Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1874-05-28
THE LEGEND or THE BATES.

The LEGEND or THE BATES.
A King of Constantinople had, so the
history tells US, daughter whose beau
ty, graces and virtues were of that
superlative character peculiar to hero
ines of the Middle Ages, but who was
afflicted with sickness upon which all
the medical skill of Byzantlum could
make ne impression. The faculty,
nonplussed, acted very much as it is
wont to act under similar circum-
stances in these modern times, and got
rid of an obstinate patient that would
neither get well nor die, by recommend
ing change of air. Dagh Hamman, as
it is now called, was the spot selected
for the princess, and there the King
built plaaace for her reception, and
IL that palace she took up her abode
and bresthed the mountain air and
drank the mountain water, but without
deriving any advantage from one or the
other.
One day, however. the princess was
INDUCING in that favorite pastime OF
Constantinople young ladies, looking
out of the window, when she saw a
bear; no very unusual occurrence, but
this bear struck the princess by his re
markably detected aspect The prin-
cess sympathies gushed fourth at once,
and she drew a parallel between the
woe begone animal and herself.
"There, = said she to herself, sis a
bear that possesses all the requisite ele-
ments for being a very nice and very
happy bear, but he isn't; far from it
his fur is ragged, his skin is NANCY, his
bones are nearly through it; he has not
an atom of bears grease about him, and
his doleful expression of countenance
shows lowness Of spirits equal to my
own. Like myself, tina, bear is con-
firmed invalid" .
Thus soliloquizing, the princess
watched the movements of the bear,
and remarked that he went and plung
ed into pool of mud, after rolling in
which for space of time he got out
sat down at the edge of the pool, rest
ed, and then plunged again; and after
going through the ritual several times,
with precision and solemnity, withdrew
TO the mountain. Next day the bear
came again, and the next after that,
and SC on for several days, until at last
the princess began to notice change
in his personal appearance. His hide
was less patchy, his countenance more
cheerful, and his step more blithe.
Day by day the improvements con-
tinued; sickness, obviously induced
by plentiful secretion of the potent
grease, came over the ragged fur; it
lost its rusty color, curled abundantly
over healthy skin, and at length the
once melancholy object stood a regen
crate bear. sound in body and happy In
mind. Then he came no more to the
pool.
Pondering over these things, the,
princess came to the conclusion that if
rolling in the mud brought back health
to an apparently worn out bear, it
could do no less for an invalid princess.
So her highness took preliminary roll
and, finding it warm and on the whole
agreeable, she built herself bathing,
house around the pool, and, daily initial
ing the bear, was at the end of two
months restored to perfect health.
Then the king, her father, to COM
memorate the event, built public baths
there, and from generation to genera
ton the fame of the springs of Dagh,
Hannah have come down to the press
ent day. There is a certain resem
blance between the legend attaching
to these mineral springs to that of
King Bladud's pigs, which is associated
with the chalybeate springs of Bath,
in England. In point of sentiment
however, that of Dagh- Hannah has
perhaps the advantage, a sickly bear
being on the whole less prosaic object
than herd of diseased pigs.
The waters of Kourou and of Dach
Hannah are composed, In great part,
chlosulphuric salts aud hydrosulphuric
gas, and enjoys a deserved reputation
for efficacy in skin diseases and rheuma-
tic affections. Not far from the springs
are some interesting ruins, which are
doubtless those of the hospital and
palace described by the old byzantine
historian as having been constructed in
this neighborhood by Constantine and
his empress, Helena.
A Virginia railroad was made to
pay $l5 for killing a rooster. The
engineer said he spoke to the gentle
man with the whistle as kindly as pos
slble, bnt when the fellow dropped one