CHEESE ROLLING FROM STILTON, ENGLAND!

    Cheese Rolling has become an annual event in Stilton and every May Day hundreds of villagers and visitors make their way to the main street to watch the teams battling for the honour of being called the "Stilton Cheese Rolling Champions".

Stilton History and The Cheese

The Bell Inn, where the rolling starts!

Ancient Stilton

    No one knows who lived here first - the earliest finds date from the time of the Roman occupation and are probably associated with the road that runs from London to the army fortress at Lincoln, which the Saxons later called Ermine Street.
    For centuries this road seems to have been little used, the important route was the east-west road, Fen Street and Church Street, which is why our oldest building, the Church of St Mary Magdalene, is found away from the main road that now exists.

    Stilton gets three mentions in the Doomesday Book of 1086 as three landowners, the King, the Bishop of Lincoln and Eustace held land here. The Great North Road had become a busy thoroughfare by the fifteenth century and Stilton was a well-known staging post; at one time there were 14 inns or ale houses for a permanent population of around 500 to 600 people. While most earned their living from farming, an analysis of the 1841 census, taken just before the long distance coach trade all but disappeared to be superseded by the railway, showed that occupations directly connected to the coaches were important too.

Village Pubs &  The Cheese

    All four of the present inns have very ancient origins, even though their buildings have been changed and modernised several times. We owe our famous cheese to the coach trade. Any Stiltonian can relate tales of visitors asking "where is the cheese made?...", only to be told "‘in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire".
    The most widely accepted explanation is that the cheese came down to be sold at one of the coach stops in Stilton, perhaps The Bell or The Angel. As early as 1722 Daniel Defoe (the author of "Robinson Crusoe") ate some here and mentioned that the village was already famous for its cheese. The recipe was passed down through the Beaumont family of Quenby in Leicestershire. By 1830 a former housekeeper at Quenby, Elizabeth Orton, made cheese in her farmhouse. Her daughter married Cooper Thornhill who kept The Bell Inn and he sold the cheese. He was famous (or infamous) as a larger-than-life character who long held the record for riding to London and back.

Modern Stilton

    Today, all Stilton cheese is factory made, but still only in the three counties with milk produced locally. It takes a gallon of milk to make one pound of cheese and a lot of skilled hard work is still needed. Each cheese matures for 3 months after which the blue veins appear naturally as oxygen is allowed to enter through holes pierced by stainless steel needles. A whole cheese weighs 15lb.

One of the officials watching a race

    Stilton’s dependence on the main road has been its undoing twice; in the middle of the nineteenth century when the railway line passed to the east through Holme and Yaxley, and in 1959 when the present A1 Stilton by-pass was opened. The village became a ghost village; The Bell actually closed and fell into disrepair and other businesses also disappeared. In 1962 Tom McDonald of The Talbot and Malcolm Moyer of The Bell, aided and abetted by telephone engineer Fred Linstead who provided a telegraph pole, cheered up their drinkers by organising the first ever Cheese Rolling along a course outside the present Post Office on Easter Monday.

A Little History On The Cheese Roll

How did it start?

    It would be nice to be able to say that the event is "as old as the village" or that it's origins have been lost in "the mists of time" but really no one knows how far back the tradition of rolling the cheeses goes. Midway through the Twentieth Century, when the village had turned into rather a quiet place having been by-passed by the A1 and the inns and businesses had seen a big drop in their trade, a landlord of one of the pubs decided to revive an ancient tradition. Or so he told everyone! He could be seen rolling a Stilton Cheese along the road outside his pub. People came to stand and watch and eventually joined in. And so the sport began - again.

The Rules

    It was originally run on Easter Monday and there was not a lot of uniformity to it to begin with. It seems a piece of wood in the shape of a Stilton Cheese was produced, a starting line drawn up somewhere between the The Stilton Cheese Inn and The Talbot and the finish line was outside The Bell Inn. Brave teams of Stilton men would then vie to roll the cheese to it's finish and, after the ensuing scramble, and many tussles and spills, the team that ended up steering the cheese to the finishing line would win! Nowadays, the starting point is always outside The Bell Inn and The Angel and the finish is a line drawn at the cross roads between the bottom of Fen Street and Church Street. The contestants are teams of 4, either all men or all women and each team member has to roll the cheese at least once during it's flight. It's a knockout competition with quarter's, semi's and a grand final.

