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she had no bread in the house; which the other doubting, she 
added, if there were, might God turn it into stone ! and directly, to 
her astonishment and horror, the bread became stone. An author, 
of the name of Hartnoch, also relates as wonderful a story. A poor 
woman, oppressed by misery and want, was passing along, with one 
child in her arms, and another following at her heels, all nearly 
perishing with hunger, it being in the time of famine met a 
brother of the holy order of St. James. She implored him, for the 
mercy of God, to spare her a morsel of bread for herself and almost 
famished children : the hard-hearted wretch most solemnly assured 
her that he had no bread ; but the woman directly replied, that she 
saw he had a loaf in his bosom. This the holy brother denied, saying 
that it was a stone which he thus carried, to defend himself from the 
does. Soon after this he put the loaf to his mouth, with intention to 
eat of it when he found that it was no longer a loaf, but a complete 
stone Struck with horror, he repaired to the monastery, confessed 
every particular of his crime, and the wonderful judgment : m 
comLmoration of which, our author says, the petrified loaf was 
hunir up in the chapel of the monastery. We also leam, that at 
Sehemnitz, in Hungary, a woman, despising the sacred ■nst.tutions 
was making bread on the feast of St. Anne, when she found that all 
her loaves were become stones, whilst m the oven. The learned 
Bruckman mentions other instances of these miraculous conversions, 
and particularizes several places where specimens of stones bearing 
the appearance of petrified bread may be seen ; concluding wit 
following appropriate ejaculation. ^ 
Da nobis panem, Domine ! in diebus nostris ; non durum e a- 
pideum, sed frugalem ac sufficientem. ^ ^ 
I should not have thus introduced, in our examination ® 
petrification of vegetable matter, the mention of petrifie oa\es, 
for the sake of observing, that, of all the sports of nature, in 
formation of stones, these are among the most delusive an unac 
