82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Bosnia, the whole population, Christian and Mohammedan, rose 

 up in arms against a band of gypsies who were camping in the 

 neighborhood, and would have put them to death had it not been 

 for the energetic intervention of the authorities. The excite- 

 ment was caused by a rumor that negotiations were going on be- 

 tween the bridge builders and this vagabond folk for the pur- 

 chase of a child. There is a popular tradition that a bridal pair 

 were walled up in the old Roman bridge over the Narenta at 

 Mostar, and that the structure owes its strength to this sacrifice. 

 A fresh human liver, especially that of a woman, is supposed to 

 confer magical powers upon him who eats it ; and it is highly 

 probable that the desire to become a great magician may explain 

 the many mysterious murders and horrible mutilations of women 

 which have occurred within the past few years, such as the other- 

 wise incomprehensible exploits of Jack the Ripper in London, 

 and similar hideous deeds near Innsbruck, in the Tyrol, and else- 

 where. A like exhibition of superstition was recently witnessed 

 in Barcelona at the execution of six anarchists, when old women 

 dipped their handkerchiefs in the blood that flowed from the 

 coffins, making the sign of the cross three times and holding the 

 dirty clouts to their noses. Such a blood-stained cloth is prized 

 as a powerful talisman and carefully preserved. 



In some districts on the Rhine the belief that mid wives may be 

 in league with the devil and substitute an imp for the newborn 

 infant is not uncommon. Such changelings are called Kiel- 

 kropfe, and this term would imply that their fiendish origin is 

 indicated by a wen on the throat. It is well known that Luther 

 was firmly convinced of the reality of these substitutions, and 

 urged the Prince of Anhalt to have every hellish succubus or 

 succuba drowned at once ; but the sovereign, whose theological 

 education on this point seems to have been neglected, could not 

 be fully persuaded of the existence of such creatures and declined 

 to act upon the reformer's advice. 



During the reign of Frederick the Great the statue of a ma- 

 donna in the Catholic church of a Prussian town was robbed of a 

 costly ornament. A soldier, whose frequent and fervent devo- 

 tions at this shrine had been remarked, was arrested, and the 

 jewels were found in his possession. He was accordingly tried 

 for church robbery and sacrilege and condemned to be shot. 

 The sentence of the court-martial was submitted to the king for 

 approval, together with the culprit's protest that he had not stolen 

 the precious stones, but that while he was engaged in prayer 

 and laying his necessities before the seat of mercy, the Virgin 

 took the ornament from her neck and gave it to him. One can 

 imagine the malicious pleasure with which the cynical and skep- 

 tical monarch referred the whole matter to the Catholic bishop, 



