil around the tomb so I am hoping the maps are real. The historian also says that the tomb was guarded from robbers by booby traps including poisoned arrows from automatic crossbows. If the emperor’s body was surrounded by layers of coffins or sealed with clay (supposedly ground-penetrating radar shows a large, sealed section within the mound), perhaps he would be as well-preserved as the Marquise of Tai and we could look upon the actual face of the First Emperor, not just a skeleton. Failing that, I would settle for the lost treasure of the Inca, including a garden of gold and silver flowers, hidden from the Spaniards in some remote cave in the Andes. Or the grave of Sir John Franklin. Or the Chinese junk rumoured to have been found in the sands of Sacramento , California . I don’t really care if the Chinese discovered America or not, but it would be delightful to have such an unlikely story be true. Open Sesame does not believe in trans-Atlantic crossings in ancient times but he would like to get to the bottom of the mystery of the Bay of Jars in Brazil, where allegedly a Roman ship ran ashore in ancient times. The great Ancient Digger writes in with one of her own. ‘One of the most elusive of mysteries is the location of Alexander the Great’s tomb. Alexander was a champion of Near Eastern and Middle Eastern culture, art, and literature, so if his body was ever discovered in a geographical area associated with the cultures he touched, would it not make sense that a temple or sculpture be erected in his honor? In 330, when Alexander marched into Pakistan and into the northwestern area of India where the Battle of Hydaspes River was brutally fought and won, he turned back to Babylon. We know what happened next…or do we? Did he ever turn back? Or did he stay right where he was? The history books tell us that he returned to Babylon and died shortly thereafter. Where is the tomb? A great conquest for a great man should render a monument of great proportions. It doesn’t exist.’ Beachcombing is tempted to add YET! Thanks to Irish Archaeologist, Jimmy, Invisible, Ancient Digger and Open Sesame.
World Centre: Invisible proves herself an expert in urban planning too. ‘With reference to cities of the imagination, we cannot possibly forget Francois Marie Charles Fourier, that daring Utopian Socialist, who wanted to build Phalansteres of 1620 people each – “grand hotels” where the rich had the upper floors and the poor the lower and where all noisy occupations were segregated into one isolated wing. In his new world order, cooperative living would bring order out of chaos, and when perfect harmony was achieved, the seas would turn to lemonade. Here’s the Wikipedia overview because I am lazy and it has photo of a Phalanstere. “Fairies” for the lovelorn! But here are some primary sources, which give the full flavor of the man and his ideas. I particularly like the reference to giving all the dirty work to teenagers, who, Fourier believes, have a natural taste for filth. The Wikipedia reference to the North American Phalanx is interesting to me – in Ohio a number of visionary people were influenced by Fourier. A phalanx for more than a dozen families was built at the aptly named Utopia in Clermont County, on the Ohio River, about 30 miles from Cincinnati. The community worked hard, but went into debt in building a new phalanx building. Newer recruits were unhappy with the financial situation and in 1846, the property was sold to a spiritualist/free love advocate named John O. Wattles and his community of about 100 souls. In 1847 their hopes–and about 40 of their members–were washed away when their building collapsed in the flooded Ohio River. So, communities not completely in the imagination, but I don’t see any bottles of North Sea Lemonade at my grocer’s either. Obviously mankind has not yet achieved unity of action and harmonious collaboration.’ Thanks Invisible!
Wives, Cases and Escapes: First up is Tim: ‘WWII POW lore is a side interest of mine. Did you know that in one instance Allied fliers had to evade Japanese, German and Russian captivity, and made their way home from the mission by going around the world? And there was vodka involved. One crew of the Doolittle raid decided to disobey the orders to land in China. (or had secret instructions per some accounts). They touched down in Vladovostock and were interned by the Russians. Russia was an ally with respect to Germany, but neutral regards Japan. Eventually they were shipped east to the Caucus mountains….just in time to have to pack up and move as the German offensive on (and past) Stalingrad was threatening them. Finally they were sent to a camp near the border with Iran,then under British control. One day the NKVD guards pretty much pointed them in the right direction then looked elsewhere and whistled while the five Americans scampered to freedom!’ What a story! Then comes Plaid Cymru – ‘What about some glorious failures. Gruffudd ap Llewyllyn lost his life while trying to climb out of the tower of London, according to Matthew Paris, after having made a roper of tapestries and sheets. Ouch!‘ Thanks Tim and PC! Yemeni Wives: TH writes in with her own take on this issue: ‘As someone with a Japanese mother and an American father, I think there is something to your theory concerning male feminism and intercultural marriages, but are you taking into account cultural perceptions of men and women from other races? In America, for example, the stereotypical East Asian woman (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) is Madame Butterfly, while her male counterpart is I. Y. Yunioshi; as such, Asian women are fetishized and thus more likely to be actively pursued than men, regardless of where individuals fall on the geisha/accountant axis. For that matter, how often in films and other fiction do white men wind up with ethnic women, and not the other way around? James Bond, has slept with an entire rainbow of women, and the white man/ethnic woman of the week pairing is hardly rare in cinema. However, off the top of my head I can’t think of a single white heroine who has been in a relationship with a non-white man that extended past “sexual menace.” Somehow, I don’t think the underlying assumption is that James Bond and his compatriots are caring and considerate feminists. There is, I think, a racial element somewhere in there. It would be interesting to look at data from internet dating sites like OKCupid; it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the figures, but I recall that there were very clear and very depressing patterns, e.g. white women are most popular among men of most ethnic groups, while African-Americans (men and women) are rather less popular. I believe this is the article in question, and while I certainly wouldn’t base my worldview on it, the data is interesting’. Thanks TH! Agony at the Dentists: SY writes: ‘Hitler really hated dentists. He famously said: ‘I would rather spend two hours in the dentist’s chair than have another meeting with him’ Thanks SY!
Claimants: Open Sesame writes: ‘You unaccountably forgot the ‘king’ of France and the Count of Anjou who has the blood of Hugh Capet AND Franco in his veins…’ Thanks OS!
Joy Riding on the Moon: Invisible sends in this modern piece of publicity – have rumours of joy riding on the moon got out there prior to this post… Some very amusing other emails on this generally – the general drift of which is that the astronauts they chose were crazy and capable of anything. However, sticking to the more factual communications… Ricardo writes in: ‘Your post reminded me a description of one of the joy rides of the astronauts aboard the rover so I don’t think it’s a “secret” thing but maybe a nice way of telling the story. I’m looking out for the documentary where I saw it but meanwhile went to wiki and, for Apollo 16, ‘The astronauts also conducted performance tests with the lunar rover, Young at one time getting up to a top speed of 11 miles per hour (18 kilometers per hour), which still stands as the record speed for any wheeled vehicle on the Moon.’ The ride has been described has a cross country test somewhere else so… I also doubt they would manage to hide it from everyone… albeit the 3rd mission of skylab left 3 dummies in place, waiting for the 4th and last mission… who found an “occupied” station on arrival. The trivia on space missions is truly interesting ’ Nancy from over at Universe Today is also skeptical: ‘I’ve not heard this story before, and I have doubts about it. The astronauts were fairly well monitored during their spacewalks, and in constant communication with mission control, so if they did something like this, it would be pretty surprising – not only because they did something not in the original missions plan (and I have heard the astronauts say there was so much to do during their spacewalks on the Moon and not all that much time to do it in – especially Apollo 15 and 16), but also because no one has leaked anything like this before. If you can verify this story, it would likely be a pretty substantial coup! (and I’d like to hear about it!)’ Also Invisible has another shot at this, and it’s a good one: One more thing about the moon joy-ride… There are, of course, NASA sites showing the surface of the moon. For example, this one: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html Surely, if this story was true, there would be tracks where no tracks ought to be? Unless, in its usual conspiratorial way, the Government is supressing the Truth…. (I will let wiser, more scientific eyes take a look because I have no idea what I am looking at!)’ Moonman wrote a couple of emails (spliced together here) in just before I put the last lot of posts up: ”Actually, there is a good way to PROVE this story’s truth. We can now SEE the tracks of the rover. I think 3D models have also been generated with stereo imagery of these Apollo sites, I will look it up. Since they likely did not “cover their tracks” Indian style, the whole story should be obviously read in the images. The idea of the video capturing the event is unlikely since I think they had to reposition the video camera antenna to get a link to Earth during broadcasting and this occurred during stops. Also, the camera they were carrying were still camera and unlikely to be used in transit. Also, find the astronauts with the dustiest uniforms after the rover driving and before lunar liftoff. They took a lot of pictures throughout each mission and Sherlock Holmes (or even Dr. Watson) would find it elementary to observe since lunar dust sticks like the dickens to everything… especially astronauts. In fact there is a story of one astronaut falling but who had trouble getting up… I will see if I can find the video… I also remember the picture of their landing site and it showed one of the landing legs on the edge of a deep small crater, suitable of tipping it over! This was a good example of how many landing legs you need and landing precision. I will see if I can find that image link somewhere too. The LRO images that were most recently taken of the Apollo 17 site which really show the rover tracks well are not publicly available in their entirety for a few months. This is the best they are offering: tracks 1 and tracks 2. Maybe some of the prior LRO images have good enough Sun angles to resolve the rover tracks. Will have to check (as I am sure others already are). Also, they did have a special camera to film movie sequences on the rover, but those were on briefly (Apollo 15 rover movie film covered 5 minutes of travel in the rover). So, don’t count on the stunt being covered. Anyway, the Apollo 15 rover had a “speed test” which was covered in video/film and was legit. Of course, audio coverage was continuous so I wonder how such an event could have been unnoticed by mission control. I reread your article and now realize they AND the rover fly through the “air”. I had been thinking the astronauts flew after the rover hit the rock. Thus my proposed dust assessment on the suits would likely not be useful. I found the astronaut falling video clip… Here it seems like he just fell on his side and likely to his knees first… They had trouble picking up the dropped camera because they could not bend in the spacesuit. They need a shovel like tool to pick it up. It demonstrates the hazard of falling on the lunar surface in a suit. From Apollo 15 and the film. JBC (through Larry) ‘Not saying it didn’t happen. But Apollo EVA times and progress were tightly controlled and monitored in real time with continuous downlink. On Apollo 16 John Young did an authorized off-road test of the LRV which was filmed by Charlie Duke. Al Shepard’s golf swings were on live TV. Closest thing I recall hearing about an off-the-record activity during a surface EVA was when Conrad and Bean were vigorously digging through their sample bag on Apollo 12 looking for the camera timer while they claimed to be resting. (Hence their extremely dirty suits.) Plus who measured their height and distance? Maybe new LRO images can find LRV tracks with a 100-meter gap? That would confirm and identify the time, place and driver. This sounds like one of those stories so good that if it isn’t true, it should be.’ Moonman has been rethinking some of his earlier conclusions. He wonders whether audio really was continuous. And then the question of the tracks. ‘If the astronauts drove up the hill and then drove “precisely” down the same track at breakneck speed then perhaps the jump could be missed. … Of course, they hit a rock so that likely was not on the path uphill. You should see where they landed though if they went splat.’ Then Ricardo ‘Both the off-road test and astronaut falling are on this you tube link. I’m still trying to find the documentary I saw. I think (but memory is tricky, as you know) it has a better description of this joy ride and I think it’s easy that this off road has transformed itself in that wild story. Of course we can all do as those lines in the end of John Ford ‘Who shot Liberty Valence’… ‘when legend becomes fact, print the fact, not the legend’ Ricardo writes ‘Hope this will be of help to the fire. Apollo 15 journal with audio and video and transcripts of the audio and comments from the astronauts obtained in interviews. Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. There was no Apollo 18 but someone did a film about it, considered by some the Blairwitch of space...’ Then finally Larry posted the Lunar Rover article on David S. F. Portree’s Facebook page version of his Beyond Apollo space history blog. This is David’s response ‘There are all kinds of reasons to believe that this never happened, or that it is a gross exaggeration. Perhaps Schmitt told a story and the numbers became inflated over time, or maybe it was told as a “could have happened” story that was m…isinterpreted as a “did happen.” I believe that this story hasn’t been told widely because most people would realize that it’s not possible. It would not be surprising to hear that the LRV left the ground and flew 20 feet or 30 feet. In fact, that certainly did happen on multiple occasions. But 300? At an altitude of 20 feet? Schmitt would not have made it back to Earth to tell the tale. Regarding fenders: the LRVs had to fold up to fit onto the LM. The fenders included extensions that unfolded during deployment. They appear to have been poorly designed. Apollo 16 lost one before its last EVA. Apollo 17 lost one ahead of its first EVA. Because the 16 astronauts had been showered with dust, they advised that a repair effort be made for 17, hence the map fender. The Apollo 16 “grand prix” was not a joyride, it was part of the planned roster of surface activities. Young drove alone while Duke captured it on film. The purpose was to study LRV dynamics. Young was cautious during the drive, even hesitating to “turn sharp” when Duke asked him to The LRV could not return TV unless parked. The dish antenna was for TV. It had to be pointed at Earth manually by the astronauts.’ To which Larry replies: ‘David, you present to me a detailed series of cold, sober facts. What I was really hoping for was the image of the Lunar Rover flying against the blackness, the powdery regolith spraying from its wheels in all directions, while the two astronauts gave a hearty YEEEHAAA! to the sound of rapidly-played banjo music and a folksy narrator proclaiming “Well, it looks like those Apollo boys are in a heap of trouble with Boss NASA this time!” Then the LR hits the regolith with a bounce but nary a dent and turns 180 degrees to a spectacular halt, with a final spray of lunar surface arcing across the landscape.’ Thanks Moonman (x2) and JBC (and Larry), David (and Larry again), Nancy, Ricardo (x3) and Invisible (x2)!
PRAWNS: Talk about the perfidy of memory and the stupidity of Beachcombing in daring to trust his. Ed from secretplacesofitaly (look out for dwarf envy) writes in to say: ‘Thanks to the magic of Wikipedia: I see that Betty Warren’s exact line was, ‘We’ve always been English and we’ll always be English; and it’s precisely because we are English that we’re sticking up for our right to be Burgundians!’ Pimlico had been gifted to the lord of Burgundy. Amanda has sent in a rich selection of British micronations: Let’s start with Forvik quoting from the Forvik site: ‘To test my ideas [about the illegitimacy of Scottish or British rule in the Shetlands], a well-wisher gave me a small island (Forvik). I declared it a Crown Dependency and then spent every penny I had – first to design and build a boat to get access, then to build a house. Forvik is now like Shetland in microcosm. Once the lightbulb went off in my head that Forvik represents the true status of Shetland and that the existing authority is actually an illegal regime, it made it easy to answer questions like ‘Is it legal?’ – ”Don’t you need permission?’ and so on. The most significant point is that there has so far been no official challenge to any of my ‘unlawful’ activities. (I stopped paying Income Tax, VAT and Council Tax, built a house without planning permission, put a car on the road with Forvik number plates and tax disc and various other disobedient actions). The counter at the top of the page tells you how long these have been going on without challenge. The authorities have gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid engaging with me because they know they cannot justify their authority here. Then, as a meso nation, there is Mercia (the English Midlands). ‘We, representatives of the Mercian Constitutional Convention, have assembled here today in the heartland of Mercia to reaffirm and declare the legal independence of the region under The Constitution Of Mercia, which we have now published and which is available to all the people of the region upon request. We have spent over two years in careful deliberation and embrace this Constitution in order to re-create Mercia as an autonomous region, constructed as an organic democracy, based on holistic principles.’ Interestingly the Mercians have attempted to take possession of the recently discovered Staffordshire Hoard: MERCIAN nationalists have claimed ownership of the Staffordshire Hoard for the people of Stoke-on-Trent, Cheshire and the West Midlands. The Acting Witan of Mercia wants to create a separate nation state, made up of the 20 shires, including Staffordshire and Cheshire, which formed the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. They claim the Crown and UK Government has no legal authority over the region’s citizens, because William the Conqueror and his Norman army took Mercia by force in 1066. Yesterday Jeff Kent, convener of the Acting Witan, or government, of Mercia, visited the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, in Hanley, to claim ownership of the Staffordshire Hoard, on behalf of the people of Mercia. You get the idea. Then there is Sealand (another post another day). And Amanda also dug up this article (with a fabulous picture) of the beginning of a United Nations of Micronations. James M, meanwhile, who lives in Pimlico (!!) writes in to tell us that ‘one of Pimlico’s neighbouring boroughs, Brixton, is trying to get its own currency working’. James also corrects the Independent’s date: According to Wikipedia, PRAWNS said its independence via Aethelred came in 979, when he was alive. It would be interesting to have a gander at this charter. Jonathan from A Corner of Tenth Century Europe write in on the question of Aethelred: ‘Apropos of your recent micro-nations post, it would indeed be interesting to have a look at that Ashurst charter; very little if anything like it would be known. You can inspect summaries and texts of all Aethelred’s known charters here: Nothing there looks even faintly relevant to me, certainly not from 979. In fact, none of Aethelred’s surviving grants appear to concern Sussex at all. More importantly, you’ll notice there’s nothing there at all to any kind of lay community; noblemen, churchmen, churches, servants, yes, all those, but a village charter is a much later phenomenon. Perhaps the date’s right and the king wrong! Perhaps PRAWNS have got something truly revolutionary in one of their attics! But until I see any more information, I’m inclined to call cobblers on the whole thing myself, sorry.’ Let’s hope we haven’t put PRAWNS continued existence into crisis with this. Ersatz writes in with a fascinating case that it would be fun to better document: ‘A micronation you may have missed, was the Republic of Sandtoft, which was unilaterally declared independent in, I think, 1977? Around that time, I was living and working in the Isle of Axholme, which is close to the border between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The isle, historically, was an island surrounded by frequently flooded marshy fenland. King Charles I gave over the project of draining this marshe, thus creating valuable farmland, to one Cornelius Vermuyden, and his company. The local people were not at all happy that they were to lose the fishing, wildfowling and hunting lands, and set up in opposition, sabotaging the works, destroying dams and pumps, and generally harassing the dutch. It is claimed that the king gave the tiny island of Sandtoft to Vermuyden, setting it legally apart from England, so that Vermuyden could build there a fort, and dispatch transgressors. In the 1970s the landlord of the inn there, on studying the history, realised that Sandtoft had never been restored to the crown, and that Vermuyden had abandoned it. It was not a Dutch dependency either, therefore, he surmised, it might stand alone as a sovereign state. He had passports printed and car stickers, “RS” (republic of Sandtoft) and on april fools day ’77, or maybe ’78, he closed the borders. The borders consist of three bridges, not more than a quarter mile apart. He demanded a toll, paid to charity, from all who sought to pass. The national media came. Oh. And he said he’d be no longer paying rates…. At this, the local council bristled, a joke’s a joke, but… And they pointed out that they also could close borders. And all that Sandtoft needed came over those borders, including water, electricity, a big sewer…. The pub would be isolated from its supply of ale. I think the republic might have existed for about four days, I’m not sure. Can’t find anything about it on the interwebs, so far, but I remember it personally. Some related axholme/ drainage stuff Sarah Washington very kindly writes in ‘my story is simply that I lived in this village from age 3 to 10 (I left in 1975), so was delighted when my father told me of the Prawns action and we visited the village together to see how it was working out. I am pretty sure I have a little video footage but I am not sure if I interviewed anyone on camera, I will have to check. What I do remember is that we went into the post office which was now acting as the Border Control, and I chatted to the people there and took some flyers. They said that the village pub had become the defacto Prawns HQ. I don’t have contact to any of them, but I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to track down some of those involved.’ Beachcombing is on this. Thanks to Ed, Ersatz, Amanda, Jonathan, Sarah and James M!
Hitler in Argentina: Southern Man writes in ‘Beach there is a lot of rot written about Hitler and suicide, allow me to quote from an excellent piece on Axis History: ‘Hitler contemplated suicide several times in his life (after the Putsch, after the death of his niece), he made speeches attesting that he would either be victorious or ‘would not survive the outcome’ (Reichstag speech, Sept. 1, 1939)…’Germany will find itself either reborn or us dead”…”I have three bullets…two for you if you betray me, the last for myself’ (Hitler during the Beer Hall Putsch). ‘Death is so easy..a brief moment of pain perhaps, then eternal sleep’ (Hitler to his ‘chauffeureska’).’ Next up is KMH with some almost metaphysical considerations about dictators: ‘It is perhaps natural to believe that oppressive dictators will die in a similar way that they caused others to die – poetic justice is most satisfying. But strangely, we see it happening only with the second tier of dictators – those who only have national, not international aspirations. So Qaddafi died of bullet wounds, etc. The most important personages don’t seem to die from violence or from legal proceedings (hanging, etc.). Stalin may have been poisoned by his doctor. Napoleon died on St. Helena. Ivan the Terrible, Oliver Cromwell and Mao seemed to have died naturally. So why would Hitler go against the grain? I believe the stories about his escape to Argentina or Antarctica not probable in his physically unhealthy condition. But he may have temporarily escaped to a secret bunker in the southern mountainous region only he knew of in specific detail. He died there perhaps due to his untreated illnesses. Dental records, the Argentina theory, etc., would be for one of his doubles. It is difficult to believe that these predestined personages are immune to a common death by violence, but their incarnation isn’t personally profitable or meaningful otherwise.’ Then several a couple of comments about Downfall. DCR writes: ‘Several people who were in the bunker when [Hitler] and Eva Braun killed themselves and served as technical consultants to the film. One was the radio operator who heard the shot and saw the bodies.’ The historical precision behind the film was much boasted over by the directing crew. On this theme JCC points any German speaking readers to an interesting article by Wim Wenders: thanks Southern Man, KMH, JCC and DCR!! Radioactive Japes: Phil P writes in with this useful supplement on commonly used radioactive items. Thanks Phil!
Enigma: First up Erik A writes: ‘For further evidence of our national capacity for the longterm maintenance of secrets one need look no further than the fabled Area 51. Literally hundreds, perhaps over a thousand, workers commute to that ‘secret’ base on a daily basis and have been doing so for about 50 years. We all know it exists, the frequent commuter flights out of McCarran and elsewhere are plainly visible, yet nothing ever leaks. EVER. How can this be? It is really quite extraordinary when you think about it. Clearly our government can keep secretes when sufficiently motivated.’ ABritishColumbian wants to give context: ‘Thinking of the wikileaks case or Scarlet Johannsson’s nude shots secrets are harder to keep in the internet age because it is just too difficult to keep on top of knowledge sharing. My guess is that if you had Ultra from 1990 to 2030, it would have leaked out before 2000 and on one would have been able to stop it’. Open Sesame, meanwhile, writes in: ‘But surely this is not just about how many keep something secret but also about what is kept secret. When it came out in the early 1970s that Britain had broken enigma there was interest and a new insight into how the UK had survived 2WW, but no one’s world view was changed. If it came out in 2030, say, that the Chinese were responsible for 9/11 then there would be a change in world view and ‘implications’. I suspect that the more ‘violent’ and shocking the revelation, the more likely it is to leak out. Of course, conspiracy brethren would then say – and for all I know they may be right – that the more violent and shocking a secret the better a government’s efforts at hiding said secret and disinformation would be’. Thanks Erik, Open Sesame and ABritishColumbian!
