The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-24

turies hence it will be questioned if Ma poleon ever lived
 Maundeville is interesting. if is in- s.uctiVe at least to know that which he mas to tell and delighting to attempt 'o ascertain the basis of the legends and myths which came to his ear and which he details to his readers. He speaks of Beirut and tells of strange animals called papyones, which resemble leop- ards and with which men hunted in tbis locality in those days. They were large hounds and caught all manner of wild beasts
 It was doubtlessIy after one of tbesa creatures of the chase that Dog river derived its name, though T boya a. scrloed the local legend concerning tba o'si" ol the name He likewise tells
 must reinarkable story of the high
 aoove the site of the Egyptian steie mentioned above. He declares that at the summit the air is so clear tho. no wind IS found there and tbereroro no animal can live in 1t. Some philosonhers '"'e Visited the crest and held to tbeir Noses sponges moistened with water h,
 "ei that they nigh breathe and in tba
 upon the top of the cliff they vrota "''h thelr fingers some letters and fi. "i es ana when they returned at tbe epd or year they found the same Iettors ana figures undisturbed. so dry was the
 ''sphere Then he describes the eli "'e as being so hot that the wealthy natives had trenches dug in the earth apout knee deep and paved, in which they sat at meals to avoid the heat
 AS matter of fact there are still the lhprlnts of ditches or excavations in the vicinity concerning the origin or use or which the natives today can give no eNpianatlon. But most wonderful of all IS his description of circular foss which was filled with pebbles from which men manaufactured glass. Although much visited for its glass, it was as full every morning as could be, nothwithstanding great wagon loads of It's contents had been removed the day previous. The loss was continually vexed by a. great wind, and if any metal was thrown into the floss it immediately became glass. While if the glass made from the pebbles was returned to the pit it was again turned into pebbles. I was unable to locate this foss.
 From this I passed to Maundeville's wonderful islands inhabited by strange people concerning whom my readers may be interested. In one of these islands lived those who were giants in statue but had only one eye, which was st- uated in the middle of the forehead. and they ate only raw fish and flesh Upon another the inhabitants had flat faces with neither rose nor mouth: still an- other was peopied with men whose upper lip was so enormously large that its shadow covered the entire face and the owners could sleep fin the broad sunlight Then there were others who were dwarfs and had little hole for a mouth through which their food was sucked in pens or pipes. Others possessed ears that reached to the kneeI some had herses' feet some walked upon all fours and were cey- cred with feathers like birds, still others although having eight toes upon each foot, walked upon their knees, Many of the men had only 56 hairs in their boards, which grew to a great length, and the women were so fair that the land was named in their honor Albany
 The poultry in some countries was quite queer. fer the white-bodied geese