Fancy Dress

    Some of the teams wear fancy dress for which there is a good prize and it all adds to the colourful scene. We would like to say that the sport has become more genteel over the years but we still get the tumbles and spills as in former days. The friendly rivalry grows during the competition as each team passes through to the next round so we end up with some very competitive finals!

    The prizes are always the same, a Whole Stilton Cheese and beer for the men and a Whole Stilton Cheese and wine for the ladies. But, of course, the main prizes are to be the winners of the coveted Bell Cup for men or the WI Cup for the ladies and to go down in history as 'Stilton Cheese Rolling Champions'. For more information about next years Cheese Rolling or to obtain an entry form contact the organisers

THE BANSHEES OF IRISH FOLKLORE!

    In Irish folklore, the Banshees are known as the ancestral spirits of the Fairy world. Their history extends way back into the dim and mysterious past.
    Banshees are among the oldest Fairy folk of Ireland, associated as strongly as shamrocks and potatoes. Banshees, also known as Bean-Sidhe, were appointed to forewarn members of Irish families of impending death. Her prescence alone brings no harm or evil, but to hear a Banshee in the act of keening is to have witnessed the announcement of the death of a loved one. The Banshee's wail pierces the night and its notes rise and fall like waves over the countryside.
    It is said that Banshees never appear to the one who is to die but to their loved ones. In times gone by she was seen washing human heads, limbs or bloody clothing until the water was dyed with blood. Over the centuries this image changed. The Banshee now paces the land, wringing her hands and crying. Sometimes she is known as the Lady of Death or the Woman of Peace, for despite her wails she is graced with serenity.
    A Banshee won't cry from just anyone. According to legend, each Banshee mourns for members of one family. Some say only the five oldest Irish families have their own Banshees: the O'Neills, O'Briens, O'Gradys, O'Connors and Kavanaghs.
The Banshee is a solitary Fairy creature who loves the mortal family she is connected to with a fierce, unearthly care and will pace the hills in sorrow when she knows a death is looming.
    She will follow her family's members right across the world-her keening can be heard wherever true Irish are settled, because just like them she never forgets her blood ties. Unseen, she will attend their funerals and her wails mingle with those of the mourners.
Famous tailes of Banshee sightlings are plentiful. One dating back to 114 AD tells of a Banshee attached to the kingly house of O'Brien who haunted the rock of Craglea above Killaloe. Legend has it that Aibhill the Banshee appeared to the aged King Brian Boru before the Battle of Clontard, Which was fought in the same year.
    A recounting from the 18th century concerns a group of children who on an evening walk saw a little old woman sit on a rock beside the road. She began to wail and clap her hands and the children ran away in fear, only to later discover that the old man who lived in the house behind the rock died at that very moment.
    A little girl in the mid-19th century, standing at the window in her house in Cork, saw a figure o the bridge ahead. She heard the Banshee's wails and the figure disappeared but the next morning her grandfather fell as he was walking and hit his head, never to wake up. The same little girl was an old lady by 1900 and one day when she was very ill her daughter heard wailing round and under her bed. The mother didn't see to hear, but sure enough it protended her death.
    A party on a yacht on a Italian lake told its owner they witness a woman with a shock or red hair and a hellish look in her eyes. The owner, Count Nelsini, formally known a O'Neill, became anxious that the Banshee was announcing the death of his wife or daughter, but within two hours he was seized with an angina attack and died.
Descriptions of the Banshee vary but she appears in one of three guises; young woman, stately matron or raddled old hag.

