The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1905-11-11
AMUSING jokes.
Some That Have Been Played On
Members of Scientific Societies.

From London Answers.
Nothing is so funny-to the joker-as
the development of a practical joke or
hoax, and the most learned are sometimes
fooled in this way, to their great dlscom
future An amusing hoax W Is perpetrated
on the learned members of the Dumfries
Antiquarian Society of London, when an al
legged Greek charm, said to have been taken
from the dead body of a Bedouin, was
presented for their inspection aud admIra-
ton It was said to have heen an heir
loom in the Bedoain' family for many
centuries and consisted of scrap Of skin on
which was transcribed a mysterious legend
Ii was circulated among the members Of
the august body of the Antiquarian Society
until it fell into the hands of DIR. Semple,
who, amid much amusement, deciphered
the hieroglyphies as '.0ld Bob Ridley, o, y
the refrain of an old song.
One of the best of these jokes was prac-
ticed with considerable success by an eigh
teenth century wit, who professed to have
unearthed an ancient memorial slab on
which this epitaph was just decipherable;
BENE A. tn. TIL. 1851.
0NERE. pos. EFT
III. CLAUD, cos TER. TRIP
E. SELER0, f. IMP.
IN. CT. oNAS, Do.
TIL H. s. C.
ON. SOR. I. J. A. n. +.
In vain did arehaeologists and Enguisis
rack their brains to find solution Of this
cryptic inscription, which It's discoverer
''humbly dedicated to the penetrated re
muses. of Oxford, Cambridge, Elton aud
the learned Society Of Antiquaries. and
it was only when ii had driven the clever
. ,,. = 10 England almost out Of their wits
ga. The following reading was suggested
by the hoaxer: Beneath this stone re
poseth Claud Coster, iripe seller, Of lump
ington, as doth his consoFt Jane.
That, too, was a clever, if rather heart
less, joke which Stevens, the Shakes
peare scholar, played on Cough, known to
posterity as the author Of '.Sepalrhral
Monuments. Cough had criticised a
drawing by Stevens rather mercilcssly
and the latter forthwith planned revenge
which should hold up antiquity to ridicule
TONultiiA ftttN VI SUM- lit rA&AtAttS3
on it, in Anglo-Sax characters, the IN
scription, Here Hardcnut drank wine
horn dry, stared about him and died
and had it exposed in shop which Cough
was in the habit of visiting.
A few days later Cough called at the
shop, saw the slab, which, he was told
had been found in Remington lane on the
supposed site Of Hardicanute palace, and
oyerioyed at his good fortune carried it off
in triumph as a discovery of rare antigua
rian value. He showed 1t with pride to
his fellow members Of the Society Of An
tiquaries, a paper was written on it,
learned discussion followed and the in
scription was published in the Gentleman
Magazine Stevens triumph was com
plete when he took the public into his secret
and laughed with them, but what his vie
tim feelings and language were it would
not have been possible to express in print
Something over fifty years ago the in
genuity Of antiquarians was tested by le-
gend family traced on time worn slab of
stone which, so its diseoverer said, had been
unearthed during some excavations in
Cumberland. This was the inscription:
tn. Isl. SAHAR. DNU. Toe. RIA.
C. h
But what language was it and what could
it mean? The accepted opinion was that
the legend referred in some way to Hard
icanute or Hardnut, but beyond that spec
ulation even was du.S, until the wicked
joker had the effrontery to confess that he
himself had chiseled the inscription Of
which the true translation was: This is
a hard nut to crack And so it was.