The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1866-10-20
BULLS THAT ARE NOT IRISH

Ir is related that the secretary of an
English agricultural society received
orders from its committee TO procure
several copies of Mr.. and Miss Edge
worth's 1" Essay on Irish Bulls" for the
use Of members in their labors for the
Improvement of the breed of cattle.
Let no one reading the title of this ar
ticlc fall into similar error regarding
our intention. Neither shall we con-
slider the bulls of the popcs, unless it be
that one pcrpctr, ted by Pope Sextus,
who printed Il l'iblc in the preface Of
winch he cXcommunicated all printers
who should alter the text, and yet was
| himself obliged, on account of its nu-
mcrous blundcrs, to cause cmendated
scraps to be printed and pasted over err
roncous passages.
Chambcrs'g JoURd has recently pub
liShcd an article in which it is assumed,
as il almost always the ease, that the
bull is necessarily indigenous to Irish
soil. We propose to "submit facts III
correction of this common error. Near
ly three thousand years ago, in Greece,
IIieroclcs noted down in the "Astela"
mauy of the bulls which 90 the rounds
of newspapers nowadays attributed to
!riShmen. lie tells, among others, of
the person who sat before glass with
closed eyes to see how he looked when
asleep; of the one who, having to cross
Il river, entered the boat on horseback,
giving as his reason for riding that he
was in great hurry; of the one who
declared, after n narrow escape from
drowning, that he would never enter
the water again until he had learned to
swim; of the man who, hearing that a
raven would live two hundred years,
bought one to try whether it was true ;
of the one who, finding that half of a
raSk of wine was gone, looked over the
top to find an opening, and, being ad-
visrl to loOl; for Il hole in the bottom,
replied, " Blorkhcal, do you not see
that the deficiency is mt the top, and
not nt the bottom ~ of the one who,
meeting an acquaintance, said, 81 heard
ply, 4" But you soc me alive" answered,
al don't know how that may be; you
are notorious liar, and my iniOrmer
wa, person of crclt;" and Of the one
who, noglp,ting to purchase books rs Il
friend had requested in a letter, and
fearing that he might be offended, said
to him when they next met, My dcal
friend, never got the letter you wrote
me about the books"
The philosophers have not been fret
from bulls. Pythagoras taught the
doctrine of metempsychOsis, and yet
stated that he had seen the souls of Ho
= lmer Hesoid, and others tormented. Sue
tOniuS tells of n Brahmin philOsophc
whose life had bean eminently prosper
Gus, and who burned himself at Athcn
to DrrreW u rerers2 n fOHiue. Amid
: great concourse Of people he entered tn
fire naked, anOintcd, and laughing. III,
desired that the following epitaph NIGH
, be inscribed on his tomb "IIere rest
e Xarman-O 'hdgas, the Indian Of Barge
! 81, who, according to the custom of hi
country, m1le himSeT WmOrtai." MI
n Holwcll, who wrote a learned accou
/ Of the doctrines of the Gento0S, is {
Il great pains to solve the reason why tn
fishes were not drowned in the dclug'
It Curious stories are told, too, of IN
n priest. The monks of monastery
II Meas.na, il j. related, proclaimed, ono