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Show I Built ih gorner Stones 1 xm. if Very tcrrlhlo In Its sinister significance) signi-ficance) Is the custom of pulling coins under the foundation stone of a hulld lug nbout to bo erected. For these pieces of gi u nml "liver nnd hronxo nro the latter day equln-lenls equln-lenls of tho human IioIjirh that would onco hnu been Immolated there and thcro Immured. Tho) constitute, the ransom for blood that by tightM should bo shed, but Is not. This latter torrlblo use was at one time well nigh universal, nnd traoe of It survive almost everywhere. In many parts of lhiropo. for Instance, when tho holo Is dug to receh o this samo foundation stone tho masons will cntlco to tho spot some stranger Then whllo one ongnges him In conversation another will creep behind and measure meas-ure Ills shadow, tho measuro stick being be-ing afterward burled and mortar stamped down on top tit It. Or thoy preparo a tiny collln. Inside which Is a doll, for uso In tho samo way, or rude Imnges of bablea In swaddling clothes aro similarly Immured. And In not n fow out-of Ihe-wny part of tho world1, whose Inhabitants stand psychically about where wo did twenty cenlurlos ago, tho ortglnul custom cus-tom still prevails In all its prlmltlvo hldeou8ncsR. Only last jcar nt Mosdol; In tho Caucasus, threo builders wero arrested for kidnaping nnd murdering a lad, whoso body they afterward built Into the foundations of a tower thoy were erecting. In 18C5 two children, n boy and a girl were similar!) consigned to n living liv-ing rnv by some laborers working on a blockhouse at Dugn, In Axlatlf Turke) A holme that m being built ut Scutari hetsine Khali) A ' wise man ' ho-e illre was uiiiriht decried that the ill feet would Inereaxe unless a hu man li tint were walled Into the foundations 8o the threw brothers who wore working nt It agreed among tliemselw to Immolate nnd Immure the first of their who who enme to the place to bring them food. Similar Instances might bo multiplied multi-plied lnilnnltel) In 1SSS, when Hols-worthy Hols-worthy churili In Dewmshlro, Kng-land, Kng-land, uns being restorod a skeleton with a mass of r plastered over the mouth was ti d Imbedded In an angle ot thu building That tho castle of l.lebcustoln might ntnud linprognnhle n child wns bought for hard cash of It pensnut mother nnd wnllod Into the doujon tower. A roll was gUen tho llttlo ono In oat whllo thu masons wero nt work nnd the uniinturnl parent Mood by to qulot It In case It cried out. "Mother, 1 can see )ou," laughed the child when tho wnll was breast high. "Mother. I seu n little ot you still." Then, wnll-Ingly wnll-Ingly "Mother. 1 eo nothing of )ou now " In tho museum nt Algiers Is a plaster plas-ter cast ot tho mold left by tho body of one (leronlmo, who was built Into a block of concrete in tho unglo nt tho fort In thu sixteenth century Gt. Louis Globe Democrat. |
