Evening Star Newspaper, December 19, 1926, Page 92

e Seamen | Capt. John A. Cook, descendant of a long line of sea-faring people. has spent 48 years in whaling and has safled wherever the “king of the deep” is to be found. His ca- reer has been crowded with adven- tures as he sought the cachalot or sperm whale of the tropics, the - right whale of the southern zone and the bowhead of the Arctic It was during his vears as a whaling captain in the Arctic that he faced many of the dangers re. counted in this and two succeeding articles. Capt. Cook was at one time man aging owner of the famous square- rigged whaler Charles W. Morgan, and was also one of the owners of the bark Wanderer, the rigger sent out on a whaling v age, in 1924. He is the author of “Pursuing the Whale.” BY JOHN A. COOK. | HAT has made the sailors | of Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and | Marthas Vinevard world renowned as the hest men that ever trod the deck of a vessel? From boyhood they are accustomed to boats and to seeing deeds of valor performed that have gone with them through life. All my ancestors, as far back as I can trace them, were sea-faring peo- ple. It was natural, then, that 1 should have chosen the sea for my Mvelihood. At 11 I made my first voyage in a mackerel schooner: at 22, my first as a whaler. I have been employed constantly at whaling ever since, and it has carried me into every ocean upon the globe. Voyages in the Arctic seas present tn the master some of the most intri cate problems of navigation that the | world has ever known. Leaving San | Francisco in February, as he looks to | the eastern horizon and sees the last | blink of the Farallone Light (off the Golden Gate), he realizes that that | light is the last guide he will have and that no beacon by night or buoys by day are to be seen by him to warn of treacherous shoals or other dan ge! he must sall without them and depend upon his past experiénce 1o bring him out safely. Each and every man, from Jack the sailor to the master, with the excep- tion of the engineers, is dependent on the catch for his pay. Not a dollar of wages or salary is otherwise guaran- teed. Each man shares a percentage of catch determined by the position he fills in the ship. Thus, the master of a steam whaler would receive one- fifteenth “lay” or share of the net | [proceeds, while Jack would receive | ‘one two-hundredth lay or share. | ‘While first omuLo! the bark John and Winthrop 1 d an experience with a sperm whale that I never wanted to repeat. Off the southern coast of Australia a gale was blowing ‘when a school of large sperm whales made their appearance close to the vessel. The weather was totally unfit to| Jower a boat for whales, but the cap- tain ordered the larboard and waist boats to be lowered. I commanded the larboard boat, while the second officer commanded the waist boat. We away from the ship without mis- g:tp and succeeded in harpooning a big fellow. As #oon as he felt the harpoon I knew by his actions that we had got hold of a Tartar, for he did not run, but lashed the sea with his tail and then threw his jaw into the air look- ing to ses where the boat was that hed. dared harpoon him. The waist boat came to assist me to kil Az the harpoon from that boat penetrated his flesh he caught the boat in 18- feet of jaw and bit lfi:fl! 1o ‘e took the e intd ‘our boat and sl the | lirie to get 'a safe distance a x ok %% an. bark, seeing the accident, low- ered the starboard boat, in | taken on board the bark. with erders | tled under water only for an instant THE SUNDAY 's Liv STAR. WASHINGTO®, B. €. DECEMBER 19, es Imperiled in Craft Bitten to Pieces. 1926 - PART 8. Desperate Battle Is Fought With Thieving Deserters in the Frozen North to our assistance, and twhen rived we put the waist boat's crew all wet and cold he ar.| into his hoat to be | w d to come back to assist the whale. To my surprise. they hoisted the boat up, leaving me to cope with the whale unassisted. The weather was rapidly getting worse. The whale was a very ugly one, and the bark #oon out of sight in the mists Realizing that there was no time lose if we were going to kill that whale, we at once put forth our hest efforts to get near enough to shoot an explosive homb or give him a thrugt with the long hand lance. As we hauled the line bringing the hoat | nearer, ths whale turned on our hoat We dodged him as he made his mad | rush, and 1 shot a bomb, following it up with a thrust of the hand lance that I knew gave him his mortal wound But he was not done with us, for. tailing to catch us that time, he set us in