Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 131.djvu/580

574 proficiency at chess. A Moorish princess, who was also a good player, hearing him boast of his skill, challenged him to a game, and on his inquiring what should be the stake, replied that the winner should have the privilege of hitting the loser on the head with the chess-board. He agreed, won the game, and dealt the princess so smart a blow on the head that he drew blood, and her wound had to be bandaged. The king, whoever he might have been, so highly admired not only the skill, but, what is more extraordinary, the magnanimity (Grossmuth) of the ungallant Slav, that he raised him to a high office, and allowed him to carry a chequered shield, surmounted by the princess without arms, and with a bandaged head as a crest. When the successor of this ancient Phillidor settled in Silesia, the people called him Bretfitzen or Bretwitzen, signifying that he was witty (witzig) or sharp at the board (Brett), and this name easily converted itself into Prittwitz. A similar story is told of the Silesian house of Loben. In this the warrior, having fallen into the hands of the infidels, played a game of chess with the Moorish queen Pelusa, on the condition that if he lost his head should be forfeit. He was the winner, and the queen, not content with sparing his life (Leben), whence is derived the name Loben, gave him a large sum of money, and appointed him general in the wars against the king of Egypt, and allowed him to bear her image on his escutcheon. The Loben, according to all our notions of chivalry, can tell a more creditable tale than the Prittwitz, but it should be observed that the Moorish figure in both coats of arms has its head similarly bound.

The origin of the arms of the Bohemian heroes Pardubitz and Stara is connected with the famous siege of Milan in 1158 by the emperor Frederick Barbarossa. One night the Bohemians, who had been brought by the duke Wratislaw to the assistance of the emperor, had climbed the walls of the besieged city, and had penetrated as far as the market-place, when a struggle ensued, and they were driven back by the citizens. They had secured a retreat by bursting open the gate, through which all made their way, with the exception of Geschek of Pardubitz, who, still fighting, remained behind the rest, until at last a voice from the city called upon the warder to let fall the portcullis. The order was obeyed, and just as Geschek was passing through the gate, his horse was cut in half close behind him. The hinder half, as he boasted, he left for the benefit of the "Wälschen," the other he brought to the Bohemian camp, where his king knighted him, and allowed him to bear half a white horse on his shield.

As this story may remind some readers of an incident in the life of the fictitious traveller Münchhausen, the two halves of whose horse led a merry life after their separation, we may affix to it, before we take leave of Dr. Grasse, the legend associated with the veritable Münchhausen of Thuringia. In their earliest times the family was simply called Hausen; and when at last all had died out with the exception of one who was a monk, the pope, who took pity on the survivor, allowed him to marry, and he had a son, named Heine, who did such good service under the emperor Frederick II. as to be allowed to bear the effigy of a monk on his shield and to be called "Münchhausen."

 

 From Nature.

travellers left Saissan on May 31, and arrived in Maiterek on June 4, in the company of his excellency the governor-general of west Siberia, General Pottaratzki, whom they met two nights previous to their arrival. Three tarantassas drawn by artillery horses conveyed them from Saissan on to the shores of the Black Irtisch. Their way led again through the steppe mostly covered with dschi, a kind of short, thick grass, with here and there patches of white alkaline soil; but after some time their eyes were refreshed by the appearance of a few trees, their number increased until the country became wooded, and therefore they hoped soon to reach the river. In the evening they saw before them the banks of the stream, swelled by the recent rain into a majestic river, its waters of a yellowish-brown color. For two hundred versts into China the stream is navigable for steamers, but up to this time it is not used as a means of communication. Beautiful trees bordered the river, and it was a pleasant change for the travellers, who had seen no trees since the Ala Tau, to find magnificent poplars, asps, and many other trees and bushes. Though the steppe is grand yet it becomes tedious after a while. The travellers continued their journey in a lotka (a sort of boat) belonging to a rich Kirghiz, who is