The same experiment was tried, at another time, in the presence of Captain Scott; but, in this instance, the conjuror seems to have been less a proficient in his trade than the one who was employed by Mr. Lane, and the result was unsatisfactory to the captain. CHAPTER XVI. PRODIGIES. Hold taken on the public Mind by Prodigies--Dutch Boy with Hebrew Words on the Iris of each Eye--Boy with the word Napoleon in the Eye--Child with a Golden Tooth--Speculations on the Subject--Superstition respecting changeling Children in the Isle of Man--Waldron’s Description of a Changeling--Cases of extraordinary Sleepers--The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus--Men supposed, in the northern Regions, to be frozen during the Winter, and afterwards thawed into Life again--Dr. Oliver’s Case of a Sleeper near Bath--Dr. Cheyne’s Account of Colonel Townshend’s power of voluntarily suspending Animation--Man buried alive for a Month at Jaisulmer--The Manner of his Burial, and his Preparation for it. Prodigies of every kind, moral or physical, have ever taken hold of the imagination of the public, nor has the better education of some prevented them from lending a greedy ear to accounts of such phenomena, and the belief of the vulgar has thus been sanctioned and strengthened. Many, from interested speculation, have pretended to undergo most extraordinary privations, or to be independent of the established laws of nature; such impostures met with a very flattering reception in the earlier part of the eighteenth century. Mr. Evelyn mentions a Dutch boy, eight or nine years old, who was carried about by his parents as a show. He had about the iris of one eye the words Deus meus, and about the other Eloihim, in the Hebrew characters. How this was done by artifice none could imagine, and his parents affirmed he was born so. Three years before this period, in 1699, Mr. C. Ellis wrote to Dr. Edw. Tyson, that he had seen the Friesland boy, “round the pupils of whose eyes, they pretend, are naturally engraved the above words. This is looked upon as a prodigious miracle, in these parts, but, upon more nicely surveying it, I could perceive it was only the iris not circularly joined, but lashed into fimbriæ, which might be thought to form imaginary letters; there is something like D. J. and V., but not a footstep for the strongest fancy to work out any more. But it was like to have been of danger to me to have discovered this trick; for acquainting a gentleman in English of this cheat, one of the mob happened to understand it, and I was forced to make the best of my way.” It is hardly three years since a lad was exhibited in London, who is said to have had “Napoleon,” in distinct letters, written in his eye. There is little doubt, if this was really the case, but it was the result of artificial rather than natural, causes.