killing tr a, was 1h a o when, coming to the surface directly under the hoat. he cafght it in his jaws and bit it in two with no more ouble than we take to crack an esg Here we were. The aft end of the boat with four men hanging te with all the oars, etc.. drifting away. while one man and myself were on the forward end, which was bottom up. hanging on for dear life. Hardly had we time to get to our positions when the man with me sang out, “Look, Mr. €ook, here he comes:" Lashing the water into foam, the whale, spouting great masses of clot- ted blood, was coming directly for us, with jaws wide open. The man with | me said he was going to jump. but | persuaded him not to do it, for in that cold water in such a sea 1 knew that once away from the boat there would be no hope. So. clinging to our piece of hoat, we watched the monster come. As he came up to the stem of the boat. rolled on his side just as he clozed his jawe with just life enough left to | set his teeth Into the wood, and died not two feet away from where I was holding onte the boat. | But where was the ship. and how long could we hold out? Soon, how ever, through the mist we could see the dim outline of our ship. but we saw also that_she would pass a mile or so away. We made every possible signal to attract attention, being washe | away from our pleces of hoat while aitempting 1t At last we saw the ship heing hauled aback and we knew that she had sighted us. One boat was low ered, in charge of the third mate, who after hard work succeeded in reach ing us, saving every man, and taking | us all safely aboard. Two boats and gear were lost. and | our boat's crew were rescued all hut | unconsclous. We never saw the dead | whale again. | IR st o dr al our course to the Kodiak grounds for | right whales. At midnight April 7, I was called with the startling cry, “Ship’s on fire!” Rushing on deck, I saw a cloud of smoke forward, Arriving abreast the fore hatch, T saw the fire was in the fore hold. Orders had heen issued to rig the portable pump, while others were drawing water in buckets from over the side. Calling for buckets of water, and for the hose as soon as the pump was got ready. 1 jumped below to he tweeen-decks. Nothing could be seen there but smoke. Taking off the be. tween-decks hatch and jumping down into the lower hold, away forward I saw the blaze. About that time the home was passed me, and, calling for others to come down and pass water In huckets, we soon succeeded in putting it out. I tell you, it was hot and suffocating work down in that hold! Fortunately, we were favored with weather condi of the fourth mate, to come tions, as the sea was extremely origin amage had heen done. can hits of charred paper tarred.rigging. which has casks hundred and fifty barrels out of three hundred tunately done no damage. fire had heen dlscovered. was very | the charred. | some members of the crew, AILING from San Francisco later | on deck and summoned every man as master of the bhark, we shaped | before me. ‘Men, ould under normal itlons. As soon as the fire was ol T investigated to det of the fire. and to see what have had con I found an empty contained kernsene, and a 1ot of old | been placed here by some one hafore the fire was ot To my surprise, which had =T Natha . S on top of large oil. as about one Tt was set, too, containing | whale oil It had for. barrels of owed In the fore hold. were | that the forecastle | as located directly over where the | been huilt, the smoke had | riven the erew out, thus giving the arm hefore it would otherwise have One of the oil casks burned through and another was badly Owing to the fa nearly head of was the work of T went Satiefled that it | After a “few questions, T _sald: some of you have set fire to this ship. You who did not do it know who did. If you shield them, you are as guilty as they. “At & o'clock In the morning T shall come among you. T shall then know who set the fire or the whole twenty-two will hang from the yard. arm. else I shall go over the side & | dead man. | " “Now, ‘men, think what your | anawer ‘will be in the morning. for | you know that nothing but death will | prevent me from carrying out my | purpose.” | At o'clock next morning as I came | on deck, walking forward, I had not | got past the mainmast when two men came to meet me, leading two others; and they greeted me: “Captain, these are the two men who set the fire, They alone are responsible.” My reply was: “All right, 1 will take care of these two: you go forward,” Then to the firebuga | said: “You stand charged with this great crime | smooth and a dead calm prevailed. 