UNKNOWN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 108, 21 March 1862, Page 6

UNKNOWN.

In the dull season oftheyearwe occasional^/ find some very startling information in our daily papers. The gigantic gooseberry, the mushroom as large as a lady's parasol,, birds' nests behind doors or in letter boxes at the Post Offices, a (all of l-;rge hailstone, an .eight-legged calf, or thrue i children at a birth, are " subjects" that pleasantly enliven reports of tho disease in potatoes, the S7nut in wheat, or the fly in iiiriiiji.s. The popular taste for what is curious must, in facet, he gniti- j fled. But how tame are the greatest achievements of tho most ingenious paragraph-monger of the j present day compared with the i-tories furnished to Englishmen two htm Ired years ago! In the j I British Museum Library—that mine of treasure' inexhaustible as Aladdin's cave—there arc fairs j without end of marvels that formerly no man | thought cf doubting. Let us disentomb some of them, bring them to tho light of day, and judge how they would look in tho columns of the Times. luthc yenr IG4I there was placed before the public " A strange prophecic of a. maid that lately lived neerc Worksop in Nottinghamshire." This was by no means an ordinary prophecy. The maid in question had calmly departed this life, but a few days after the sad event she returned and divulged the secrets of fate. The object of the prophecy was to inform the world the end of all things was '• neer at hand." The maid while in the flesh had been much " flooted" one day by some of her companions respecting the poverty of her wardrobe. jSfaj-, one of the taunting young ladies displayed— doubtless, with an amiable and friendly motive, —" curious wrought hadkirebbrs, and the like, which caused admiration"—uniningled, of course, with envy. But the sight of the " liadkirchcrs " overpowered the maid ; she gave up the* ghost next day, and lay four-and-twenty hours quite Silently aud still. Her mother was- weeping over her remains, when, lo 1 the maid of Worksop arose and, " with a mild and checrfull countenance"' told her story., She had met an old man, it seemed in the laud of shadows—people alack ! grow old there also—who took her, she said, to a faire, and costly fort, no Prince's Court like it, where

we were let in ; in which place we saw many bright angels shining like the sun, and singing melodiously with clear voices." It was iv this enchanting scene that the Maid was charged to come buck to earth with a message.warningall . persons against wearing fine dresses, and especially her former companions, who had

"flooted" her. "The very clothes," said the seer,' which Miss. Anne did weare, for her pride shall become loathsome to all people whereby none shall be able to weare them, buc shall become unnecessary to all men." And ' unnecessary ' they were for ever after, since we are told that " this speech, twice spoken, was inarkt and found to be true, by reason of an evil savour

about them." This disagreeable incident satisfied the irate and wounded Maid,'and she once more retired from an ungrateful world.

A greater prodigy still was Charles Benet, the "Man-child of Manchester," who made his appearance in the year 1(\79. The record of his life declares that "at three years of age he doth speak Latine, Greek, and Hebrew, though never taught those languages." There was something in his appearance betokening the possession of marvellous gifts. "His countenance," says the discriminative biographer,, "is very solid and composed; he is somewhat inclined to melancholy, yet Jiath a kind of majestic gravity even already appearing in his looks, which is frequently attended with a modest smile.'' His eye " darted a piercing and sprightly ray upon

all things," aud his modesty was no less remarkable than were his talents as a liuguist, for when he heard people praise himself *'he did commonly blush and reprove them." Here was an example for his seniors. Happily for the peace of families such children are rare.or what would become of parents. One night, when the.prodigy's father was, "• according to his usual and commendable custom, reading to his family in the Bible, and indeed misreciting one sentence the child of a sudden (then two years old) broke out into these words : —" Father, you read wrong, for it is not so In the Scripture." The unhappy parent was " wrapt in amazement" at this alarming instance of precocity, nor was he much comforted to learn that his son had oftentimes read tho Scriptures in " Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as English." As to his mode of talking, we learn that he was " very vehement in the delivery of his speeches, with a manly voice, but 'something thick in the delivery of his words.' Contemporary with Muster Benet was a ci-.ild in Switzerland, who preached edifying sermons to the neighbours when but three years of age ; and at Basil there was a girl who delivered discourses uninterruptedly from the 3rd February to the 22nd of May, " rising as fresh in the morning as if she had neither said nor done anything." What a treasure of a wife this gi 1 must have been in after years. Let us hope he.husband appreciated her unusual powers of elo quen pp.

Another wonderful girl was Martha Taylor, " the famed Derbyshire damsel." It was this young person's lot to exist twelve months without eating. She lived near Bakewell—what good angler has not sojourned at that quaint village ? —and in the year 1G67 she received a " blow on' her back " from a miller. The consequence was that the poor girl felt ill, and immediately abstained from taking food, " and so," adds the chronicler, "she hath continued till within a fortnight from the date hereof, "which amounts to thirteen months and upwards." Shq occasionally indulged in a, jew drops of the syrup of stewed prunes.'water and sugar, "or the juice of a rousted raisin." " She was watched by v person appointed by the Duke of Devonshire, but the only discovery made was that sleep was us unnecessary to her :is food, since she once "continued for five weeks waking."

Another individual of remarkably abstemious habits was one Roger Crab, who nourished at Uxbridge in 1655. "He can live," says the rjconl, <: on tineo farthings a week"—a consummation devoutcdly to be w,'shed"for in many other cases. Economical housewives may envy Roger Crab's, system in. its results, although they would probably hesitate to follow it in its operation. For his constant food was " robts and herbs, as cabbage," turnips, carrots, dock-leaves, and grass ; also bread and bran." Not the least curious fact in Roger's history was, that he once kept a shop, but retired tq the woods on his dock leaves and grass, " because of the many lyes, swearing, nnd deceiving that are too frequently used, by shopkeepers and tradesmen."

"In 1614, was published a\ "True and wonderful account of a strange and monstrous serpent or dragon, yet living,' to the great annoyance and divers slaughters both of men and cattle by his strong and violent poison." This appalling monster "lived" in a wood two miles from I-lorslium ; the " account" of it was written by M.A.R., who appends to his name the quaint notice j" He that would send better news if he had it." The dragon was nine feet in length, and must have been-in every way an, interesting object. In colour it was black in some parts, and red in others. In shape, it ivas like the axlctrce of a cart,'and its general appearance is thus sketched: —" He is of countenance very proud and at the sight or hearing of men or cattle will raise his necke upright, and seeme to listen aud look about with great arrogancy." On his side were " two great branches," which are likely to expand into wings ; but M. A. B. expressed a hope that he would be destroyed before he grew so " fledge." Very terriUle was this dragon to meet, for he "cast bis yemone around four rodde from him," and had thereby killed several people. What became of him there is no record to show, and the town very soon forgot this prodigy in the con-: sideration of another—an old woman of Denbighshire, who was '( perfectly able to relate what she had said and done 13Q years ago." It is scarcely necessary to say that her name to Morgan. Her teeth were perfect, "although about three score years ago she had lost most of them. Her organs of smell were so corroded by a'gethat no stench could invade them to the least prejudice. Mrs Morgan had only one fault—she was a termagant,"

Such are a few examples of the prodigies wliich astonished our pensive great grandfathers. — Once a Week.