• A Banshee as a beautiful young girl appears with red-gold hair and a green kirtle and scarlet mantle, traditional dress of Ireland.
• As matron she is said to be tall and striking, contrasting sharply with the dark of night. She is pale and thin, her eyes red from centuries of crying, her silver-grey hair streaming all the way to the ground as her cobweb-like grey-white cloak clings to her body.
• In the hag guise she usually wears grey, hooded cloaks or the grave robe of the unshriven dead. She may appear as a washer-woman or be shrouded in a dark, mist-like cloak.
• The Banshee can also appear in other forms, such as a stoat, crow or weasel-animals associated in Ireland with witchcraft.

    One of the most notorious tales of a Banshee comes from the memoirs of Lady Fanshaw. Along with her husband, in 1642 she visited a friend in an ancient baronial castle surrounded by a moat. At midnight she was woken suddenly by a ghastly, supernatural scream. Leaping upright in bed, there was a young, handsome woman hovering outside the window in the moonlight. The woman was pale with dishevelled, loose red hair and wearing a dress in the style of the ancient Irish. The apparition stayed for some time and then disappeared with two loud shrieks.
    When morning came, Lady Fanshaw, not without some trepidation, told her host what she had seen. Her friend looked at her gravely and explained that she had seen the family Banshee, the ghost of a woman of inferior rank who married one of his ancestors, but he drowned her in the moat to atone for the shame he had brought on his family. She had come that night, as she always did, to announce a death in the family-one of his relations passed away in her sleep.
    Always appearing as a woman, there is no shortage of legends of Banshee sightings. Stretching back for more than a millennium, the Banshee, continues ringing a death knell for the witness's loved ones.

HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS SEALS!!

Seal 2010

Seal 1931

Seal 1981

It all began in 1907.

    In the early 20th century, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the U.S. Physicians were experiencing the first signs of success treating tuberculosis in special hospitals called sanatoriums, and one of those facilities had fallen on tough times. The tiny Delaware sanatorium would have to close its doors if $300 dollars could not be raised to save it. One of its doctors explained the plight to his cousin, a Red Cross volunteer named Emily Bissell. Bissell was a veteran fundraiser, and she soon came up with a plan based on one that had worked in Denmark: She would design and print special holiday seals and sell them at the post office for a penny each.

Seal 1907

Emily Bissell

Expanding Mission

    The tradition continued and grew year after year through World War I, The Great Depression and Word War II. As the American Lung Association's mission expanded to include research-into other respiratory diseases, such as lung cancer, more people began to send Christmas Seals. And as the American Lung Association stepped up to protect children and families from pollution and cigarette smoke in the 1960's, 70's, and 80's, America continued its support each year by supporting the Christmas Seals tradition.

Seal 1926

Seal1912

Seal 1953

Seal 1979

Seal 1961



A Bigger Battle.

    Today, the American Lung Association fights a bigger battle than ever before. From important research on lung cancer and asthma to the fights against the dangerous poisons in air pollution and secondhand smoke, the American Lung Association's crucial mission is still largely supported by Christmas Seals.

Seal 1949

Seal 1918

Seal 1972

Seal 2004

Each year, millions observe the tradition of sealing holiday cards and packages with that year's special seal. And each year, your Christmas Seals donation supports the important fight against lung disease being waged every day by the American Lung Association.

If you are interested in purchasing some Christmas seals or just want a look at all of the other Christmas seals, you can go to Christmas seals.org. They are not very expensive either, for a sheet or 56 they are $10 dollars.

THE CALAVERAS COUNTY FROG JUMP FROM CALIFORNIA!

The book that started it all

    "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is an 1865 short story by Mark Twain, his first great success as a writer, bringing him national attention. The story has also been published as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" (its original title) and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. Twain describes him: "If he even seen a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to—to wherever he going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road."