0| Had weather conditions been different | | the fire did not have the draft that it | or had that fire got into the oil, it 1s | »-n" it, write vour con- | fessions at once; but if you did not do |it. let no one intimidate you into say- | ing vou did. for I will keap you whers ne harm can come to vou frem them vou are innocent. “Think well, for the guilty will suf- fer the torments of hell If it iz in my power to infliet that punishment; it will be seven months yet before w. get back to San Francisco and that A long time to be punished.” But they called for writing mate. riale and the substance of what they wrote was that they did not like the whaling business, and theught that by firing the ship we would make a anick passage to land and they would be free to go somewhere and in some other business, Those men were cared for and| treated as criminals for the rest of the voyage, and when they were taken out of irons on going into San Francisco I let them go, and neither the owners ner [ from that day to this have seen or heard anything of them. ERE HE journal of that voyage records that one day we lowered three bhoats for & lone right whale. The waist boat, In charge of the second mate, harpooned the whale, Immediately after the harpoon struck him, the whale capsized and broke the boat badly with a swing of his big tail. I got to the broken hoat with mine as speedily as possible, Wwhile otheér boats made fast to the whale, Just hefore we got there one man disappeared from view and was drowned (he must have been hit by the whale), while another had just gone out of sight, but we succeeded in rescuing him, dragging him into our boat. We then turned out attention to the men on the broken hoat, rescuing all, one with his leg broken just below the kn We got the whale, saved the broken parts of the boat and all but one man. - = e cers of the vessels in the whaling | fleet were invited aboard the Beluga to a surprise party. In the midst of our aupper a native came in and re- ported some of onr men had stolen firearms, doga and sleda and had de- serted. We all went immediately to our re- spective ships and called the roll to see who had gome. On checking up the reports we found that seven had deserted. After much talk expedition wa Atted out, consiating of officers of th #hips, to go in search of the deserters. On the morning of January 28 thres sleds started out, with the thermom- eter at 49 degrees below zero and a atrong northwest wind, with snow. In the afternoon the thermometer fell to 53 degrees below. Janua 26, 53 below, and very strong gale from northeast, five dogs from the officers’ expedition came back. January 28 the officers came hack after the dogs. They had seen the deserters, who fired shots at them from their rifies. of officera and natives a with three sieds afte the thermometer 42 degrees below. On the morning of February § the officers returned with four of the deserters. One of them had badly frozen fee I witnessed the ampu- tation of part of his right foot, it being frozen so badly aa to require cutting off. deserters, ox e 'WELVE men deserted from the Reluga, Wanderer, Belvedere, John and Winthrop, Fearless, and Northern Light six weeks Iater. They secured rifies, ammunition, two sieds, and 15 dogs, Jeaving about midnight. One Winter in the Aretic the oM. March 17 an expedition of officers started early in the morning in pur- suit of them. Overtaking them about 3 p.m. on the banks of the river, the deserters made a barricade of the sieds and fired upon the pursuing party, who, after exchanging a few shots with. ont doing any damage on either side, decided to let the deserters go on, and they (the officers) came back to ship, arriving on the morning of March 18, but we placed on the beach each night a guard, consisting of an officer and boat-stesrer from each ship, to protect our supplies and dogs and sleds from being stolen by deserters. Then a native who came from the interfor said that he met the de- serters, who took everything off his sled of value and some of his dog: and also that he had seen othe natives who complained of the thef and depredations by the nerter This induced us to fit out anether expedition to check if possible the actions of these fellows. Three days later, the party who went out after the deserters returned with six of them, Mr. Hoffman, the fourth officer of the bark Wanderer, with two others from other ships and some natives, bringing these in to the ships lashed on sleds. Mr. Hoffman was sent out fully 100 miles from the shipa in the in- térior to establish a trading camp to procure