Nineteenth-century Deaths: Invisible writes in with a some potential classics: You asked for more pre-FT strange deaths. I dug into my files and came up with a few of the shorter tales that I think are FT-worthy. (All dates are Month/Day/Year). The Times 9-8-1825 p. 3 London On Sunday last, a respectable young man, named James Williams, residing in King-street, St. George’s in the East, while on a party of pleasure with some friends, was unfortunately drowned near Barking. The presentiments which the deceased had of the calamity which has occurred are rather extraordinary. On the nights of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, preceding his death, he was haunted by the most fearful dreams, each of which presented appalling pictures of drowning in every variety of shape, and with all imaginable terrifying accompaniments. The first dream he paid but little attention to; neither did he take much notice of the second; but the third, in consequence of its repetition, making a deep impression his mind, he communicated to his sister. She, knowing the engagement he had made for the next day, and his intention of going on the river, made use of the strongest and most sisterly arguments to dissuade him from his purpose. All her entreaties, however, were without effect—he still, though somewhat staggered, determined to keep his engagement, and not disappoint his friends; and asked what would be thought of him if he were to assign an idle dream as an excuse for his absence. His mind, notwithstanding, was strongly influenced by the conviction that what was meditated as a day of pleasure would eventually prove one of mourning, and fatal to himself. He therefore told his sister that should the catastrophe which he anticipated take place, that let his body be ever so long in the river, it would be recognized by certain marks on his [shoes?]; he then punched three letters on each of his shoes, which he pointed out to his sister, and set forward on his ill-fated excursion. Boats are dragging in all directions for the body, which has not as yet been found. Daily Gazette 11-4-1896 p. 3 Xenia, Ohio Both Called Husband and Wife Die Suddenly On the Same Day. Dublin, Nov. 3 Right Rev. Frederick R. Wynne, D.D., Episcopal Bishop of Killaloe, Kilfenora and Clonfert, was found dead at 5:30 this morning on the sidewalk near his residence in this city. The wife of the Bishop of Killaloe was found dead in her bedroom soon after the body of the Bishop was discovered on the sidewalk. An investigation of the strange death of the Bishop of Killaloe and his wife shows that the prelate recently left Killaloe for his home in Dublin on account of his wife’s health, and had left the house to fetch a doctor for her at about 5:30 a.m., when he fell dead near his residence. His wife must have died soon after the Bishop left the house. [I have to ask: where were the servants?] Spencer Herald 5-1-1907 p. 1, Spencer, Iowa Took Poison “For Fun.” Just for fun, Carrie Mattison, aged twenty and pretty, took a dose of strychnine at the farm house of Frank Richardson, in the eastern part of Woodbury county. “I took it just for fun,” was her only explanation. “I saw it there and thought I’d take some just for fun.” The young woman climbed from the cellar where she took the drug to the kitchen where she told Mrs. Richardson of her act. Before anything could be done to relieve her she was dead. The poison was kept to kill rats. It is believed the young woman thought a small portion would not hurt her, as no excuse for the act can be learned. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mattison of Battle Creek , Ia. London Daily Mail 12-28-1896 p. 3 London Death From Fright At Braintree Workhouse, on Saturday, a little girl named Florence Rudkin, five years old, died from the results of a fright, through being shut up in a dark closet at a board school during play hours by another child. She was not missed for some time, and when found was quite deranged, and never recovered her senses. Brain fever set in and caused her death. Marion Star June 17 1885, Marion, Ohio Strange Fatality ERIE, PA., June 13 Mrs. Mary Kreshner suicided to-day under peculiar circumstances. A few weeks ago her husband’s dead and mangled body was brought home and the hearse containing the corpse ran over and killed her only child while enroute to the cemetery. She was about to return to her father in Germany when news came that he was drowned. Then Mrs. Kreshner resorted to laudanum for relief from further fatalities. Marion Daily Star February 16, 1899, Marion, Ohio Apples Poisoned by Rats Poison placed in a grocery cellar at Bucyrus, O., to exterminate rats was dragged by them over a lot of apples. Loren Haman bought some of the fruit and his whole family is sick. Ethel, aged 5, died in great agony. Many other purchasers of the apples suffered—New York World Newark Advocate, 8-7-1905, Newark, Ohio Bride for One Day CLEVELAND July 7 (AP) One day after she became a bride, Mrs. Helen Hideg was widowed when her husband, John Hideg, 21 drank poison by mistake, seeking relief from a severe headache. The Daily Times-News 11-28-1933 p. 9 Burlington , North Carolina Syme And Elliott, of N.C. Highways, Killed Hunting Raleigh , Nov. 28 (UP) George Frederick Syme, national known highway engineer, wrote a poem last Saturday to “Old Crooked Toe,” depicted as a wild turkey whose call heralded the coming of death—as a ghostly bird of the woods that led on hunters who never came back. Syme went hunting yesterday. He did not come back alive. As he vaulted over a stone wall, hunting in Chatham county near Pittsboro, his gun discharged accidentally. He was killed by the shot that discharged into his head. (standard obit follows) Newark Daily Advocate 5-3-1889 p. 1 Newark , Ohio The Same Old, Old Story. Peoria, Ill., May 3 Yesterday Miss Jessie Benning, aged 18, while in the office of William Scott, a real estate agent to whom she was engaged to be married, pointed at herself a revolver supposed to be unloaded, and remarking, “I wonder if I can kill myself?” pulled the trigger. The weapon was discharged, killing her instantly. Many newspapers had round-ups of deaths. This typical selection, from the Massillon Independent 9-13-1906 p. 1, Massillon, Ohio, is headed CUT TO THE QUICK. T L Magruder, lawyer at Piqua , O., died suddenly of acute indigestion. Alfred Slutz’s 2-year-old child set fire to its clothing while playing with matches at Fredericksburg , O., and burned to death. Ethel Williamson, 25, of Muncie , Ind. , poured oil on her clothing, set fire to them and was fatally burned. Thought her lover was unfaithful. William Tanley, superintendent of Cross Creek mines near Bridgeport , O., dropped dead when told that his 5-year-old daughter died of diphtheria. New Smyrna Daily News 6-18-1915 p. 3, New Smyrna, Florida SHOOTS BROTHER AS GHOST Living in “Haunted House” in Georgia , Slayer Makes Tragic Mistake. Waycross , Ga. Mistaking his twenty-year-old brother Harley McQuaig, for a ghost, Lee McQuaig shot and almost instantly killed him, riddling him with a shotgun. The tragedy occurred at the home of their father, Anderson McQuaig, three miles northwest of Waycross . The younger McQuaig had been left at home, while his brother came to Waycross . Harley, who lives at Rustins, seven miles west, called at his father’s home unexpectedly. The younger brother evidently did not hear his hail for he shot Harley down before he reached the steps. The McQuaig place has for years had the reputation of being haunted and Lee has been heard to remark that if he ever saw a ghost he would surely fix him. The dead man leaves a wife and young child. No arrests have been made. The Elyria Democrat October 1, 1896 p 3, Elyria, Ohio Didn’t Want to Preach and Suicided Millersburg, Sept. 26 Aaron Miller, a prosperous Berlin Twp farmer, committed suicide Friday by hanging himself. He was a member of the Amish church and had been a year ago selected, according to an established custom, as one of the preachers of the church. This was against his wishes, and worrying over the matter unbalanced his mind and he took his life. Just as an aside, for strange deaths and lives, you might want to dip into a personal favorite: Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy, a collection of newspaper articles and photos from small, late-19th-early 20th century Wisconsin towns. Rich in religious mania, suicide by Paris Green, incendiaries, post-mortem photos, and lunatics of all descriptions. As Library Journal said: “The whole package seems to confirm that the good old days were actually awful.” Thanks Invisible, you are a legend!
Good November to you all!
B
Beachcombed 16 October 1, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
Dear Readers, Autumn flu continues (hence the ambulance on the beach) so this will be a very short introduction to the most important emails of the month.
Ricardo sends in an important notice from JSTOR opening the flood gates of knowledge to the plebs (that is you and me)… At least a fraction. Also if you want to have a heart attack over the currency borrowing of the western democracies here is a trillion dollars ‘in the real’. And the quote of the month courtesy of the great Invisible from The Lands of the Tamed Turk: or, The Balkan states of Today by Blair Jaekel, 1910 p. 291: ‘After having walked eleven hours without having traced the print of a human foot, to my great comfort and delight, I saw a man hanging upon a gibbet; my pleasure at the cheering prospect was inexpressible, for it convinced me that I was in a civilized country’.
There, it is over… Atishoo. Now onto the posts.
Eagles and Babies: Thanks to Andy the Mad Monk for this link of modern fears over eagles and babies in Scotland: ‘The Scottish Gamekeepers Association has raised concerns about whether sea eagles could differentiate between children and their natural prey. The comment follows an incident where a senior clergyman was injured by a young eagle as he tried to scare it away after it attacked one of his geese.The SGA has called for a public inquiry into the impact of the reintroduction of the birds on the east coast. RSPB Scotland has described the small child claim as ‘alarmist nonsense’…. Thanks Andy!
Fantasy Cities: Ricardo writes in about Urbicande a disconcerting project creating a new world on the internet. At least they can’t construct this with our taxes. The following comes from their English introduction: in all seriousness some intriguing stuff in there. ‘Issued of the collaboration between François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters, the “Les Cités obscures” series is now up to twelve albums published in French by Casterman, and translated into most other European languages. Although references to our world abound, especially in regard to architecture, those various books relate in fact to a parallel universe; one whose coherence is constantly growing with time.’ Beach particularly enjoyed ‘references to our world abound, especially in regard to architecture…’ Thanks, as always, to Ricardo.
Maine Penny: Thanks to BB for possible Norse origins for Two Northeastern United States Cat Populations Remarkable Stuff!
Over Vienna: Ricardo sends in this earlier bit of GA’s japing. Thanks Ricardo!
Tut’s Pectoral: Some interesting responses to this one. First up is HC who has noted a mistake on the question of Egyptian glass production. Beach would love to learn more about this and the supposed loss of glass-making skills in the Near East: ‘Interesting article, but there is a factual error in it I should point out. Contrary to the article, the ancient Egyptians did manufacture glass in industrial quantities although they used it primarily for jewelry, as an artificial gem. Egyptian glass was translucent, not transparent, and usually highly colored due to impurities. There’s lots of sand there, and its likely it was first produced accidentally in the manufacture of ceramic glazes and during the smelting of metals, as the article describes, and then became a craft of its own. The object in question may have also been acquired by trade. For example, In Tut’s tomb an iron dagger was found, and although the Egyptians did not have the technology to work ferrous metal, they were familiar with it and had access to it from meteorites and from trade with the Hittites who did have crude iron-smelting capability.’ KMH pushes the minority opinion with force: ‘There may be more to the mystery of this glass than appears on the surface. The case for atomic weapons also rests on the finds of highly radioactive skeletons in the Indus valley and certain passages of the Mahabharata: check out world mysteries and multiman. However, the idea that once a culture discovers atomic weapons it will likely destroy itself is highly romantic. Undoubtedly there have been significant meteor falls in human history, but this particular area in the Sahara seems to lack an impact crater and other things characteristic of a meteor impact‘. Next up is Rick, one of our friends at the Anomalist: ‘I thought you might be interested in another theory for the creation of the Libyan Glass in Tutankhamen’s rich bauble. Checkout what Electric Universe Theory proposes for this piece of glass: Libya’s Kebira Crater. Also see the information in another site that is related. There you’ll find these statements concerning the dating of the “craters”: “The press release from Boston University listed the Kebira formation as “millions of years old”, corresponding to the dates fixed for other areas of the Gilf Kebir Plateau. But, is that the case? Could intense electromagnetic bombardment influence the apparent age accepted by the scientific community? The most common dating method is by measuring the isotopic ratios of particular elements. For example, uranium 235 decays into lead 207 with a half-life of 700 million years. That means, when the rock was first formed, it contained a fixed quantity of uranium 235 and every 700 million years thereafter it will exhibit half the amount of uranium 235 and an increasing amount of lead 207. Because a mineral sample’s age depends on that sample existing today exactly as when it was initially formed, if it has been affected by radioactivity, or heat, or a blast or electricity, any measurement of its age will be inaccurate. Therefore, if a multi-billion joule electric discharge, sufficient to excavate a crater 19 miles in diameter were to strike the earth, the gamma and x-ray pulses would drastically alter the decay rate, the isotopic ratios and, perhaps, form new elements within the rocks. For these and other reasons presented in these Pictures of the Day, it is not unreasonable to ask if Kebira and its surrounding craters may be the remains of electrical events, perhaps occurring in a more recent past than geologists have previously imagined.’ Then Ricardo with a general reflection on things with fiery tails: Comets are not meteors (although they can become such) but your meteor post reminded me of a delightful line in one of Jules Verne novels: ‘[...] La comète est le « Deus ex machina’; toutes les fois qu’on est embarrassé en cosmographie, on appelle une comète à son secours. C’est l’astre le plus complaisant que je connaisse, et, au moindre signe d’un savant, il se dérange pour tout arranger!’ (Clawbonny, Le Désert de Glace) I think it translates the spirit of the time regarding this natural phenomenon.’ Thanks to HC (and Larry who sent HC’s comment in), KMH, Ricardo and Rick!
The Strangest Instrument: A bewitching tune on a glass harp from Nev. Thanks Nev!
Gaelic Zombies: Here’s Tacitus: ‘Visiting relatives in Bad Windsheim Germany I went to an archeological excavation near the town hall. A skeleton had been unearthed in which the legs had been cut off and put in the coffin correctly positioned….but turned backwards. The theory was that if this guy came back from the dead (wiedergang) and tried to chase you, well, he would just go in the wrong direction!’ Peter W also writes in ‘[the post] reminded me very much of an article by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (The Meaning of Mourning), in which he writes of burial rites which seem to have the main object of confusing ghost of the deceased so it won’t find the way back from the burial ground to its former home. This does at times involve merely covering the eyes of the body, and goes as far as removing the body from its former home not by doors or windows, but through a whole knocked into the wall for this purpose (which will be closed again afterwards, so the ghost cannot come back the same way). Baring-Gould’s article is available online as part of his “Curiosities of Olden Times” which, I dare say, you made me find. My copy of Baring-Gould’s article is in Clive Leatherdale’s “Origins of Dracula” which is an anthology of all sorts of sources on (you guessed it) vampirism. Great read, by the way; especially Dom Augustine de Calmet’s dialectic treatment of the question “Are Vampires Really Dead?” from around 1750 is nothing short of brilliant. Invisible also writes in: My first thought was of the Rhode Island ‘vampires’ who were dug up, had their hearts ripped out, burned, and the ashes fed to their consumptive relatives to no avail. It was believed that the dead were coming back to prey on the living and that this act would make them stop. Here’s an article on an 1870s exhumation: Iowa State Reporter, Waterloo , IA 9-18-1872 p. 7 BURNING OF HEARTS IN CONNECTICUT —ABSURD AND BRUTAL SUPERSTITION The village of Peacedale was thrown into quite a state of excitement on Thursday last, by the report that two graves had been dug up near Watson’s Corner, on the shore of the Saugatucket River . The circumstances are as follows: The family of Mr. William Rose, who reside at Saunderstown, near the South Ferry, are subject to the consumption, several members of the family having died of the disease, and one member of the family is now quite low with it. At the urgent request of the sick man the father, assisted by Charles Harrington, of North Kingston, repaired to the family burying-ground, which is located near Watson’s Corner, one mile north of Peacedale, and after building a fire first dug up the grave of his son, who had been buried twelve years, for the purpose of taking out his heart and liver, which were to be placed in the fire and consumed, in order to carry out the old superstition that the consumptive dead draw nourishment from the living. But as the body was entirely reduced to ashes, except a few bones, it was shortly covered up, and the body of a daughter who had been dead seven years was taken out of the grave beside her brother. This body was found to be nearly wasted away, except the vital parts, the liver and heart, which were in a perfect state of preservation. The coffin was nearly perfect, while the son’s coffin was nearly demolished. After the heart and liver had been taken out it was placed in the fire and consumed, the ashes only being put back in the grave. The fire was then put out and the two men departed to their respective homes. Only a few spectators were present to witness the horrible scene. It seems that this is not the first time that graves have been dug up where consumption was prevalent in the family, and the vital parts burned, in order to save the living. A few years ago the same was done in the village of Moorsfield , and also in town of North Kingstown , both of course without success. Peacedale Herald, Sept. 5 I also have a Boston Globe article from 1896 which, while very jocular in tone, makes it clear that some Rhode Islanders still believed in this custom. A book on the subject: Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires, Michael E. Bell. Another good book on burial customs to keep vampires from walking is Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality, by Paul S. Barber. Gruesome forensic details, but also unexpectedly amusing. The Irrepressible in pursuit of the Unspeakable. The Navajo Indians of the American Southwest had/have a great many taboos about death and dead bodies and rituals to keep the dead from coming back. The dying will be removed from their dwelling (if possible) so that the building is not contaminated by their death. If a person dies in a hogan/house, it will have to be burnt over the body and the site will be off-limits: Navajo mortuary customs article, 1890s. There seemed to be a whole spate of 18th/early 19th-century squires and parsons who caused trouble after their deaths. The Fate of the Dead by Theo Brown mentions beliefs to “bind” these ghosts to keep them from walking, usually in a pit or a pool, where they would be forced to dredge a body of water with a walnut shell, or make ropes of sand in a river. Sometimes the ghost was commanded or tricked into a bottle and then sealed up for 100 years. One ghost was threatened with being weighed down with a hundred-weight of bricks in addition to clerical invocations. Such ghosts were also allowed to return to their houses/haunts at the rate of “a cock-stride a year.” Troublesome ghosts were also laid by parsons, usually with formulae in Hebrew, Greek, or Arabic. (Arabic seems to have been reserved for the worst cases.) Multiple clergymen might be needed for resistant spirits. A phrase one often sees in these cases is “It takes an Oxford clerk to lay a bad ghost.” Brown wrote of a particularly vicious clergyman, John Arundel Radford (1799-1861). He was accused of murdering his curate, but was acquitted by a jury largely empanelled from his own parish. After the acquittal the Judge asked by the jury why, in the face of all the evidence against him, had they acquitted the Rector? The jury replied, “Us haven’t hanged a parson and us wasn’t going to now.” “Parson Jack” was eventually buried in consecrated soil, but on the north side of the church because Hell lay in the north. I have found an early 19th-century folktale from Coshocton County in Ohio about a woman named Mary Stuckey, whose disagreements with her neighbors unluckily coincided with a cholera epidemic. Accused as a witch, she was stoned to death. The deaths continued so her body was dug up, her head struck off and buried separately, and her corpse wrapped in chains. Of course you have the usual unchristened children buried in unconsecrated soil, the suicides/criminals buried at crossroads, bodies staked down in bogs, 18th-19th c. executed criminals anatomized, Eastern European bodies covered with seeds that the dead would have to count before rising or wrapped in nets where they would have to unknot all the knots. One of my favorite stories about dealing with a dead man who refused to lie down is from Dean Coombe in Devon. This is from The Ghost World, T.F.T. Dyer. Many spectral dogs, believed to be the souls of wicked persons, are said to haunt the sides of rivers and pools, and the story goes that there once lived in the hamlet of Dean Combe, Devon, a weaver of great fame and skill. After a prosperous life he died, but the next day he appeared sitting at the loom and working diligently as when he was alive. His sons applied to the parson, who, hearing the noise of the weaver’s shuttle above, cried, ‘Knowles! come down; this is no place for thee.’ ‘I will,’ said the weaver,’ as soon as I have worked out my quill’ (the quill is the shuttle-full of wool). ‘Nay,’ said the vicar, ‘ thou hast been long enough at thy work, come down at once!’ So when the spirit came down, the vicar took a handful of earth from the churchyard, and threw it in its face, and instantly it became a black hound. Then the vicar took a nutshell with a hole in it, and led the hound to the pool below the waterfall. ‘Take this shell,’ he said, ‘and when thou shall have dipped out the pool with it, thou mayest rest, not before.’ The weaver was obviously not a deviant individual in society in the sense of a witch or vampire, but to his family he was an aberration, an intrusion into the lives of the living, and they wanted him gone.’ A short email from Judith at Zenobia, but one that might explain the rock in the mouth of the Gaels. ‘Closer to home, here’s a recent report of a Venetian lady vamp(ire) and a neat explanation for how the story of bloodsucking undead might have started.‘ Chris Read has pointed out to Beach that there is a documentary on this now. Judith from Zenobia and Mad Monk wrote in with this fascinating link on a mouth nailed shut in Italy. Thanks Invisible and Judith (x2), Andy the Mad Monk, Chris Read, Peter and thanks Tacitus!!
In the Margins: Andy the Mad Monk writes in with this: I enjoyed your blog about margins and the last one, about warning people not to steal his book reminded me of a selection of similar warnings from medieval manuscripts. Anathema!: Medieval Scribes and the History of Book Curses by Marc Drogin seems to be the “bible” on this matter – make sure you buy or borrow yours, and not steal it because some of the curses seem to be quite potent! Dennis meanwhile writes in: My blog, in impenetrable Irish, is entitled Nótaí Imill, which means Marginalia. I wander here and there, but keep coming back to the title theme. I often think of marginalia in Medieval Irish MSS as tweets. My blog will remain dark to you, but here’s an article for you in English: ‘On the Colophons and Marginalia of Irish Scribes’ by Charles Plummer in the Proceedings of the British Academy. Lots of lovely examples quoted there. Thanks to Andy and Dennis!
Favourite Historical Cities: Liverpudlian: ‘I come from a city (Liverpool) that has been depopulated in my lifetime, and where grass grows through the tarmac in some lost boroughs. However, enough of my moaning. What about this city for general desertion: Second Life. The virtual community has collapsed in terms of numbers in the last two years. You pass through empty streets with failed businesses. I’d prefer ancient Rome too, but you can visit Second Life…’ Thanks Liverpudlian!
Gender Imbalance: As Beach stated this was a rather experimental post but he also had this strong sense that he was missing something important. Judith from Zenobia to the rescue with the ‘bleeding obvious’, that escaped Beachcombing, childbirth: ‘War is indeed a great killer of men but, until quite modern times, it was nicely balanced by the deaths of young women in childbirth. Even in 17th century Friesland, already quite prosperous and clean, one in seven mothers died soon before, during, or soon after childbirth. We have a midwife’s diary that is precisely detailed.You ask: Are there examples from traditional or tribal societies where girl children are left out on the dung heap far, far more often than male children: again in such a way to change population balance? Certainly in the ancient Graeco-Roman world, as I’m sure you know: “Everyone, even a poor man, raises a son; everyone, even a rich man, exposes a daughter” (Posidippus, Hermaphroditus, frag 11; but, as a comic poet, was he only kidding?). It must have changed the sex balance to some extent but I’ve never come across any figures.’ As to the dungheap Beach is reminded of a very sad papyrus letter, a soldier writing to his wife telling her to get ready to put the baby in her womb out if a daughter. KMH writes in: ‘For the prophetically minded, Isaiah 4.1 could be of interest ‘And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach’. Even though the normal birth ratio of male to female has been about 1.05 to 1, women today in industrial societies somewhat outnumber men in total since they tend to live longer. This is in contrast to less developed societies and past centuries generally where the opposite prevailed. Are we to believe that as the male succeeds in subduing the earth he will ultimately lose much of his function? Perhaps. In a perfect environment what would males be needed for, other than reproduction? So, as humanity continues to improve living conditions in all respects, and the challenges for males disappear, it is possible to conceive of a society where females perform the major functions and only a relatively small percentage of males exist to maintain population levels.’ Thanks as always KMH and Judith!
Sock Puppets and Wikipedia: Thanks to NI who has written in with a comparison to the South African youth politician Julius Malema. Beach has spent the last half hour reading about this ‘force of nature’ and he certainly falls into the ‘insufferable’ survivor category. Thanks again NI!
A Dragon in East Anglia: Some great emails on this, an example of posts being far more valuable than the post. First up is Invisible who gives us the general background: ‘I think you’re on the right track with the dragon-as-Holy-Land-souvenir idea. In the most famous of English dragon stories – the story of the Lambton Worm – the Hero has just returned from a Crusade before slaying the Worm (although in some versions of the legend, the Worm was active before he went away so he could not have brought it back with him.) There is also such a link—real or fancied–between actual votive crocodiles in churches, which are almost always said to have been brought from Egypt or the Holy Land by a Crusader. Peter Ackroyd (with no citation) says in Thames: The Biography that Richard the Lionheart brought a crocodile back from the Crusades and housed it in the Tower menagerie, but it escaped into the river. (A Bures town site also mentions this legend, adding that it was a present to Richard from Saladin.) There are votive crocs in Italy , Spain (a 13th c. Egyptian sultan sent one to Alfonso X), Tenerife , Switzerland (you can see a photo of the St. Gall croc at this taxidermy blog.) , Moravia , and France . The Holy Land votive crocodile of St Bertrand de Comminges, immortalized in “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book” by M.R. James, is one of nine crocodiles designated as ancient monuments in France . With stuffed ‘dragons’ hung in churches all over Europe , it is frustrating to report that I cannot find a single one in a British church. However there was ‘A Fine Large Alligator from Egypt’ listed in the inventory of the English Cabinet of Curiosities you reported on last year. And because, in a spirit of child-like wonder, I want this dragon legend to be true, I like to hope that one day the bones of a large crocodile will be unearthed in the former wetlands of Wormingford.’ Then comes Open Sesame who may have got a whiff of a crocodile legend from Wormingford (Wikipedia): ‘The modern form of the place name, recorded from 1254, gave rise to three stories of dragons, (worm meaning serpent or dragon). The first story says the village is the location where the patron saint of England, St George, famously killed his dragon. A mound in the village is said to cover the body of the legendary dragon. The second, apparently unsubstantiated, is that a crocodile escaped from Richard I of England’s menagerie in the Tower of London and caused much damage in Wormingford before being killed by Sir George Marney. There is a stained glass window in the local parish church (St Andrew’s) which depicts this event. The third, written in 1405 by John de Trokelowe, a monk, told of a dragon who threatened Richard Waldegrave’s territory near Sudbury but fled into the Mere when pursued’. Jacob writes in to point out that Wormingford was originally Withermund’s Ford and that the name predates the dragon, Widemondefort in Domesday, 1086: obviously though the legend remains interesting. Then, finally, Crackerjack reminds Beachcombing of the discovery of some crocodiles in nineteenth-century England (remembered too in Charles Fort?), quoting the Resologist: ‘But an invasion that is more difficult to explain was discussed in the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1866 and 1867: several crocodiles had been found alive in England, quoting the resologist. ‘The story was first related by George R. Wright, F.S.A., who saw one of the specimens stuffed and on display in a farm house tenanted by William Phillips. The animal was found in 1856 or 1857, on the same farm at Over-Norton, Oxfordshire. Mr. Phillips was walking in his farmyard when his attention was drawn to what looked like a dead lizard, about a foot in length, with a wound in its belly, lying in the gutter. ‘Upon, however, taking it up, he soon discovered that the animal was not a lizard, and he immediately asked his laborers, who were close by, unstacking some faggots for the use of the house, if they knew anything about it. The answer was that they had killed it as it ran out of a stack of wood, I think the day before; and on Mr. Phillips expressing his regret at their having done so without bringing it to him alive, they replied they could easily get him another, as at the place where the wood was cut a few miles form the farm, near to Chipping-Norton Common, and not far from the village of Salford, at the `minny’ pool – which I presume is a shortened form of Minnow – they saw them frequently in the water and on the land and often running up the trees.’’ Dennis writes in with this consideration linking back to some older posts: ‘After your alien/fairy post I felt inclined to reread Passport to Magonia. Vallee says fairy lore, ufonaut encounters, and religious apparitions are only the ever changing masks of a true unknown phenomenon that affects human consciousness. After reading so many of the cases he cites in this book it seems this dragon story you just posted would fit in with them just fine. The interesting thing here is the sound of ringing coming from the dragon after the arrows hit it. Vallee also goes to great pains to tell us the ufo phenom has a physical dimension so if the dragon was of this same phenom this too would fit. Not too long ago you did a post concerning the book Magic and Mystery in Tibet. The story of the tulpa in that book I have thought for a while could be a key to understanding this mystery. The mind (or in the case of UFO/Fairy/Dragon the group mind/totality of human consciousness) creates a tulpa (in the case of group mind ((rather unconsciously)) let’s say UFO) which in turn affects the mind generating the phenom. Did that make sense? Anyway just a hypothesis…very interesting stuff.’ Shaun, meanwhile, just has questions: I read your recent posting on dragons with interest. Two questions came to mind: Is there any historical record (besides this account) of the knight mentioned, Richard Waldegrave? Some deed or court document, or perhaps a mention in a chronicle, would do much to establish the incident as fact. Though it seems unlikely, I must ask: Were there ever any crocodiles, alligators or other large nasties known to make their homes in Britain? I’ve never heard such, but one wonders, perhaps some adventurous sea-going handbag fodder did wander up from the West African shore, or surf the Gulf Stream ? Unlikely is not impossible. Any such cases on record?’ As to Richard Waldegrave Beach does not know: though it strikes him that there is a sweet little article to be written on this and that RW would be the place to start. With crocodiles Beach knows of nothing save the Oxfordshire case mentioned above. He expects to be contradicted, but presumably the only way that one of these creatures would ever have made it to Britain would be through human agency? Perhaps other readers will do better than Beach. Thanks Crackerjack, Dennis, Sean Invisible, Open Sesame and Jacob!!!
