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 12 S. III. MARCH 24, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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<cures, gives the following account of what he saw : ' The Zouave admits no one to his pres- ence who is not really afflicted with disease or infirmity, those who are led to the Rue de la Roquette by curiosity being compelled to re- main hi the waiting-room. Fortunately I was burnished with a letter from his best friend, and became privileged at once. I entered the room -with twenty of the most ragged and dirty of the whole mob, and am thus enabled to describe 'the scene. The Zouave was standing as if in a reverie when we entered pell-mell into the long, "low apartment where the cures were performed. He was leaning against the wall, with his eyes half open, after the fashion of somnambula before entering completely into trance, the only difference being in the intense light shot out <rom the living orbs beneath the drooping eye- lids. He neither spoke nor moved, while his iather busied himself in arranging the visitors upon the low wooden benches before him. Every crutch and stick was taken from the infirm patients and placed in the comer behind the door, amid the timid whines of the poor frightened creatures, accustomed to look upon the help afforded by these objects as absolutely necessary "to their safety. When all were seated thus, leaning the one against the other, the father, going close up to the son, whispered in his ear. He was aroused in a moment, adn coming for- ward with a movement brusque and hurried, .savouring of the military camp and not in the least of the solemnity of the magician's sanc- tuary, he walked up and down for a few minutes before the eager line of sufferers. To each he "told the disea.se under which he or she was suffer- ing, and the original cause of the malady ; and as no objection was made in any one case, I am led to suppose him to have been right in all. Presently, however, I observed him to stop suddenly, and fix his eye upon one of the patients -who sat" at the extreme end of the second bench, -aside with a slight shudder, which I observed was neither of disgust nor dread, but a kind of involuntary recoil. He said abruptly, pointing with his forefinger straight into the face of the individual he addressed, " I can do nothing for your disease ; it is beyond my power ; go, and /remember it is useless to return. This was all ; but the words acted upon the man like a magic Bpell. He shook from head to foot, like the aspen-leaf, and tried to gasp out a few words, but whether of prayer or expostulation it is impossible to say ; for his tongue seemed para- lysed, and clung to the roof of his mouth, while the Zouave turned aside with an indescribable expression of fear, certainly indicative of a kind of intimidation. But this was soon shaken off, -and he again passed before the line, uttering simply the words, " Rise and walk." The sound which simultaneously burst from the assembly could find no fitting description in any language. It was a sort of moaning whine, a kind of infantile wailing, evidently produced by fear and doubt. One feeble old beggar-woman, whose head had stopped its palsied shaking from the moment the Zouave Jacob had fixed his glittering eye upon her, was the one who gave expression to the feeling which had evidently taken possession my crutches ? " and, having turned a yearning look towards the corner where these old friends
 * and, after examining him for a moment, turn
 * them all. " Oh ! how can I move without

and supporters were standing, with a host of others, she began to mumble or moan most piteously. But the Zouave looked for an instant down the line, with an ominous frown on his brow, as he found that not one of the patients had obeyed his orders. No pretension to the sacred character of a prophet, or inspired seer, was there, for he stamped with such rude violence on the floor that the casement shook again. He almost uttered an oath, but it was unfinished, as he once more uttered the command to rise and walk, so that others might be admitted in their place. Then came the most strange and mysterious moment of the whole ceremony. One by one did every individual seated upon those low wooden benches rise and stand erect. No words can describe the singular spectacle offered by this fearing, hoping, doubting crowd, as each one found himself standing firm upon the legs which for years had ceased to do -their office. Some laughed like foolish children, some remained wrapped in stolid wonder, while many burst into the most heartrending paroxysm of weeping. It was then that the Zouave stretched forth his arm and bade them pause. All was hushed and silent for a moment. The pause lasted for some tune. I have been told that it is always so, but have not been able to account for its necessity ; and then the door was thrown open, and the crippled and the paralysed, the halt and lame of the hour before, walked from that long, low, half - darkened chamber, with somewhat timid gait, it may be, but with straightened limbs and measured steps, as though no ailment had ever reached them. One or two amongst the number turned to thank their deliverer, but the Zouave dismissed them bru- tally. "Be off; don't stand shilly-shally. You are cured, ain't you ? That's enough now ' pietiez-moi le camp ! " In plain English, " Cut your stick, and be gone." Before leaving the room I turned to look at the single patient whose case Jacob had pronounced as being be- yond his power to cure. The man was paralysed in both arms and his neck twisted all awry. It certainly was a hang-dog countenance worse than any I had ever beheld and the expression of rage, and hate, and fear, which it conveyed was unmistakable. His feet were paralysed likewise, and turned outwards. The Zouave's father searched among the sticks and articles left in the corner for those which belonged to the only cripple destined to remain so, and, as he touched each one, looked with inquiring glance towards the unhappy wretch, who answered with an awkward jerk of his wry neck, until he seized upon a sort of wooden shelf or go-cart upon wheels, which the cripple had been used to push before him. A boy came in to help him from his seat, and as he disappeared, supported by this aid, he uttered a poignant groan, which resounded through the place with the most weird and terrible effect imaginable.' "

Similar miraculous claims and inexplic- able cures are associated with St. Winifred's Well at Holywell, Flintshire, the waters of which ceased to flow on January 5 of this year in consequence of the supply being interfered with in the carrying-on of certain works in a local lead-mine.

ISRAEL SOLOMONS.