deer meat from the natives. The desertera were growing more and more confident of their ability to conquer all they might come in contact with, basing this confidence on the fact that the first party of officers who were sent out after them had retreated, leaving them masters of the fleld. t The natives. few In number, we feasily intimidated and were only too | | glad to aceede to their demands, even | |going s0 far as to give np furs of value. Pressing forw:rd. the ers to Mr. Hoffman's Hoffman had gone out to visit v t | deer meat. 3 to have a supply sufcient 1o load the next sled sent out from the ship. The deserters, finding nobody at home, broke open the door, and, r taking everything that would of value or use ta them. they turned to and destroved all clath and practically evervthing in sigl Af Mr. Hoffman expreased it: “When 1 got hack there not & change of elothing or boots. or anything left whereby 1 could got 3 meal. at once got in tench with some nath who wanted to go with me to avenge the theft and destruction thet had been ecommitted at my mp.” (For thieving, among the natives, s the greatest erime tha ean be committed.) “When 1 had got eight natives and | Mr. Howland to go with me, we took the trall, which was easily followed | by the two sled tracks got near to them T left the party, proaching the deserters with a flag of truce. “] got within speaking distance when they commanded me to hait. 1 asked them why they had stolen my elothes, demolished my camp, thus rendering me liable to starvation or death by freezing, at the same time | informing them I had followed lh‘m" o recover my property. “1 ealled upon them to deliver it at once or I should proceed to forca the issue and take the same hy force, as | 1 was determined to have my property | or dle in the attempt. ““The answer T got was: ‘Go back | te your party quickly. If you follow | un farther we will sheot you dewn fn | your tracke. “T anawered, ‘You will have all the shooting you want, as ws are fully ed. “Seeing nothing mere te be accom- plished by parley and finding the mussle of two or more rifies peinting at me, T went back to my party and quickly outlined a plan of attack. “The deserters had put their sleds in front of them as a barricade, so we stripped as light as possible and anced on the run, each armed with rifie. 1pon approaching, they he- gan firing at us, their shots going wild. “Our natives are great marksmen, a8 from hoyhood they are obliged to | get their living by the use of the gun, and hencs they did not fire until near | enough to be sure of effect. Dropping quickly to the knee, they brought their rifies to the shoulder, the shots ringing through the atill air. ““When the smoke from the first volley had cleared away, two were seen far away with a few dogs and light sled going as fast as possibie to make their escape, while others were but were held by Whale ment ofcers, iccompanied by the Norweglan consul and the harbar police. . 1 was notified that a bill containing signed statements from all the 2 wegian sallors and the two engin: and firemen had been presented to t! Norwegian consul at Nagasaki by two firemen 1 had discharged while there, in whieh many complainte, sueh as hareh treatment, not enough foad and inadequate Hving room for so many people, were eharged. A8 T had no eonaul to go to. T could dn nething but scquiesce In whataver they ordered. which was that I sheuld not ga to sea until a therough invast! gotion had been held. 1 was com manded to lie there until T had notice that 1 was ailewed to sall. The erey, Including the engineers. wanted 1o leave the ahip and be pald 1 T could have got men te take aces that were as good 1 weuld en very willing they sheuld Their contracts did not expire until January, and men of Arctic periance were net te he found. se I could not part with them without sub jeeting my vessel and owners to a Kreat loss. 1 thonght aver earefully and minute Iy all the points of the controversy. nd determined that the anly way out of it for me was to run eut of part under cover of darkness as sosn as my stores wera all aboard. oo THE next merning tihe steamship Gaelie, with eur flour and other eatables aboard, came to port and we lost ne time in conveying ours in light- ars over to our ship. A heavy rain and windstor: d set in. As d.rknn:\wnn to shut down we landad the last of our stores helow. hut with deck filled up with everything needed for a vear's cruisq I gave or dera to the chief officer to weigh anchor. / When T rang for steam from the en gine room the chief anawered, “No steam, sir’" I at enea jumped intn the engine reom and gave him the cholce of giving me steam at once or | T ahould get steam by using hjs bedy an fuel. It was & time when no be tolerated. All a coption of the office to keep the vesssl demands were satisfled. It meant total loas of all the money invested in the ship. I had werked too hard and faced too many dangers in the Aretic navigation for the small amount of money I had saved to have it all taken away in this manner. This engineer had been with me on ge Already about 14 montha, %0 that he had a pretty good idea who was master. 