Irish Hangwomen: SY writes in with this from W.R.Wilde (father of Oscar) who reported that ‘this history of Lady Betty we have received from persons who were perfectly acquainted with her during her long residence in Roscommon’. ‘The old gaol of Roscommon stood, and, although now converted to other purposes, still stands, in the market-place, in the centre of the town. It is an exceedingly high, dark, gloomy-looking building, with a castellated top, like one of the ancient fortresses that tower above the houses in many of the continental cities. It can be discerned at a great distance; and, taken in connexion with the extensive ruins of O’Conor’s Castle, in the suburbs, and the beautiful abbey upon the other side of the town, seems to partake of the character of the middle-age architecture. The fatal drop was, perhaps, the highest in Ireland. It consisted of a small doorway in the front of the third story, with a simple iron beam and pulley above, and the lapboard merely a horizontal door hinged to the wall beneath, and raised or let fall by means of a sliding-bolt, which shot from the wall when there was occasion to put the apparatus of death in requisition. Fearful as this elevated gallows appeared, and unique in its character, it was not more so than the finisher of the law who then generally officiated upon it. No decrepit wretch, no crime-hardened ruffian, no secret and mysterious personage, who was produced occasionally disguised and masked, plied his dreadful trade here. Who, think you, gentle reader who now, perhaps, recoils from these unpleasant but truthful minutiae officiated upon this gallows high? A female! A middle-aged, stout-made, dark-eyed, swarthy- complexioned, but by no means forbidding-looking-woman the celebrated Lady Betty the finisheress of the law the unflinching priestess of the executive for the Connaught circuit, and Roscommon in particular, for many years. Few children, born or reared in that county thirty, or even five-and-twenty, years ago, who were not occasionally frightened into ‘being good’, and going to sleep, and not crying when left alone in the dark, by huggath a’ Pooka, or, ‘here’s Lady Betty’. The only fragment of her history which we have been able to collect is, that she was a person of violent temper, though in manners rather above the common, and possessing some education. It was said that she was a native of the County Kerry, and that by her harsh usage she drove her only son from her at an early age. He enlisted; but, in course of years, returned with some money in his pocket, the result of his campaigning. He knocked at his father’s door, and asked a night’s lodging, determined to see for himself whether the brutal mother he had left had in any way repented, or was softened in her disposition before he would reveal himself. He was admitted, but not recognized. The mother, discovering that he possessed some money, murdered him during the night. The crime was discovered, and the wretched woman sentenced to be hanged, along with the usual dockful of sheep-stealers, whiteboys, shop-lifters, and cattle-houghers, who, to the amount of seven or eight at a time, were invariably ‘turned off’ within four-and-twenty hours after their sentences at each assizes. No executioner being at hand, time pressing, and the sheriff and his deputy being men of refinement, education, humanity, and sensibility, who could not be expected to fulfil the office which they had undertaken, and for which one of them, at least, was paid, this wretched woman, being the only person in the gaol who could be found to perform the office, consented; and under the name of Lady Betty, officiated, unmasked and undisguised, as hangwoman for a great number of years after; and she used also to flog publicly in the streets, as a part of her trade. Numerous are the tales related of her exploits, which we have now no desire to dwell upon. We may, however, mention one extraordinary trait of her character. She was in the habit of drawing, with a burnt stick, upon the walls of her apartment, portraits of all the persons she executed. Before daybreak, upon the Monday morning after Michael Welsh was shot, several labourers, surrounded by a guard of police, might be seen erecting two tall scaffolding poles in the market-square, opposite the gaol. When this was completed, the cart containing the body of the fisherman’s son, with the redoubted Lady Betty sitting in it, emerged from the back entrance of the gaol; and, having reached the gibbet, the body, with the assistance of some of the gaol officials, was hoisted by her ladyship to the top of the poles, which stood about six or eight feet apart: and from these the body was suspended by the hands, in that attitude which nations are accustomed to adore!! Upon the head was tied one of the decorated hats, on which was pasted a placard with the word ‘RIBBONMAN’ written upon it.’ Thanks SY!
Dubious Archaeology: Half a dozen readers have written in with this bad archaeology address: the question is are they convincers or blood drawers? Thanks to all!
Longevity in the Roman Empire: Diana writes in ‘This article reminded me of those Georgians in the USSR who claimed extreme longevity due to a diet of yogurt. It turned out that they had been dodging the draft 50 years earlier by using birth certificates of older brothers, cousins or even fathers or grandfathers. Some of them had lied about their age for so long they may have even believed it themselves. I wonder if some kind of similar mixup could happen in Roman censuses, they weren’t known for being really creative with names, there was a lot of repetition and younger children even got stuck with names that sound like the mother was just exhausted “OK, we’ll just call him “the Fifth one” (Quintus). The most recent examples I have seen of this in the U.S. is young men using brother/cousins/ etc birth certificates to compete in sports that they were ineligible for, both too young and too old! But I am sure it’s going on in matters of immigration and other reasons as well. Another area of mix-up that is sort of related is geneaology. I think the records are too foggy for most of the family trees to be terribly reliable. My husband happens to have an illness that is transmitted genetically so the topic comes up a lot and I am frequently astonished by the claims of people in the support group : “Well I traced my ancestors back to the thirteenth century” or “My family is 100% <insert nationality>” (“and I’m SURE that’s where we inherited this from” !!). Here in the U.S people often had last names altered intentionally (they wanted to sound more mainstream), accidentally (they weren’t very literate and somewhere in the paperwork someone misspelled the family name – phonetically for instance) and forcefully (sometimes immigration officials translated, truncated or just randomly changed names). Not to mention those just looking for a clean slate. So that is one layer of confusion. But there are so many others that are possible – adopted children, children passed off as the husband’s but fathered by someone else, children of a young unwed mother were often passed off as a younger sibling – all was not revealed in the old days. In my own family, there is a written account by my great-grandmother who found a little boy of about 4 years of age at the docks put on a boat by himself that no one had come to claim. She took him home and they raised him as “English Johnny” based on his accent. He did not know his last name, I think the story goes that when he grew up he reversed it and called himself Johnny English. At the turn of the 20th century you could pretty much call yourself anything, identification was not very strict. Then when you get back to Europe, there is so much forcible transport of people as slaves, religious migrations, merchants and shipping, as well as armies marching up and down, that I cannot see how anyone can convincingly say they are “pure” this or that. I’m sure no one is writing in the family bibles “father unknown, mother was raped by soldiers“. Thanks for this very thoughtful piece Diana!
Strange Historical Personal Names: First up HB: ‘Doctor,The correct spelling is: Astralabius. His real baptismal forename was Petrus, after his father. Astralabius : Literally translated, ‘the most rare’, from the Greek borrowed name – inspired by the nautical instrument astrolabe.’ Beach is sceptical of the Greek here and would like to get back to reader and HB after talking with Mrs B who is better in that language. It was, in any case, an utterly unique name in its day! Then Luis wades in with some lovely examples of strange Dutch names. Beach wondered if this was too good to be true but anything is possible in the Netherlands. ‘When Napoléon Bonaparte started a census in the Netherlands in order to apply and control taxes, many Dutch didn’t have any family names. He obliged them to do so and the Dutch thinking this was a temporary obligation decided to have a good laugh and picked silly names for fun: Suikerbuik (Sugar belly); Spring in ‘t Veld (Jump in the Field); Uiekruier (Onion-crier); Naaktgeboren (Born naked); Poepjes (Little sh*t); Schooier (Beggar, bum, tramp); Scheefnek (Crooked-neck); Piest ([he] urinates); Zeldenthuis (Hardly ever at home); Rotmensen (Rotten people); Also, De Keizer (The Emperor), ostensibly to mock Napoleon himself. The problem is that this registration continues today so many families got stuck with them forever. You can read more about this here at the moderate voice: And here at baheyeldin.’ And, PS, HB has dug up a fabulous poem about Astralabius or however we spell his name. When Beach set up this post he was determined not to put up stupid modern names, only the historical ones. But JE sent in such a gem that it would be difficult to resist.’This name is not historical but it is hysterical and by far my favorite.In 1967 Richard Brautigan wrote ‘Trout Fishing in America’ with moderate success.In the early 80′s National public Radio announced the birth in Washington state of, wait for it, Trout Fishing in America. To my recollection she was a blushing baby Girl.’ Of course, she was… Then HB brings another consideration to the table, the words are of Bill East: ‘Abelard’s affair with Heloise is one of the best-known stories in the history of the Middle Ages, and we need do no more than recall the chief events: he became her tutor, they became lovers, she became pregnant, he abducted her and carried her off to Brittany, where she gave birth to their son, whom she named Astralabius, Astralabe. The name has never been explained. It is the name of a scientific instrument; but one would not now name one’s child Electron Microscope or Hubble Telescope. My suggestion, for what it is worth, is that it is an anagram: ‘Astralabius, Puer Dei’ is an anagram of ‘Petrus Abaelardus II’. [Cf my article, 'Abelard's Anagram' in Notes and Queries, New Series Vol. 42, No 3, September 1995, p. 269]‘ Professor Constant Mews, author of The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard has written in to give some more background on Astrolabe, confirming much of what HB wrote above: ‘The name Astralabius, given by Heloise to her son (baptized as Peter, but given this cognomen or nickname), refers to a device, Arabic in origin, used for fixing the position of the sun, moon and stars and for casting horoscopes. It was only just then beginning to become known to Latin intellectuals like William of Conches, a contemporary of Abelard and Heloise. Because they frequently speak of each other in their love letters in terms of sun, moon and stars, Heloise may have thought of her son as the means through which each of them could contemplate the other, even when they were forced to live apart’. Invisible writes in with this: ‘While looking for something else at the historical society I was reminded of this remarkable man with the improbable name and title of Januarius MacGahan – Liberator of Bulgaria. Perry County is (and always was) a very rural, impoverished county of Ohio . It took some doing to get up and out of it in the 19th century. (Not sure why they divided their info into several pages.) Perhaps better here with a statue photo. Part of my husband’s family is from this area so I’ve visited and seen the grim, robotic statue to him in New Lexington – seems very out of place, as does a Bulgarian-American festival in a remote Irish Catholic village. Judging by the comments on various sites, some modern Bulgarians have never heard of him. I can’t tell if his title is an exaggeration or if his coverage of Turkish atrocities really did lead to Bulgaria’s independence. Perhaps a subject for a future post.’ Thanks Professor Constant Mews, JE, HB (x2) and Luis!
Cha Cha: Luis is a star: ‘I’ve just finished reading about Cha Cha of Dahomey. So you want their email address? I didn’t find it but I got much better, their facebook page‘ Wow!
Pietro Montini: Many of you wrote in about the last picture pointing out the obvious flaw in Beach’s description. Here is Mark L: ‘I had an idea looking at the Pietro Montini sculpture of a man with telescope in which you seem to see the subject sitting on a child’s head (despite there being no evidence of a head anywhere in sight.) This though initiates a number of rather ugly and bizarre pictures in one’s imagination as to where that head might be. This appears to me more likely to be a crude ‘lambda’-legged bench topped with a pillow a bit larger than the bench-top’s width. It lops over the bench-top edge in back and in front and may give the viewer the impression of a child’s shoulders and arms (then again, where are the hands?) If this is some insomniac proto-astronomer examining the heavens at night in a cold tower (and if so, why is the telescope aimed lower than the horizon?) he might well bring along a soft cushion for the bench on which he intends to seat himself, there to spend the long marches of the night.‘ Thanks Mark and apologies Pietro!
Flight in Seventeenth-Century Warsaw: SY writes: ‘You called into question the extraordinary work of Tito Livio Burattini: Hart, The Prehistory of Flight, 135 ‘Largely as a result of frequent written reports by Pierre des Noyes, secretary, to the Queen of Poland, mid-seventeenth-century scientists took a great deal of interest in the aeronautical work of an Itaian engineer, Tito Livio Burattini. Born on 8 March 1617 in Agordo, north of Venice, Burratini early became a travelling scholar. By 1637 he had reached Egypt, where he helped John Greaves with his famous work on the pyramids…. In 1641 Burattini returned to Europe, spending a little time in Germany and travelling on to Poland, where he lived until 1645. In 1647, after a visit to his native Italy and a second period in Egypt he settled permanently in Poland… Correspondence among Des Noyes, Roberval, Mersenne, Thévenot, and Huygens contains many references to a flying machine on which Burattini was working in 1647 and 1648. haing apparently induced [king] Wladyslaw, a patron of science, to take an interest in the project, Burattini asked for sufficient support to cover the cost of materials, but he offered to carry out the work for nothing, putting his invention at the disposal of his royal employers and hoping for a just reward should it prove to be a success.’ Burattini is sometimes said, for reasons that are unclear, to be ‘from Arabia’: the visit to Egypt, Polish problems with geography?’ Thanks SY and apologies to Burattini!
Meteor Hits Pub: Invisible immediately trumps the original post with this impressive list. Can anyone add to it? ‘Where to start? I have a couple dozen meteor fall/strike stories in my files, having been fascinated by the subject since being shown a rough stone in an Ohio cemetery, claimed to be the meteor that killed the man buried beneath. Here is an alarming site about the damage that can be caused by things falling from the sky, with some historic examples. The 1880s newspapers are particularly full of meteor reports as well as spoofs. Starting even earlier (from the 1870s onward) several men were claimed to have been killed by meteors: David Misenthaler (several variants on his last name like Melsenthaler and many different locations given), also Leonidas Grover and Roman Cruz, a Mexican sheep-herder, Julius Rabb/Robb and “M. Garcia” and family. The New York Times archives are especially rich in meteor tales, some told as spoofs and some more plausible. A gentleman in London is hit by a meteor. A Cleveland , Ohio man’s smoke disturbed by an aerolite (Perhaps Prof. Morley was included to add verisimilitude to a spoof, but he was the very real chemistry professor Edward Morley of the Michelson-Morley experiments on the speed of light and Adelbert College eventually became Case Western University.) And this amusing article about Meteoric Lotteries. Then there is this 1890s account of a ship being struck. When I read the name of the schooner, I thought this must be a hoax to drum up business for Barnum’s Museum. It may still be, but the schooner was reported to have been built in 1890 with Mr. Barnum as principal owner; the ship bore a figurehead of the great showman. Barnum died in 1891. And there really was a Captain Blake. I can’t find any record (in an admittedly quick search) that any meteors were ever on display at his museums, nor a follow-up article about the “bushel-sized” fragments. The New York Times 11-20-1894 TOPMAST WAS TRUCK BY A METEOR A Connecticut Skipper’s Story of an Incident in Squad Inlet. Bridgeport , Conn. , Nov. 19 Capt. Blake of the schooner P.T. Barnum, hailing from this port, has returned from a trip to Philadelphia with a story about the vessel being struck by a meteor. The schooner was plowing along under good sail and wind in Squad Inlet, when suddenly the decks of the vessel were illuminated as bright as day, and the crew were thrown to the deck, stunned. The topmast had been struck by a meteor and flames were thrown in every direction. Harry Neilson, one of the crew, was aloft taking in sail at the time. He says he heard the hissing sound preceding the contact with the ropes. The rigging where the meteor struck was instantly set afire and though Neilson made all haste to reach the deck, before he could do so he was badly burned about the legs. The sailor had a narrow escape. If he had been a little lower in the rigging he would have been hit. When the meteor struck, it broke and fell to the deck in pieces as large as bushel baskets. The crew were panic-stricken for a time, but order was secured, and the flames put out. The only damage done was to the rigging, and the vessel continued on her voyage. Capt. Blake says that in all his seafaring experience he never heard of such a thing before. This meteor-fire tragedy was reported in several papers: The Ogden Standard-Examiner 12-23-1928 Ogden , Utah Woman, Babe Killed by Meteor Blaze Greendale , N.Y. , Dec. 22 (UP) Residents of Greendale reported today that a meteor fell from the sky last night and set fire to a farm house, burning a woman and year-old baby to death and injuring six others painfully. Scientists say such a thing happens once in 500 years. J.R. Hicks, storekeeper, related today that he stood in front of his store and saw a ball of fire shooting from the sky. It landed on the roof of William Peator’s house, he said. Mrs. William Peator, 43, and Raymond Ford, Jr., her on-year-old nephew, were killed. Others in the house, Minnie and Doris Peator, 5-year-old twins; Ruth Peator, 16 and Mrs. Raymond Ford, 28, were painfully burned. Two tales of animals reported killed by “meteors.” Bakersfield Californian December 11, 1915 Three Dogs Killed By Meteor in Alaska Dawson, Y.T. Dec. 14 Three dogs which were drawing Andrew Johnson, a telegraph lineman, were killed by a giant metear [sic] which fell on the Yukon telegraph line, south of Atlin, according to word reaching here yesterday. Johnson, who was traveling 50 feet behind the animals, was stunned for several hours as a result of the impact. The meteorite made a hole almost 50 feet in diameter. The [sic] earth all about appeared subjected to intense heat. Sterling, IL Standard July 29, 1887 Was the Horse Killed by a Meteor? From the Galveston Daily News: Last night about 9:30 o’clock as Mr. Cain, who lives about four miles east of here, was going home in his wagon, and about 600 yards from his house, something like a meteor struck one of his horses. It struck the horse on the right side of the ribs, making a hole the size of a hen’s egg, and breaking some ribs loose from the spine, going forward up the spine till nearly the head. Mr. Cain says at the report he fell or dropped in the wagon bed and the horses ran home. The horse was taken out of the wagon before he died. Parties cried for more [illegible] thinking someone had tried to waylaid [sic] Cain and shot the horse, but upon close inspection of the ground no sign of any one being secreted could be found. The horse was dissected, and no lead or anything that would go to show the horse was shot could be found. Two parties say they saw the meteor, and say it made quite a display of colors, and they heard the explosion. A French scientist suggests meteors can be deadly in a number of ways: Florence Morning News, 12-15-1929 Florence , South Carolina Meteors Cause Plane Crashes is French Idea Paris, Dec. 14 (AP) Meteors may be to blame for mysterious airplane accidents, strange explosions, forest fires and even bad weather, a noted French authority, General Frederic Chapel, retired, has affirmed in a special interview with The Associated Press. He is the author of several works on meteors and astronomy and evolved his theory from investigation of many queer occurrences. Red-hot meteors, or “falling stars,” he thinks probably set up electrical disturbances as they sizzle through space. To illustrate their power he has calculated that a little two-ounce meteor, the size of a hazel nut, would travel thirty miles a second when approaching earth and have the force of a 500-ton train. Meteors, says the general, are so numerous that they often form “bombardments.” Most of them go into space or hit other planets but on earth enough arrive to cause accidents such as that at Budapest recently when a Hungarian girl was killed by a meteor on her way to a wedding. [have not tracked down this reference.] In such fashion, the general reasons, airplanes may have been struck down or ships destroyed. He suggests also that meteors might explain many other phenomena such as the recent explosion at Toul of an army magazine when fifty tons of powder blew up without any apparent cause. [nor this.] Note the late date for this lethal shower: Lowell [MA] Sun 8-16-1951 p. 19 12 Killed by Meteor “Shower” Tehran, Iran, Aug .16 (UP) A “downpour” of meteorites killed 12 persons, injury 19 and flattened 62 buildings near the south Iranian city of Shiraz last Monday, Terhan [sic] newspapers reported today. About 300 cows, sheep and donkeys also were reported to have been killed in the meteoric shower. And lastly, (meteors no respecter of persons) La Nona Ora by Cattelan‘ Thanks Invisible!
Fairies and Aliens: Straight up DenM writes in: ‘ Two words: Jacques Vallee. Two books: Dimensions and Wonders in the Sky. Check them out you would like them.’ Then building on this Ruththeunstopablycurious has the following to say: ‘Anyway, Jacques Vallee’s Passport to Magonia covers the serious overlap of mythology, particularly fairies, and UFO’s. Dr Vallee is a serious scientist, meticulous in his epistemology, and offers hypotheses guaranteed to offend all partisans of various aspects of this huge issue. The book itself is well written — I have read it myself several times. It certainly puts a new spin on fairy stories… The Wiki article on JV: A partial summary of JV’s assessment of the issue, from the Wiki article: Vallée proposes that there is a genuine UFO phenomenon, partly associated with a form of non-human consciousness that manipulates space and time. The phenomenon has been active throughout human history, and seems to masquerade in various forms to different cultures. In his opinion, the intelligence behind the phenomenon attempts social manipulation by using deception on the humans with whom they interact.Vallée also proposes that a secondary aspect of the UFO phenomenon involves human manipulation by humans. Witnesses of UFO phenomena undergo a manipulative and staged spectacle, meant to alter their belief system, and eventually, influence human society by suggesting alien intervention from outer space. The ultimate motivation for this deception is probably a projected major change of human society, the breaking down of old belief systems and the implementation of new ones. Vallée states that the evidence, if carefully analysed, suggests an underlying plan for the deception of mankind by means of unknown, highly advanced methods. Vallee states that it is highly unlikely that governments actually conceal alien evidence, as the popular myth suggests. Rather, it is much more likely that that is exactly what the manipulators want us to believe. Vallée feels the entire subject of UFOs is mystified by charlatans and science fiction. He advocates a stronger and more serious involvement of science in the UFO research and debate. Only this can reveal the true nature of the UFO phenomenon.’ If you Google “passport to magonia pdf “, there are a number of downloads available — I don’t know if they are violating copyright or not. The book itself is hard to get at a reasonable price — but you might find it in a library or used book store. Here’s the Amazon UK list: I do believe that Karl G Jung thought that the UFO phenomenon was connected to the fairy lore – but I can’t find the reference right now.’ Irritatingly Beachcombing doesn’t have the Rojcewicz article at this moment but he seems to remember Vallée being quoted. Invisible wants to make a Marian point: I think an argument could be made that, at least in Catholic Europe, the fairies were ‘superseded’ by Marian apparitions. Starting from the 1830s–perhaps the last gasp of the fairy faith?–you have the visions of Catherine Laboure (1830), LaSalette (1846), Lourdes (1858), Robinsonville, Wisconsin [Belgian immigrant girl] (1859), Pontmain (1871), Fatima (1917) (with another set of revelations to Lucia in 1925), Beauraing (1932-3), Banneux (1930s). Right on the border of the UFO flap of the 1960s are the unapproved apparitions of Garabandal in 1960-61. And this is just the list of the major Marian apparitions–there are many other minor and unapproved visions. Nearly all of them have child visionaries, strange lights, orbs, and lightning flashes, shining figures, buzzing sounds, lost time, apparitions, “channeling” of messages–both heavenly and hellish, and apparent altered states of consciousness.I think that most of the visionaries would agree that their visions had a great influence–for good or ill–in their lives. I admit I have not heard of any overt sexual content to any of these Marian apparitions, but there has been some in some of the unapproved visions–mystic marriages and some rather suspicious ecstasies in union with Christ’s Passion figure heavily. This may be why they are UNapproved apparitions. Although I deplore the clumsy translation, one of the most interesting discussions of the UFO/fairy/Marian apparition connection is to be found in The Fatima Trilogy: 1. Heavenly Lights: The Apparitions of Fatima and the UFO Phenomenon by Joaquim Fernandes, Fina D’Armada 2. Celestial Secrets: The Hidden History of the Fatima Incident, Joaquim Fernandes, Fina D’Armada, 3. Fatima Revisited: The Apparition Phenomenon in Ufology, Psychology,and Science, Fernando Fernandes, Joaquim Fernandes, Raul Berenguel. The authors delve into (among many other subjects), the fairy lore of the area, the geological characteristics of the land that might make it a ‘window’ area for strange phenomena, and the distortion/shaping of an event which could be interpreted as an alien visitation into an orthodox Marian apparition. This is an excellent exposition of the fairy/alien connection.‘ But, what about Marian sightings from the fifteenth and sixteenth century? What did Protestant areas of Europe do while they were waiting for ET? Are Protestants less inclined to see UFOs? Surely not. Are the areas where fairies survive to c. 1900 less inclined to see the Madonna? Perhaps, thinking about it. Invisible strikes back: ‘I’m so (thankfully) out of touch with the UFO community, I couldn’t even begin to answer the question of whether Protestants see/saw fewer UFOs. I do know that Evangelicals tend to view UFOs as demonic. There is a whole genre of Christian books exposing the Satanic agenda/character of UFOs. To me this echoes the Puritan disapproval of the fairies because of a fancied link with the Devil. You wrote, ‘What about the Marian apparitions of 16th 17th centuries?’ These tended to be to adults, rather than children, and were certainly not as publicized as the 19th century apparitions. Much more local in character, not the apocalyptic content, and more emphasis on devotions like the Rosary or the scapulars, healing miracles, or pilgrimages. Personal devotions, personal visions and messages to saints and people under vows rather than seculars. The scope is intimate: personal salvation/relationship with deity or personal healing are the goals, not the conversion of Russia or rescuing Mankind from Destruction (echoes of the Space Brothers). If you try really hard, you can tease “alien” elements out of some medieval and Renaissance visions (Anglo-Saxon saints are forever signaling their deaths with luminous doves and balls of light.) But it’s not the main emphasis as it becomes in the 19th c. Also you asked What did Protestant areas of Europe do while they were waiting for ET? Deplored Papist idolatry of the Virgin while emphasizing hard work and man’s innate depravity? Dressed holy wells? In Wales they had religious revivals with luminous phenomena. Scandinavia never left off its belief in elves/fairies and, other than St. Bridget of Sweden, I can’t think of a single Marian apparition in the north countries (which of course you wouldn’t get after the Reformation anyway.) The Vallee book is very useful on the folklore of lights/people in the sky. Hilary Evans’ book, Visions, Apparitions, Aliens Visitors: A Comparative Study of the Entity Enigma, is another excellent study.’ Tim, meanwhile, writes in with this link to an interesting fairy/alien short story. Well worth a read. Thanks Invisible x2, Tim Ruth and DenM!!
