BURIED CITY OF GOLD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2313, 9 August 1921, Page 4

BURIED CITY OF GOLD.

EAST PRUSSIAN MYTH,

THOUSANDS UNDER ITS SPELL.

People in the region of the battlefield of Tannenberg, in East Prussia, have been struck by an amazing form of mass madness or hallucination, for a parallel to which it .is necessary to go buck to the Middle Ages. Beside tho little village of Muschaken, 30 miles south of Allenstein, and close . to the Polish frontier, stands a triple-peaked height called Golden Mountain. The local sages say that the mouutain stands on tho site of a former city which existed 2000 vears ago. On account of the

avarice of a single inhabitant, the, city was put under a spell by evil spirits, who turned the whole place, including the people, into gold, and threw the mountain over it. A hundred and ten years ago, says another legend, a shepherd lad fell into a chasm on the mountain. When the body was recovered it had been turned into gold. Exactly 100 years ago another boy, it is related, was taken by a beautiful spirit into the mountain and.shown a sleeping city of gold—houses, churches, palaces, people, the king v on his throne, all-solid gold.

The hoy was told that to release the city from its ancient spell he must kiss twelve repulsive reptiles. He failed at the twelfth, which was a two-headed toad. The city was, therefore, condemned to a further century of imprisonment in gold. AN OLD MAN'S DREAM.

A few weeks ago a blind old woodman of the neighbouring village of Jabionken was “troubled by constant dreams, in which three spirits charged him with the task of releasing the city from the spell, and threatened that he would become a complete cripple if he refused to do as ho was told. He was to rouse the people of the neighbourhood to assemble constantly on the mountain, and sing and pray. The threats became more terrible, till at last he went off to the mountain, eight miles away, by a difficult road, and reached the top without mishap. He repeated the formula given him by the spirits, and immediately heard singing inside the mountain.

He told the people the story of his adventures, and they began to flock to the mountain. Then another man appeared on the scene, declaring that he had visited the city accompanied by ;v beautiful golden woman who sal on his shoulders and spurred him oil. He saw what the shepherd lad had seen, and impressed on the people that if the spell was broken the golden king would become king of all kings, with money to pay the indemnity and make everybody enormously rich. In a golden prison lie had seen a golden prisoner who caused the spell to he set on the city. He was also shown paradise, he said, ‘“which was all music aud roundabouts.” A wealthy lady who owns an estate near-by went out at night to dig for gold on the mountain. She heard something, fled in terror, and is now in a lunatic asylum. SINGING AND PRAYING.

The story meantime spread, and people came from far and near to take part in the regular singing and praying meetings on the mountain, which are held every day from eight till four. Many people stay all night. Vehicles of all sorts bring pilgrims in thousands, and the railways aro overburdened. People who endeavour to persuade the inhabitants that the whole thing is a delusion are cursed by the simple peasants of the region, who whole-heartedly believe in the story.

A curious spell of hallucination has been cast over the entire region, and the authorities are wondering what to do to bring the people back to their senses.