Samuel Clemons aka "Mark Twain"

    "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is also the title story of an 1867 collection of short stories by Mark Twain. Twain's first book, it collected 27 stories that were previously published in magazines and newspapers.
    Twain first wrote the title short story at the request of his friend Artemus Ward, for inclusion in an upcoming book. Twain worked on two versions but neither was satisfactory to him—neither got around to describing the jumping frog contest. Ward pressed him again, but by the time Twain devised a version he was willing to submit, that book was already nearing publication, so Ward sent it instead to The Saturday Press, where it appeared in the November 18, 1865 edition as "Jim Smiley and His

   Jumping Frog". Twain's colorful story was immensely popular, and was soon printed in many different magazines and newspapers. Twain developed the idea further, and Bret Harte published this version in The Californian on December 16; this time entitled "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", and the man named Smiley was changed to Greeley.

About the Frog Jump and Its History

    In 1928, the Angels Camp Boosters Club (which is still very active in promoting fun events in Calaveras County) organized a celebration in honor of the first paving of Main Street in Angels Camp and chose to use Mark Twain’s famous story as the focus for their event. The first Calaveras Jumping Frog Jubilee drew over 15,000 people to Angels Camp. Visitors came from all over the countryside on foot, in wagons, and on horseback.Today, thousands of frog jump contestants from all over the world give the Celebrated Calaveras Frog Jump unique international acclaim. Plan to attend the

   Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee is held annually, the third week in May at “Frogtown”. Breathtaking rodeos, live concerts, exhilarating midway rides, country crafts, professional and amateur art and exhibits, lots of food, a beautiful setting, and much more make this a fun weekend for the entire family. For more information, take a look at the official frog jump site at www.frogtown.org

TOP 5 HAUNTED PLACES AROUND THE WORLD!!!

Number 5, Catacombs, Paris, France

When Paris as a city was starting to grow, they needed more room for the settlers

to live in, which meant that they needed to remove the Parisians who would not resist to move, in this case the dead. They removed all dead corpses, millions to be exact and took them and placed them along the dark passageways underneath the city where they lie till this day and have been given the name The Empire of the Dead. The Paris Catacombs attract over a million visitors a year who walk along the skeletons and remains that are left. Many of the visitors and guides who have visited the place have encountered many ghostly inhabitants that still roam and follow the visitors as they walk along the Catacombs. There have been many visitors who can't handle the tour and become very overwhelmed that the tour is cut short. It is also said that if you were to take pictures within the Catacombs they will reveal orbs and ghostly apparitions. There have also been ghost hunters who decided to do EVP recordings and their findings have definitely proven that the Catacombs of Paris, France is one of the scariest, most haunted places in the world.

Number 4. Coliseum, Rome, Italy

The Coliseum was where gladiators would fight to the finish for the

entertainment of Ceasar, prisoners and war victims met their death at the jaws of tigers and lions at the Coliseum,, and where the animals were killed when all was said and done, some driven to extinction due to Romes thirst for blood and gore. And in the vaults below the Coliseum is where the gladiators awaited to fight, prisoners waited for their time to die in the most ghastly of ways, and where the Romans placed bets on the days competitions. Which is why it comes to no surprise when visitors and tour guides of today have reported many paranormal experiences. There have been cold spots, some have said they felt someone touch or push them, and heard someone whispering in their ears. The night workers of the Coliseum have reported sword clashing, sound of crying, and noises of animals such as the roars of lions. Some have even seen ghostly figures sitting in the seats of the Coliseum.

Number 3. Underground Vaults, Edinburgh, Scotland



Below the streets of Edinburgh remains a dark history which was just discovered

in the mid 1980's. A history that goes back 200 years. The vaults of Edinburgh were used as cellars, workshops and even businesses. But they soon had to abandon the place due to excessive water and moisture, that till this day they remain as it did 200 years ago. Of course like many places that go abandoned the poor and homeless made a home of it. And then came the outbreaks of plagues and other incurable illnesses to which many faced their death in those very same vaults. There is also evidence that many were killed there since the infamous pair Burke and Hare found some of their victims in the Edinburgh vaults selling the cadavers to hospitals. These vaults have proved to be one of the most haunted place for many who have been down there have experienced things which they can't explain and say they will never go back there on their own free will.

