Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-03-13
From the Popular Science Monthly.
Apparent Death--Some Strange
Stories

In the islands of the Greek archipela'
go where the business of gathering spong.
es from the bottom of the sea is pursued
children are not allowed to drink wine
until, by practice, they have grown ac.
customed to remain certain time under
water. Old divers of the archipelago
say that the time t. return and take
breath at the surface is indicated to them
by painful convulsions of the limbs, and
very severe contractions in the region OF
the heart. The power of enduring as.
! phyxia for some time, and resisting by
force of will the movements of perspira-
tion, has been remarked under other cir
cumstances. The case of Hindoo is
mentioned, who used to creep into the
palisaded enclosures used for bathing, in
the Ganges, by the ladies of Calcutta,
seize one of them by the legs, drown her
and rob her of her rings. One of his
intended victims succeeded in escaping ;
the murderer was seized and executed in
1917. He confessed that be had prac-
ticed the horrid business for seven years.
Another instance is that of spy, who,
seeing preparations making for his exc
cutiou, endeavored to escape it by feign-
ing death. He held his breath and sus
pended all voluntary motion for twelve
hours, and endured all the tests applied
to him to put the reality of his death be-
yond doubt.
1t cannot be denied that, in former
times, seeming death was quite often mis-
taken for true death. The annals of
science have recorded certain number
of errors of this kind, many Of which
have resulted in the interment of unfor-
tunate wretches who were not dead. And
for one of these mistakes that chance has
brought to light either too late, or in
time for the rescue, even then, of the
victim, how many are there, particularly
in times of ignorance and carelessness,
that no one has ever known How many
times men have only given up their last
breath after vain struggle to break out
of their coffin
The facts collected by Bruhier and
Yallemand in two works that have be-
csme classic, compose most mournful
and dramatic history. There are some
of its episodes, marked by the strange
part that chance plays in them.
A rural guard, having no family, dies
in small village of Lower Charente.
Hardly grown cold, his body is taken
out of bed, and laid on straw ticking
covered with a coarse cloth. An old
hired woman is charged with the watch
over the bed of death. At the foot of
the corpse was branch of box, put into
a vessel filled with holy water and
lighted taper. Toward midnight the old
watcher, yielding to the invineible need
of sleep, fell into deep slumber. Two
hours later she awoke surrounded by
flames from fire that had caught her
clothes. She rushed out, crying with all
her might for help, and the neighbors,
running together at her screams, saw in
4 moment naked spectre issue from the
nut, limping and hobbling on limbs COW
cred with burns. While the old woman
slept, spark had probably dropped on
The straw bed, and the fire it had kindled
had aroused both the watcher from her
leep and the guard from his seeming
ieath. With timely assistance he recov-
,red from his burns, and grew sound and
veil again.
On the 10th of October, 1912, farm
,r, in the neighborhood of Nenfehatel,
n the lower Seine, climbed into loft |
,ver his barn to sleep, as he usually did,
among the hay. Early the next day, his
hour of rising being past, his
wife, wishing to know the cause of his
ielay, went to look for him, and found
him dead. AT the time of interment,
more than twenty-four hours after, the
bearers placed the body in coffin, which
was closed, and carried it slowly down |
he ladder by which they had gained the
oft. Suddenly one of the rounds of the |
adder snapped, and the bearers fell, to-
,ether with the coffin, which burst open |
With the shock. The accident, which |
night have been ia al to live man, was
very serviceable to the dead one, who |
was reused from his lethargy by the con-
,ussion, returned to life, and hastened to
yet out of his shroud with the assistance
IF those of the bystanders who had not
been frightened away by his sudden res
,urrection. An hour later he could rec
,gnize his friends, and felt no uneasiness,
except slight confusion in his head and |
he next day was able to work again.
At about the same time a resident of |
Nantes gave up life after long illness. /
His heirs madearrangements for grand |
'uneral, and, while the performance of a
80. ho Irol