1 took him by the throat, exclaim- Decide at once! And decide to obey my orders or you will take the consequences’’ My orders were obeyed and the Bow- head swung around under cover of darkness and in the midst of a how! ing gale of wind and rain, peinting | her prow for the ocean, 30 miles away. A little way down the bay we passed between the Torts, the passage thers lay eould th the ex- were in leagus re until thels being very narrow. 1 was afrald, even under cover of darkness and with the help of the storm, that eur escape would be discovered In season to stop ux. It was with great relief that the , which had wounded one man severely and killed another. “Heeing the havoe the first volley made, we approached the party passage was made without being dis- ing the five uninjured ones and - |vovered. A short distance farther ing them fast with strips made from |down I anchored in Mississippl Bay. walrus hide, after which we bound | where every man was kept busy until up the wounds of & member of the m., when, all stores having been crew of the steamer Jeannette and |stowed safely away, we again weighed buried the body of another who was |anchor and put to sea. killed by & bullet through the head.| When the aun rose, April 1, it found ‘We then secured everything of value, [us almost out of sight of the Japanese feeling that it was useleas to go after | coast, bound for the ice fields of the the two who had escaped. Arctle. ER 1 lellrln«l hh;o:,.::n the J-un:: RLY 8, . afte Authorities ha t orders to the A ram o v oo er watling | forts tq fire upon uk it we were sesn Guam and Nagasaki, the steam bark | PASSINE by, hut when those orders were issued we were in the broad Bomnead anchered outside the break-| pacific, far out of reach and sight. 1 was very much surprised to he | A RAVAl cruiser was sent out to bring waited on by & delegation of govern. | " I™ Pt =he falled to find us. Y Christmas BY JENNY GIRTON WALKER. ings trom Galil R o ver ye ? “From the Eest. as ¥ * TG ian caror. 8 it the mystery of Matthew's brief narrative of the wise men and their journey to Bethlehem which accounts for the fascination it has held for the people of every eentury since that journey was made? Whe did they come and whither did they go when, their gifts laid at the feet of the Christ chlld, they re- turned to their own country by an- other way? 32 In the words of the old song, “'Wise colleges and doctors all their wisdom have displayed” in order to solve the question, but the common people, who loved mystery and who loved the story of the wise men’s gifts, did not wait for any scientific answer. At the end of a few centuries tradition had en- dowed these mysterious travelers with names, rank and country, vast wealth and countless retainer: Matthew's story of the first journey 18 very simple. ““They came,” he tells us, “wise meén from the East to Jerusalem.” They gave gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and later, “being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country by another way. Nothing in this narrative heips us 10 locate that particular part of the East in which their own country is to » found, except the original word usually been translated men.” This word is the word gl,” and the magi, we are philosophers, scientists ard priests, who had extensive estates in Media. Kings sometimes belonged to same caste. Seeking further information about the wise men of Matthew's story, the early Christians turned to the Psalms and believed they found there au therity net only for number and title of these men, but for the country over which #ach ruled. “The kings of Tarshish and of the isies shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba | shall offer gift Thereafter the visitors were Always three in number ! and were spoken of more frequently a8 the three kings than as wise men or_magi. Riding their stately camels the three have journeyed across countless Christmas cards in these later vears, and probably very few of us who see | the cards remember that in the Bible narrative the