Number 2. Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Oswiecim, Poland

The Auschwitz death camps are known to have been in operation from

1940-1945, in which point and time over 2.1-2.5 million people were killed in gas chambers and that itself is just an estimate, no one really knows how many more were really killed. By 1943 Hitler used Auschwitz as a mass murder factory where 4420 could fit in the gas chamber at a time and roughly took 20 minutes to kill all of them. After the murder the bodies were stripped of all valuables and taken to be cremated, which was operated by Jews who were forced to do so. For all who has visited the camp in present times has experienced an overwhelmed by sadness. Visitors have broken down in tears for no apparent reason and many can't finish the tour. It has been said that no birds sing in any of the nearby trees and the silence is beyond deafening. There have been reported cold spots, and in the photographs taken of the camp, have shown apparitions, shadows, light anomalies and orbs.

Number 1. Greyfriar's Cemetery/Covenanter's Prison, Edinburgh, Scotland

Greyfriar's Cemetery has been known to be haunted for generations but not

until the late 90's did this place get labeled as one of the most haunted places in the world. The history of the place is quite gruesome itself, from the headstone removals, body snatching's and burying people alive, to witch burnings and its use as a mass prison. It is said that visitors have witnessed and encountered cold spots, loud noises, coming from the tombs, and some visitors have been physically injured. Victims have stated they were attacked by unseen entities leaving scratch marks, bruises and cuts on their bodies. People have said to become unconscious by the nauseating smell of vomit. As for the people who live near by the cemetery their homes have been known to become invaded by poltergeist's.

WITCHES AND THEIR FLYING MACHINES!

Stories about air born witches have intrigued the world for a long time. Even

though there is little evidence that broomstick flying ever took place, the eery consistency of the stories of broomstick flying is too persistent to ignore it. So what was it with broomsticks?

    In many cases, historic records-mostly of courtcases, leave us a quite precise description of the way witches were perceived to be operating their wicked or evil magic on the rest of society in the Middle Ages.

    In England, witchcraft was outlawed in legal act in 1542 and 1736, but the laws did not forid flying. Probably because the legal profession did not believe it a possibility. But there are still many accounts of witches having been seen leaving one place only to turn up several miles away without passing by on the road.

    A linked belief was that witches knew far too much about other people's business, reporting secrets they could not have known or overhearing conversations from far off, says Shantell Powell, who runs a research site on the issue call shanmonster.com.

Often the accounts of witches' ability to conduct supernatural acts were made by the people in their immediate environment. Historians say that the persons telling the court what they believed they'd witnessed in very many cases shows that they clearly misunderstood some happenings and that in as many cases gross exaggeration was employed to make stories fit.

    Yet the many misgivings revealed by the old historic records do not necessarily mean that the actual accusation themselves were never based on any truth whatsoever.

"The broomstick flying can be accounted for when the form of early mound-dwellings is taken into consideration", says Margaret Alic Murray, author of "The Witch Cult in Western Europe", an extensive work not only of witch trials but also a well documented study of the beliefs of ancient witch organisations.

    Murray believes that savage European tribes tended to maintain elaborate taboos connected with the door that can be linked to witches' preferred means of departure through windows and chimneys. She also says that the broom was connected to fertility rites, an issue that of course creates the necessary hype in that it is intricately mysterious easily explaining any links with older women.

    For their extent to which broomstick flying stories are part of may European, North American, Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries' folklore, the number of direct confessions or testimonial account of broomstick flying is very small, Murray writes in her research. One eye witness account historically recorded is made by a certain Julian Cox, a woman who in 1664 testified that one evening about a mile from her house, she saw riding towards her three persons on as many "broom-staves." The three were flying at a height of one and a half yards from the ground, she said.

