13. What race of Indians, still unconquered, is supposed to have red hair and pale complexions?
The Guatuso Indians, a race of the Aztec family. They dwell along the banks and head-waters of the Rio Frio, which flows into Lake Nicaragua. Their country has never been penetrated. The attempts made by the Catholic missionaries and the governors of Nicaragua to reach them, though often renewed, have always been repulsed.
14. Who was the “Veiled Prophet”?
Hakim Ben Allah, or Ben Hashem, the founder of an Arabic sect in the eighth century, during the reign of Mahadi, the third Abassidian caliph, at Neksheb, or Meru in Khorassan, was surnamed Mokanna, or “the veiled prophet.” He was so called on account of his constantly wearing a veil of silver, or, according to others, of golden gauze. Some writers attribute this habit to a desire to conceal a deformity, one of his eyes having been pierced by an arrow, others to the desire to conceal his extraordinary ugliness. His own explanation, which was believed by his followers, was that the veil was necessary to shroud from the eyes of the beholder the dazzling rays emanating from his divine countenance. Hakim set himself up as a god. He had first, he said, assumed the body of Adam, then that of Noah, and subsequently those of many other wise and great men. The last human form he pretended to have adopted was that of Abu Moslem, a prince of Khorassan. He appears to have been well versed in the arts of legerdemain and “natural magic,” principally as regards producing startling effects of light and color. Among other miracles, he, for a whole week, to the great delight and bewilderment of his soldiers, caused a moon or moons to issue from a deep well; and so brilliant was the appearance of these luminaries, that the real moon quite disappeared by their side. On this account he was sometimes called Sagende Nah, or the “Moon-maker.” When the Sultan Mahadi had, after a long siege, taken the last stronghold in which Hakim had fortified himself, he, having first poisoned all his soldiers at a banquet, threw himself into a vessel filled with a burning acid of such a nature that his body was entirely dissolved, and nothing remained but a few hairs. This was done that the faithful might believe him to have ascended to heaven alive. Some remnants of his sect still exist. Hakim has furnished the subject of many romances, of which the one contained in Moore’s “Lalla Rookh” is the most brilliant and best known.
15. What were supposed to be the “fiery serpents” which attacked the Israelites in the desert?
It has been argued with great plausibility that they were in reality Guinea or Medina worms (Filaria medinensis), a parasite that inhabits the flesh of men and other animals, and that seems to have been known from the earliest times. It is from six inches to four feet in length, and about one ninth of an inch in diameter. It is found in many parts of Africa, India, Sumatra, Persia, Arabia, and the island of Curaçoa. It is believed to enter the flesh through the skin, and as many as fifty have been reported in a single person. In some cases they cause much pain and inconvenience; in others, none. Death has sometimes resulted from them.
16. What sovereign owns the greater part of the territory over which he reigns?
At least three different rulers can claim this distinction. Prince Heinrich XXII., present sovereign of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, has no civil list. He is very wealthy, and the greater part of the territory over which he reigns is his own private property.
Prince Heinrich XIV. is the present sovereign of the Principality of Reuss-Schleiz, of which the greater part is the private property of the reigning family.
Friedrich Wilhelm I., present Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, is one of the wealthiest of German sovereigns, more than half of the Grand Duchy being his own property.