The Three Most Valuable Bibles.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8038, 27 January 1906, Page 4

The Three Most Valuable Bibles.

The three most valuableßibles in the world are said to be in the British Museum, the National Library in Paris, and the cloister of Belem, Lisbon. The first is in manuscript, written by Alcuin and his pupils, and in the ?u a j Tl 3 P rescnte( t to Charlemagne on the day of his coronation. In the thirties of the last century it was in the possession of a private gentleman in Basle, who offered it to the Irench Government for 42,000 francs. Afterwards it was sold to the British Museum Kir the comparatively small sum of £750. The book is written in fine, small characters, and is decorated throughout with exquisite vignettes and arabesques. The chapter headings, as also the name of Jesus, are everywhere written in gold. The Paris Bible was published in 1527, printed by order of Cardinal Ximenes, and dedicated to Leo X. One of the three copies printed on vellum paper was, in 1789, sold to England for 12,000 francs. This copy was presented to Louis Ihilippc, and in this way was placed in the Rational Library. The third, or Belem ■Bible, consists of nine folio volumes, and is written on parchment. It was stolen bvJunot in 1807, and taken to Paris. Maaame Junot, when Portugal wanted to buy the Bible back, asked 150,000 francs for it. Louis XVIII., however, made the Portuguese Government a present of the precious volume and to-day it can be seen by the visitor to Lisbon. Owing to the unique character of these Bibles, great care is taken of them, and Bpeoial precautions made for their protection.

I Spend Their Lives in Boats. China ia fall of curious scenes andodd customs. One of the more remarkable features of the Celestial Empire is the race of people who live entirely in boats, differing from land dwellers in religion, customs, and also in language. Their dwellings may consist of anything from a big junk down to a canoe. All day long the boat people are hard at work carrying passengers or goods, fishing, or picking up any stray objects that may be floating around. Most numerous of all are the Sampans, large roofed-in boats for two, four, or six oars. Theseare rowed by the women, and it is no uncommon sight to see three or four women labouring at the oar while their male relative sits comfortably smoking in the stern of the vessel. All their wjiidly goods are in the boats. Their clean clothes are hung out on a line to dry, and a few chickens may be seen in a bamboo cnge. The boat, in fact, is their only home. In some of the boats babies may be noticed crawlin« about, tethered by a rope to a ring in the ileck. If a sudden lurch of the boat throws the youngster overboard, the rope enables him to be hauled in again, after which he is punished and hung up to dry. If, however, the infant happenc to be a girl she will possibly be left to her fate-so little are girls cared for in China.

Java's Island of Fire. The greatest natural wonder in Java, if not in the entire world,, is the justly celebrated " Gheko Kamdka Gumko," or " Home o( the Hot Devils," known to the world as the " Island of Fire." This geological singularity is really a lake of boiling mud, situated at about the centre of the plains of Grobogana, and is called an island because the great emerald sea of vegetation which surrounds it gives it that appear.mee. The " island "is about two miles in circumference, and is situated at a distance of almost exactly . r >o miles from Solo. Near the centre of this geological freak immense columns of soft, hot mud may be seen continually rising and falling like great timbers thrust through the boiling substratum by giant hands and then again quickly withdrawn. Besides the phenomenon of the boiling mud column there are scores of gigantic bubbles of hot slime that till up like huge balloons and keep up a series of constant explosions, the intensity of the dcto, nations varying with the size of the bubble. In time past, so the Javanese authorities say, thero was a tall spirelike column of baked mud on the west edge of the lake which constantly belched a pure stream of cold water, but this has long been obliterated, and everything \i now a seething mass of bubbling mud and slime.

A Strange Decoration. On the ceiling of one of the rooms in Sans Souci, the world-renowned palace of Fredcrick the Great, is painted a great spider with its web. The origin of this strange decoration is said to be as follows. This apartment was the great king's breakfastroom, and adjoined his bed-chamber. Every morning when his Majesty entered the room he was accustomed to find a cup of chocolate, but on one occasion, just as he was about to drink, he bethought himself of something he had forgotten, and returned to his bedroom. When he ag.iin entered the breakfast-room his Majesty discovered that a great spider had, in the meantime, dropped from the ceiling into the cup, and he naturally cried out for fresh chocolate to be prepared. The next moment the king was startled by the report of a pistol. No sooner had the cook received the order than he blew out his brains. Not because the king had refused the chocolate did he do this, but because he had poisoned the cup, and had thought himself discovered. It was in remembrance of this narrow escape that his Mijesty ordered the spider with its web to be painted on the ceiling.

A " Nation " That Owes £2OO. A Colony with a " national debt " of only £2OO is something of a novelty in this age of Imperial and municipal extravagance, but that is the total indebtedness of Pitcairn's Island, a mere speck in the Pacific Ocean, which was discovered nearly a hundred and fifty years ago. The island was colonised by ten mutineers from a ship named the Bounty, who remained on the island unknown to England until discovered accidently in 1814. Under the care of their chief, the mutineers became respectable citizens. As their number increased, the island proved incapable of their support, and in 1850 the British Government removed the islanders to Norfolk Island, where they were provided with cattle and stores. In 1870 the population was only ninety-three; now it is nearly double that number. The people are extremely poor, and the Colonial Office has been recently requested to cancel the " national debt " of £2OO loaned by the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury.

The Origin of Heraldry ? It is not possible to assign any period for the first use of heraldry, or to trace its origin. The hereditary arms of England dite back to the Norman Kings, but their use -/w not firmly established till the commonMiaem of the reign of Henry 111. About :h; heginning of the fourteenth century it bi'Otmt customary to paint arms on glasss to eit"rM« them on silver, and embroider them 011 s"tuf!» It is not exactly known when the quarterly of arms was introduced, but it is supposed to have been in the middle of the thirteenth century. The use of armour, which entire, ly concealed the person of the wearer, rendered armorial badgos necessary, as a means of distinguishing one knight from another in battle and at tournaments.