  

    Another documented account is known as the New England witches and dates back to 1692. Two selfprofessed witches including a Mary Osgood, confessed to riding on a pole and being carried through the air to five-mile pond and back again. Wonder where to? Why, pray, a witches meeting of course.
    Other stories reveal even juicier details. There's even one detailing a flight accident. Not only did the two of the witches named in this documented story independently of each other confess to being carried through the air by the Devil, but both confirmed that they experienced a crash because one of their broomsticks broke. One witch apparently hung about her fellow colegue's neck for a while and then dragged both of them down. They were injured and one of them was bed ridden for months afterwards.
    If the possibly quite strange body position that broomstick flying was likely to have required would have been viewed with utmost suspicion at the time, the punishment of witches might have mimicked such bizarre bodily positioning. Many accounts reveal that the preferred punishment for suspicion of witchcraft (which often ended in death) was a water ordeal in which a person was tied with his right thumb to the left big toe and the left thumb to the right big toe and then thrown in the water. If the person sank, they were considered innocent, but if they somehow kept floating, they could end up being killed. The test would be conducted not by the masses (something that happened in many other circumstances, when hoards of people would turn against a person suspected of being a witch, usually after an incident) but by a few high placed people, in England usually the minister of the parish and other highly regarded persons.
    There are some scientific explanations for the act of flying on a broomstick or "tree riding" as the activity is known in historic records too. Witches were said to fly through the window or up a chimney. Murray's study documents that one of the earliest cases on record of stick-riding does not definitely state that the witch flew through the air they way you still read about in fairy tales or Harry Potter stories. She cites the case of Lady Alice Kyteler. Historic texts reveal that a pipe with ointment was found in this lady's closet, apparently for the use of greasing a stick "upon the which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin, when and in what manner she listed". Similar accounts are found elsewhere in the U.K. and the wording is also quite close to the way the stick-riding of Arab witches is described.
    The potion stories are most believable and scientifically correct. Historic records of confessions of witches also include other means of flying, including simple sticks, pitchforks, poles, faggots, shovels, flying goats, heads of strange animals, cats, bats and humans transformed into animals.
    Scientists say that the recipes for potions or unguents that had been given to the witches by no one less than the Devil himself, are sufficient proof to explain the phenomenon. Apparently, there are the natural herbs mixed together to form the secret ingredients for the "flying" ointments that were said to be applied to the broomsticks, which are really rather phallic, include parsley, water of aconite, poplar leaves, and soot, sweet flag, cinquefoil, bat's blood, deadly night shade, and oil and baby's fat.
    Scientist say that its the mixing together of these ingredients and their effect that likely created the flying stories. Because if you mix up these goodies, you are sure to end up with a pretty hefty poison. "These prescriptions show that the society of witches had a very creditable knowledge of the art of poisoning: aconite and deadly nightshade or belladonna are two of the three most poisonous plants growing freely in Europe", say Murray.