No. 3 is not mentioned traditional home country seems to have followed the r!ndhn’: ographical discovery, always pushe 1‘n‘m some farther East where it might some day be definitely located. or. many centuries the East included not only those “morning lands” known 10 the Hebrews, but the more distant horizon still unexplored. Travelers venturing into new regions sought the home of old acquaintances in legend and history. * earliest known representations of the three k are sculp- tured in simple bas-relief on the sar- o of the early Christians about DETAIL FROM “THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGL” THE FRESCO BY GOZ 70LI. the story of one of the navigators ranean during the Crusades. course of his trip he located mouths of great rivers, like tha Ebro and “the Ralef in Asia Minor, In which Frederick Barbarossa was drowned, and from the neighborhood of the sources of which the three ise men were said 1o have come.” Asia” for a_time was another term which included all the countries of the FEastern world, known and un known name and was applied to all of farther Asia Kometimes, hy the generosity of medieval geographers, Egvpt and Ethiopia became one of its divisions The route of tiavel followed hy the wise men through thege varlous lands might be traced through the old Christmas carols, or by more recent songs, such as Dugard's: Now on Parsia's sandy plains. the third century. They are always shown as three in number, are usually act ied by their camels and somy es wear Pliryglan caps. Now Phrygia, the country from which eur iberty cap came, is in Asia Minor, 7nd the evilenca of the sculptures is interesting because of its relation to Now where Tigris swella with rains. og their ca ther Now through Now through Now' through In the medieval legends, the three kinge 414 not make thefr pllgrima alona. ae we ses them in “Ren Hu but with great companies of retain ' the | Then India hecame a familiar | | ers. In one story it is related that who skirted the shores of the Mediter- | they started with 7,000 soldiers, but | In the | 18ft all except 1,000 at the Euphrates. ““The people as they passed wondered | greatly,” and so do we, as we gaze upon the gorgeous cavaleades ple- | tured by Gozzoli, Veronese, Rubens, | Lochner and others. | Many accessorics are introduced by the old painters, who delighted in this subject, to show that the travelers are’ kings from the Orient, or, at least, have Enastern dominfons. Of this type of pleture Renozzo v chapel of the per- {haps the n They were {done for Cosmo de Medici and some | Medlei portraits may be recognized | among the travelers. When thess | frescos. were painted it had hecome | more customary to place the kinga | on horses than on camels, but these patient animals still have a place in the trepsure.hearing train. The type of fa selected for the main char acters fs hardly our ideal type for the wise men, hut Gozzoli was only | each one of the three. as they proceed on their travels, an old chronicler naively asserts that, nearing Bethlehem, paused “to In all the pictures certain features or symbols indicate the identity of One is repre- sentéd as old, one middle d and one a4 youth. Sometimes the name of the king appears on crown or gift. Mra. Jameson tells that the names know tod: “Gaspar, Melchlor and Belthazar—were the first used in art when they were sculptured over the door of a church in 116 Variations of these names have heen used previously, however, even as early as the fifth century, In Greek and Syrian texts. It was soon after the invention of printing that we find the three names placed upon the social register of the Middle Ages. of a priceleas copy of ‘Who'' of the fifteenth cen- ‘ongress, i8 to be seen a h of the Holy Kings Gaspar, Meichior and Bal- thazar. The book is known as Ulrich von Reichenthal's “‘Conellilumbuch’ of 1483, and contains not only spirited drawings of the meetings of the fa- mous Council of Constance, but adds the coats of arms of many honored characters whose rank would have en- titled them to a place among the guests, | ERE IR 'HE artists of the Middls Ages loved pomp of heraldry, and they in- vented new symbols for many of the famous personages of lnllfill\y. such as Alexander the Great, Meses and the old prophets. 