The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1874-06-24
Curiosi1ies or suncrs1i,inn.

Louis Napoleon in his will emphasizes the So
Tenn declaration: With regard to nv son let
him keep as a talisman the seal used to wear
attached to my watch" This piece of fetichsm
would appear to have formed yet another link
between the imperial exile that has passed from
our midst and those Latin races whose cause he
affected to represent whose superstition he GER
'ainly shared. Indeed, the ancient Romans de-
graded priest because his inter fell, and unmade
a dictator because a rat squeaked. Caesar crossed
the Rubicon because on the opposite bank be
saw man with a fine figure, His nephew felt
confident of winning the battle of Actium be-
cause he met peasant of the name Of Nicolaus
mounted on an ass. Wolsey was warned of his
doom by crosier-head Sejanus by fight Of
crows. Dr. johnson objected to going under a
ladder. Montague avoided giving his left foot
priority in putting on his stockings Alexander
was believed to have united the Gordian knot
with slice of his sword. For good luck's sake
Augustus wore some portion of sea calf; Charlie.
magne some trinket of unknown value. Maho
met was all fate, Bonaparte all star and destiny.
Cromwell believed IN September 3. and Ionis
Napoleon in December p Sulla called himself
Felix, the favored child of fortune, and Temo-
leon turned his house into a temple Of chance.
Alexander if we may credit the account given
by Quntus Curtius, was terrified by blood low
ing from his soldiers bread during the siege of
Tyre, 1872 b. Q. His seer, Aristander, foresaw
in this crimson efliux of the vital stream out Of
the commissariat a happy issue for the Mace
domains, and the warriors thus nerved took Tyre.
From the year 1904 the alarming spectacle Of the
bleeding host and bread, as well as the bewitched
bloody milk, several times in each century. gave
simple folks scare. Thus it was noticed in 1864,
under Urban ", at Bolsena not far from Ciyita
Necchia; and Raphael has taken this for the
subject Of his picture called The Miraculo de
Bolsena," which is, at all events, miracle of the
pencil
In 1888, when Heinrich Won Balow DESTROYED
the village aud Church of Wilsnacb, drops of
blood were found eight days afterward on the
host placed on tie altar. But the victims of su-
perstinon have the bump Of casualty remarkably
developed ; aud in 1910 thirty-eight Jews were
burned to ashes because they had tortured the
host until it bled. Again, the sight
was seen on the Moselle in 1924 and in Is4s
the famous Ehrenburg analysed the terrible por-
tent. After STOPPING with his microscope over
the red stains on bread, cheese and potatoes this
savant declared that they are caused BY small
nonads of yibrois. which have red color. and
are so minute that from 46656OOO,O 900 to ss4.
l36,OOO0OO distinct beings adorn the space Of
'ne cubic inch. Unfortunately, when, in 1910.
.hiriy-eight Israelites, as we have seen, were
burned to ashes, no scientific Ebrenburr existed |
% point out to these superstitious butchers that
What they called proof Of the consecrated host /
icing tortured until it bled was merely due to an
aggregation of hungry red Chambers /
Journal