    She adds that it is also very likely that hemlock might have been used by oldern day witches, who might have referred to it as persil, which by lots of other practitioners is often erroneously taken to be parsley. But even so, they'd already be pretty scarily close to creating rather poisonous substances. "Aconite was one of the best-known poisons in ancient times; indeed it was so extensively used by professional poisoners in
Rome during the Empire that a law was passed making its cultivation a capital offence. Aconite root contains about .4 percent of alkaloid and one-fifteenth of a grain of the alkaloid is a lethal dose:, say Murray.
    If adiministered, the drug is not immediately similar to recreational drugs, yet it slows you heartbeat or makes it irregular and can kill you. If belladonna is added however, the effects are likely to be more druglike, creating delirious consciousness. Far most poisonous of the ingredients is hemlock, which contains alkaloid, only an imperceptible amount of which causes irrvocable death.
    There are other explanations too for the flying sensations experienced by people who were more often than not identified by others as witches, say Powell. Before 1750, a peasant's diet consisted mainly of dark bread, which when moulded often lead to ergot poisoning. "Bread with just a 2% content of ergot, is pink and can cause ergot poisoning, which leads to hallucinations and muscle cramps, dry gangrene, and even death", say Powell. It is a known fact that you can even create LSD from ergot.
A man in London used several of the herbal ingredients and later wrote this of his experience "The unguent was rubbed on the pulse points of the hands and feet, after 5 minutes, a great feeling of tiredness and coldness overcame me and I lay down, my breathing slowed and I began to feel a bit panicky that I would die, however I convinced myself that if I did go into respiratory collapse or heart failure the instructions I had left with a friend who was attending me would enable him to provide artificial respiration and call an ambulance. My understanding of time became impossible so I could not decide how long my experiences lasted. Eventually I stopped being fearful and my mind seemed to be becoming detached from its normal state, there was still a feeling of coldness then I seemed to be floating upwards. I found myself soaring above the rooftops of London and my body was no longer human it had become amorphous like a giant squid, with its tentacles streaming behind it. With a little concentration I could change my body into virtually any shape I so desired. I seemed to be heading West and eventually came to a hillside, there I met a number of other people who informed me that the meeting place was not on this world but in the stars. I immediately shot into the sky towards a very bright star, I was not alone and as I flew towards the star many others were with me, our bodies seemed to melt into each other and I remember intense sensations of pleasure running up and down my body, which at the same was not my body but everyones, it's difficult to describe. Eventually I came to an enormous hall and walked upon its cold floor towards a flight of steps, either side of the hall were enormous pillars that stretched up so high I could not see a ceiling. As I came to the top of the steps I saw a hooded figure of a woman, she looked at me though her face was hidden by the hood. I suddenly felt an incredible sensation of power emanating from the woman and I became very frightened. The woman began to remove her hood and through fear I averted my gaze, a voice in my head told me to look up, I did and the face of the woman shone so brightly it hurt, not just my eyes but my whole body. I then remember a sensation of falling and cannot remember anything else".
    The use of aconite might have also have had similar effects. Irregular action of the heart in a person falling asleep produces the well-known sensation of suddenly falling through space. If it was then combined with a delirifacient like belladonna the sensation of flying could have been very possible.

LA DIADA de SANT JORDI FROM SPAIN!!!

    La Diada de Sant Jordi or Saint George's Day is celebrated in Barcelona on the 23rd of April. Sometimes it is also called "el dia de la rosa" (The Day of the Rose) or "el dia del llibre" (The Day of the Book).

    It is Barcelona's Valentine's Day. Saint George is the patron saint of Catalonia. As to the legend, Saint George killed a dragon which was about to eat the princess south of Barcelona. Out of dragon's blood a rose bush grow. Saint George gave roses of that bush to the princess.

    The Traditional Rose Festival, honouring romantic love and chivalry, has been organized in Barcelona since the Middle Ages. In 1932, people united the festival with local International Book Day. They thought it was suitable to do it and mark the anniversary of the death of two giants in the of world literature, Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare. They both died on the 23rd of April, 1616.

    A new tradition was created. Men give beautiful roses to their ladies and they give them books in return. Catalan people say "a rose for love and a book forever". Nowadays, it's common for women besides getting roses, gets a book too. On average, four million roses and 500,000 books are sold in whole Catalonia, this time of the year.

    La Rambla, a famous street in central Barcelona, is full of stalls with books. In Catalan, the name of the street means an intermittent water flow. The word is derived from Arab word, "ramla", which means a sandy riverbed. Numerous stalls with books are in other parts of Catalonia too.

    Many writers stand beside the stalls ready to sign their books. There is also a tradition of 24-hour reading of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cerventes.

    Roses are presented in a special way. Together with the roses, people will put a spike of wheat and a small red and yellow Catalonian flag called "senyera". There are also ribbons with printed words like "Sant Jordi" ("Saint George"), "Diada de la Rosa" ("Day of the Rose") and "t'estimo" ("I love you").

    In the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi city district of Barcelona, flower dealers organize displays of 45 different roses. These roses symoblize different sorts of love.

    The Sardana, is a dance done by the people Catalonia. There are two main Sardanes - the traditional sardana curta (short sardana) and the more modern sardana llarga (long sardana). The modern one is more popular today. The Sardana has been popular since the 16th century. Music for the sardana is played by a band called "la cobla".
Why the Sardana is mentioned here? Well, on La Diada de Sant Jordi, it is danced on the Plaça Sant Jaume (the main plaza or square in Catalonia).