CITY OF GOLD

Evening Star, Issue 17706, 6 July 1921, Page 8

CITY OF GOLD

AMAZING PRUSSIAN DELUSION. WHOLE COMMUNITY GOES MAD. People in the region of the. battlefield of Tannenbcrg. in East Prussia, have been struck by an amazing form of mass modnors or hallucination, for a parallel to which it is necessary to go back to the middle ages (says a reesut Berlin message). Besides tho liti-lo village, of Mujchakeo, thirty miles south of Allemtein- and close to the Polish frontier, stands a triple- pinked height called the Golden Mountain. Local sages isay the mounts ic (stands on the site of a former city of 2,000 years ago. On account of the avarice' of a single inhabitant the city was put under spell by evil spirits who turned tho whole place, including the people, into gold, and threw the mountain over it. One hundred and ten years ago, says another legend, a shepherd lad fell into a chasm on the mountain. When the body was recovered it had been turned into gold. FAILED IN FINAL TEST. Exactly 100 years ago, another boy, it is related, was taken by a beautiful spirit into the mountain and shown the sleeping city of gold, houses, churches, palaces, people, and the king on the throne, all solid gold. The boy was told that to release the city from its spell ho must kiss twelve repulsive reptiles. Ho failed at tho twelfth, which was a two-headed toad, and the city w\as therefore condemn d f o a further century of imprisonment in gold. A few Avu-ks ago a bi...u o,d woodman of tho neighboring village of Jablonkin was troubled by constant dreams in which three i p;r.u charged him with tho task of releasing the city from itc spell and threatened that ho would become a complete cripple if he refused to do as ho was told. Ho rvas to rouse the people of the neighborhood to ■asscmblo constantly on tho mountain and sing and pray. The threats became more terrible till at last ho went off to the mountain, eight inilco away, by difficult road, and reached the top without mishap. PUBLIC GOES MAD. He repeated tho formula given him by tho spirits, and immediately heard singing inside tho mountain. He told the people the story of his adventures, and they began to flock to the mountains. Then another man appeared on_ the scene, declared he had visited the city accompanied by a beautiful golden woman who sat on his shoulders mid spurred him on. He saw what tho shepherd lad had scon, and impressed on tho people that if the spell was brofcein the golden king would become the king of all kings, with enough money to pay tho indemnity and to make everybody rich. In a gold.n prron ho had seen the golden prisoner who caused the spell to bo set on the city, lie was also shown Paradise, he Said, which “was all music and roundabouts.” A few nights ago a wealthy lady who owns an estate nearby went out at night to die for gold on the mountain. She heard something, fled in terror, and is now in a lunatic asylum. DAILY PRAYERS ON MOUNTAIN. The story in tho meantime spread, and people came front far and near to take part in the regular singing and praying meetings on the mountain, which are held every day from 8 till 4. Many people stay all night. Vehicles of all sorts bring tho pilgrims in thoucands, and the railways are overburdened. The people who endeavor bo persuade tho inhabitants that the whole thing is a delusion are cursed by (be simple peasants of tho re gion, who whole-hoar lot y believe in tho slory. Indeed, tho curious spoil of tho hallucination has been east over the entire region, and the authorities are wondering what to do to bring tho people back to their senses,