8o it came about that some time during the fourteenth or early fiftesnth century the three kings were givan their smblems. ‘The shield of Holy King Gaspar of Arabia is described as being blue, with seven gold stara in rows. The shield of Holy King Balthazar of Tharsis (Tarsus) is also blue, dis- playing a gold crescent inclosing one gold star. ‘The third shield, here cradited to Meichior, King of Raba, is of gold, on which is displayed the figure of an Ethiope or Moor holding & lance and a crimson flag. This third design fol lows the tradition whi€h had gained headway during the Middls Ages that one of the wise men was A Moor. In “Ben Hur" he is referred to as the Egyptian. He is sometimes represent- #d as dark-skinned, sometimes as hav- Ing & fair eomplexion, but with a Ausky attendant or a banner upon which this shield is shown. The in- experienced printer of 1481 seems to have reversed the names of the kings. They are sometimes used indiscrimi- nately, but Baithasar is usually the namé of the Moor and Melchior the oldest man. [ Thesa threse aymhois were the em. [blema used for the banners of, the | kinge in many of the medieval paint- |ings. They appear in the superh pic jture by Roger Van der Weyde, in Shoen's ““Adoration of the Magi” and in several pictures by Albrecht Duerer of the same subjec In adopting th particular shields the medieval heralds seem to have ignored earlier traditions which are still treasured by families of today Wwho claim descent from some one of following ad of many other painters in introducing the features of his pione patrons In =pite of all the magnificence with which the kings are represented ] the three wise men. As one of the proofs of such relatienship, the fam. ily of Baux er Beaux, for instance, shows as {ts eoat of arme a red shield displaying a silver “star of Bethle- | he takes up a generous share of the hem,” which is represented in her. aldry A& comet star of 16 rays. More explicit is the family history of the Vaus or Vaws, probably the same as Baux, as it s told in an old chroniele complled in the latter half of the four- teenth century from earlier reeords and traditions. * 2 * 18 chronicls of the Three Kings, written by one John of Hilde- sheim, begins with deacription of the Hill of Vaws, “the highest in India.” From men posted on this hill, not only to signify the advance of an enemy by fire signals, but to watch the portents of the heavens, news was sent to the three Kings of India of the advent of a wondrous star. “Of thik hill” says the old chron- icler, “iIs named the famous progeny of Vaws, deacended from Meichior, he who brought gold.”” In the year 1200, 1 the story goes, the princes of Vaws «ame from India to Acre, and bullt & strong castle. They brought with them books and records of the men Wwho discovered and followed the star, and also the precious diadem of Mel: chior, set with Chaldean letters and a star. “And they atill bear upon their banners a star with the aign of the crosn.” John of Hildesheim Is quite definite in his description of each king and his domain, and he agrees with the medieval geographera in saying that | there are three Indies, “In the first India was the land of Nubia, and in that land King Mel chior reigned. Here is also the land of Arable, which is full of gold, and the gold is the best in the world. “Of the second India, Godalia and Saba, Balthazar was King. Saba pro- duces spices and especially incense, (Raba was the land of the Queen of Sheba.) “‘Of the third country called Thaars, Gaspar was King. To this country be- longs the Islé of Egrisoulla, which | ylelds myrrh."” The old English translation of Hil- desheim’s account, with its quaint spelling, is sometimes confusing, and narrative, with descriptions of the réetinues of the kings and the lande through which they journey. He takes them by different roads to Jerusalem, | where they meet and go on together. The scene which follows, called in art “The Adoration of the Magi,” has been the inspiration of many master- | pleces of art. Rubens alone devoted 15 canvases to that subject. Ghirlan- do’s pictures follow a more familiar | type than Gozzoll's, but even hia con- ceptions of the event depict much | magnificence and many attendants. The oldest king s firat at the feet of the 8avior with his treasures, and the youngest holde his eustomary gift of myrrh. Tn this. as in many other pic. tures of the ‘“‘Adoration.’” horses are saddled and bridled, waiting for de. parturs and in the distance is a har- hor where ships lie ready to unfurl thelr salls. * x ok % MRR. Jameson says that in chapels of the Nativity the walla on one side are sometimes decorated with scenes showing the journey te Reth. Iehem, while on the other side the return i pictured. The folk tale which Baring-Gould has put into verse it no less naive than the shroniele which relates the changing of robes: | ¢ - - -\ \ 177 PAGE FROM BOOK _PRINTED IN 1483, SHOWING