the desire of her parents, and assuring her that God would be her physician and comforter. This apparition, which lasted two hours, was attended with another on the same day. She saw in the evening a brightness, like a beautiful morning star. She has seen it ever since it shines in her chamber every day, from sun setting to sun rising. When she is very much cast down, there appears in that brightness a kind of face, which, looking upon her, gives her great ease and comfort. The brightness fills the whole room with light, but nobody else perceives it; every body is in the dark, while she sees the star. To prove the truth of it, those that are in the room take a piece of money in one hand, and another in the other; which she plainly distinguishes, tells exactly what it is, and never misses. At first she saw the star in the cieling of the room, but it is since come down lower and lower, and appears now on her bed. About Midsummer, in the same year 1705, she began to swoon away or fall into extasies, which happens eight or ten times in an hour: each extasy lasts almost two minutes and a half at a time. When she awakes, she fetches a deep sigh, and with folded hands, thanks her Saviour who has saved and delivered her, and then she repeats some passages out of the word of God. She often prays for the King. She says that whenever she falls into a swoon, she is carried into a beautiful white church, where every thing "shines bright and glorious; and there is an inexpressible joy, sweetly singing and playing upon music to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." She adds that many persons appear in that church dressed in white, and that their number continually increases. She knows them, but is not allowed to name them, and that whenever she has a mind to do it, her words are immediately snatched out of her mouth. Estrid is a maid of delicate countenance, brownish, her body white and beautiful, can move her arms which way. she pleases, has no use of the rest of her limbs. Her stomach lies close to her back, since she uses no food. She has no strength in her back, but must be kept upright with a string, upon which she hangs with her breast. If the same string happen to be let go at any time, she falls directly on her face, which gives her sometimes a little ease. If she is again set upright, her back-bone cracks, which also happens sometimes, when she hangs upright: her legs and thighs are contracted underneath her. She feels no change of cold or heat, let it be ever so great or vehe ment. She was 25 years of age in September, 1707, when the minister of her parish delivered the certificate abovementioned. He says, that though for the space of three years and a half she has not used so much meat or drink as would be a meal for a child, her body and limbs nevertheless feel as well and as firm as if she had, and that she could eat very heartily. Her nails upon her fingers and toes do not grow at all, but are as soft as those of a newborn child. There is not a day passes but she swoons away two hundred times, as if she were dead, and again recovers. These are the most remarkable circumstances contained in the certificate, in the account printed at Skara, 1710, in the Swedish language, and written by M. Peter Gudhemius, minister, and in the abstract of a letter of the Bishop of Skara, to the Lord Bishop of Bristol, dated the 9th of November, 1710. The Swedish Bishop says in his letter: By the inclosed printed account, your Lordship will learn a surprising thing, whereof the truth is as certain as that I am now writing this letter. I have written about it to his Excellency the Field-Marshall Count Magnus Steinbock, who confirms it, having often visited the the maid himself. . . . It is very certain that she sees the star. . . . As often as she comes to herself after she has been in the white church, she repeats some passages out of the bible, but not the same every time, although she cannot read, nor ever knew those passages before. I thought this account would not be unacceptable to the curions in England, and could wish to know their judgment upon it. The girl is still (Dec. 9th, 1710), in the same condition; and if I can do your Lordship any pleasure in it, I will acquaint you with what I hear further con cerning her. SINGULAR ACCOUNT of a SPECIES of SNAKE which sucks Cows. A SPECIES of snake, called in Italy serpe nero, the coluber natrix of Linnæus, is said to be extremely fond of milk, and the country people pretend that it makes its way into the dairies to gratify that inclination. They even assert, that it is sometimes found entwined round the legs of cows, sucking their teats with such avidity as to draw blood when their milk is exhausted. Of this fact, which by many had been considered as a popular tale, Dr. Gabriel Anselmi, professor of anatomy at Turin, had in the month of August, 1802, an opportunity of being an eye-witness. Walking (says he) one morning according to custom, on the road called the Park, bordered by pastures containing a great number of sheep and horned cattle, I observed an old but vigorous cow, separate from the others, and lowing with her head raised in the air, her ears erect, and shaking her tail. Surprised at the noise she made, I seated myself on the bank of a stream, and with my eyes pursued her wherever she went. After running for some minutes, she stopped in a sequestered spot, and began to ruminate. Inquisitive |