The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-31
cuRIous MYTRs OF rHE MIDDLE AGEs.


The DivinIngs sROd-Raleigh in PrisOn'
Mr.. 8. Barring Gould, an English writer, has
collected in volume a NUMBER OF the CURIOUS
myths Of the middle ages, many vi mhiGn n nnb
tshed by Roberts & Brothers, Boston. Here,
foT instance, are some particulars Of the history
THE WANDERING JEW,
In the chronicles of the Abbey OF ~. Aloans,
copied and continued by Matthew Paris, there
is the following entry, the hrst extant notice Oh
fhe tIerrant Jew - under the year 1913 A. D. i
FEodem tempore horuit tama longeaateque dis-
pesra de Josepho Cartaphila, quem Ananlas !.
baptizavit, ct qui vidit Christum crucluHtuiiri, ii
and the same chronicler records at lengtu tue
visit 10 the abbey of an Armenian aic9p,sh.VIp, ~
who. by his Interpreter, communicates w % SuS
monks minute particulars respecting eni ~ Too 1
dering Jew, derived from personal knoWleuge'
pilates iudgme nt.haii and had reached the re- door,
Cartaphius. porter In Pilates seavoe ~ h,S on he
back and b9 sab9 6 To4 iotsr ?D And Jesus looking
SSscp on him Win severe countenance said 70 him
~ going, and you shall Ya b ~ n.rtnp5iins is Still
nWeiting Iis return. At the tune OF our Lor1 &
a9e Of one hundred and thirty he always returns TO
the same age he was when our li hoFJ f &
ground, this Cariaphllus was baptized 6 9y Ananas
who also baptized ST. Paul. and was caIiea Joseph
'iOf this Joseph the Armenian bishop, went on
ho saw that he dWet in Armenia and the East,
greatly affected the society OF bishops and pre-
tates vas oircumspect, silent, and charitable,
and did not speak except when spoken TO, and
then only to tell Of Ohrisps suffering, death,
and resurrection. He was very tenacious as to
the character and rank of his questioners, and
very Indifferent in the matter OF gifts, food, aud
raiment. OF this Jew, or his double, Mr.. Bar
ing Gould collects many and various accounts
from the Netherlands, from Bohemia and
from Arabia, where he seems to have passed
Sor Elijah, but none of these present any
considerable discrepancy from the account OF
.a.w,A Atnh IN "a fn
timony of Paul Won Ritzen, Doctor of the Holy
Scriptures and Bishop of SchesWig, who de-
cared that when he was young, in the winter
of I647 A. d. ION Sunday, in church, he OBJ
served a tell man, with his hair hanging over
his shoulders, standing barefoot during the
sermon, over against the pulpit listening with
deepest attention 10 the discourse; and when
ever the name of Jesus was mentioned, bowing
himself profoundly and humbly, with sighs and
beating of the breast. He had no other cloth
ing in the bitter cold OF winter except pair of
hose which were in tatters about his feet,
and a coat with girdle which reached to his
feet; his general appearance was that of man
of fifty years.
"Aiter church the doctor obtained an inter.
view with the stranger, and ELECTED Information
which, though more circumstantial than the
Armenian bishops story, differed from it mate
rally. The Jew gave mis- name as Ahasuerus,
and professed that he had been an unbelieving
cobbler at the the time OF the Crucifxion. Gaz-
ing from his doorstep at the sad procession to
Calvary, he had tired to curry favor with the
Jews by hurrying Jesus forward, when he fain
would have rested moment from his heavy
burden. Jesus looking upon him, rebuked him
In the words, Il shall stand and rest but thou
shalt go to the last day.
'The doom presently began to work. He was
constrained to go lorth into foreign lands, and
on revisiting Jerusalem after the lapse of years,
found not one stone left standing on another.
IN this account, as in otners great stress is laid
on the jews never smiling; and in Won Eitzen's
narrative he is made 10 interpret the purpose of
Tod in this Judgment un0n him and N
1he truth OF his tale OF many wanderings by sub
mitt1ng to have his knowledge of Eastern geo.
Eraphy and history tested by the Rector of the
Hamburg University. Another new feature is
mis- strong indignation at any profane use of
Christ's name.
'This was in 1547. He Is spoken to at Madrid
and Vienna in the same centHry, but as the
world wakes older, writers evlnce care to say
little OF him on their personal testimony. Bulen-
ger, in the history of his own time takes espe-
clal pains to guard himself against the suspicion
of belief in this story. In 1640 two burghers of
Brussels fall in with this ubiquitous Jew, or one
who answers his description, and it does not
exactly appear why) conclude that their COM
PSnlSon on ls Isaac Laquedom, the Jew VINO Q, would
turns up in London at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, and seems to nave won the
ear of the ignorant, but only the ridicule of the
wealthy. The curious, however, would appear
to have questioned him pretty rigidly over a
range of history extending from the Crucifxion
10 the Crusades. He did not think nluch OF
Mohammed md his father, and said he was
soiourning in Nome when Nero set-iton hre"
Here is a description Of ~
THE HOME OF PREsTER JOHN.
sour home is the home of elephants, drome-
daries, camels, crocodiles, meta-collnarum,
cametennue, tensevetes, wild asses, white and
red lions, white bears, white merues, crickets,
grifns, tigers, lamias, hyenas, wild horses, wild
oxen, and wild men, men with horns-one-eVed,
men with eyes before and behind, centaurs,
tauns, satyrs, pigmies forty-ell-high giants,
cyclops, and similar women. 1t is the home,
too, of the phoenix, and of nearly all living
animals. We have some people subject to us
who feed on the flesh of men and of prematurely
born animals, and who never fear death. When
any OF these people die their friends and rela-
tions eat them ravenously, for they regard 1t as
main duty to MUNICH human flesh. Their
names are Cog and Magog, Anie, Agit, AZenath,
Eommeperl, Befari, Conei-Samante, Agrlmandrl,
Vintetolei, Casbei, Alanei."
TIE OWNING ROD.
Here is curious story, in which we use the
condensation of an English revieWer:-
B.. ION the night of July g. 1902, wiue-selle1
and mis- wife were robbed and murdered IN a eel.
lar at Lyons. No clue could be found to the
murdereTs in the bottle wrapped in straw or the
bloody hedging-bill found on the morrow beside
the corpses. The authorities were urged TO send
for Aymar, who, four years before had 1t would
seem, so far succeeded in the use of his diyinlnp
rod (aided, perhaps by the terrors of guilty
the perpetrators of a theft. With his rod to O.
he had discovered a murder when he was look.
1ng for water spring, and by the same ind
Gator had saddled 1t, rightly or wrongly on the
murdered Woman's husband. He was sent
for to Lyons, and led by the authorities tc
murder. The rod in his hand remained perfectly
stationary till he reached the spot where