LONGEVITY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5209, 1 December 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

LONGEVITY.

Various instance o£ longevity (fays the Timet of IvxVa) have been reported in the Indian newspapers, the respectable age of four score years and ten having been twice surpassed. at Tranqnebar, These cases were among the European or Indo-European population, but are not to be compared with the examples of length of days that may be found in Father Joano dos Santos’ History of Eastern Ethiopia, published in .1804, and rendered into French by Father C'hsrpy. In this voracious chronicle we read that “an inhabitant of Bengal,” while tending his flocks on the banks of the Ganges, was accosted by an old man who asked to be carried across the river. Ho seemed to be utterly exhausted by travel and loss of blood, which streamed from wounds in his sides, bands, and.fcet. Ho had apparently been stripped of his clothes, and stood in an old grey clo.»k, bound round bis waist by a rope, '(’he Bengalee without move ado took up the stranger upon his sb-udders and deposited him safely on the oppo ite bank. The wayfarer then presented him with a few beads, of which he was hidden to take great care, as the, would ensure him long life. While the rustic was wondering what he should do with these beads, his companion vanished out of sight. A few days later the peasant chanced to enter a church, the altar-piece in which consisted of a portrait of St. Francis d’Assisi. “ There !” he exclaimed, “ there is the man who promised me length of years 1” This strange exclamation naturally led to sundry

questions, and the result, of course, was the peasant’s conversion. Bub now comes the mo<t i remarkable part of the story. After surviving nineteen consecutive reigns, this highly-favored Bengalee was alive and vigorous 380 years after that event. There eat* he no question of the fact, for it; was verified by the Bishop or Cochin, and everybody knows that the Ganges flows through that country. The Viceroy Nunha di Cunha also vouched for its truth ; and as this was in 1529, the apparition of St. Francis must have taken place in 1149 which is curious, to say the least of it. And not only was the venerable Bengalee alive, but his complexion was as “ ruddy” as when he was only 40, although he had married nine times. He had enjoyed, however, a period of repose of 46 years, during which he remained without a wife. .There was not a wrinkle upon his face, and his teeth were perfectly sound. Indeed, , they had been three times renewed, without causing him the slightest pain or inconvenience. He simply shed them, and others grew up iu their place. His health had all along been so good that he had never once required to be bled. This vigorous old gentleman had hud children by every one of his wives, and his ninth consort was still increasing his family. He may be alive now, for anything we know to the contrary. “ I have read in the works of Peter de Natalibns,” continues the worthy father, “ that St. Severn* lived the space of 373 years, being elected Bishop of Tongres when 297 years of age, and filling four bishoprics during a succession of /6 yeais. Cardinal Baronins mentions the circumstance as an extraordinary exerche of grace/’ Another of the Father’s irreproachable authorities testifies to the .existence of a Brahmin “who was known to have lived three centuries/*