A SERBIAN SEER.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 March 1916, Page 6

A SERBIAN SEER.

AMAZING STORY OP PEASANT'S PROPHECIES. Some amazing instances of the foretelling of events are given in an article in this month's • Occult Review.' The writer is a prominent Serbian, Count Cheddo Miyatovich, and the remarkable prophet or visionary he tells ms of is one Matha or Krcmna, a Serbian peasant. The Count gives chapter and verse in the course of a lengthy article showing how Hatha foretold some of thr- principal events in Serbian history, including the abdication of King Milan, the assassination of his successor, and the occupation of Serbia by a foreign army. The author writes;— One day in the month of May 1875, I, a 9 the senior member of the Cabinet, had, in the absence of the Prime Minister, to read the decree by which our Sovereign, Prince Milan, dissolved the House of Deputies (Narodna Skupshtina). It was the first dissolution in the Parliamentary history of Serbia. The deputy of the town of Ujitsa said to me: "My friend, do you see how every item of the predictions of Matha of Kremna gets its confirmation?" I answered him that I had never heard anything about these predictions. "Do you think His Highnes knows about them? If not, he ought to know all about them, because they concern him, his dynasty, and our country!" MURDER OF A PRINCE.

Dining that evening at the palace I reported to the Prince what the deputy for Ujitsa said to me. The Prince immediately ordered one of his equerries to go and bring Mr. Alex. Popovich (that was the name of the deputy of Ujitsa) at once to the palace. When he arrived the Prince took him and me to the private working room, and there Mr. Popovich told us the following story:—

"Three or four miles from the town of Ujitsa—(l may here add that the district of Ujitsa is adjoining Sandjak of Novi Bazar, and is the most mountainous part of Serbia, a sort of Serbian Scotland) — lies the small village of Kremna. On the afternoon of May, 2!) th, 1868, a peasant of that village came in a great hurry to Ujitsa. the district's principal town, and, running through the streets and the market, shouted in great agitation: 'Help, 0 brethren, help! They .are murdering- our Prin.ce!' The police, thinking that he must have gone mad, or was drunk, arrested him. Two hours later a telegram arrived from Belgrade announcing the assassination of Prince Michael in the Park of Topohidre, on that afternoon. The police then thought the peasant—whose Christian name was Matha, must have known something of the conspiracy to assassinate the Prince, and commenced criminal proceedings against him. The poor fellow swore that he did not know anything about the conspiracy, bnt he explained that he suffered from a peculiar malady, which causes him from time to time to see visions, which visions, sooner or later, became confirmed by real happenings. Asked if he had visions concerning further events in Serbia, he answered affirmatively,'and at the request of the President of the Court of Justice and the Prefect of the District, he described what visions he had, his descriptions being taken down in writing by the Secretary of the Court. The original minutes of his statements are still preserved in the archives of the Court of Justice at Ujitsa."

I do not wish to take much of your valuable space to tell your readers all the details which Prince Milan and I heard related on that occasion by the former deputy of Ujitsa. But I can assure you that the peasant clairvoyant has correctly described all the principal events which really happened in Serbia since the year 18(18. Only three statements, I think, I thought to mention to-day. KING'S FATE FORETOLD.

He correctly foretold the restless activity of King Milan, his wars with Turkey and Bulgaria, his divorce from his wife, his abdication of the throne, his exile, and his dying broken-hearted abroad.

In the beginning of the year 1889 I happened to be the Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of the Venerable Niehola Christie]). Now I must tell here an historical episode:— On February 19th, 1889, the Prime Minister called all the Ministers to a sitting of the Council, and to our utter astonishment and dismay, told u 3 that the King had expressed to him his firm resolution to abdicate the throne on the occasion of of the national festival on February 22nd, that is to say, in three days! On my proposal we went at once in corpore to the palace to try to dissuade the King from this fatal and unworthy intention. Every Minister spoke, and implored the King to abandon so unfortunate a decision.

King Milan then replied, thanking the Ministers for their loyalty to him, and acknowledged that their argument', were unanswerable, but that he had b?cn considering abdication from all points, and came to the conclusion that he could not do otherwise than abdicate. Then he added: ''lam not surprised, gentlemen, at your contemplated step, but I on astonished that Miyatovich tall-.-: with such violence when he knows as wc'l «3 I do that my abdication must take place." The moment we left the King's presence the Prime Minister invited us io come to his room for consultation. There be addressed the Ministers somewhat in these words: "Gentlemen,.you have all beard the King say that Mr. Miyatovich knows, as well as he does, that the abdication lms to take place. ■ I think we have a right to ask our colleague to explain why he never said a word to any one of us with regard to the King's intention to abdicate?" FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER.

I then told them that fourteen years' before King Milan and I heard together many details of the prophecy of Matha of Kremna, that among those details the abdication of King Milan was also fore-

told and than the King's remark referred to that prophecy. Another statement of Matha of Kremna concerns the present events in Serbia. Having said that after the assassination of the last "Obrenovieh," and the accession to the Serbian throne of "Peter Karagyorgyevich" (mentioning him by name), he proceeded:— "During the reign of King Peter a foreign army will invade Serbia and occupy all th'o country. The people will be mo«t unhappy and suffer terribly, so much, indeed, that men and women passing a churchyard will exclaim, 'Oh, how happy you who are dead and do not suffer as we do now!' But after some time a man will arise in the midst of the people, will drive away the foreign army, and then unite all the Serbian countries into one State. An era of prosperity and hapiness will then ensue, so that'men and women passing a churchyard will exclaim: 'What a pity you have died, and arc not living to share this Jmpiness which we now enjoy 1'" \ Ctonnt MiynitsvisU eonotadej:—The