Beachcombing 15 September 1, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
1 September
Dear Friends, this month has been an insane period as Beachcombing wrote, sleeping four hours a night, various academic tomes and articles. Apologies for late and short replying to emails then. However, it’s all ending. Tomorrow he has to go to speak to 200 students: the terror is mounting. Then just eight days before full term rigour sets in and all ‘proper’ writing ceases. Special thanks, btw, to the four bizarrists who sent missing articles from the British library and further afield.
The most popular post this month, on the basis of emails received, was on human sacrifice and then dried cats. Beach’s personal favourite was taxis in the mid Atlantic and death diaries. The single most embarrassing mistake of the month was putting up a photo of the red fort in Delhi (with Indian flag!!) for a post on Pakistan… AKA how to die on the sub-continent.
As he was so busy Beach didn’t do much exploring online. But enjoy this death site: if you are in the mood (thanks to Invisible). CAL sent in ancientlives where even you and you and you can become a papyrologist. Then luxuriate too in this new Robert Hawker forum, which promises great things: a place for those who love the eccentric’s eccentric. The news links continue, meanwhile, lower right and pasted below for ease of use…
- A) Oak Island Solved
- B) Global Warming Warns ET!
- C) Round Table in Scotland
- D) Beach once voted for this man…
- E) British Mummies – no honestly!
- F) Strange Finds from Ghadaffi’s Compound
- G) Phallic Tree Obscured
- H) Hair Styles of the Egyptian Dead
- I) What the hell is this?
- J) Woops Apocalypse
- K) One Woman’s Poison…
- L) Did Butch C. Survive?
- M) British Reindeer
- N) Hitler’s American Oaks
- O) Infanticide in Roman Britain?
- P) Marco Polo Never Got to China
- Q) Hitler and Oestrogen
- R) New Serpent Mound? (1)
- S) New Serpent Mound? (2)
- T) Feral Peter
- U) Last of the Druids!
- V) Unusual Therapies
- W) Adolf’s Mum and Dad
- X) Explaining Delphi
- Y) Japanese Family Lost in the Soviet Union
- Z) Sheep and Tree Rings
And now the comments.
RIP Corliss: Beach’s comments, in part, provoked the FT’s Bob Rickard to some of his own reflections, which are frankly far more worthwhile. Thanks Bob!
American Fairies: First up, Henry B: ‘I’d say Salem, NH if only because of its large Irish population and proximity to the Irish of Lawrence, MA just across the border. The other towns in NH were Yankee towns, not Irish.’ It sounds credible. Then Invisible whose been doing her sums. ‘Well, problem #1 for the New Hampshire fairy story is that the Boston Gazette did not run into the 19th century. Here’s Wikipedia on the subject: The Boston Gazette (1719–1798) was a newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts, in the British North American colonies. It began publication December 21, 1719 and appeared weekly. I can’t find that it continued on under a similar or different name although it merged at one point with the New England Weekly Journal. There is a Boston Post-Gazette, but it was founded in 1901 as an Italian-language newspaper for immigrants. But a far bigger problem is that I believe this is an excerpt from an essay by John Greenleaf Whittier, “Charms and Fairy Faith“. I don’t know the exact date of the essay, but Whittier lived from 1807 to 1892. Perfectly plausible that it would have been printed in a newspaper of the 1860s. It would be nice if I’m wrong and certainly Whittier may have heard a real story like this locally, wherever “S____” is–he did die in New Hampshire, but in Hampton Falls, sorry.’ Then Kate writes in ‘Am feverishly researching New Hampshire fairies…. I have heard a similar story to Whittier’s before, but I believe it was regarding the Black Tavern in Dudley, Ma. However, there is a not uncommon trope here in the States of fairies being imported and not thriving. I would like it to be Salem, NH, just down the road from where I live, but I suspect not. Also, the Irish were here in New England earlier than most people think, just not the great numbers associated with the post Famine years. Hawthorne strolled down to see the Irish workers at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in the 1830s or thereabouts. The Irish, like the French Canadians, worked seasonally on the rivers and in the woods drifting down from Canada.’ Thanks Henry and Invisible and Kate!!
Half priest, half fish: Angela Williams writes in from the R.S.Hawker website that is well worth a gander: ‘I can’t offer any definite proof for the mermaid story, but it was certainly included in ‘The Life and Letters of R. S. Hawker’, edited by Hawker’s fairly strait-laced son-in-law, C. E. Byles, who claims to have had it confirmed by ‘one of the elders of the parish’. The Open Library have a good selection of works by/about Hawker and the information can be found on pages 6 -7 of ‘Life and Letters’. There are a couple of other references in the same biography which suggest that Hawker had a thing for mermaids, though it’s always hard to tell when he was serious as opposed to just having fun winding up his visitors. If you haven’t come across these already they can be found on pages 69 and 167.’ Thanks for this Angela!
Over Vienna: First up is, TF, ‘At the end of your post ‘D’Annunzio Over Vienna’ you ask: ‘Was this the first leaflet drop over hostile territory in history?’ The Guiness Book of World records gives: ‘The first time a ship was used for airborne operations was in 1806, when the British Navy’s Lord Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, launched kites from the 32-gun frigate HMS Pallas to distribute propaganda leaflets over French territory.’ There is also an interesting, discussion by a retired Sergeant Major of leaflet distribution through history, though he doesn’t consistently give his sources: Air distribution begins about midway down at ‘Leaflet Balloon Dissemination’. Then Ricardo R managed to predate to the thirteenth century. This is almost too good to be true but Ricardo’s sources always pan out. ‘It’s funny you ask about leaflet dropping… because the Chinese were doing them with kites way before airplanes… China 1232 ~ According to Science and Civilization in China, J. Needham wrote that in 1232, the Chinese used kites for psychological warfare. Kites were used to drop leaflets into a compound that held prisoners. The leaflets incited a riot that led to the prisoners escape. Wikipedia gives another interesting/amusing example. ‘Historical background and use: Airborne leaflets have been used for military propaganda purposes at least since the 19th century. One early example is from the Franco-Prussian War when in October 1870 during the Siege of Paris a French balloon coming from the city dropped government proclamations over Prussian troops that stated the following (in German): ‘Paris defies the enemy. The whole of France rallies. Death to the invaders. Foolish people, shall we always throttle one another for the pleasure and pride of Kings? Glory and conquest are crimes; defeat brings hate and desire for vengeance. Only one war is just and holy; that of independence.’[1] Leaflet propaganda has been delivered by airplanes since the Italo-Turkish War 1911-12.[2] Even though leaflet propaganda has been an effective ‘weapon’, its use has been on a decline. This decline is a result of the advance of satellite, television, and radio technology. Six billion leaflets were dropped in Western Europe alone during World War II. One billion were used during the Korean War while only thirty one million have been used in the war against Iraq. Other conflicts where leaflet propaganda has been used are Vietnam, Afghanistan (both during the Soviet and more recent NATO invasions), and the Gulf War. Leaflets encouraging Iraqi troops not to fight were dropped during the first Gulf War which contributed to eighty thousand Iraqi troops surrendering in 1991.’ Thanks, yet again, TF and Ricardo!
Against All Odds: Author Mike Dash writes in with another Italian example or rather an example from Italy. ‘With regard to victories against impossible odds the example that immediately leapt to mind was the achievement of Belisarius in reconquering Italy from the Goths in 544-49. This fails to meet your conditions insofar as we have no accurate figures for the Goth forces, but we are told that Justinian, insanely jealous of his general as always, allocated Belisarius an astonishingly meagre force of 4,000 men and that with these (and presumably whatever remained of any local levies) he was able to defeat Totila and reassert Byzantine control over the entire Italian peninsula. Personally I find it hard to believe that the Goth army in this instance could have numbered less than 20,000, since it achieved the same thing on the overrunning side of things, but I cannot prove it. This was very much a case of the superiority of generalship, as Totila was immediately able to reconquer Italy when Belisarius was recalled in 549. B. was without question one of the most able generals of all time, and it is sobering to think what he might have achieved had he been more generously supported by his emperor. With the assistance of Narses, the great 90-year-old eunuch (and there’s another topic for you – I’d guess this may make N. the most elderly field commander known to history), he resecured an empire that was in some danger of disintegration; and Narses learned his battlecraft from Belisarius. Result: another 900 years of Byzantine history.’ Thanks Mike!
Fairlop Oak: KMH has this vague memory of tree traditions – a dangerous tradition to say the least – ‘Have you ever heard of the notion of planting a tree for a child and so long as the tree lives the child will live also? If the child actually dies first then the tree will die soon thereafter. I believe this was prevalent in Western Europe especially with oak trees but my foggy brain will disclose no further details, and apparently neither will Google.’ Any ideas? Invisible writes in answer to KMH: ‘On the tradition of planting a tree for a child. I am familiar with that tradition and have known people who have done it. I have no idea where it comes from. Most of the people I might have heard it from are Northern European/British Isles stock. I have seen references (from now-defunct pages) that it is a Jewish custom. There is also a suggestion that the placenta is planted with the tree. Apparently placenta/tree planting can also be a Polynesian and African birth ritual. Here is another story about a tree/death link. Zoar was a community of German Separatists. They were noted for the symbolic garden in the center of their settlement and for their gardening prowess. Here is a picture and short explanation of the garden. And a more detailed explanation ‘Morhart’s great-grandmother Roth lived in the house with them. She loved the garden and, especially, a beautiful evergreen tree. A neighbor remarked to Morhart’s grandmother, ‘Ani [great-grandmother] loves that tree so much that I am afraid to think what will happen to that tree when she cannot see it anymore.’ Grandmother Dischinger thought this was a strange thing to say. But Ani died and several weeks later, the neighbors noticed that some of the beautiful evergreen’s branches were turning yellow. They were lopped off, but one after another the branches turned yellow and within a few months the tree was dead. The neighbor next door told Grandmother Dischinger, ‘I was afraid of that. She took it with her. That has been done before’.’ Source: The Zoar Story, Hilda Morhart Dischinger p. 43-4 Vaguely similar sentiments can be found in ‘The Last Leaf’ by O. Henry: and a heart-warming story about planting trees when children are born.’ Thanks KMH and thanks Invisible!
Columbus and His Origins: Kate writes in to add to Columbus’s Jewish dimension: ‘My late stepfather was a Protestant (Congregational) clergyman, as well a college professor. An erudite man of faith, he encountered several fellow clergy who firmly believed that not only was Columbus a Jew, but that the voyages to the New World were, in part, to find a new homeland for the Jews after the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain. He didn’t believe this theory himself, but politely refrained from expressing his opinion. I suspect some lesser instructor at some divinity school espoused the theory, students picked up on it and it spread. Protestantism has always had a love/hate relationship with the Jews and the need to connect the New World Jerusalem with the Old pops up in little ways.…’ CF, meanwhile, is feeling flippant, ‘Sioux legend has it that Columbus (“Critifer” in Sioux) was born in 1451 in the pre-Columbian jade-trading outpost now known as Columbus, Ohio, USA. Because there is no such thing as coincidence‘. Edward Goldberg, author of the blog Italy’s Secret Places (look out for E42) and author of the bizarre bibliography featured Jews and Magic in Medici Florence writes in: ‘Ah, yessss… There is nothing I like better than to curl up with a nice identity controversy! In regard to which: Have you been following the very long running debate over ‘Who is buried in Columbus’ tomb[s]’? Meanwhile, ‘experts’ are still floating the idea of using DNA testing to establish CC’s place of origin (although there is apparently a massive overlap between the Ligurian and Catalan gene pools). The one point on which more or less everyone seems to agree is that the identification of the Sebastiano del Piombo ‘Columbus Portrait’ in the Metropolitan Museum is entirely fanciful.’ Thanks Kate, EG and thanks KF!!
Skraelings: Invisible writes in ‘I wonder if the ‘pygmies’ were the Icelandic huldufólk/hidden people/elves, who are said to range from a few inches high to more-or-less human size. (The master of the Elf School/Álfaskólinn in Reykjavik says there are 13 types.) Even today they are very difficult to find–some people say they are just adept at living unobserved; others say they come from another dimension. Still others, of course, say they don’t exist at all. Just the sort of creatures to appear and disappear in remote areas with ‘superstitious’ farmers and shepherds as witnesses. And, since there are apparently good/Christian elves and bad/pagan elves, clerics seeking to stamp out superstition might well classify them as demons. If they weren’t so purely mythical, of course…’ Thanks Inv!
The Family that Commits Suicide Together: Sword & Beast writes in with this sad story and an annihilating picture: ‘Your post on the nazi suicides reminded me a famous episode in Brazil, also related to that regime. Stefan Sweig was a great Jewish novelist, who fled Austria in 1934, as Hitler´s regime gained ground in Germany and central Europe. He lived in England, the US and ended up in Brazil. In 1942, as the result of WWII was unclear, he lost hope in mankind and, together with his wife, took his life with poison: ‘I think it better to conclude in good time and in erect bearing a life in which intellectual labour meant the purest joy and personal freedom the highest good on Earth’. There is a picture of the couple lying in bed, hugging in sad tenderness‘. KMH, meanwhile, remembers Japan’s attitude to suicide: ‘It was Japan that possessed an ingrained propensity to suicide (called hara-kiri, as I recall) as an honourable solution to hopeless situations. This is why so few Japanese troops surrendered compared to troops of other countries in WWII, and why the Kamikaze tactic was so readily implemented. The Japanese also instilled totally unrealistic fears in the civilian populations under their control concerning what would happen if the Americans were victorious. Some civilians believed them and threw themselves over a cliff to certain death rather than live under the Americans. But, as you imply, where we find suicide, we can also find a whole syndrome of false ideas and beliefs.’ ‘I read with interest your post of August 22, as well as the later readers’ comments. We all shake our heads in amazement at how Nazism’s adherents could have such twisted perceptions and values as to destroy their entire families rather than live in a world with National Socialism crushed underfoot. I think I know where KMH is coming from with the statement, ‘where we find suicide, we can also find a whole syndrome of false ideas and beliefs.’ I agree that we can find those false ideas and beliefs, but not that we necessarily must. I submit the thousands of 1945 suicides of German women, and to a somewhat lesser degree of German soldiers, who fell or were on the verge of falling into the hands of the victorious Red Army. In many cases it is safe to say the suicides were almost exclusively to avoid rape and/or torture. As such the vast majority had much more to do with the Soviet Union’s official policy of brutal vengeance against any and all Germans than with those Germans’ political beliefs. We recoil from the suicides of Mayor Lisso and his wife and daughter, and I think the main reason is that their suicides were in essence wasteful, petty and meaningless. Essentially they killed themselves because they were sore losers. As the creme de la creme of Nazi Germany, Burgomeisters like Herr Lisso knew their lives of privilege and power were over, at least for many uncomfortable years. Rather than face opprobrium, loss of social status and economic hardship, they took their own lives. While I gernally abhor the idea of suicide, I can’t say I find it always impermissible. But it is simply small and unworthy to kill oneself to avoid a reduced standard of living, even a moral reckoning. It’s a different matter with the defenseless civilians who came under the heel of the Red Army, particularly those who were residents of the first German cities to be conquered in the Reich’s eastern reaches. Those civilians who lived near Germany’s eastern borders were generally treated much more harshly than those who lived, say, just east of the River Elbe. Although some might argue that ‘less harshly’ is a relative concept, in that the Russians raped so many women between 12 and 60 – but at least in the western part of the Soviet’s Yalta loot the rape victims were generally allowed to live afterwards. Many would argue that was because the tovariches were simply exhausted, not because they were merciful. (Anthony Beevors’s magisterial The Fall of Berlin, Max Hastings’ Armageddon and Cornelius Ryan’s The Last Battle establish beyond any rational doubt that virtually untrammeled rape and murder of German civilians, including children, was a matter of de facto Soviet policy. Viz., the works of official Soviet propagandist Ilya Ehrenberg.)’ Thanks KMH, JCE and S&B!
German Phrenologists: KMH has some thoughts on the date of this story: ‘This tale sounds unlikely if dated to Louis XIV. But what if the author made a simple transpositional error and really meant Louis XVI? Then we have a horror story that could be classed as one of those rank deceptions and/or atrocities so characteristic of pre-revolutionary (and post-revolutionary) periods. (think of Marquis de Sade, Cagliostro, the Count Saint-Germain, and Casanova). Louis XVI died in January, 1791. Phrenology is said to formally originate with Franz Joseph Gall in 1796, although his interest in the subject began much earlier according to the quote below. Gall died in 1828. ‘Although twice married, he had no descendants. After his death, his head was removed and was added to his collection of over three hundred human skulls, skull casts, and brain casts.’ How long did it take to collect his assortment of skulls?’ Then Luis has come back from his holidays (well spent we hope) to tear into the Mémoires: About The Phrenology story it’s uneasy to track. I found the book at plenty of sites but when looking inside for ‘Phrénologie’ I found that it was mentioned but in a quite mystic sentence ‘isn’t the phrenology about to rehabilitate chiromancy?’. So I enlarged the search path and found some blogs that credited the Mémoires tirés des archives de la police indeed as an inspiration for Dumas when he wrote Monte-cristo and being regarded as the only reliable source for French police archives after a large part of them where lost in fire during the commune civil war. The original edition is evaluated at around 700-800 Euros by the way and it’ll be re-released in France next October. So case closed it seemed. Not at all, it’s a fake, well not totally faked but the stories told in this book were not verified before printing nor endorsed as for many of the other books of the prolific writer Mr Lamothe-Langon. He’s the real author, he used many pseudonyms, amongst them was Jacques Peuchet. He is listed in the volume 5 of “Les supercheries littéraires dévoilées” you can have a look here at the list of his forged Mémoires. So Invisible and you were right being sceptic about this, still the phrenology is mentioned in the book but Lamothe-Langon lived during the Napoleon Bonaparte era so it matches with the creation of this concept by (so says wikipedia) Franz Joseph Gall in 1796.’ Thanks as always, Luis and KMH!
Serpent Mounds: Invisible writes in to note that a new serpent mound may have been found: we can but hope… The genius in question is Ken Tankersley. Thanks Invisible!
Eilmer Flies at Glastonbury: Roy writes in ‘I really enjoyed learning more about Eilmer. It would be interesting to discern his motives. There is one other record of flight in the Bible: the ascension of Elijah. Fire, whirlwind, a chariot and a horse. Something tells me Eilmer wasn’t trying to imitate this event. It seems like mankind has been interested in flying for quite some time, but this definitely seems a bit out of character for a monk! One possibility is that Eilmer may have been inspired by the account of Archytus, who had built a dove-like machine that was self-propelled and could fly on its own. Even then, Gellius seemed at least a bit skeptical.’ Sword And Beast writes in ‘I’ve only seen your post on Eilmer today, and I remembered two similar cases, an old one and a rather stupid new one: Bartolomeu de Gusmão was a portuguese jesuit and is said to have patented, in 1709, ‘an instrument to walk on air’, which is today the hot air balloon. There is a link in , with a rather interesting transcript from a 1786 Times article. But the first documented balloon flight only took place eighty years later, in France. ‘The Flying Priest’ was later mentioned in José Saramago´s Baltasar and Blimunda novel. A contemporary version of air monks took place in 2008: a priest decided to take off in a chair attached to 1000 helium balloons, in order to raise money for a social cause. Even though he had a GPS device, he called from the air through his cellphone, asking how to use it. Some hours later, his battery went dead. Needless to say, he went missing for two months, and his body was later found in the sea. It seems that Eilmer has quite a following… ‘ Thanks Roy and thanks Sword And Beast!
Flight in Warsaw: Invisible writes ‘I KNEW that recently I had read something similar to your Warsaw and gliding monk stories – the suit of feathered tissue stuck in my mind. This is where I read it, but there may be other accounts.’ Thanks Invisible!
Rescue in Shangrila: Invisible writes in with a review and memory. Thanks Invisible!
Human Sacrifice: First up is PCB who writes ‘Voltaire tells us that the Portuguese burned heretics to stave off another earthquake like the one in 1755 – he may have been exaggerating, but the mental link between capital punishment and appeasement of the gods is a very durable one. Certainly, here in Massachusetts, it was felt that softness on the witchcraft issue would cause God to withdraw his favor from the colony in a very real and palpable way. Our commonwealth no longer practices such autos-da-fé, but in Texas and other states, judicial murder has become nearly a state religion – you cannot get elected unless you vow to kill more criminals than your predecessor.’ Then CCBS filling in details from Iceland: ‘The last human sacrifice in Iceland occurred when Christianity was adopted in 1000 AD (or 999, the pedants say). I know this is a century before your asking date but: As the Lawspeaker Thorgeir lay under his cloak seeking to determine whether or not Christianity would be Iceland’s religion, various pagans held a great sacrifice. ‘The heathens then held a well-attended meeting and made a decision to sacrifice two people from each Quarter, and called on the heathen gods not to let Christianity spread throughout the country.’ The pro-Christian party’s riposte: ‘…they said that they also wished to hold a sacrifice of as many people as the heathens. They said this: ‘Heathens sacrifice the worst people, and push them over cliffs and crags, but we shall make our selection on the basis of people’s virtues and call it a victory offering to our Lord Jesus Christ. We must therefore live better lives and be more careful to avoid sin than before…’ (from Kristni Saga, on-line PDF) This concept of a ‘living sacrifice’ is apparently derived from Romans 12 and/or Hebrews 13. Anyway, the pagans shoved eight slaves off of cliffs (or maybe ten, since there were possibly five quarters in Iceland…don’t ask.) So far as I know, this was the last human sacrifice in Iceland.’ Simon G writes in with this extraordinary tale of Bella in the wych elm (1941) that was completely new to Beach. Note Margaret Murray’s theory, the slightly mad but always fascinating academic who also suggested that William Rufus’s death in the New Forest was a sacrifice. Thanks Simon, PCB and CCBC!
Golden Spurs: Invisible has it in for my Sir Henry, sadly with good reason. ‘Um, Sir Henry Banks died 7-21-1774 according to the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, p. 3 so the alderman wasn’t the purchaser of the spur in 1820. I think the gold spur was obviously made for Gog or Magog.’ Thanks Invisible!
Changelings and the Law: This from Invisible! ‘According to one story told in Table Talk, Martin Luther advised the murder of a changeling because it was just a lump of flesh without a soul. Here’s his account. Eight years ago [in the year 1532] at Dessau , I, Dr. Martin Luther, saw and touched a changeling. It was twelve years old, and from its eyes and the fact that it had all of its senses, one could have thought that it was a real child. It did nothing but eat; in fact, it ate enough for any four peasants or threshers. It ate, shit, and pissed, and whenever someone touched it, it cried. When bad things happened in the house, it laughed and was happy; but when things went well, it cried. It had these two virtues. I said to the Princes of Anhalt: “If I were the prince or the ruler here, I would throw this child into the water–into the Molda that flows by Dessau . I would dare commit homicidium on him!” But the Elector of Saxony, who was with me at Dessau , and the Princes of Anhalt did not want to follow my advice. Therefore, I said: “Then you should have all Christians repeat the Lord’s Prayer in church that God may exorcise the devil.” They did this daily at Dessau , and the changeling child died in the following year…. Such a changeling child is only a piece of flesh, a massa carnis, because it has no soul. Source: Martin Luther, Werke, kritische Gesamtausgabe: Tischreden (Weimar: Böhlau, 1912-1921), v. 5, p. 9. An analysis of Luther’s views on changelings and the disabled. I will add that one of my pastors, a Methodist, after listening to a talk about Luther’s views on the Jews, protested that some of the more virulently anti-Semitic views expressed in the table talks were gross exaggerations for effect, giving as an example that anyone transcribing him [the pastor] saying ‘I’m going to nail my kid to the wall!’ when his son misbehaved, would be technically accurate in capturing an unguarded moment of speech, but wrong about his relationship with his son. This pastor MIGHT suggest the same about this changeling passage – that Luther was testing the Elector, playing Devil’s advocate, as it were. I have my doubts.’ Thanks Invisible, a passage that will make Mrs B dance on the ceiling! Then Fairyman writes in with a useful reference to changelings and disability: Susan Schoon Eberly ‘Fairies and the Folklore of Disability: Changelings, Hybrids and the Solitary Fairy’ Folklore 99 (1988), 58-77. Then LH on specifics: ‘I guess the modern changeling phenomenon would be autism spectrum disorders. I know several families with autistic and aspie kids and they tell similar stories about normal kids being ‘substituted’ with changelings. Doctors, vaccines, virus, genes and bad nutrition have replaced fairies. Luther may have been describing a child with Prader-Willi Syndrome. Early renaissance thinkers are chimeras, they have beautiful, brilliant minds in their area of study but simultaneously display monstrous medieval traits.’ The great Mike Dash writes in with some supplementary examples. ‘I have treated the unfortunate consequences of the Irish belief in changelings here, if you’re still looking for other examples.’ Thanks LH and Fairyman, Mike and, again, Invisible!
