The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-05-28
POPULAR TRADITION.
INSTANCES WHERE IT WAS FOUNDED
ON HISTORICAL FACT.

The Tradition of the Samothracian
About the Black sea-Key To the Wicked
Earl's Treasure.
There was once an energetic and
strong minded missionary in the south
seas, who took great deal of interest
in the folklore of the island where he
dwelt After years Of study he made NJ
his mind for good and all that there
was not particle of fact in the legends
protesting to be historic which he had
laboriously gathered. In distrust at his
own credulity. unwilling 10 let people
know what a fool he had been, he toss
ed his whole collection into the fire.
Some days afterward there was a terrif-
&c hurricane The islanders had told
him that once upon time long ago a
certain famous chieftain used TO sit on
a stone bench beneath a tree which
grew close TO the mission house. That
bench had disappeared, no one knew
when or how, but in the days Of hea
thendom they used TO place offerings to
the spirit of the old chief near the spot
where il had stood When the mission
airy sailed out on the morning after the
storm, the first object he noticed was
this tree overthrown-and in the midst
of its upturned roots hung stone
bench.
The reverend gentlcman-Whiting
was his name, if we remember right
stood in a maze. The legend was true,
then Examination proved beyond
doubt that the bench had rested against
the bole of the tree in some distant age,
for there was no trace of an incision.
The wood had grown smoothly round
and over it. So far as he could roughly
compute, four centuries must have
passed since it stood outside the trunk
For that time the islanders had pre-
served the memory Of a circumstance so
trifiing, for TO question that this was
the bench they assigned to their mythic
hero would have been silly. And then
the good man mourned his haste. He
had destroyed the patient labor of years
because he would not credit the ac-
counts Of grave events given i'll all Sc
robustness by members of his flock, and
it proved that they were trustworthy
even on such detail as the personal
habits of man who died 400 years ago.
The story is one to be borne in mind |
by all students of folklore and of that |
early stage i'll human annals which is
based upon tradition. But il does not |
follow that Mr.. Whiting had good cause
to lament his burned manuscripts if he |
valued them only for the records Of !
events they might contain. That there |
are particles of fact in the most gro
tesque Of these legends, which profess to |
be historic, we find more and more rea-
son to believe as our knowledge widens, |
but it is rarely possible TO sift them !
from the mass of poetic nonsense. Say. J
ages everywhere keep the memory of !
startling incidents which occurred, as !
we learn by internal evidence, an in
definite number Of ages ago.
Biologists recognize that the Black !
sea was once a lake, with no outlet to- |
ward the Mediterranean. They incline |
to think or believe that it escaped |
through the Bosporus and the DarGa- |
nelles shortly after the glacial period. (
But Diodorus Siculus mentions a tradi. |
ton Of the SamUthracians exactly agree J
ing with this account, which learned !
men of the day have framed upon the /
Of science. Did the Samothra- !
clans exist III the glacial period? They (
say that when the Black sea broke It's !
barriers at last all their country was
was the Scandinavian (
food. And it is evident enough that |
such must have been the result Of the /
There is a passage in Pin
dar also which some commentators in |
terpret as an allusion to the same pro
ligious event.
Traditions Of the mammoth are so
general and so vigorous in the extreme |
north of America that savants of repu- (
tation are not unwilling to admit the
that it survived 200 years
ago, and others who have no scientific
reputation TO hazard go very much fur
her. Very small details are preserved |
~ the popular memory sometimes.
When the wizard Earl of Foulis was
carried off TO be boiled alive as the only
means OF killing him, tradition report
ID that he threw away the key of his
reasure chamber. 1t could never be
ound. But less than 60 years ago
'choolboys playing in the haunted ruins
inearthed a great key which might
'ery well have been tossed through the
lirhole of a dungeon opening-the
'oint is ignifcant-beside the road
along which the wicked earl was hur-
led. Many cases might be cited where
wen antique stories Of buried treasure
nave been proved true. A notable one
s told by the worthy DR.. Plot in his
history of Herefordshire Bransel castle
lad a specially fine tale of this sort,
alleging that kings crown was sunk
II the moat. In 1850 a cottager named
Taller, planting hedge along the moat
o protect his children, found a crown
vet with diamonds. He sold it to q jew
'ler at Gloucester for e37. The jeweler
it to Lombard street gold
mith at great profit, and he sold the
diamonds alone for 81, 800. London
Standard.
What Else Could She Do?