The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-11-27

as he lett the Judgment hall of Plate: that
he had since travelled all over the world
that he was personally familiar with the
habits and customs of the apostles; that
he had known the father of Mohammed at
Ormuz; that he had rebuked Mohammed
for denying the crucifixion; that he had
known Nero, Saladin, Tamerlane, Bajazet,
and the principal crusaders; and that he
had the power of healing the sick We
are asked to believe that learned collegians
at Oxford and Cambridge tried to detect
him as an impostor, but failed.
Those who have seen or known anything
of Weber's wonderful opera of Der Freis-
chute, are aware of the Wild Huntsman.
The legend, it appears, has in some in
stances been mixed up with the story of
the Wandering Jew; insomuch that it is
difficult to say where the one ends and the
other begins. In the Hartz Mountains-a
region well suited for the birth of super
human or preterhuman myths-the Wild
Huntsman is believed by some of the peas
antry to be the veritable Wanderer him.
self but with little change of attendant
incidents. He is a Jew, who, eighteen
centuries and more ago, refused to suffer
Jesus to drink out of river or out of a
horse trough, but contemptuously pointed
out to him the footprint of horse, in
which little water had collected, and babe
him quench his thirst Herewith.
Instead of the Wild Huntsman, other
legends and belief have come to be mixed up
with that of tho Wandering Jew. There
are parts of France in which the sudden roar
of gale at sea is attributed to the Wan
derer passing by there. In some countries
he has been regarded as kind of imper-
sonation of Jews generally. One version
Of the story associates him with the SER
want whose ear Peter cut off; while another
considers him rather as the impentitent
thief. The gipsies are brought into the
melee by one theory, which propounds that
the onward moving stranger belongs to that
community, and that he is doomed to indy
ing life because he refused to shelter the
Virgin and Child during the flight from
Egypt. In Switzerland there is a popular
story to the effect that the Wandering Jew
was one day seen on the Mattenberg, a spur
or offshoot from the Mattenhorn, viewing
the scene with sorrow and wonder; that he
had once before been there, when it was
the site of a flourishing city, and that he
will once again be there on the eve of the
Last Day.
The biblical record of the period ante
rior to the Flood, when human life is set
down at duration of eight or nine hun
do with many of the legends relating to
the Wandering Jew. True, there are in
constituencies in time, place, persons, and
circumstances in such legends; but this is
no more than may reasonably be expected.
That there are audacious impostors who
have assumed the character of this mys-
FERROUS being for purposes of their own is
unquestionable. We have noticed one ex-
ample as having occurred in England in
the time of Queen Anne; and Sir Henry
Ellis, in his edition of Brands Popular
Antiquities, mentions another of much more
recent date: g | remember having seen one
of these impostors some years ago in the
north of England, who presented a very
hermit-like appearance, and went up and
down the streets of New Castle with long
train of boys at his heels, muttering, Poor
John alone, alone; poor John alone" l
thought he pronounced his name in man
ner siugularly plaintive." Another author
ity thought the name sounded like tPoor
Jew alone"
Need we marvel that the story of the
Wandering Jew has been full of attrac-
tions for poets and painters? tits just the
sort of subject on which the Imagination
has plenty of material to work upon. An
odd ballad relating to it is given in Bishop
Percy's Reliques; the poem Of The Undy-
ing One is built upon it; so is SdlaNiel, and
so is Eugene Sues Jny Errant, founded
mainly on an old collection of popular
French ballads and metrical stories. The
Rev. Barring Gould has devoted much at
tention to the subject, but more with the
view of collecting and comparing the vari-
Gus myths and legends than of presenting
any of them in poetical or fanciful form.