Fifteenth-century knowledge of Australia: Cory writes in with the general picture ‘The question of early European knowledge of Australia is a long-running one, with the Portuguese being the favorite candidates, though the usual theory places them a few years after your Varthema [note Beach posted a while ago on a controversy over ‘Great Java’ on maps]. Wikipedia is actually pretty good on the competing arguments. There are also claims the Chinese showed up in 1421, or perhaps even earlier. But I suspect that – as with coelocanths – the existence of Australia was something that the locals always knew about but just didn’t find very interesting, since there were no vast riches to be discovered.’ Doug writes in with specifics ‘actually, I’m not surprised. The Yolngu in Arnhem land had been trading sea cucumbers with people from Sulawesi for several hundred years. (Even to the extent that in contemporary spoken Yolngu a dollar or money is referred to as rupiyah). Seems entirely possible that someone in Java would be able relay a garbled version of how to sail to Arnhem land. The Wikipedia articles on the Yolngu and Macassan contact with Australia are as good a starting point as any.’ Thanks Doug and Cory!
Ecclesiastical Harems: Invisible has her suspicions, ‘I confess (without being put to the question) that when I read your ecclesiastical harem story my first thought was a scornful ‘Black Legend!’ And looking further, I’m still convinced it’s a load of old sambenitos. Look at the source: Antonio Gavin, an ex-priest, writing for the benefit of his rabidly anti-papist audience in England and elsewhere. (For example, here’s a Dutch copy of his book) There are at least 5 anti-Catholic books/journals on Google books quoting this identical lurid story. They have names like The Tocsin: or, Sheffield Protestant Alarm Bell and The great red dragon, or, The master-key to popery. I can see why this story was useful to the anti-Catholic movement. It seems tailor-made to press all of the right Protestant buttons about the cruel Inquisition and hapless virgins in the clutches of lecherous priests . So strange that Gavin ended his life as a Virginia parson! This article seems to strongly question the veracity of the ‘harem’ story. I find it fascinating that Gavin’s account is also found on several modern anti-Catholic sites including this one, which discusses sexual solicitation in the confessional: As the site says (and I cannot vouch for its accuracy): An early work that openly discusses sexual solicitation was written by Antonio Gavin, a renegade Spanish priest who fled to England shortly before 1713. As a secular priest and confessor for several years in Saragossa and as a member of the so-called moral academy, where local confessors would routinely discuss their most difficult cases with their colleagues, Gavin was in a good position to learn about instances of sexual solicitation. Within a few years of his arrival in England, Gavin had published, The Master Key to Popery, in which he denounced questioning of penitents on sexual matters as a school for scandal by which the penitents learn things of whiciest who fled to England shortly before 1713. As a secular priest and confessor for several years in Saragossa and as a member of the so-called moral academy, where local confessors would routinely discuss their most difficult cases with their colleagues, Gavin was in a good position to learn about instances of sexual solicitation. Within a few years of his arrival in England, Gavin had published, The Master Key to Popery, in which he denounced questioning of penitents on sexual matters as a school for scandal by which the penitents learn things of which they never had dreamed before.The Master Key of Popery is filled with stories about the lewdness of priests some of the solicitation cases he discusses have the ring of truth. Regardless of the degree of exaggeration contained in Gavin’s discussion of solicitation, The Master Key of Popery is important because the shameful secret of sexual solicitation by priests, which had been so carefully preserved by the Holy Office, was revealed to a popular audience and by no less a source than a former Spanish Catholic priest. [37 - footnote: Sexuality in the Confessional, A Sacrament Profaned, (Oxford University Press, 1996). P. 183-85 Now I have NO doubt whatsoever that ecclesiastic sexual irregularities were >ahem< rampant in 18th century Spain (and earlier). But this particular account by Gavin? I look at it much as I would 'Awful Disclosures' by Maria Monk or a Jack Chick tract. For similar 19th century stories see Nancy Lusignan Schultz's, Veil of Fear: Nineteenth Century Convent Tales, Purdue University (1999). I close with a florid passage from Monks, Nuns and Monasteries by Sacheverell Sitwell about the chapel of Santa Clara in Coimbra, Portugal. ‘perhaps of more romantic impact is the chapel of Santa Clara...there are five side altars to each side with grilles over them for the nuns to look down into the church, but these are not like the opera-boxes of Bavarian or Neapolitan nunneries. They are latticed grilles to hide the inmates of a sacred harem’. And, given that nuns were married to Christ in ceremonies with vows, rings, wedding gowns, veils, and crowns, in a manner of speaking, a cloistered monastery truly IS an ecclesiastical harem.' Author Jay Nelson also writes in 'I am inspired to respond to your question about ecclesiastical harems as such clerical hi-jinks (if one may call them such) are a great interest of mine. The most amazing case I have encountered is that of Canon Pandolfino Ricasoli, a Jesuit confessor who with a prioress named Faustina, turned a 17th century Italian convent into a full-blown sex cult. He seduced the girls saying that carnal acts were okey-dokey if one kept the mind on God. Sometimes he enjoyed several at once at Christmas when he was feeling particularly devout, and the two also pimped them out to local nobles. They were only found out when one of the girls confessed to a Priarist priest, who informed the Inquisition. Ironically, this order of teachers, founded by the Catholic patron saint of education, St. José Calasanz, would also soon get into trouble with the Inquisition and be dissolved for the amount of sexual abuse going on. Like so many modern prelates, the saint promoted and transferred offenders to keep it covered up. For having had an obscene amount of fun over eight years, Ricasoli was walled up for the remaining sixteen years of his life. Strangely enough, on the Net you can find copies of a painting of him for sale by Chinese studios. Why they chose that image is an interesting question -- it shows him holding a cross, with a little devil, added after he was busted, whispering in his ear. The story is covered in my book, SONS OF PERDITION, and also in FALLEN ORDER by Karen Liebreich.' Thanks a million Jay and Invisible!
Maldon: Ricardo writes in with memories of the noble Duke Xian of Song who allowed – in a striking parallel to Maldon – his enemy to safely cross the river before attacking them. Even better Mao didn’t like Xian: ‘We are not the Duke of Song!’ – there are few higher recommendations. Daniel from civilian military intelligence group writes in with cases from the American Civil War and WW2. First ‘during the battle for Monte Cassino, there was a moment when the SS and the US and British decided to call a ceasefire to clear out dead and wounded and the SS paratroopers borrowed US and British gurneys and then returned them!’ Oh those punctilious Germans… Then ‘Richard Rowland Kirkland, Company G, 2nd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, Army of the Confederacy. Kirkland was a Sergeant who had seen Battle, including Second Manassas and Shiloh. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, masses of Union soldiers under General Burnside made frontal assaults on the Confederates entrenchments along the Rappahannock River on December 13th, 1862. It was a foolish and wasteful assault that cost 6,000 dead on the first day alone and thousands more wounded; it also cost Burnside his job. During the Civil War, battles ended when the sun went down. So as combatants headed to their own lines, all one could hear were the frightful cries from wounded soldiers for help. All through the night, Kirkland, stationed at a stonewall near a sunken road, was jolted by the lugubrious mournful cries of Union soldiers. The next morning, Kirkland asked his commander’s permission to gather canteens and blankets to help the wounded. General Kershaw allowed the gesture and in broad daylight the General watched as he gathered water and wool cover and carried it to the soldiers. During the hour and a half while he helped wounded soldiers on the battlefield, in this small area no one from either side fired. They waited until Kirkland was done ministering. (On September 20th 1863, Kirkland was killed at the battle of Chickamauga. He has since been feted with song and story and statues.)’ Then there was also the question of music: ‘Often bands would play during the evenings even when the sides were so close they could hear each other. After the second day of Fredericksburg, the Union forces had brought their band along with them and they played that evening. One night, a Confederate yelled, ‘Now play one of ours!’ the Union band immediately struck up ‘Dixie’. Memories of Lincoln calling for Dixie to be played as the war wound down. Then finally ‘during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, a fire swept through the dry grassy hills between the Union and Confederate lines. Many wounded soldiers actually burned alive in this fire. At one juncture, a Confederate officer hollered ‘We won’t fire a gun until you get them away’’. SY pays tribute to Hans Langsdorff captain of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. ‘HL prided himself on never taking a life when attacking British merchant shipping, even congratulating enemy captains who had not immediately surrendered so as to send off distress signals. He was finally defeated by British guile at the Battle of the River Plate, scuttled his ship – saving his 1000 crewmen from certain death – and then committed suicide before being repatriated to Hitler’s Germany. His funeral in Buenos Aires was almost unique in the war as it was also attended by British officers.’ Jonathan from A Corner of Tenth Century Europe writes specifically on Maldon: ‘In the first place, though the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with rare unaninimity between its manuscripts, agrees that 991 was the first year in which Danegeld was paid, and subjoins this to the notice of the death of Byrhtnoth, it does not say explicitly that the one caused the other, but blames it on the ‘marvels’ that the Vikings had wrought that year on the east coast. One should not necessarily assume that Maldon was the first of these, I think, not least because it makes more sense of Byrhtnoth’s decision if the army he cornered were already notorious. I’ll come back to that, but the first point I wanted to make was simply that, of course, money had been paid to the Vikings before by Alfred, and occasionally by his son Edward on bad days. Whether that is the ‘English’ crown is a long debate – there was no other left but was there an England yet? But the 991 solution was, at least, not unheard of. As to Byrhtnoth’s weird decision, I think it is clear from the poem (and I’ve seen it argued by people with more Old English than me, more to the point) that while the English were safe on the mainland, the Vikings were also safe on the island; neither side could come at the other over the narrow causeway. Byrhtnoth’s choice, therefore, was not between a successful defence and a slaughter of his own men, it was between a fight that might go either way and the Vikings certainly getting away scot-free to ravage until cornered again, if at all. He couldn't engage without them coming to the mainland. Given the chance to actually stop this instalment of the Viking threat, he took it. A stupid gamble? (More stupid than the Viking offer?!) Maybe, but the poet doesn’t say that; instead he blames a particular section of the English army for not liking the look of this and turning tail, leaving Byrhtnoth and his loyal followers to fight on outnumbered. It doesn’t, as far as I can see, say that the English were outnumbered till then. I’m not sure whether keeping a defence in being would have been wiser, in retrospect, than trying to deliver a temporary knock-out blow, but it is at least clear that when the writer of the section of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that covers this period (all done in a lump in 1016, so the author knew how things would turn out – very important!) was writing it up, he thought that the biggest problem in his mind was armies that never caught the enemy or, if they did, didn’t engage. Men like Byrhtnoth, he would presumably have seen as the solution, not the problem; the problem was that there were so few like him to take his place.’ Surely a very important point here is that if Byrhtnoth had not fought the Vikings they could easily have sailed away and ravaged another part of the Essex or English coast. Tim writes in with another ‘fair fight’. ‘With regard to your recent post on fair fights, I’ve always found the story from the War of 1812 of the Battle of Boston Harbor interesting for its civility. You may already know the story, but if not, Wikipedia does a fair job describing it. The HMS Shannon was sitting outside the harbor attempting to block the exit of any American warships. The USS Chesapeake was being refitted in the harbor, and was ready to attempt an escape. The captain of the HMS Shannon sent to the captain of the USS Chesapeake inviting his ship out to sea to engage in battle: ‘As the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship, to try the fortune of our respective flags. The Shannon mounts twenty-four guns upon her broadside and one light boat-gun; 18 pounders upon her main deck, and 32-pounder carronades upon her quarter-deck and forecastle; and is manned with a complement of 300 men and boys, beside thirty seamen, boys, and passengers, who were taken out of recaptured vessels lately. I entreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake, or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation. We have both noble motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country; and I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combats that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it can no longer protect. Favour me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here.’ According to wikipedia, the Chesapeake set out before her captain received the note, but the story remains interesting as the Chesapeake's captain had the same intent as the Shannon's captain: meet in neutral grounds and have at it. Patrick O'Brian even cribbed the facts of the battle for one of his Aubrey and Maturin books. Spoiler: you guys won. Overall, it wasn't our smartest war.' Thanks as always Jonathan, SY, Tim, Ricardo and Daniel!!
Changeling on Man: JudithMorph very kindly writes in with this. ‘it’s odd and synchronistic to have gotten your ‘Changeling’ issue just now as I'm re-reading (probably for the fourth time) Sylvia Townsend Warner's Kingdoms of Elfin. If you have never read this I suggest that you would find it riveting; it presents a fairly chilling portrait of these Others (they’re identified as ‘fairies’ as often as ‘elves’). She has collected a series of short stories in the Lives Of the Faeries, many of which first appeared in The New Yorker magazine. These are set in various palace venues throughout Europe over a period of many centuries. And there certainly are changelings in many of these. While Warner doesn't explore the origins of these creatures, she does describe their physical and mental/psychic attributes -- to wit: they're the size of a smallish human, and at least some are pale celadon green; they're thin, gracile, and only the servant classes (sic) use their wings. For ‘aristocratic’ court fairies, wing-use is distinctly declasse. And most of us would recoil at their (in human terms) casual amorality. At any rate, it's always been a favorite book of mine.’ Then RR with another fictional reflex of the legend: ‘I wanted to recommend a book on changelings. The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw. Although written for youngsters (teens), it is fascinating and delves fairly deeply into your topic thru the eyes of a changeling and her new 'parents'. Woven thru-out the story are interesting folkloric bits regarding iron, faeries, blacksmithing, bagpiping, medicinal herbs, the slippery nature of time, Gypsies, and keeping bees. One of my faves... Hope you find time to fit it into your reading schedule.’ Andrew B writes in, meanwhile, with a fascinating changeling story from Scandinavia translated by himself from the Swedish. It's a cracker and a pleasant variation on the Celtic changeling. Fairyman writes: ‘this description was picked up by Eberly in her ‘Fairies and the Folklore of Disability: Changelings, Hybrids and the Solitary Fairy’ Folklore 99 (1988), 58-77, p. 70-1 ‘The primary clue here is found in the description of this child's limbs, 'very long for his age, but smaller than an infant's of six months.' This symptom suggests an 'inborn error of the metabolism,' homocystinuria. Of the congenital metabolic disorders, homocystinuria is second only to PKU in frequency; as with PKU, children with this disorder are often blonde [sic] and fair-skinned. A child with homocystinuria will begin to develop symptoms when about two months old. Failure to thrive osteoporosis or ‘brittle bones’, and – in some but not all cases – mental retardation and cerebral palsy are found. Importantly, with reference to Waldron’s changeling story, one symptom, arachnodactyly is common to this syndrome; the term refers to limbs and digits which are extremely long and thin or ‘spider-like’. Children with homocystinuria are highly prone to arterial and venous thrombosis-clots in the blood vessels-which may lead to encephalitis, paralysis (‘he could not move so much as one joint’), seizures, and cerebral thrombophlebitis. Other visible traits of these children include rosy cheeks (‘his complexion was perfectly delicate’); very fine, sparse hair( ‘he had the finest hair in the world’), and malformed teeth.’ Thanks to JudithM and RR and Andrew B and Fairyman!
Dried Cats: Chris Manning writes in with an update of modern research on the question ‘Saw your post on dried cats and felt I should update you on the developments in dried cat research since Howard’s 1951 article. There are several scholars working on this topic worldwide including myself. Ian Evans just completed his doctoral dissertation on ritual concealments in Australia and documented 17 cases of dried cats from that country. His dissertation is available online. Brian Hoggard in the U.K. estimates 100 cases of dried cats have been found there (also online), and Ruben de Somer has tracked down additional cases in Europe. As for the U.S., I’m still working on it, but I’ve only identified three or four possible cases of deliberate concealments (versus accidental enclosures) so far and only two of those were dried, the others being disarticulated bones and/or taxidermied examples. There is other literature from the 70s-90s, but these are the researchers I know who are currently working on the topic.’ Invisible meanwhile has been working up a list on her own. ‘Here is a mummified cat from Ohio. This is the website with the ‘Ghost Cat’ info. There is a video on the page that shows images of the cat as well as gives the history of the lighthouse. Here is a photo of the cat. I researched this mummy cat in 2003 and here is what I was told by Carol, a woman who was startled by the cat in the basement. ‘I was there by myself. It was getting dark and going down into the basement was always kind of creepy. I got to the bottom of the steps and I saw this THING. There was a mummified cat kind of standing on all fours, its face turned towards me. I screamed and ran back upstairs. Of course, I’d always heard the stories about the ghost. ‘Then I got to the top of the steps and said to myself, ‘This can’t be. I have to go back down.’ So I actually got up enough courage to go back down the stairs and I saw that it was a mummy. It had its whiskers, its eyelashes, its feet so perfectly formed, its claws… Of course, I had no idea how it had gotten there.’ It was discovered when workmen installing air conditioning were working in the basement. One of the men climbed into a tight crawl space with his flashlight. ‘He was looking at something and laid his head down on something which just happened to be a mummified cat.’ The workmen who discovered the cat didn’t know what to do with their desiccated discovery. They left it at the foot of the basement stairs to snarl out of the twilight at Carol. The original light and keeper’s house (where the cat was found) were a nightmare of shoddy construction, cracked foundations, and cost overruns. I do not think it outlandish to suggest that some English or Irish workman privately decided a quiet foundation sacrifice might help save the rebuilt Fairport Light from disaster. Incidentally, the date of the rebuild of the Fairport Harbor Light was 1871 – this is probably when the cat was placed in the foundation. Brian Hoggard has a section on ‘dried cats’ on this astonishing site. (I’m very keen on concealed shoes.)’ Then Invisible gives a list of other sources: Trenton Evening Times (NJ) 8-2-1916 p. 13 DISCOVER MUMMY CAT AT PRINCETON PRINCETON Aug. 22 The naturally embalmed body of a mummy cat discovered by workmen excavating under the real estate office of O.H. Hubbard [illegible address] Nassau Street Princeton yesterday is the chief attraction here today. The mummy is of a color between a grey and brown and is splendidly preserved. Its…skin and ?ings and all four legs being almost intact.The cat is all there, except the fur. No ancient sarcophagus bears the form in winding sheet and there is no evidence of the art of cat preservation practiced by the Egyptians. The whiskers of the late pussy are remarkable, extending two inches or more on each side of the mouth like thick frozen hay whisps [sic]. The claws too are perfect.’ The newspaper scan was very difficult to read – thus the ellipses and question marks. The San Antonio [TX] Light 9-26-1926 p. 63 MUMMIFIED CAT IS CLAIMED BY THREE Bodies of Mother and Kitten Walled Up 100 Years Starts Dispute Harrrodsburg, Ky., Sept. 25 The question of ownership of a mummified cat and kitten found in the wall of a century-old house being torn down here is causing wide interest and some agitation. There are three people who claim the relics. Berry Lawson, tearing away the residence of Dr. J.T. Price, found the mummified felines walled into the building. It was evident the mother cat and kitten had been caught in the space inside the wall, unknown to workmen, who had built around them. This was early in the last century. PAY TO SEE MUMMIES Lawson took the curious remains and so many persons clamored to see them that it was reported a small admission fee was charged. The question of ownership arose when Lawson claimed the mummies by right of discovery and proprietorship of the house. Dr. Price said the cats belonged to him as he sold the house to Lawson, but not the contents of the building. The third claim has attracted the most attention of all. Beriah Magoffin of McAlester , Okla. , who has been spending the summer here, says the cats’ remains belong to him by right of inheritance. The old house was built by his grandfather, Beriah Magoffin, the second, who was governor of Kentucky during the Civil War and held Kentucky as neutral ground in that struggle. LEGEND IN FAMILY Mr. Magoffin says that the first Beriah had a pet cat, whose mysterious disappearance became a family legend, handed down through the generations. The mummy cat, he believes, is the lost feline of his grandfather, and he wants to link the past and present to that extent anyway. Mr. Magoffin is about 80 years old. He has heard from his family many times the story of the cat which crept out of the living room one day and never was seen again, unless it be the one who, with its kitten, rested in the venerable building for about 100 years. These first two are unverified items: According to Wayne Hodges of the Cooper Union Museum (in the 1960s), it was common practice to provide a mummified mouse for the mummified sacred cat. Different from walled up cats with rats and mice, but interesting. The Portuguese place pottery replicas of cats on their rooftops to ward off intruders. Well, where to start? There is an embarrassment of riches. I have over 2 dozens clips of (nearly all) North American mummified cats. I think I will just include ones of unusual interest or with accessory animals. European Stars and Stripes 1-5-1984 p. 33 Hesse, Darmstadt , Germany Mummified cat. A few hundred steps from the Sudbury church is the Mill Hotel, which has a most unusual attraction aside from a working water wheel dividing the bar and the dining room—a glass coffin containing a mummified cat sunk in the floor of the lobby. When the mill was being converted to a hotel, the centuries-old cat was found in one of the walls being removed. Such a find is not particularly unusual, since cats often were placed in a new building’s walls in the 17th century to ward off evil spirits. There may be something to the superstitious practice of entombing a cat. During the conversion, workmen discarded the cat as rubbish. Soon afterwards the hotel mysteriously caught fire. After the fire was extinguished, the cat was retrieved from the trash bin. The hotel has not had a fire since. Evening Times, Cumberland , MD 08-31-1911. MUMMIFIED CAT FOUND. Perfectly Good Animal Except For the Lack of Breath. New York, Aug. 31 Stone masons altering the front of the Episcopal Diocesan House, 416 Lafayette Place , tore out the stonework at the top of the second story yesterday. Patrick Shine, the boss mason, discovered a dusty object which he dug out with a trowel. It was a mummified cat, ‘a perfectly good cat except for lack of breath’, said Shine. The Diocesan House was built in 1828, so Shine easily figured that the cat was born 83 years ago at least. He said he would give the mummy to a relative, a taxidermist, to mount. Daily Iowa Capital 6-17-1896 p. 6 Des Moines , IA A Mummified Cat. A mummified cat was found last week at Dover , N.H. , between two store buildings where repairs are in progress. The body was in a cramped position, as if the cat was trying to come back, but was caught in the act and held fast by the walls. The eyes were as bright and wide open as in life, and the body as hard as stone. The air circulating freely had no doubt caused the body to mummify. Racine Journal Times, Racine , WI , 8-22-1950 p. 1 Find Mummified Cat With Mouse in Mouth Moorhead, Minn. (U.P.) Workers tearing down a buggy shed said today they found what appeared to be a mummified cat with a mouse in its mouth. The cat and mouse were found in a wall along with a newspaper dated March 31, 1876. The house to which the buggy shed was attached once was owned by W.H. Davy, early Moorhead civil leader and philanthropist. It now is owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Nelson. Morning Avalanche, Lubbock , TX 07-24-1948 p. 10 Mummified Cat and Rat Are Found in Wall of Old House Charlotte, N.C., July 23 (INS) Workmen tearing down an old Charlotte rooming house got quite a start today. They saw a mummified cat in between the walls standing on all fours ready to jump on a mummified rat. The animals are believed to have been there some 70 years. The Post-Standard, Syracuse , NY 4-3-1904 p. 30 Mummified Cat. In the accompany picture is shown a mummified cat, which was discovered in the British man-of-war Menelaus when she was broken up. It is supposed that when the vessel was being built the cat, probably in pursuit of a rat, jumped between the lining and the outside planking and there remained wedged until the ship was taken to pieces. This interesting specimen of a mummified animal, which has been brought to light from the grave in which it has lain for nearly a century, is now carefully preserved at the Customs Watch House on Ryde Pier. [illustration too dim to reproduce. Seems to show a standing cat.] Burlington Hawk Eye, Burlington , IA 1-10-1896 p. 6 Whenever I passed, some few years ago, a certain shop window in the west end of London , I usually had an additional peep at a large card to which was attached a mummified cat grasping a mummified rat firmly in its jaws. If I remember rightly these animals were discovered in a preserved, albeit shrunken and dusty condition, imprisoned between some rafters in the house during repairs. Evidently the unfortunate cat got jammed in its peculiar position accidentally, and being averse to releasing its own prisoner, and thereby being better able to release itself, held it securely until suffocation to both ensued. It was a striking illustration of the powerfulness of determination, exercised by even the smaller class of animals. The Strand . The Progress, Clearfield , PA 03-20-1986 p. 2 MILWAUKEE (AP) New York Times columnist Tom Wicker will be this year’s recipient of the Milwaukee Press Club’s Sacred Cat Award. Wicker, whose “In the Nation” column started in 1966, will receive the award at the press club’s Gridiron Dinner on May 3. The award, given annually to ho [sic] or a distinguished journalist, is named after the club’s ‘mascot’, a mummified cat found between the walls of one of the club’s first buildings. [displayed at the club bar] The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston , NY 6-27-1946 p. 19 Cat Catacombed A mummified cat was found above the ceiling of a room by workmen on bomb repairs at the All-England Tennis Club, Wimbledon . The animal is thought to have climbed in during construction of the building 26 years ago and to have been accidentally bricked in while asleep. Amarillo News-Globe , TX 09-01-1946 p. 28 The Dick Whittington Church , founded in 1422, which bears the plaque ‘Richard Whittington, 4 Times Mayor of London’. The vicar now declares that in the ruins of the Whittington Church , after the bombing, he found a mummified cat. [a tad too good to be true...] Lethbridge Herald, Alberta, Canada 4-17-1946 p. 4 London Letter by Jack Sullivan mentions ‘Dirty Dick’s pub on Bishopsgate. ‘Where else could one gulp a pint staring into the empty eye-sockets of a mummified cat, its legs tangled in years-old cobwebs, the layers of dirt and dust matted so thick on its fleshless body that its appearance is deceptively sturdy? Dead cats by the score hang from the low ceilings at crazily-grotesque angles, some by their necks, others by their tails and legs. If ‘mck brings luck’, as one visitor scribbled in the guest books years ago, Dirty Dick’s has been thriving on one, or all, of its many cats’ nine lives for more than a century.’ [This sounds like the opening of a Stephen King story! No idea if the place still exists. [[It does Beach]]] Many of the articles are mere squibs – no real detail. Very few of the articles mention the animals being sealed up for luck or protection. Most suggest that they somehow were trapped accidentally. You find the same lack of documentation with concealed shoes: either people never knew or no longer remember the rationale for the practice. And, finally, not far from my home is a local college called Sinclair Community College. It is built over the old red-light district and hanging ground of early Dayton. Reputedly, when the present college buildings were being built in the early 1970s, a workman lured stray cats with scraps of food, and then poured cement on them, entombing them in the structure. It is said that you can still hear the ghostly cats wailing in the walls.’A friend of the blog, Gareth, writes in with this extraordinary photo: perhaps the best dry cat that I’ve seen: ‘It was found in the walls of Deadbeer Farm in Clayhidon, Devon during renovations in 1978. Parts of the house date back to the 14th century.’ The object in its mouth may have been a mouse tail? Thanks Chris and Invisible and Gareth!
