The Sun.
London, England, 1824-10-30 00:00:00

SPECIMENS OF CREDEJLITY.

Lord BACON, in his Essay on Truth, tells us'
that " a mixture of a lye loth always add' plea.;
sure." We therefore recommend the following
extracts from a dull book, published at the be-
, ginning of the 17th century, and entitled " Mira-
cults Mortuorunt et rivorum," to the fnture edi-
tors of the life of that renowned adventurer Barad
Munehausen. The author of it was a Gemini
jurisprudent, named Henry Kornmann, who hi
represented by I3ayle to have been a profound
scholar, and a very ravenous devourer of learn-
ing. Lie has no claim to originality of Invention
but as to readiness in believing the inventions of
others, he is clearly without a rival. We subjoid
fa tiw instances of the gravity with. which he re:
tails and propagates the most monstrous absurdi-
ties. In describing the wonders that are to he
found in the South Sea, he tells us that Diodorui
the Geographer writes, that " there is an island
in it, where the inhabitants are each four cubitst
taller than the inhabitants of Greece and
Italy. -
their bones are not hard, but flexible like nerves
—their tongue is divided in two from the roots,
so that they can keep up a conversation with one
mau with one half of their tongue, and wick
another with the other at the same time." Al-
luding to the Molueca Islunds, he assures us
with inimitable simplicity, that " in the island
of Gyloe, which is one of them, there is a nation
with ears so large, that they hang down to their
shoulders, and that in another island close by it;
there is a nation with ears still longer. The in-
habitants of it are accustomed, when they go to
sleep, to lay down on one ear and to cover them:
selves up with the other! !!" This story, he
informs us, is to be found in that celebrated author,
Maximilianus Transylvanus, of whose celebrity,
however, we are at this time of day unfortunately
very ignorant. A knight of the name of Piga-'
fetta pledges his credit for the truth of it, as any
of our readers may see, who choose to refer to his
history of the Essandies. To match this people,
who make coverlets of their ears, the worthy
German informs us that there are a people in
India who make a parasol of their foot. This-
story rests on the authority of Solinus, who, its
his 53d chapter, enlightens the world by telling
it, that 4 4 there is a nation of one-eyed people in
India, who, though they have only one leg, are
still endowed with singular fleetness. When they
want to protect themselves from the heat, they
fling themselves on their back, and recline under
the ►hude of their foot, which is immensely large."
Ile likewise quotes a sentence from St. Augustin's
87th Sermon to his brethren lu the wilderness,
which puts it beyond all doubt that there are
such beings in the world as men who wear their
heads, or rather their eyes, beneath the shoulders.
This eccentric saint says, " When I was bishop
of hippo, I w ent with some servants of Christ

into Ethiopia with the intention of preaching our
holy religion. There we saw many men and
women, not having any beads, but large eyes
fixed in their breasts. Their other members were

like our own." Pliny, Mela, and Solinus all
speak of their existence of such persons ; but 'lotte
of them was so favoured by fate as to he permitted
a sight of them. St. Augustine, however, was more
fortunate—he saw them, or at least he Says Le
saw them; and who would disbelieve the word of
a saint I St. Augustine, in his treatise " D Ci.
vitole lei, lib. ti. cap. 8." pledges his-saintly
word that there is in Ethiopia a nation' which
has no mouth or tongue, but which lives entirely
upon air; but he dues not say whether these sin-
gular persisus fell under his own inspection.—
The r e
thiss c
()nil story„t.
tioi k
ot,w extantoiideivio.ifs
abiraychheatillesdami
til‘esgvlsilltoietokpseisp,
aoeod..ff
the Worthy Bishop of Hippo, which may serve
to amuse some of our friends in the neigh.
bourhood of Dorchester, who may perhaps be
kind enough to inform' us whether any of
the family mentioned in the following extract
from the life of Gregory the Great, by a
nameless writer quoted by Kortimann, are yet,
existing in that part of the Country. 66 When
Augustine, the Monk, was sent into England by
Gregory the Great to preach the Gospel, he
was ridiculed and insulted by a family in Dor-
theater, who pinned frog-tails (runarunt &Judas)
to his garments. From that day all the descend-
ants of that unfortunate family have been born,
like beasts, with a long tail." Our paper a few
days ago gave au account of a servant girl who•
was rehtored to life after she had been con-
sidered dead for five or six days. This would
not have appeared at all extraordinary for
our learned German; for he assures us that
~ GocoNii, a nephew of the Archbishop of
Cologne, as he was crossing the Rhine in hips'
childhood,, fell out of the boat Into the river, and
in spite of the efforts of his attendants sunk and
was no more seen. Fifteen days afterwards he
was fished out of the river (sapiscutus 'est.) As
they were taking him to church to bury him, he
surprised his pall-bearers by starting out of his
coffin, and telling there that they need not go nay
farther, us he was quite alive." We shalt con.
clown taken out of a book of them written bl.
Peter Darelanus, Archbishopii
Ravenna. Be tells us that " Robert, King of
France, took a woman to his wife, who was his
lieltwc''loellareutaatsidrinimebci tiorua::ileolcala'ibui timioliel:fdel'o.linrbrteiou:S.ltig eotoel fft
ibimatto
in his
1 gielsol and
iosll I'
pwluiiiiisloi
s%:illail fisi e:
es.
r)tui
or
titditilio:huhitinel rin,t
thai
isn flaytew;asfor o
t though
tie last h he
Kingm igh t be first
self the father of a son with the head of ,a
goose.
----- rtaelilidtoCabil.linal of

The Nestor of the Polish army, Lieutz°ar►ut
GoLsom died lately at Warsaw, iu the ititoik,
year of his ave.-