" His ignorance of many of the simplest facts
bearing upon the legend is very striking, yet he does not hesitate
to speak of men who know far more and have thought far more upon
the subject as "grossly ignorant." The most curious feature in his
ignorance is the fact that he is utterly unaware of the annual
changes in the salt statue. He is entirely ignorant of such facts
as that the priest Gabriel Giraudet in the sixteenth century found
the statue lying down; that the monk Zwinner found it in the
seventeenth century standing, and accompanied by a dog also
transformed into salt; that Prince Radziwill found no statue at
all; that the pious Vincent Briemle in the eighteenth century found
the monument renewing itself; that about the middle of the
nineteenth century Lynch found it in the shape of a tower or column
forty feet high; that within two years afterward De Saulcy found it
washed into the form of a spire; that a year later Van de Velde
found it utterly washed away; and that a few years later Palmer
found it "a statue bearing a striking resemblance to an Arab woman
with a child in her arms.
Pages:
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175
1176
1177
1178
1179
1180
1181
1182
1183
1184
1185
1186