The Forgotten Prisoner: Mad Monk Andy has sent this sad story in about a Japanese family trapped on a Soviet occupied Japanese island. Thanks Andy!
Pregnant Witch: Invisible has a very impressive catalogue here that should probably replace the original post. ‘I can’t say much about ‘organic’ witchcraft in the UK (free-range animal sacrifices?) , but I can give you examples about the belief in witches in the Ohio territories in the 19th and early 20th century. As luck would have it, I’ve just been going over my files on this subject and have a number of clippings about trials and scares. I will just summarize most of them. In 1805 Nancy Evans of Clermont County was accused by the Hildebrand family of being a witch. She was weighed against a Bible and found innocent. Source: Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 414. About 1814, a horse-breeder on Mill Creek [Hamilton County] believed his horses were dying as a result of witchcraft. He boiled certain mystical ingredients with pins and needles, which was supposed to “draw” the witch. Looking out his door, he saw his daughter-in-law. He immediately ordered his son to move his family off the farm. He also believed that a certain Mrs. Garrison, a sickly, aged woman, was the primary cause of his horses’ sickness. He was told to shoot a silver bullet at a sick horse he believed to be bewitched. Naturally the horse died, and Mrs. Garrison, depressed by the slanders the man had spread about her, also died a few days later. The man believed his charms had been a success. Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 414. In 1823 Abigail Church was tried for being a witch. Truthfully, the charge seemed more about fortune-telling for money / fraud, but she was aquitted. Souce: Court of Common Pleas for Gallia County May Term 1812, State of Ohio vs. Abigail Church. Reported in Ohio History, Vol. 33 p. 206. I will quote the next item from 1828 at length. It has some horrid details. The annexed report of a case, that came before the court of common pleas in this county, is from the pen of a legal gentleman of high standing. It shows that in our day, the belief in witchcraft has not entirely vanished. Lawrence County Common Pleas. Term 1828. Action on the case, for a false warranty in the sale of a horse. Plea, general issue. The plaintiff having proved the sale and warranty, called a witness to prove the defendant’s knowledge of the unsoundness of the horse at the time of sale. This witness testified, that both he and defendant lived at Union Furnace, in Lawrence county, and that the latter was by trade a tanner; that he, witness, knew the horse previous to the sale to the plaintiff, and before he was owned by defendant, and was then, and at the time defendant purchased him, in bad health. He saw him daily employed in defendant’s bark mill, and was fast declining, and when unemployed, drooping in his appearance, and so continued until sold to the plaintiff. Having been present at the sale, and hearing the warranty, the witness afterwards inquired of the defendant why he had done so, knowing the horse to be unsound. He answered by insisting that the horse was in no way diseased, or in unsound health, but that the drooping appearance arose from his being bewitched, which he did not call unsoundness, and so soon as they could be got out of the home, he would then be as well as ever. The defendant further stated, that the same witches which were in that horse, had been in one or two persons, and some cows, in the same settlement, and could only be driven out by a witch doctor, living on the head waters of the Little Scioto, in Pike county, or by burning the animal in which they were found; that this doctor had some time before been sent for to see a young woman who was in a bad way, and on examination found her bewitched. He soon expelled them, and also succeeded in ascertaining that an old woman not far off was the witch going about in that way, and she could be got rid of only by killing her. At some subsequent time, when defendant was from home, his wife sent for witness and others, to see and find out what was the matter with her cow, in a lot near the house. They found it frantic, running, and pitching at every thing which came near. It was their opinion, after observing it considerably, that it had the canine madness. The defendant, however, returned before the witness and others left the lot; he inspected the cow with much attention, and gave it as his opinion that they were mistaken as to the true cause of her conduct,—she was not mad, but bewitched; the same which had been in the horse, had transferred itself to the cow. By this time the animal, from exhaustion or other cause, had lain down. The defendant then went into the lot, and requested the persons present to assist in putting a rope about her horns, and then make the other end fast to a tree, where he could burn her. They laughed at the man’s notion, but finally assisted him, seeing she remained quiet—still having no belief that he really intended burning her. This being done, the- defendant piled up logs, brush and other things around, and finally over the poor cow, and then set fire to them. The defendant continued to add fuel, until she was entirely consumed, and afterwards told the witness he had never seen any creature so hard to die; that she continued to moan after most of the flesh had fallen from her bones, and he felt a pity for her, but die she must; that nothing but the witches in her kept her alive so long, and it was his belief they would be so burnt before getting out, that they never would come back. Night having set in before the burning was finished, the defendant and his family set up to ascertain if the witches could be seen about the pile of embers. Late at night, some one of the family called the defendant to the window—the horse being near the place—and pointed to two witches, hopping around, over and across the pile of embers, and now and then seizing a brand and throwing it into the air, and in a short while disappeared. The next morning, on examination, the defendant saw their tracks through the embers in all directions. At a subsequent time, he told the same witness and others, that from that time the witches had wholly disappeared from the neighborhood, and would never return—and to burn the animal alive, in which they were found, was the only way to get clear of them: he had been very fearful they would torment his family. The writer found, after the above trial, from a conversation with the defendant, that he had a settled belief in such things, and in the truth of the above statement. SOURCE: Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 291 In 1893, Sadie Loop, a young woman in Salem , Ohio , was found guilty of spreading stories that Jacob Culp, a church trustee and the wealthiest farmer in the neighborhood, was a wizard. About a year later, more stories were spread by several other families in the church, accusing Culp of having the evil eye, drying up a well, killing cattle, and making a relative break his leg. The Rev. J.E. Hollister, pastor of the Hart’s Methodist Episcopal Church called upon the afflicted to disavow witchcraft and treat Culp as a brother or leave the church. They refused, so Hollister organized a church trial and two families were expelled for their belief in witchcraft. The case was reported all over the United States . I also have information on a “witch epidemic” in Reading, PA in 1883 as well as a 1897 “witchcraft scare” when 17 families in northwest Ohio claimed they could not sleep or eat and that they were constantly pursued by “black cats, which make faces and snarl at them.” They also claimed certain rooms in their houses were infested with evil spirits. “The people have burned their feather beds and resorted to other ancient methods in the hope of getting rid of the spell, but they claim they can not shake it off. Physicians can not diagnose the malady, but assure the patients that it is due to natural causes, possibly resulting from an unsanitary condition of the village.” Some 30 persons were reported on the verge of death. In 1919, a young woman named Celia Wrobleski or Wroblesky of Detroit was known as the “witch girl” and was believed to be able to turn herself into different animals and exercise a baleful influence over others. Supposedly thousands gathered outside her house to see her do something witch-like. The young woman was amused by the charges; her priest said they were all falsehoods. 1928 a pow-wow man (Pennsylvania Dutch equivalent of a witch doctor) was killed by a rival pow-wow practitioner and his young accomplices. (citing Wikipedia only because the only other site with good info is in painful green-on-a-black-background type.) Back in the UK , there is, of course, the Ann Tennant murder (even though the murderer seems to have been a lunatic) and the Charles Walton case of 1945, which has been framed by some writers as a ritual killing of a witch or cunning-man. And we cannot forget Hellish Nell, who still hasn’t been pardoned. At a glance, there seem to be a number of 20th century stories in the British press about “fortune-tellers” being prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. For example: An article entitled, “West End Fortune Tellers” in the London Daily Mail 9-9-1904 p. 3 tells of “Yoga”, “Keiro” and “Mme. Keiro”, who were committed for trial at the North London Sessions. But, of course, this does not endorse a belief in actual witchcraft.’ Invisible has come across too a curious early twentieth-century British account 23 August 1908. ‘The remarkable Essex witch case was disposed of at Witham Petty Sessions on Tuesday. The complainant an old thatcher, named George Moss, said he was violently assaulted by a farmer named George Cottee, of Tiptree. Cottee was alleged to have called Moss’s wife an old witch, and to have told some boys to throw stones at her. Cottee stated that many villagers at Tiptree believed Mrs Moss was a witch although he denied that he called her one. Cottee also said that he had been a member of the Metropolitan Police Force, and added that whatever opinion, he might have as to the witch theory, he knew better than to express it in public. A witness, called for the prosecution, said he heard Cottee cal out to Mrs Moss, ‘Get indoors, you old witch, or I will cut your legs off’ The bench bound Cottee over to be of good behaviour for six months and ordered him to pay costs.’ So there you are. It reminds Beachcombing of the distinction often found between traditional and late witch cases: namely traditional witch cases are the community against the witch, these late cases are, instead, ofen a single complainant against the witch and, in some cases, against the witch and the community.Simon writes in with a possible late witch killing – Beach will come back to this in August or September when he looks at a case from the 1860s but for now… ‘I saw your article a couple of days ago about the witchcraft dying out in Britain. I thought you might be interested in the story of Charles Walton which may have been have had ‘occult’ links. It only occurred in 1945 so it is within living memory. I have to say I like the response of the modern day villagers to the questions of the BBC reporter, seems like a ‘you be a outlander’ sort of place!‘ Then there is Cory: ‘I just caught up with your late-survivals-of-witchcraft post and was reminded me of an anecdote I heard told by an elderly geologist some 25 years ago, when I attended a lecture on the geology of northern Bucks and southern Northampton Counties. He said that when he was a young geologist – which would presumably have been in the late 20s or early 30s – the country people warned him against going up onto the hill known as Hexenkopf (which means witch’s head) on Walpurgisnacht, because the witches gathered there and anybody with any sense stayed away. I’ve always wondered whether they actually believed it or were just pulling his leg – but the survival of folk beliefs among Pennsylvania Germans was well known in the early 20th century, and is often referred to in weird fiction of the period. It largely appears to have faded out after the 1930s, however, conceivably as a result of the promotion of rural electrification during the New Deal. I’m surprised, by the way, to find that googling on ‘hexenkopf’ turns up any number of references to the spooky reputation of the place and the superstitions that hang around it. Contemporary neo-pagans even make pilgrimages there. I never realized it was so well known.’ Then Reporter writes in with a reminder that witchcraft is a contemporary issue in much of sub-Saharan Africa. ‘I was training a class of young newspaper reporters in Botswana about ten years ago and one of them told me he was the witchcraft correspondent. He stopped me dead in my tracks when he asked me: “In your country, are people killed for their sexual organs?” In Botswana witchcraft was, and probably still is, a potent and frightening phenomenon.’ Thanks very much Invisible, Reporter, Simon and Cory!
Strange Instruments: With weird musical instruments Ricardo R. sends in an exceptional video (haunting music) and Invisible a site with a couple of strange commercially available collections. Thanks Ricardo and Invisible!
Death Diaries: First up is TF who writes: ‘Captain-Lieutenant Dmitri Kolesnikov wrote a short note during the Kursk disaster[blind in the dark]. There are also probably many letters from miners who have been trapped alive during accidents as in this example’ (see below). TF rounds off by saying ‘I’m afraid the subject is too morbid for me to look for more!’ a sentiment Beach shares. Rayg from Segal Books writes in ‘‘The Flying Dutchman’ diary immediately recalls the diaries of Robert Toner and Harold Ripslinger of the Lady Be Good. ’ Then Invisible has a series of linked death diaries including: lady lost in the Nevada Mountains; an Oregon man snowed into his truck; a Woody Guthrie song based on a trapped miner’s letter; some heart breaking ‘smothered’ coal miners’ letters; and a series of famous last letters including several death diaries’ Thanks to Rayg, Invisible and TF!
Thanks and enjoy or, at least, survive September!
B
Beachcombed 14 August 1, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Beachcombed
1 August 2011
Friends and Bizarrists,
First, a change in the website, one of several that will be taking place in the coming months. There is now a bizarre history news list on the lower right margin. This needs to be worked out better – in terms of position and mechanism – but Beach’s beloved webmaster, Raoul is busy at present. Do, please, send all bizarre history stories in. Beachcombing does most of his reading in books and misses so much.
The most popular post this month in terms of hits and emails was strange speeches, followed by Celts in Kazakhstan. Beachcombing’s personal favourite was perhaps Toma the forgotten prisoner or the Escape from Calais. The most embarrassing mistake of the month was, without any doubt, misascribing a viral internet video to Berlusconi that actually belonged to a comic doppelganger – apologies Silvio. There was also a French translation error that Beach will pass over in silence. Beachcombing’s greatest relief came when Professor Clottes defended the traditional image of the Sorcerer: now Beach will certainly sleep more easily.
Beachcombing’s offworld but online gem of July was a youtube video celebrating the Polish Cavalry in the September War as Stalin and Hitler simultaneously invaded the country. It’s not history but he also got a kick out of this email between a mother-in-law to be and her son’s beloved – oh to be in England now in wedding season: ‘It is high time someone explained to you about good manners. Yours are obvious by their absence and I feel sorry for you.’ There is too this very worthwhile history-of-the-future site that Beachcombing hopes to find some time to read properly. Then, finally, Beach has the very great pleasure to point readers in the direction of the Weird Weekend in Devon (UK), 19-21 August. Just to give you a taster the first talk will be ‘David Hume, Joanna Lumley and the Abominable Snowman’ (sic!).
Beachcombing continues in his attempts to fill gaps in the English language. He is still looking for a word for the frustration caused by not finding a short, half-remembered reference in a large book: those definitions sent in were spirited but not quite right.
Now to the comments. All twelve thousand words of them…
Beachcombing Beachcombs: Several readers wrote in with vague references to coincidence stories such as Tokyobling’s. Most were vague and undocumented but here is one from MP: ‘There is the story of Charles Coghlan, an actor born on Prince Edward Island (Canada), who died in Galveston Texas in 1898 and was buried there. In 1900 a hurricane swept through the area and washed away his resting place. In 1908 the coffin containing is remains was found in the shallows off Prince Edward Island. My info for the above is from Strange World by Frank Edwards but I have seen in other books as well.’ Oh and Kate came across an article in the Boston Herald with a cute message in a bottle story. Thanks Kate and MP!!
Dragons in Switzerland: ‘Two interesting emails on this. First, SY notes that this passage and the longer part to which it has belonged is translated on the internet on an interesting Christian Latin site. Second, KMH reflects on the question of dragons and need and possible links to cryptozoology: ‘It is possible that the myth of the fire-breathing dragon originated with warm-blooded reptiles. Their breath could have produced a cloud of water vapor generally mistaken for smoke. However, we know of no biological basis for actual fire created by any organism. So that leaves us with only one option – the dragon was a paranormal entity, much like the chupracabra or mothman of today. Among other functions, paranormal entities may be seen where the real biological species don’t exist anymore, but the culture or religion continues to relate to them. For example, the red dragon of Revelation 12: 3. If no dragons actually exist now on earth, then Christianity could be considered outdated or obsolete. So, sporadic sightings must continue on for a particular region, even if they are only paranormal in nature. However, modern sightings of dragon-like creatures in Central Africa, South America and the islands of Southeast Asia are not unheard of. In North America the lizard-like Thunderbird is still seen today. The question is, are these animals completely natural, or are they subsidized or given special help to survive by higher beings (angels, etc.)? I am inclined to believe they all (reptile or mammal) receive special assistance, since the human race also seems to receive much more assistance than it deserves.’ Thanks SY and KMH!
Escape from Calais: Rayg writes in at Segalbooks with some specific information on the boat involved ‘reading up the background to this story introduced me to a term I’d never encountered: the Gulzar was a ‘danlaying’ yacht. Danlayers were small vessels – often converted civilian vessels such as trawlers – that accompanied minesweepers to lay ‘dans’ (marker buoys). A bit of cross-referencing between Google and Google Books (the name caught my curiosity as an unusual ship name). A look at Google Books snippet view (search on Gulzar yacht) finds the Gulzar was a ‘twin- screw 202-ton motor yacht … which was constructed by Messrs. John I. Thornycroft and Co., Ltd., Southampton, in 1934’. And: ‘Gulzar … Twin screw schooner built JI Thornycroft, Southampton, 1934 – 115’9″ X 21’1″ – powered by MAN diesels:Owned by Z Couyoumdjian of Paris. Fitted out for minesweeping duties. Went to the assistance of launch Marlborough, which was towed to Dover. Sank at Dover during air attack on 29th July 1940’. The ships that saved an army: a comprehensive record of the 1,300 “little ships” of Dunkirk. Russell Plummer. Pub. P Stephens , 1990. In its civilian days, was a seriously upmarket ship: the Times archive for July 13th 1938 mentions that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor embarking at Antibes for a Mediterran cruise on the Gulzar. The Times for May 16th 1934 earlier reported on its launch as a third yacht built by Thorneycroft for foreign owners that season, and says it was designed for Mediteranean cruising (draft about 9ft, speed 11.5 knots). I haven’t been able to find an image (or of the Gulzar’s Thorneycroft sister vessels the Tadorna and Amazone). But the general appearance would have been like the motor yachts here‘. SWRA meanwhile invokes, as a remarkable escape, it was certainly an important one, the breakout of Nathan Forrest from Fort Donelson in 1862 in the American Civil War. Next Tim Clayton, a leading expert on British naval matters and co-author of Finest Hour has very kindly written in. First a source from the Imperial War Museum: ‘IWM MSS 4029 Henry Paddison Granlund: Ts/ms account (17pp and 1p illustration, photocopies) written in 1940, of his service as a Sub Lieutenant in the motor yacht GULZAR while the ship was acting as a wireless-telegraphy link off Calais between the BEF and Vice Admiral, Dover (20 – 24 May 1940) during sailings to Ambleteuse (25 – 26 May 1940) in an abortive attempt to evacuate troops, and to Calais (27 – 28 May 1940) as a hospital ship carrying out the final troop evacuations. The account gives details of conditions on shore and describes the difficulties of operating under heavy shore based shell and machine gun fire, with a later appendix summarising the military operations in France at that time; and a ts letter (2pp photocopies 1967) to a former owner of the GULZAR describing the ship’s wartime history.’ Then there is also ‘IWM Sound interview Henry Paddison Granlund British officer served with HMS Gulzar during evacuation of Calais 1940; served aboard HMS Obedient during Russian convoys 1943-1945REEL 1 Family and educational background. Reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939. Recruitment to Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 112/1939. Period as officer aboard HMS Gulzar during evacuation of Calais, France, 5/1940-6/1940: description of yacht; role of ship in English Channel; life abroad ship; missions to Dunkirk; role of ship as wireless link with Vice Admiral, Dover; damage to port; arrival of refugees in Calais; case of suspected fifth columnist; arrival of naval demolition party. REEL 2 Continues: shelter ashore; German shelling of port; return fire from forts; return to Dover; trip to pick up British troops from Cape Griz Nez; contradictory orders to Royal Marine officer; story of experiences of motor yacht HMS Conidaw; orders to act as hospital ship off Calais; German firing at ship; rescue of British troops from pier. Recollections of taking part in Russian convoys aboard HMS Obedient, 1943: nature of ship; role as lieutenant; organisation of convoys. REEL 3 Continues: hazards encountered; contact with Soviet forces; contact with Russians at Polyarnoe; effect of weather conditions on concrete buildings; view of icebergs; ‘Arcticizing’ of ships; challenge posed by convoys; heavy sea conditions; provision on deck life lines; German U Boat attacks; cargoes; assembly of convoys.’ What historical is behind ‘the fifth columnist’? Tim then writes: ‘Photograph 4008-02 is apparently a photo of the auxiliary patrol yacht HMS Gulzar, though the picture seems not to have been put online. The boat was sunk by German air attack in Dover harbour in July 1940.’ Poor old Gulzar… May she rest in peace. Thanks Tim, Beachcombing owes you! Thanks Rayg and thanks SWRA!!
Anglo-Saxons in India: Virginia writes in to make the point that the Romans were regularly riding the monsoons to bring spice to and fro from southern India. Of course, the foundation of St Thomas Christians there may owe a great deal to that trade. The trade dried up with the collapse of Roman infrastructure at the end of the Empire. Viriginia references a recent book that sounds like fun S.E. Sideotham Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route. Jonathan from A Corner of Tenth Century Europe writes in with some considerations that may just have swung Beach. ‘Your post about Anglo-Saxons in India is about a piece of evidence I’ve met myself. I should say that most of the current scholarship appears to be fairly happy with India not Judea, and we do have reason that there were Christians in Kerala so early, but all the same, I know where my money is and it’s no further east than Jerusalem. Doug Moncur who blogs at Thoughts of a Knowledge Geek has also done some sifting of Sighelm. He is fairly happy with India-not-Judea but as you’ll see thinks it likely that Judea must have been en route. This, to me, seems a bizarre decision for an alms-giver: ‘Well, here I am in the land of Jesus! Give all the money to the Holy Sepulchre, first shrine of Christendom? Eh, maybe I’ll go on a bit’. But who knows: perhaps the very extremity of the target was the point‘. Thanks Jonathan and thanks Virginia!!
Floating Yogis: Flying Rat writes in to say ‘the discussion of yogic levitation has been a very interesting one. I recently came across a video which provides some further ‘illumination’ of how such a thing might be achieved: Quite clever!’ Thanks Flying Rat!!
The Forgotten Prisoner: The legendary Mike Dash writes in with another nightmare story from the SU: ‘You might be interested in the case of John William Adkins, an American from Maryland who crossed from Alaska to Siberia, apparently in search of work and/or passage on to the mines of Chile (? – I know) in the early 1920s. Adkins bounced around the Soviet system for some time in the early Communist period. At one point he was deported to Estonia but re-entered the USSR. he was last heard of in a prison camp in the White Sea the best part of a decade later.A relative of his has done a large amount of genealogical research into his case and I was interested enough to get hold of a copy of his self-published book on Adkins, much of which has since become available on Google. The evidence the author has dug up is quite fascinating.’ Thanks Mike!
Lost in Shangri-la: Chris Hale an old friend of the blog writes in ‘I wondered if you knew the story of the Noone Bros – two British anthropologists in British Malaya? The elder Pat Noone became fascinated if not obsessed by the Temiah ‘Orang Asli’ people and eventually married into the tribe. He investigated what he took to be ‘directed’ dreams (the tribe appeared to recount dreams with specific wished for content) – and called the the Temiar the ‘Dream People’. Shortly after the Japanese invasion of Malaya, 70 years ago this December – Pat vanished. He was never seen again… In the early ’50s, his brother Richard Noone (who later served in Vietnam) was despatched into the jungle by the High Commissioner/Director of Ops Sir Gerald Templar (the man who once sacked Konrad Adenauer) to sort out the Orang Asli – they were being exploited by communist insurgents. Richard also wished to find out what had happened to Pat… His expedition is recounted in an out of print book called ‘Noone of the Ulu’/Holman that unfolds this jungle detective story.’ Thanks Chris, unfortunately this book is very rare! [actually not true Beach typed in the wrong words]
Cat Burial in Iceland: KMH writes in with a modern atrocity: ‘It is a dark truth that any object, even cats, that is loved, revered or considered an element of religion or spirituality will almost automatically receive an unjust amount of negative, brutal treatment by enemies. This is human psychology. However, in our post-modern times a new phenomenon has appeared, the strange mutilation of cats by cutting them in half – the lack of blood and precision of the cut resembles those associated with unexplained cattle mutilations. Is it quite possible that aliens are responsible for this atrocity?’ Thanks as always KMH!