COATS OF ARMS | OF THE THREE W18 MEN. i Legends Follow Wise Men’s Course Over Distant Trails grimage in the third century, visiting Christlan shrines, restoring many and eollecting holy relics, it is reported that ¢‘she longed to have the fex of the three kings and went to India.” From Prester John she ob- tained the bodies of Melchior and Balthasar, and, fortunately, was able to make a bargain with the people of the Isle of Egriseul, where Gaspar was buried, by eéxchanging the body of 8t. Thomas, which she had in her posseasion, for that of the third king. Although she took the bodies to Con- stantinople, they were destined to fur- ther travel Conatantine gave them to the Bishop of Milan, whom he vished to honor, and after Fraderick Barbarossa captured Milan the kings were taken to Cologne and solsmnly placed in the old cathedral July 2, 1164, This final journey is a matter of history. Once more crowds of peo- ple flocked to see the cavaleades of the three kings, and chapels were dedicated to them along the route ‘hrough Italy and Switzerland. oo % T the shrine of the Magi in Co- logne many gifts were laid and enough weaith accrued to rebulld the cathedral and make it one of the fine est in the world. Miss Singletos says that the reliquary in which the , #kulls of Gaspar, Meichior and Ral- thar repose, crowned with jeweled diadems, “If a superb example of twelfth century workmanship. It Is of gilded copper and pure gol mented with figures and with more than 1,600 precious ston and cameos.” Many sculpturés in the chapel show the adoration of the Magi. Thus it is that Cologne has eome to be called the City of the Three Kings, and there they seem to have found their final resting place. On the feast of the Epiphany, when the church celebrates the memory of their first visit to our Lord at Bethlehem, the relica are exposed to the view of the ve’l‘).vl 1iuivd. idea that this visit symbolizes the firat manitestation of Christ to the gentiles is the underlying thought of Epiphany and the motive for the design of windows and sculpture in many churches of that name, In the beautiful chancel window of the Church of the Epiphany in Washing- ton the central space shows th adoration of the Magi. On o depicted the message of the angels to And o ARl s ot e g tor o. Magl, onée more trom the town 1o (e For Herod is saekins :ha life of the Child This legénd ix i the efféct that the three kings, In order to evade Herod, took ships of Tursus for home, and Herod, in anger, not only ordered the slaughter of the children, as reiated In Matthew's text, hut purpued the kings and burned all the shipa in the harbors of Cilicia. The tradition of the return journey by boat has mot often been depicted in art, but it is emhodied in a fresco by Lorenzo Costa and in a bas-relief in the Cathedral of Amiens, ‘The two years of travel back to the homeland and thé subsequént ad- ventures of the kings serve in Hil- desheim’s story 1o introduce more of the legends of hia time and a few new characters, notably St. Thomas. who is 16 have Been sont ax & missionary to Imdia. There he the Jewish shephérds, and on the Other the revelation of the star to the gentile kings. - 80 the feast of Eplphany. January the wise men's apeeial day: but are honored upon Christmas and every year, in Palestine, firat journey to Bethleham s Aymbolized by erowds ot pllgrime who carry starlike tapers in their hands (Covvright. 1998.) eventually locates the three kings by the temples they have erected con. taining the atar emblem and finde “whole of body and of great Now, the story joins with that of | another mysterious personage of the middle ages, for the three kings, in making preparation for their death, deeide upon & succeasor, who is to he callad Prester John. Who the firet | Preater John really was has never been decided, but he and those who followed him.by the same title were such famous characters, and so many eftorts were made to find the rich and powerful nation over which they were suj to rule, that it-is not surprising to ind him xmhud with three other monarchs whose kingdoms had remained hidden from the ex: Long.Lived Gift. A GIANT salamander, thought to bt almoat 150 years old, was recently presented to the Prince Regent z dapan by the head priest of a temp! near Asakura, according to préss re ports. The amphibian is more that four feet long and has heen living in |4 pond in the temple grounds for more Pplorer. than 180 years. This is the first tim¢ When Eimpress Helena, the mother | that an amphibian has been recorde of Constantine, aagan her famoun pil- as having had so long a life.