Numerous and interesting anecdotes could be repeated.
A case of archæological suggestive fancy is told by Paul Eudel. A piece of pottery was brought to a member of the Académie des Inscriptions as it bore a rather cryptic sequence of letters that had proved puzzling to other authorities. The pot with the letters in question, M. J. D. D., had been excavated near Dijon. As soon as the Academicien saw the letters he had no hesitation in pronouncing it to be a Roman vase, a small amphora used as an ex-voto. The letters, he said, represented the initials of the Latin invocation:—
Magno Jove Deorum Deo.
Being a question of a votive offering, nothing would be more consistent than the words, “To the great Jupiter, the god of gods.” Unfortunately such a splendid piece of inductive learning was shattered when an ordinary art dealer examined the jar and declared it to be anything but ancient, a mustard-pot in fact, the initials meaning
Moutarde Jaune de Dijon.
For a considerable time an inscription found on a worm-eaten piece of a sign-board puzzled the world of erudites. The inscription, evidently the work of a jester, ran thus:—
I.C.I.................E.........S.
T.L..............E..C.H.........E.
M...................I.N......D..E.
S.A................N..E.........S.
Needless to say many explanations of the obliterated letters were prompted by the learned suggestive fancy of professors, and many interesting reconstructions of the ancient inscription were given. The riddle, however, was not solved till some one perfectly unacquainted with the art of reading old inscriptions happened to read the letters straight off without regard to spacing, furnishing the following true explanation:—
ICI EST LE CHEMIN DES ANES.
This is the way for asses! has since become a byword in lampooning blind erudition.