Yetholm Romani: Invisible write in with the following information: Ohio is home to several gypsy tribes, as well as the burial sites of some gypsy kings and queens. This article is unusually laudatory about the clan. Then there is this article from the Dayton Daily News, 6 Jan 2011: ‘Sept. 15, 1878, Woodland Cemetery in Dayton was the site of the burial of Matilda Stanley, queen of the Gypsies. The authors of the ‘History of Wayne Township, 1810-1976’ write, ‘The gypsies’ burial place in Woodland Cemetery … is believed to be the only sacred burying ground of gypsies in the United States.” Matilda was born about 1821 in Reading, Berkshire, England. There she married Levi Stanley, son of Richard ‘Owen’ Stanley, king of a prominent gypsy tribe. The people called gypsies are nomadic tribes and thought to have originated in India, later immigrating to Eastern Europe, and then throughout the world. Rulers are appointed by either inheritance or by the choice of the clan.They have no actual power, but the tribe usually respects and obeys their decisions. In 1856, Owen Stanley decided to move his affiliated families from England to the United States. They settled in the northern part of Dayton, purchasing several farms in Harrison Twp. with others in Mad River, Butler and Wayne townships. When Owen and his wife died, Levi and Matilda became king and queen. The Dayton gypsies lived on their farms during the summer and roamed in the south during the winters. The wealthy families made money in horse trading and fortune telling. If one of their tribe died while gone from Dayton, they shipped the body, in a beautiful casket, back to Woodland Cemetery. Matilda died in Vicksburg, Miss., in January of 1878. She had suffered with cancer for two years. Her body was embalmed and transported to Woodland Cemetery’s receiving vault. All gypsy tribes were notified of the funeral arrangements. National and local newspapers advertised the event. There was a great interest in the occasion. Spectators came from all over the country. Special trains brought throngs of people for the event. The Rev. David Berger of the United Brethren Church of Dayton who ‘for many years ministered to the Gypsies in spiritual things’ read a paper about them to the Dayton Historical Society. The paper was printed in the Dayton Daily Journal on May 23, 1898. Many facts in this column were taken from his paper, He wrote, ‘It can but rarely occur that royalty finds sepulture in Republican American soil, or that an American clergyman is called to officiate at the funeral of a queen.’ The crowd was estimated to be 15,000 to 25,000. The gypsies numbered in the hundreds and were from the United States, Canada, and England. A thousand carriages paraded from downtown to the cemetery. They were stopped at the gates. Police had to open a way for the funeral procession. Berger stood on a plank across the open grave to avoid the crush of the crowd and led the service. A quartet from the First United Brethren Church sang and the casket was placed in the family vault. The plot is marked by a 20-foot granite column topped by a white marble figure.’ There is some further information on the cemetery and a photo. Then there is Queen Marion, a gypsy queen in Pennsylvania, one state over. There is also a gypsy queen one state over, in Pennsylvania. And another member of the Stanley clan buried in Dayton’s Woodland Cemetery: (I suspect the New York Times free archives would yield a lot of gypsy stories.) Allgurrey( Gannie) Stanley wife of Mark Jefferies- funeral as found in New York Times A GYPSY QUEEN’S FUNERAL 1884 HONORS PAID TO THE DEAD QUEEN BY HER SUBJECTS DAYTON OHIO April 15th GANNIE JEFFERS Queen of the Gypsies in the United States died at GREENFIELD TENN on March 10th and was buried here today. Gypsies are encamped about to the number of 1,500 travelling by wagon from all points of the country. The Queen was embalmed and laid out in NASVILLE TENN. Immediately upon her death and was brought to this city fro interment in WOODLAND CEMETERY, where all the King & Queens of the gypsies are buried. The dead Queen reposed in a handsome Casket made of the finest wood, lined with the finest silks and satins and mounted with gold and jewels. The plot belonging to the gypsies is marked by a fine monument of granite shipped here from Greece. The funeral procession which composed entirely of Gypsies formed in the northern section of the city and marched to the southern extremity, where the Cemetery is situated. At the grave ropes were stretched around it , leaving an enclosure large enough for mourners to stand in . The crowds were very large and surged up against the rope. Boys and men sat on tombstones and filled trees and every place that could afford an opportunity of seeing what was going on. The funeral services were conducted by one of the leading PASTORS of the city. The grave was sunk about 10 feet. At the bottom was a box made of stone slabs and in this box the coffin was laid be side the deceased daughter. There were stifled sobs as the mourners marched about the grave and several broke out in loud cries as the coffin was lowered. At the conclusion of the clergyman’s remarks the choir belonging to the officiating clergyman’s church sang the SWEET BYE AND BYE and the services closed. The most affecting scene was when the great stone was about to be lifted by means of a derrick close at hand The sons and daughters of the Queen climbed down to the stone box to take their last farewells Their sobs and cries filled the air and were echoed by the mourners that stood on the brink of the grave. The sons and daughters threw themselves prostrate on the coffins and kissing the hard wood and it was only with great prevailing the stone lid was then put into position and the dirt thrown upon it. A monument will be erected over the grave. Published April 16th 1884 2nd he married his 1st cousin Jentie Harrison Jeffery her parents were Henry younger brother to Thomas & Phillis Stanley also a daughter of Owen & Harriet Stanley QUEEN OF THE GYPSIES THE WOMAN WHO DIED IN MISSISSSIPPI WAS NOT A GYPSY QUEEN DAYTON OHIO JAN 16th 1887 Much has been said in the newspapers during the past week concerning the ‘Gypsy Queen’ who died in Mississippi 1887 and was sent here for burial , JENTIE JEFFREY HARRISON the woman was not en-fact the person who bears the title but was reported as the wife of MARK JEFFRY a member of the Stanley tribe, Mark was a widower when he left here according the best information of his friends and is doubt expressed as to the correctness of the dispatch, it is said that she gave birth to twins during the prevalence of a snow storm and the lack of proper attention and the severe and unusual weather caused the death of herself and the babies, the tents and wagons of the gypsies are comfortable in warm or moderate weather, but not constructed for snowstorms and low temperatures. About May the tribe returned and remain in this neighbourhood until the leaves begin to fall, meantime notice of the funeral of Jeffrey’s wife will be circulated and arrangements made for Christian burial, the Rev D A Berger of the United Brethen Church is usually selected to preach a sermon and conduct religious exercises on such occasions. The mourning is of the most demonstrative and intense character, the women shriek and carry on at a great rate and the men make a wailing noise that is very mournful, at the burial of Mrs Stanley The Queen several years ago great crowds attended. Until a few years ago the Stanley tribe were quite prosperous owning several valuable farms near the city which they rented out through one misfortune after another however they lost about all they owned MISSOURI STANLEY who might be denominated THE PRINCESS being the only one who is at present well to do. Jentie died while delivering twins they did not survive either.’ Invisible continues Dayton was quite the gypsy enclave. One hears little about the Stanley clan these days. I’m still trying to find the story of the gypsy queen buried in Toledo in a glass-topped coffin. A friend of mine used to go and peep in at her. They eventually covered her up.’ Isn’t that always the way… JEC writes in too on this question: ‘Regarding your reference to the Faa royal line, and the Yetholm Romani, I always had the feeling that there were several competing lines of so-called ‘Gypsy Kings’…or at least there were in the American South from the 1960s into the 1980s. Some extended families of ‘Gypsies’ had lived in my region since the1940s.(They may still, but I lost track after the early 80s.) With non-Romani they used the term ‘Gypsy’, but they referred to themselves as ‘Rumbly Chillun’, derived from ‘Romani Children’. These extended families apparently had ‘territories’, and it was not unusual for their patriarchs to claim to be ‘King of The Gypsies’. Often when an elderly Romani male died in our metropolitan area the obituary (routinely written by the family) referred to the deceased as ‘King of the Gypsies’. Occasionally the local papers or tv news carried stories about the gathering of the clans, come to bury ‘The Gypsy King’. There was from time to time more than one self-styled ‘Gypsy King’ living in the area at the same time, although I don’t believe they ever took the field and fought it out. I don’t know if the contemporaneous claims of Romani royalty in my area were just for entertainment, understandable lily-gilding in published obituaries; or if kingships were truly disputed. Who knows? Perhaps an anti-king reigns from Avignon. And all because the royal line failed in Yetholm in 1902.’ Beach loves the idea of a Gypsy King to rule them all in southern France… Thanks JEC and thanks Invisible!!!
Fidel Castro is a Jesuit Spy: Phil P writes in, ‘I am always amused when someone shows me a new Jack Chick comic. These are quite well known in the U.S.A. as the work of an extreme fringe Fundamentalist Christian sect. Here is a link to one of the most amusing one: Dungeons and Dragons.’ Phil also sends in this excellent page of conspiracies with, inter alia, the following fabulous quotation: ‘You should view the world as a conspiracy run by a very closely-knit group of nearly omnipotent people, and you should think of those people as yourself and your friends’. No one can say that we weren’t warned. Also Beach should have seen this coming: there was a genealogy to this particularly conspiracy. It seems that the Jesuits really were behind Lincoln’s death! Thanks to James Dean for sending the link in and thanks to Phil!
Headhunting: Invisible has some modern cases of head-hunting: ‘Do honor-killings count in the head-hunting category? As an impressionable student I saw a book in the library called (I think) Faces of Death (I believe it was made by the same people who later did a series of notorious videos of the same name). In it was a photo of the head of a young Indian woman wrapped in plastic. It had been found on a British railway line. She had been decapitated by her father either for refusing the marriage arranged for her or for having a boyfriend. This would have been in the very early 1970s. I have never forgotten it.’ And, of course, earlier than Edith’s account of the Balkans, the heads of traitors exposed on London Bridge COULD be considered a kind of headhunting, if you want to stretch a point…. I have read (and I have no wish to go in search of visual sources) that shrunken heads of prisoners were found in German concentration camps. Lawrence Douglas, ‘The Shrunken Head of Buchenwald: Icons of Atrocity at Nuremberg,’ Visual Culture and the Holocaust, (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2001) p. 275.’ Then Comfortably Numb writes in with some personal memories though from outside Europe: ‘I lived in East Timor for two years, while working in a UN Mission there (2000/1). Head chopping is a common struggle tactic in East Asia, and many corpses in East Timor were found without their heads (some heads were never found). In Indonesia, it is common to read news about head chopping in the Mollucas islands, for instance. In Papua, I was told that head shrinking is still practiced in some areas, and so on. I bet my money that those heads are involved in ritual practices. I think in Africa it won’t be that different. Just think of the bad luck that albinos experience in some African countries.’ And Mad Monk Andy remembers head-hunting among US troops in Vietnam. Thanks to Comfortably Numb, Andy and Invisible!
Celtic Tribe in Asia: Billie writes in with this link to the controversial Celtic mummies of western China. These are Caucasian, the controversy is whether they can really be aligned to Celtic culture (a slippery concept). Rejected or accepted they certainly belong in this post though! Cory also writes in with some considerations: ‘I just read your Celtic Tribe in Kazakhstan post — and I suspect it’s only the tip of a very large iceberg. This is one of those topics I have on my ‘look into this some day and don’t shoot off your mouth about it until you do’ list — but there are a few points I think I can offer without being too much in danger of saying anything really stupid: (1) Northern Eurasia has often formed something very close to a single cultural sphere, from Europe to Siberia. The late Paleolithic culture that produced the “Venus” figurines reached from France to Lake Baikal. The horse-drawn chariots that originated in Central Asia had by 1200 BC appeared everywhere from Ireland to China (where, if I recall correctly, the word for “horse” is of Indo-European origin.) The domain of the Mongols in the 13th century stretched from the Khanate of the Golden Horde in southern Russia to the empire of Kublai Khan. (2) This is one of the bits I’m less sure about, but I believe this cultural zone was most unified during cold periods, when much of it was open steppe, and tended to fragment at warmer times when it was broken up by areas of forest. The period between about 900 and 300 BC was one of those cold spells (as was the 13th century AD), and this was the time when both the Scyths and the Celts underwent their greatest cultural expansion and also interacted to one another culturally to a great extent — which is particularly evident in the similarly stylized art of both peoples. (3) The world of 900-300 BC was not at all like the more familiar classical world of c. 300 BC – 300 AD. In particular, the northern cultures were a great deal more vibrant and exploratory than those of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The Celts were powerful enough to attack both Greece and Rome, and the Greeks themselves had more direct knowledge of the lands north and west of the Black Sea around 500 BC or so than they retained even a couple of centuries later, when they had begun to consider the northern peoples as far-off barbarians. (4) Some 10 or 15 years ago, I ran into something online arguing that a number of elements in Arthurian romance were derived from Scythian mythology — particularly the Sword in the Stone and related materials. Whoever wrote it wanted to blame the association on Scythian-born Roman legionaries posted to Britain, which I found quite unconvincing, but the possibility of an earlier transmission would make a lot more sense. [Beach: the book in question is Littleton and Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot] (5) And to expand the topic even further, there are a couple of very specific themes which appear in both Celtic and Japanese mythology — too specific to be the result of either coincidence or independent invention — but this is getting into the area where I have lots of question marks and no hard answers. If the connection is genuine, though, my best guess is that it goes back to this same 900-300 BC period, when the ancestors of present-day Japanese were still located somewhere in Korea.’ Thanks a million, Cory and Billie!
Self Castration: First up is Andy the Mad Monk who confesses to shock that Beachcombing didn’t mention Cybele. Apologies from Beach who even once included Cybele in book, though it might not have made it through to the published version. ‘I was rather surprised that you did not mention the Roman cult of Cybele for this topic – part of the rites was self-castration. There is a good picture of one of the implements used. I believe the original is on display at the Museum of London. Horrific though it looks, it is not that different from those used for livestock today. Andy the mad monk (still wincing at the thought)’ Then Ricardo R has put Beach onto one of the most productive schizophrenics in history, William Chester Morris who in 1902 lopped off not his testicles, but his own penis. Mother of God, Mother of God… Rayg from Segal Books has a particularly sad case: The 1845 Mental Maladies: a Treatise on Insanity reports the case of Matthew Lovat, who castrated himself, then went on to devising a way to crucify himself. ‘Matthew Lovat, a shoemaker of Venice, who was controlled by certain mystical notions, castrated himself, and threw the genitals out of the window. He had prepared himself beforehand, with every thing necessary to dress the wound, and experienced no serious consequences from it. Some time afterwards, he persuaded himself that God had commanded him to suffer death upon the cross. He reflected two years upon the mode of executing his project, and occupied himself in preparing instruments for his sacrifice. At length, the day arrives. Lovat crowns himself with thorns, three or four of which penetrate the skin of his brow. A white handkerchief, tied tightly around the flanks and thighs, conceals the mutilated parts. The rest of the body is naked. He takes his seat upon the middle of the cross, which he has made, and adjusts his feet upon a bracket, which was attached to the inferior branch of it. The right foot reposes upon the left, and he transfixes them both, with a nail five inches in length, which he drives, with a hammer, to a considerable depth into the wood. He then transfixes successively, both his hands, with long and very sharp nails, by striking the heads of them against the side of his chamber. He then raises his hands thus pierced, and brings them in contact with those which he had previously placed at the extremity of the two arms of the cross, in order to cause the nails, there placed, to penetrate his hands. Before nailing the right hand, he avails himself of it, to make, with a sharp shoemaker’s knife, a large wound in the left side of his chest. This done, with the assistance of cords previously prepared, and slight movements of the body, he causes the cross to slip, which falls outside of the window, and Lovat remained suspended in front of the house. On the following day, he was still there. The right hand, alone, was detached from the cross, and hung by his side. They removed the wretched man from this terrible situation, and brought him immediately to the Imperial clinical college. M. Ruggieri perceived that no wound was mortal. Lovat recovered from his wounds, but not from his delirium. It was observed that during the exasperation of the delirium, he did not complain, whilst he suffered dreadfully, during his lucid intervals. He was transferred to the hospital for imbeciles, where he exhausted himself by voluntary fasts, and died physically, April 8th, 1806.’ Then KMH writes in with a precious east European topic ‘with the voluntary castration topic, you might investigate the Bogomils, an extreme Byzantine Christian sect which advocated and practiced voluntary castration to a certain degree‘. Thanks Andy, KMH, Rayg and Ricardo!!
Ravens at the Tower: Boria Sax kindly writes in to Beach to let him know that he has just finished and will soon be publishing a new book on the Tower and the ravens: ‘The story has so many facets that it is just about impossible to cover all of them in an article, but this is more comprehensive. It tells how the Welsh druidic scholar, bard, and forger Iolo Morganwg convinced the Earls of Dunraven that their castle in Glamorgan was the original seat of Bran, prompting them to send ravens as a sort of spiritual claim to the Tower in 1883. The Yeoman Warders then used the ravens as prompts in Gothic tales that they related to tourists, as the Tower of London was marketed as a house of horrors. But the strangest and most interesting part might be the story of how the legend came about that Britain will fall if the ravens leave, in July 1944 when the ravens were being used as unofficial spotters for enemy bombs and planes.’ Thanks Prof Sax!
Mannerheim’s Cigar: JEC writes in with some thoughts on the transcript linked above: ‘I’m uncertain how closely the recording and transcripts correspond. I can’t say the transcripts are incorrect because I don’t have the German. My study of the language was limited to two introductory semesters some 40 years ago, and although I was instructed by the formidable Mrs Ursula Hendon (who as a teenager had lived in her native Berlin throughout the war, and whose stories of survival during her attempt to reach the Elbe after the collapse of German resistance left her classroom of American youngsters awestruck at the horrors she encountered), I can recognize perhaps one in every 6-8 spoken words here, if that much. But professionally I’ve handled a good many tapes and transcripts, and have gained a certain feel for taped conversations and how they look and feel when reduced to words. At the risk of sounding ridiculous to those who are fluent German speakers/readers/listeners, it seems to me that the last person we hear on the tape 1) is not Hitler, and 2) is Mannerheim. The voices just sound different (but the last speaker’s remarks don’t appear in the transcripts). I hear some rich and very fruity ‘eu’s’ in the last speaker’s words, which bring to mind the land of lutefisk and reindeer jerky. So it’s my guess it is Mannerheim, responding to the endless Hitlerian pontification which precedes. Otherwise, there is a good deal more talk on the tapes than is reflected in transcripts. Also, here is another somewhat different transcript that seems a little longer, and a tad easier to read, at least for me. How could it be that the same one or two transcripts could be as wrong/incomplete as I allege? Well, I admit it’s pretty hard, except that the internet does have a way of perpetuating more errors, longer than any other method yet devised by man. So maybe no one with the ability has taken the time to compare the tape with the transcript(s). Or maybe I’m just completely full of it. I know which way the smart money is betting….‘ Ha! Thanks, as always, JEC!
Roman Mosaic in Bra Shop: This post has been going around and around in Beach’s head. Is there still a bra shop? Can you still descend into the cellar and pay a shilling to see the painted floor? He got in touch with Leicestershire Information shop where DG sent in this reply. ‘The corset shop is long gone, buried under the Holiday Inn, but the Roman mosaic, together with several other locally-discovered mosaics and other Roman etc artefacts is on view in the nearby Jewry Wall Museum. The museum is open daily between February and October (entry is free) but closed between November and January, except for special events.’ Thanks DG!
Nanjing Belt: Marcy writes in to say, ‘If temperatures of only 1220 F are required to extract aluminum from soil, then the Chinese should be ruling the world. Their porcelains have been fired to temperatures well over 2500 F for millenia. The “standard” among American potters is currently (2011) called ‘cone 6′. Cone six is attained between 2230 and 2250 Fahrenheit. Even in the USA some dedicated potters fire to cone 10 and cone 13. That covers 2380 to 2455 Fahrenheit. There must be a strong interaction between pottery and metallurgy.’ Thanks Marcy!
Atlantic Frogs: Open Sesame write in: ‘Interesting, you jest about flying fish (for obvious reasons) but perhaps we have here a shoal of fish that was jumping on the surface, perhaps a fish that looks rather unusual? What I don’t understand is how an animal that is the size of a frog (essentially square) can have a sting or protrusion. I can’t think of any animal of this type. Can you?’ NO! Invisible is ready to substantiate Open Sesame’s suggestions, ‘I was thinking of a Great Weever or stingfish as a possible candidate for the frog-sized creatures that frightened the Irish. They have a spur or crest on their heads/back that is very venomous. They also have a very froggy face and often have lichen-like bumps and nubs on their faces and bodies, possibly making them grotesque enough that they were not recognized as fish. The Lesser Weever primarily lurks in the shallows, but the Great Weever can be found in deeper waters. It is normally not found further north than the southern part of the North Sea. Weevers do not have swim bladders and sink if they stop swimming. If the creatures seen by the Irish were Weevers, perhaps the group was swept away from some shore and was struggling to keep afloat or perhaps they were in a feeding or mating frenzy. But they may be too large to be an attractive choice. Or could they have been an out-of-place shoal of stingrays? The pelagic stingray (Pteroplatytrygon violacea) is found as far north as Newfoundland and the North Sea. And it migrates. It moves by flapping its ‘wings’. The trouble is, it is not very froggy in appearance, although certainly gelatinous, especially en masse, They also grow to be about 2 feet wide, much larger than a frog. Their stings are an obvious threat. Perhaps there is another, smaller species. The impeding of the oars suggests a smack of jellyfish, but could they be found that far north? Of course there is also the possibility that something really random happened – like a school of monster fish from the abyss (think viperfish with their big fangs) being hurled to the surface by undersea volcanoes off Iceland. What are the odds? All of this speculation requires so many unusual/special circumstances that it seems unlikely that the mystery will be solved at this remove.‘ Then Peter Wadhams, a Prof at Cambridge writes in with the following thoughts ‘I am sure that the description was of something real, as accounts of strange wonders in other reports of Irish monks’ skin boat voyages (e.g. Brendan – I see you have illustrated your article with the Brendan replica) usually refer to real phenomena e.g. mountain of crystal in sea = iceberg etc. I wonder if this collection of ‘frogs’ could be a group of young horseshoe crabs, limulus polyphemus? The shape is right – their carapace has a brown horny and slightly knobbly texture which resembles the skin of a frog, and it might be that small young creatures are green rather than brown (I have only seen adults, which grow to about 2 ft long). The case really rests with the ‘sting’. This is clearly not a mouth or jaw (i.e. not a viperfish) but something which they can poke into leather and make a hole. The horseshoe crab has just such a sharp protuberance coming out of its rear end, and a group of such creatures (they are not really fish, nor are they crabs, they are a very primitive group related to spiders) could easily have frightened the monks into thinking that their boat was about to get holed. The only trouble is that horseshoe crabs live on the seabed in shallow water, and also their normal range extends up the Atlantic coast only as far as the east coast of Canada. These monks may not have been heading due north, which would have put them into Icelandic waters, but maybe NW into NE Canadian waters, and it is possible that they reached a shallow bank and disturbed a group of young crabs that were bottom feeding and surfaced around them.’ Ailsa offers, meanwhile, an interesting minority opinion: ‘The Mid Atlantic ‘Frogs’ experienced by the intrepid Irish monks, could they have been some sort of crustacea? Maybe attracted to the boat by the ‘smell’ of the hide’. Tacitus writes in with one of his posts on a fishing expedition. Enjoy the picture of the fish splashing out of the water: did the Gaels sail into something like this? Thanks OS and thanks Invisible and thanks too to Prof Wadhams and Ailsa and Tacitus! RQR77UBMNWQX
Female Warriors: New Moon writes in with a useful site. Women Warriors in History. Naturally missed on Beach’s extensive web research. ‘Your article about the Woman warriors of Benin also reminded me of something I read many years ago about a Welsh princess called Gwenllian who fought against the Normans. There’s some historical information here plus a ghost story.’ Invisible also has a host of examples: ‘Not quite Amazons, but like the Dahomean women warriors, the burrnesha, ‘sworn virgins’ of Albania, changed their sex to live like men. Highlighted here is a relatively recent article about the lives of these women. I thought also of ‘The Grenadier Squaw’ a Shawnee ‘Peace’ (rather than War) Chief, but I cannot find that she actually did much fighting. This from an Ohio Historical Society plaque, is a quick summary of her story. Grenadier Squaw was chief of the largest Shawnee Indian village, located on the south bank of Scippo Creek, upon the Pickaway Plains in 1774. Born about 1720, Non-hel-e-ma, sister of Chief Cornstalk, was named ‘Grenadier Squaw’ by white traders because of her imposing stature, regal bearing and unflinching courage. She spoke three languages, serving as peacemaker and interpreter between Indians and whites. Because of her friendship, she accepted Christianity. After the peace treaty in 1774, she was disowned by her people and became a homeless exile. (if you scroll down there is a short article about the Grenadier Squaw.) And just for fun, Helga the Terrible and a film. And another Viking ‘Freydís Eiríksdóttir, Erik the Red’s natural daughter. (Not the best translation I’ve seen, but you can read the original on the website.) ‘Now it came to pass that a bull, which belonged to Karlsefni’s people, rushed out of the wood and bellowed loudly at the same time. The Skrælingar, frightened thereat, rushed away to their canoes, and rowed south along the coast. There was then nothing seen of them for three weeks together. When that time was gone by, there was seen approaching from the south a great crowd of Skrælingar boats, coming down upon them like a stream, the staves this time being all brandished in the direction opposite to the sun’s motion, and the Skrælingar were all howling loudly. Then took they and bare red shields to meet them. They encountered one another and fought, and there was a great shower of missiles. The Skrælingar had also war-slings, or catapults.Then Karlsefni and Snorri see that the Skrælingar are bringing up poles, with a very large ball attached to each, to be compared in size to a sheep’s stomach, dark in colour; and these flew over Karlsefni’s company towards the land, and when they came down they struck the ground with a hideous noise. This produced great terror in Karlsefni and his company, so that their only impulse was to retreat up the country along the river, because it seemed as if crowds of Skrælingar were driving at them from all sides. And they stopped not until they came to certain crags. There they offered them stern resistance.Freydis came out and saw how they were retreating. She called out, ‘Why run you away from such worthless creatures, stout men that ye are, when, as seems to me likely, you might slaughter them like so many cattle? Let me but have a weapon, I think I could fight better than any of you.’ They gave no heed to what she said. Freydis endeavoured to accompany them, still she soon lagged behind, because she was not well; she went after them into the wood, and the Skrælingar directed their pursuit after her. She came upon a dead man; Thorbrand, Snorri’s son, with a flat stone fixed in his head; his sword lay beside him, so she took it up and prepared to defend herself therewith.Then came the Skrælingar upon her. She let down her sark and struck her breast with the naked sword. At this they were frightened, rushed off to their boats, and fled away. Karlsefni and the rest came up to her and praised her zeal. Two of Karlsefni’s men fell, and four of the Skrælingar, notwithstanding they had overpowered them by superior numbers. After that, they proceeded to their booths, and began to reflect about the crowd of men which attacked them upon the land; it appeared to them now that the one troop will have been that which came in the boats, and the other troop will have been a delusion of sight. The Skrælingar also found a dead man, and his axe lay beside him. One of them struck a stone with it, and broke the axe. It seemed to them good for nothing, as it did not withstand the stone, and they threw it down.’ I love the image of this heavily pregnant woman, baring her breast and slapping it with a probably bloodied sword. In her later adventures, she leads expeditions, cons her husband into killing a rival by claiming he assaulted her, and murders a number of innocent women with an axe when her men refuse to do so. Not at all a nice woman, but she certainly had the gift of leading by intimidation.’ Thanks New Moon and Invisible!!
