The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious — John Shaqi
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the CuriousStauffer, Frank H.
History
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious
Stauffer, Frank H.
Literary curiosa
At Strasbourg they exhibit a large French horn, the history of which is
as follows:—
About four hundred years ago the Jews formed a conspiracy to betray the
city, and with this identical horn they intended to give the enemy
notice when to attack. The plot, however, was discovered; many of the
Jews were burnt alive; the rest were plundered of their money and
effects, and banished the town. This horn is sounded twice every night
from the battlements of the steeple in gratitude for the deliverance.
The Jews deny the facts of this story, excepting the murdering and
pillaging of their countrymen. They say the whole story is fabricated to
furnish a pretext for the robberies and murders, and assert that the
steeple of Strasbourg, as has been said of the monument of London,
"Like a tall bully lifts the head and lies."
_Tooth-Picks._
In the fourteenth century it was the fashion to carry tooth-picks of
silver suspended round the neck by a chain.
_Phantom Menageries._
"The Magick of Kirami, King of Persia, and of Harpocration," printed in
the year 1685, contains the following:—
"The hyena is a four-footed animal, savage and ambiguous; for this
creature is born female, and, after a year, turns male, and then, for
the next year, turns female again, and brings forth and gives suck; and
the gall of this animal, being sweet, has efficacy for a miracle; and a
great miracle is made of it; and this is the composition: Take the eyes
of the fish glaucus, and the right eye of the said hyena, and all that
is liquid of the said hyena; dissolve all together, and pot it up in a
glass vessel, covering it well. If, therefore, you will show a great
miracle, when you have set a light, mix the fat of any creeping thing,
or four-footed beast you please, with a little of the foresaid
composition; if you anoint the wick of the lamp or candle, they will
think it is the beast of which it is the fat, whether of a lion, bull,
serpent, or any other creature. If you put a little of the confection
upon burning coals, in the middle of the house, the beast will appear
whose fat you mixed with it. And you may do the same with birds. And if
you mix a little sea-water with the composition, and sprinkle among the
guests, they will all fly, thinking that the sea is in the midst of
them."
_Curious Law._
The following curious law was enacted during the reign of Richard I.,
for the government of those going by sea to the Holy Land: "He who kills
a man on shipboard, shall be bound to the dead body and thrown into the
sea; if the man is killed on shore, the slayer shall be bound to the
dead body and buried with it. He who shall draw his knife to strike
another, or who shall have drawn blood from him, to lose his hand; if he
shall have only struck with the palm of the hand, without drawing blood,
he shall be thrice ducked in the sea."
_Curious Historical Coincidence._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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