The Land Sailing Chariot

"A chariot, on wheels, to be impelled by the wind, was constructed, in the last century, by Stephinus, at Scheveling, in Holland, and is celebrated by many writers.

It's velocity is said to have been so great, that it would carry eight or ten persons from Scheveling to Putten, which is distant forty-two English miles, in two hours.

The body of the carriage is driven before the wind by sails and guided by a rudder.

The wheels require to be farther asunder, and the axletrees longer, than in ordinary carriages, to prevent overturning.

Carriages of this kind are said to be frequent in China; and in any wide level country, must be sometimes both pleasant and profitable.

The great inconvenience attending the machine is, that it can only go in the direction the wind blows, and even not then, unless it blows strong; so that after you have got some way on your journey, if the wind should fail, or change, you must either proceed on foot, or stand still.

The Hollanders have small vessels, somewhat of this description, which carry one or two persons on the ice, having a sledge at bottom instead of wheels; and being made in the form of a boat, if the ice break, the passengers are secured from drowning."

Choosing a King

For sure, if I had to have a king, I would want someone very clever like this guy;

"The Tyrians having been much weakened by long wars with the Persians, their slaves rose in a body, slew their masters and their children, and then seized on their houses and wives whom they married.

The slaves having thus got possession of all, consulted about the choice of a king, and agreed that he who could first discern the sunrise should be king.

One of them, being more merciful than the rest, had, in the general massacre, spared his master Straton, and his son, whom he hid in a cave, and to his old master he now resorted for his advice as to his competition.

What was Straton's advice?

Straton advised his slave, that when others looked to the east he should look towards the west.

Accordingly, when the rebel tribe had all assembled in the fields, and every man's eyes were fixed upon the east, Straton's slave, turning his back upon the rest, looked only westward.

He was scoffed at by everyone for his absurdity, but immediately he espied the sunbeams upon the high towers and chimneys in the city, and announcing the discovery, claimed the crown as his reward.

Antediluvian Patriarchs

Only Noah lived before and after the Flood. The question is why did lifespans decrease so dramatically in the years since the flood, where humans now average only 70 years though once apparently lived +900 years?

Adam lived - 930 years
Seth - 912 years
Enos - 905 years
Canaan - 910 years
Mahalaleel - 895 years
Jared - 962 years
Enoch - 365 years
Methusalem - 969 years
Lamech - 777 years
Noah - 950 years

Timed Poison

While reading an old book, I came upon a belief that venom and poison could be 'tuned' to only become effective at a desired time after being taken. You could poison someone and nothing happens until its time is reached, then the person dies.

It reminded me of the claims of Dim Mak which is supposed to have been used to kill Bruce Lee. Also called the Death Touch, it involved sudden, rapid pressure applied to a point of the body related to the organ you wish to fail. The Chi circulates through all organs in the body over a 24 hour period, so by 'bruising' the Chi/Blood, when it reached the organ at a specified time after the application of the death touch, it caused failure.

Under the administration of Cardinal Louveis, during the reign of Louis XIV, an Italian apothecary having assisted the lover of the Marchioness of Brinvilliers, who had been sent to the Bastille, to poison the father and brother of the lady, emprisonment immediately became the topic of the day,

and a superstitious opinion was soon generated among the multitude, that druggists and philosophers can compose venoms, which operate, not at the season of administration,

but at definite remote periods; that they can draw drafts upon death payable at one, two or three usances, or even at one, two or three years after acceptance of the order; and that these drafts are unfailingly discharged at their elapse, without a protest or a day of grace.

Not only Quintilian and Theophrastes were ransacked for corroborations of this mischievous credulity; but the annals, or rather the libels, of the modern Italians, were pressed into the service of these calumniators of human nature...

The jealousies of domestic life once inflamed, women thought their innocence, and men their security concerned, in inveighing with bitterness indiscriminate against the buyers of this elixir. Every sudden, every lingering, every conspicuous, every critical diseas was ascribed to the Aqua Tofana. The chief distributors were soon rumoured to be the Italian apothecary Exiii, who administered for secret disorders...

Gilt Beards

There was a French Bible, printed at Paris in 1538, by Anthony Bonnemere, wherein is related;

"that the ashes of the golden calf which Moses caused to be burnt, and mixed with the water that was drank by the Israelites, stuck to the beards of such as has had fallen down before it; by which they appeared with gilt beards, as a peculiar mark to distinguish those which had worshipped the calf."

This idle story is actually interwoven with the 32nd Chapter of Exodus. And Bonnemere says, in his preface, this French Bible was printed in 1495, at the request of his most Christian Majesty Charles VIII; and declares further that the French translator;

"has added nothing but the genuine truths, according to the express terms of the Latin Bible; nor omitted anything but what was improper to be translated!"

So that we are to look upon this fiction of the gilded beards as matter of fact; and another of the same stamp, inserted in the chapter above mentioned, viz., that;

"Upon Aaron's refusing to make gods for the Israelites, they spat upon him with so much fury and violence that they quite suffocated him."

Odd Stone Burial Chambers

"The sketch represents a chamber which was discovered in a barrow, situated near Paradis, in the parish of the Vale, in the Island of Guernsey. On digging into the mound, a large flat stone was soon discovered; this formed the top, or cap-stone, of the tomb, and on removing it, the upper part of two human skulls were exposed to view.

One was facing the north, the other the south, but both disposed in a line from east to west. The chamber was filled up with earth mixed with limpet-shells, and as it was gradually removed, while the examination was proceeding downwards into the interior, the bones of the extremities became exposed to view, and were seen to greater advantage.

They were less decomposed than those of the upper part; and the teeth and jaws, which were well preserved, denoted that they were skeletons of adults, and not of old men.

The reason why the skeletons were found in this extraordinary position it is impossible to determine..."

Pearls from Britain?

Never knew this, I always thought pearls were from the ocean.

"The river Conway, in North Wales, was of considerable importance, even before the Roman invasion, for the pearl mussel (the Mya Margaritifera of Linnaeus) and Suetonious acknowledged that one of his inducements for undertaking the subjugation of Wales was the pearl fishery carried forward in that river.

According to Pliny, the mussels, called by the natives Kregindilin, were sought for with avidity by the Romans, and the pearls found within them were highly valued; in proof of which it is asserted that Julius Caesar dedicated a breastplate set with British pearls to Venus Genetrix, and placed it in her temple at Rome.

A fine specimen from the Conway is said to have been presented to Catherine, consort of Charles II, by Sir Richard Wynne, of Gwydir; and it is further said that it has since contributed to adorn the regal crown of England.

Lady Newborough possessed a good collection of the Conway pearls, which she purchased of those who were fortunate enough to find them, as there is no regular fishery at present.

The late Sir Robert Vaughan had obtained a sufficient number to appear at Court with a button and loop to his hat, formed of these beautiful productions, about the year 1780."