Strange Speeches: Beachcombing woke up to a few comments on these videos, including a couple suggesting that he had exaggerated with Alexander and Thatcher: perhaps these enter too much his own private mythology? However, the first substantial contribution is from Ten Gallon: ‘I was wondering about a category of accidental speeches. The obvious one is Reagan ‘outlawing Russia’ on an accidentally recorded outtake in a radio studio. And people say we came close with the Cuban Missile Crisis… Then also a vague memory of a Carter visit to Poland where Carter had a very poor translator. On arrival, my memory is that his translator told his hosts that he had come to seek refuge and that he wanted carnal relations with the Poles! I stress again that this is my memory.’ Ten Gallon’s memory seems to be in order! Tokyobling writes ‘I have more speeches in languages other than English at the top of my head right now. I am sure the speech that Yukio Mishima gave at the Ichigaya barracks in central Tokyo right before he committed harakiri after his failed coup-de-etat belongs right up there on the list though, no matter what language he gave it in. Apparently his speech wasn’t even heard as the soldiers who had gathered in the yard below the balcony jeered and mocked him and his followers so loudly. While we are on the subject of Mishima, he gave very long, rambling, funny and cute speeches in English, totally different than his Japanese speeches. As for more inspired stuff, you might try the English translation of Kawabata Yasunari’s nobel prize acceptance speech, ‘Japan, the Beautiful, and Myself’. Good stuff. Or, my favorite Swedish speech would be the unofficial ‘president of the Republic of Jamtland’, Ewert Ljusberg’s 1996 speech mocking the French President for his nuclear testing in the Pacific. Translated from Swedish and my memory, here is the most memorable line: ‘So what do we say to this crazy power hungry French President? We call him for what he is! Quack, Quack, Jacques Chirac! Quack, Quack, Jacques Chirac!’ (whereupon a full city square in one of Sweden’s province capitals starts chanting this line, like a duck! Unforgettable and a long runner on Swedish TV. Funny if you saw it, less so if you hear it retold 15 years after the event, in some rambling email, I admit. But surely, even though he might not be serious about it, the king of bizarre speeches must be your very own Sir Stanley Unwin?’ Pure gold, Tokyobling. Then AC writes in to point out that the Berlusconi obscenity is not, in fact, Berlusconi but a Berlusconi look alike, Maurizio Antonini who has SB’s moves down. Apologies Silvio. Beach has put up an alternative that is, in its own way, almost as good. Thanks AC, Ten Gallon and Tokyobling!
A Frightening Roman Cat: Invisible writes in with a modern equivalent that reminds Beach of an Evelyn Waugh short story where a dog bites off a flapper’s nose, but we digress: ‘The Strange Tale of a Resentful Cat: A Story That the Reader May Think Requires an Affidavit From the Boston Transcript, Reported in The New York Times April 14, 1895 Blossom is a big gray cat. She has been in the family for seven years, and her mistress thinks she was fully ten when she came uninvited and took possession. Her charms made her welcome, and visitors, as a rule, pet her to her heart’s satisfaction. Still, she shows her loyalty to her mistress by many feline felicities. One day a young man came for a short visit. He was an inveterate tease. As there was no one else for a victim, he took Blossom in hand, in spite of pleadings and protestations. Her ears were greeted with the strange terms, ’Old rascal’ ‘Scapegrace’, ‘Tramp’, and kindred names, till the astounded cat did not know what had come to her. Her pretty ways disappeared, she fled form his approach, and hid whenever she could till he was out of the house. One morning she was missing for some hours, and was not to be found in any of her hiding places. A loud cry from the chambermaid revealed her whereabouts. Blossom had revenged herself on the visitor’s nightshirt, which lay in tatters on the floor. Pussy was scolded and every one was cautioned to keep the door shut. In vain! The cat would find her way in and hide till the chambermaid was through for the day, and then the claws went to work, first on the visitor’s own clothes if any could be found, and then on the pillow cases. The young man tried to soothe her feelings, but she would have none of him, and he was glad to cut short his visit. Blossom quickly recovered her usual demeanor, and has never been known to destroy anything from that day to this.’ Thanks Invisible!!
Last Words, Last Lies: Maxim Gun writes on the falsification of last words: ‘It is not strictly speaking ‘last words’ because the sentence in question was uttered by Stanton not Lincoln. But Stanton did not say, at Lincoln’s death bed, ‘Now he belongs to the ages’ but the less impressive ‘now he belongs to the angels’! It was later that day that he edited out the unhappy first version and replaced it with the second, the version all texts, of course, carry.’ Thanks MG!
Flying in Tibet: First off is KMH who puts this all in perspective: ‘These Eastern tales of levitation pale in comparison to Western Christian accounts… Levitation may be a peculiarly Christian gift, perhaps stemming from Christ’s miracle of walking on water. Of course, levitation isn’t as popular in literature as flying carpets. But they do seem to be quite exaggerated in actual number and incidents.’ Next up JCE with a complaint: ‘I would be very interested, as I’m sure would the majority of your followers, in seeing any video of feats of gravity defiance. I have to this point been disappointed in videos which claim to depict lotus-sitting fliers, because they are most assuredly still firmly under the iron-fisted jurisdiction of the law of gravity. Their vigorous buttock-thrusting attempts at levitation do make for amusing viewing however, especially since the erstwhile floaters I have seen convinced themselves that their otherwise unremarkable bouncing was indeed ‘flying’. Truly, do you have access to any arguably persuasive videos demonstrating the technique? Because I think that will be the only way skeptics about these claims of levitation like myself will have the smugness slapped out of us.’ As one of those ‘skeptics’ Beach is not holding his breath. But the closest he has yet found came in an email from Randy (who does not though make a claim for flying!): ‘Back in the 1990s a Canadian magician, Doug Henning, was at the top of his game when for some odd reason he decided to go into politics by way of The Natural Law Party. The members of this party were called ‘Yogic Flyers’. The video speaks for itself and appears to have some relationship to your Tibetan bouncers. As an aside, the ‘party’ started in Britain… Here is a link showing the yogis doing some flying…’ It is not exactly ten or eleven feet in the air! Thanks to JCE, KMH and Randy!
Strange Instruments: Ricardo continues with his work on musical instruments. ‘I asked a musician friend of mine for added comments and here is the transcript. He also does his own instruments, usually works with radio feedback. Which reminds me of people playing tesla coils… But, anyway, my friend told there is a mistake in your posting and reminded me of another fantastic instrument of which I have a record I dearly love, the daxaphone. ‘The vegetable orchestra is from Vienna, not Vietnam [now corrected]. One lovely instrument, which really amazes me, and only has two players in the world, as far as I know, is the daxophone. It was invented by Hans Reichel, and it is pieces of wood in various forms that are being bowed. All sounds on this website are made with the daxophone linked above. Amazing thing really. the only other musician who plays it is Uchihashi Kazuhisa. Then there is the Printar of Dan Wilson, a mix of dot matrix printer and guitar.’ This reminded me that the only dot matrix printer musicians I knew off were [The User], a duo of Canadians. And these did another amazing thing, they got this huge, abandoned silo and set it up has a huge resonant chamber to which people could send their sound through the internet and, so, in a way, play the silo. It’s the… silophone!’ Andy the Mad Monk, meanwhile, writes in with this tip off, ‘You are always looking for unusual musical instruments – well, what about the Pyrophone? An organ powered by flaming gas. And here you can even see (and hear) one being played. (I also found a number on you-tube, but this has the purest tone)‘ Thanks Ricardo and Ricardo’s friend and, of course, Andy!!
Surviving Hanging: SY writes in with a possible example of surviving hanging. The year is 1678. ‘The clothed remains of the four hanged Shaws, were cast into a hole purposely dug for them in Greyfriars’ Kirkyard, at Edinburgh. But on the following morning the corpse of the youngest of them, who was barely sixteen could not be found. ‘Some thought’ writes Lord Fountainhall, ‘that being last thrown over the ladder ad first cut down, and in full vigour, and not much earth placed upon him, and lying uppermost, and so not so ready to smother, the fermentation of the blood and the heat of the bodies under him might cause him to rebound and throw off the earth, and recover ere the morning and steal away, which, if true, he deserved his life, though the magistrates deserved a reprimand. But others, more probably thought his body was stolen away by some chirurgeon or his servant to make an anatomical dissection on.’ Macgregor, the Buried Barony, p. 65. Thanks SY!
Cyclops Origins: Adam C writes in with a reflection on one-eyed sheep: ‘The following [see picture] is an example of the non-human ‘cyclopia’ that occurs in the wild (alongside the human cases you mentioned) and how some areas may even produce whole batches of one-eyed creatures, and is also a slightly bizarre story in itself from Forbes: Idaho sheep ranchers couldn’t figure out why, in the decade after World War II, a random batch of their lambs were being born with strange birth defects. The creatures had underdeveloped brains and a single eye planted, cyclopslike, in the middle of their foreheads. In 1957 they called in scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate. The scientists worked for 11 years to solve the mystery. One of them, Lynn James, lived with the sheep for three summers before discovering the culprit: corn lilies. When the animals moved to higher ground during droughts, they snacked on the flowers. The lilies, it turned out, contained a poison, later dubbed cyclopamine, that stunted developing lamb embryos. The mothers remained unharmed. […] But now cancer researchers have improbably seized on the obscure plant chemical as the blueprint for a half-dozen promising tumor-fighters. Cyclopamine, it turns out, blocks the function of a gene called Sonic hedgehog that is essential for embryonic development but also plays a lead role in causing deadly cancers of the pancreas, skin, prostate and esophagus.’
Viking Grave: Round Judith writes in with a link to the Guardian and further work on this mass burial in Dorset. Before the article disappears behind the pay wall, Beach will excerpt some of it: ‘The fashion for dental bling goes back 1,000 years, according to a new discovery by archaeologists. Long before contemporary trends for gold dental caps or teeth inlaid with diamonds became popular, young Viking warriors were having patterns filed into their teeth… The front teeth [in the grave] have horizontal lines that were so neatly filed, archaeologists believe it must have been done by a skilled craftsman rather than by their owners, and the process undoubtedly would have been excruciating. David Score, of Oxford Archaeology, the unit which has been studying the bones since they were discovered in a pit near Weymouth in 2009, said: ‘It’s difficult to say how painful the process of filing teeth may have been, but it wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience. The purpose behind filed teeth remains unclear but as we know these men were warriors, it may have been to frighten opponents in battle or to show their status as a great fighter.’’
Tibetans in the Wehrmacht: Mike Dash writes in to help with this old, old post: ‘I can’t assist with the original source, but it does sound to me as though Orwell’s tale is related to (or possibly the source of) the infamous ‘Tibetans with green gloves’ story that pops up in various not very reliable accounts of the Nazis and their supposed interest in the occult. According to this version of events, these guys were adepts of some sort brought to Germany by Himmler for help in magical rituals, and found dead in the ruins of Berlin. Different versions of the story have their numbers varying from 6 to about 1,000. II suspect this version got its start with Pauwels and Bergier (not much of a recommendation). They debuted it in The Morning of the Magicians back in the early 1960s. As you probably know, another possible source of ‘Tibetans in Germany’ stories is tales based on Ernst Schäfer’s 1938 pseudoscientific Tibet expedition. It all supposedly links back to the Thule Society, which even reputable historians (Kershaw etc) acknowledge was a bit part player in the early history of the NSDAP. Anyway, see here and here for the green gloves stuff. These are just examples of the numerous online references to this story.’ A year on Beach is sure that the other reference exists. Beach will also give a plug here to Chris Hale’s Himmler’s Crusade. Thanks Mike!
Cave Art Cobblers: Jack reminds Beachcombing of perhaps an even earlier sorcerer, though in reality no one knows what is being portrayed, ‘the Venus of Chauvet’ (another post, another day). The consensus is that we are looking at a patch of pubic hair and another sorcerer. Beach should add that the picture appears on a rock outcrop.
SY also writes in to note that ‘Ronald Hutton claims that ‘the figure drawn by Breuil is not the same as the one actually painted on the cave wall’ and that Breuil was fitting his drawing around some of his own prejudices about hunting magic: source, naturally, Wikipedia!’ However, Beach also got an email from renowned wanw expert Jean Clottes author of the brilliant Cave Art and the important Shamans of Prehistory who writes in to assuage RH’s and Beachcombing’s apprehensions. After some basic corrections of fact all now integrated (paleolithic for neolithic, Dordogne not the Pyrenees, and 1914 not 1911 for the Trois-Frères) JC gets down to business: ‘the photo of the Sorcerer you refer to is truncated at the top (which is why you cannot see the antlers: in any case, the antlers were engraved and are as a consequence far more difficult to photograph than the painted lines)’. JC’s opinion on the quality of Breuil’s tracing is emphatic: ‘Breuil’s tracing is quite honest and admitted by all specialists who have seen the so-called Sorcerer in the cave (I have seen it myself perhaps 20 times over the years (last time about one month ago) and I can assure you that it is quite well preserved and genuine!’ JC also notes in passing that in Les Trois-Frères ‘there is another image of a hybrid creature (a man standing with human legs, but with a big tail and the head of a bison, playing some musical instrument, probably a nose-flute) and that in a cave called Gabillou (in the Dordogne), there is another mythical creature quite similar (bison head with horns, tail, human arm and leg) right at the end of the cave (see its photo in J. Clottes, Cave Art, Phaidon, p. 129)’.Then Ronald Hutton kindly wrote in on this point, ‘My point about the figure was that none of the experts in period to whom I had spoken (until Professor Clottes intervened) could agree exactly on what details in Breuil’s iconic portrait were actually present in the original. Professor Clottes is actually the very first whom I have encountered to vouch for the lot. As the Breuil representation was so clear and so constantly reproduced, this raised interesting questions in my mind about the nature of scholarly orthodoxies. My intervention was only to invite specialists to check the original more closely and reach an agreement over it: which does not yet seem to have happened.’ Thanks to Jack, to SY for the Ronald Hutton quotation, Ronald Hutton himself and thanks to Professor Clottes for giving Beach his sorcerer back!!!!
Last Cavalry Charge: Voxing History has written a linked post on the question of the last US cavalry charge: ‘The answer may surprise you: it was during World War II. It happened January 16, 1942 near the village of Morong on the Bataan Peninsula, during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, when the U.S. Army’s 26th Cavalry surprised a Japanese infantry unit and scattered them. [1] A nice painting commemorating the charge can be viewed here. But didn’t they have tanks and jeeps and half-tracks in World War II? Sure they did, but while the Army began the process of mechanization during World War I, this process was not complete even at the start of World War II. There was still a little room for an old-fashioned cavalry charge.’ Thanks Voxing History!
Missing Holmes: CCBC writes in to say: ‘I am probably not the first to remind you of the Case of the Giant Rat of Sumatra, which the world is not yet ready to hear. Adrian Doyle and others have attempted to temper that tale to modern ears but… What I may be the first to mention is the astonishing playlet created around that story (wherein humour is employed to blunt horror). Also, have you discovered Ellery Queen’s The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes? Or the Solar Pons tales by August Derleth?’ Beach is ignorant on all counts. KMH, meanwhile, has a more general consideration: ‘The Sherlock Holmes literature marks the beginning of a fantasy-oriented counter-reaction to the general decline in manners and morals in the 19th century, and continuing on to the present day. One affect of this decline is the increase in crime and difficulty in convicting criminals by traditional methods, perhaps abetted by some corruption in government and police officials. So, in contrast to reality, we initially have a spawn of purely fictional detectives, beginning with Holmes, brilliantly solving crimes and vicariously satisfying the public’s appetite for justice (and good prevailing over evil). Fast forward to the 20th century and justice is being given a helping hand by even more extreme fantasy figures such as Batman, Superman, Xmen, etc. all of which possess extraordinary advantages beyond the brilliant detective talent. Of course, this is at a time when real respect for government, law and order, and justice appears to be at an historical low. The recent popularity of a number of television dramas involving forensic experts (CSI, NCIS, etc) follows this development by employing advanced scientific techniques which few, if any, agencies have the training for, or can even remotely afford. Where does the ‘justice hero syndrome’ originate from? It seems to derive from the expectation of Christ’s Second Coming to right all wrongs, punish all criminals, and institute a true government free of corruption, as the greatest of heroic acts. Today this expectation is stronger than ever as evidence that we are in the ‘last days’ continues to accumulate. What next? Perhaps the next justice heroes could be aliens or extraterrestrials landing in flying saucers to eliminate the criminal psychology and set humanity back on the right course.’Then comes Phil P. ‘Regarding ‘The Giant Rat of Sumatra’, the science fiction/ fantasy author Fred Saberhagen dealt with this one and concocted an engaging tale in which Holmes and Dracula encountered one another in ‘The Holmes Dracula Files’. Alternating chapters are narrated by Dr. Watson. I believe you would enjoy it.’ Damn right! Thanks KMH and CCBS and Phil P!
Worthing Oak: Chris Hare writes in (see ‘Mr Hare’ in the Argus piece above) explaining that there is now a meeting at the oak at Midsummers Eve ‘Our ‘ritual’ dates from the ‘saving’ of the tree in 2006. It is spread by word-of-mouth and not advertised. We get between 15 and 30 people showing up at midnight. Jacqueline Simpson (arguably Britain’s greatest living folklorist) is often the centre of the festvities, even though she is now over 80. Next year Midsummer’s Eve (23rd June) is on a Saturday, so we could get our largest attendance ever.’ Thanks Chris, what Beachcombing would give to be there…
Flogging: Dweeble writes, ‘Doc, I can’t believe that you wrote a piece on flogging and forgot to mention late birching on the Isle of Man that carried on right into the late 1970s. I have not been able to find the last date.’ Thanks Dweeble!
Fury and Cannibalism: Java Man writes in with the story that George Bush senior was almost eaten by senior Japanese officers – ‘a hinge moment?’, writes Java Man: ‘The former President George Bush narrowly escaped being beheaded and eaten by Japanese soldiers when he was shot down over the Pacific in the Second World War, a shocking new history published in America has revealed. The book, Flyboys, is the result of historical detective work by James Bradley, whose father was among the marines later photographed raising the flag over the island of Iwo Jima. Lt George Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, in September 1944 – and was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese. The horrific fate of the other eight ‘flyboys’ was established in subsequent war crimes trials on the island of Guam, but details were sealed in top secret files in Washington to spare their families distress. Mr Bradley has established that they were tortured, beaten and then executed, either by beheading with swords or by multiple stab-wounds from bayonets and sharpened bamboo stakes. Four were then butchered by the island garrison’s surgeons and their livers and meat from their thighs eaten by senior Japanese officers.’ Tokyobling also has cannibal memories: ’When thinking about the disgustig topic of cannibalism in modern times, one remembers the photos and reports of the Finno-Soviet war 1940-1945 that were declassified a couple of years ago to much disgust. Reports of field kitchens where Soviet soldiers cooked their fallen comrades, etc, half eaten limbs among starving encircled Soviet bivouacs. This should be readily googleable (spelling?). One also remembers the tales of cannibalism during the Cultural Revolution in China, where bullying and collective cannibalism merged in a disgusting soup. There should be plenty of stuff out there to google, especially the story of the girl who ate parts of her stepfather in order to show her defiance to his capitalist ways’. Thanks JM and Tokyobling!
RIP William Corliss: JD ‘with a black armband’ writes in to note that this obituary and a few others have now been gathered on WC’s site. No indication yet though as to whether it will stay up or not. SY quotes Yeats ‘and all the authorities are agreed it was a sad, sad day on which he died’. Invisible, meanwhile writes in with this information, ‘I just called the number on the sourcebook page and was told that, while they don’t take credit cards, I could send a check, so I’m ordering a bunch of books (I fear these will go out of print rapidly). The Ancient Infrastructure book is only $21.95 + ?? UK shipping. Can’t pass it up. They say that they take pounds sterling at ”prevailing rates”. ‘ Invisible also reflects that these books will likely become rare now. She is almost certainly right. Thanks JD and Invisible!
Against all Odds: TF writes in ‘I’m not sure if this qualifies, as I’m not sure of the relative tech levels, but Roger I of Sicily defeated a Muslim army which was besieging him at Cerami in 1063. Wikipedia gives 137 knights + 822 men at arms vs 50k Muslims so 52:1, which I imagine is probably incorrect on all sides, but maybe someone else has a good source?’ Thanks TF!
Mermaid Sighting in Caithness: Invisible sends two things in. First for Cryptozoologists and lovers of the strange this very peculiar link to Ningens. As Invisible says, it may be all photoshopped but it is strangely haunting. Next a series of six mermaid stories, none of which Beach has come across. 1) The Age, Middlesex, London, 30 July 1826 page 7, JONATHAN OUTDONE—The following appears in a Glasgow Paper: ‘A Gentleman, on whose veracity we can rely, informs us, that, as he was passing along the east-coast of Bute, within a mile of Rothsay, on Wednesday last, betwixt two and three o’clock, along with two other persons, they saw, within one yard of the shore, one of those animals, so long considered fabulous—a mermaid—combining her fine black locks with the utmost deliberation [sic], and apparently quite unconscious of the presence of more civilized beings! What rendered the occurrence more extraordinary, was the appearance, in the vicinity, of another large sea monster, having a body resembling that of a man, but with the head of a brute; and which disappeared whenever three Gentlemen came in sight!’ 2) Virginia Gazette From Friday, October 27, to Friday, November 3, 1738. Exon, July 21. The 12th Instant, just without Exmouth Bar, by Robert Heath (the Person who caught the two Fishes, by People in general called Mermaids, one Sept. 9, 1737, the other 6, last) was taken as strange, or stranger a Fish, supposed by many to be the Triton, or the Merman of the Antients, being four Feet and a half in Length, having a Body much resembling that of a Man, with a Genital Member of considerable Size; together with jointed Legs and Feet, extending from his Belly 12 or 13 Inches, with Fins at his Thighs, and larger ones, like Wings, in the Form of which those of Angels are often painted, at his Shoulders, with a broad Head of very uncommon Form, a Mouth Six Inches wide, Smellers, or kind of Whiskers, at his Nostrils, and two Spout Holes behind his Eyes, through which he ejected Water, when taken, 30 or 40 Feet high. 3) Virginia Gazette July 18, 1751, page 2 We hear that great Numbers of the Nobility and Gentry daily resort to see the wonderful SEA-MONSTER, generally allowed to be a SEA-LIONESS, taken on the Suffolk-Coast, as she lay asleep on the Beach December 23, 1749. This wonderful Fish is five Feet in Length, and four Feet round; it has a Head like a Bull-Dog, a Bear like a Lion and Her Fore-Fins (which represent the Hands of the Man) she makes Use of in a very surprising Manner; as wiping her Face and Eyes, and washing herself as naturally as a Christian. Her Hind-Fins are twelve Inches in Length, and fourteen in Breadth, her Tail (which is small) represents that of a Fawn. She is hairy like a Dog, spotted like a Leopard, as soft as Velvet, and so very tame that any Child may handle her, even while she is eating her Food, which is in a Cistern of Water salted. She eats six or seven Pounds of Flesh at a Meal, will kiss and give her Hand to her Keeper as a Dog will to his Master, and will roll and tumble at the Word of Command. She has been shewn twice before the Royal Family with great Applause, and allowed to be the greatest Curiosity in the three Kingdoms. 4) Virginia Gazette July 30, 1752, p. 2 Halifax, in Nova-Scotia, May 30. On Saturday last was taken within the Mouth of our Harbour, and on Monday brought to Town, a Sea-Monster, a Female of the Kind, whose Body was of about the Bigness of an Ox and something resembling one, covered with short Hair of a brownish Colour; the Skin near an Inch and a Half thick, very loose and rough, the Neck thick and short, resembling that of a Bull; the Head very small in Proportion to the Body, and considerably like an Aligator’s; in the upper Jaw were two Teeth, of about 9 or 10 Inches long, and crooked downwards, of considerable Gibness and Strength, supposed to be pure Ivory; the Legs very short and thick, ending with Finns and Claws like those of a Sea-Tortoise; the Flesh and Inwards of this Creature, upon being open’d appeared to resemble those of an Ox or Horse. It has been shewn here for several Days past, with Satisfaction to the Spectators and we hear the Fat of it is now trying up to make Oil. [Walrus? But wouldn’t they know a Walrus in Nova-Scotia?] 5) Virginia Gazette July 20, 1739, p 3 They write from Vigo in Spain , that some Fishermen lately took on that Coast a Sort of Monster, or Merman, 5 Feet and a Half from its Foot to its Head, which is like that of a Goat. It has a long Beard and Mustachoes; a back Skin, somewhat Hairy; a very long Neck, short Arms, and Hands longer and bigger than they ought to be in Proportion to the rest of the Body, long Fingers, like those of a Man, with Nails like Claws; very long Toes join’d like the Feet of a Duck, and the Heels furnish’d with Fins resembling the winged Feet with which the Painters represent Mercury. It has also a Fin at the lower End of its Back, which is 12 Inches long and 15 of 16 broad. 6) The World, London , 11-18-1791 p. 3 A large Sea Monster, of the porpoise kind, was thrown on shore on the coast, between Baldoyle and Clontarf, during a smart squall of wind on Thursday night last. When some men who were going to work, came up with it, it still retained life, but they dispatched it with their spades. It weighs near 400lb. and is remarkably hideous in its appearance. Its skin, stuffed, is to be made a present to the Museum in the Marine School .’ Impressive stuff! Thanks Invisible!
A good August to you all!
Beach
