MEN OF BRAWN

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 12140, 30 December 1933, Page 9

MEN OF BRAWN

REAfAItIvABLE DISPLAYS. •'IN TRADITION' AND HISTORY. Maximin, Empgror of Rome, was so strong in body, that he :drew load 1 od waggons with case. He struck out the teeth of' a horse with his fist, and by a'kick broke its thigh. IT>erumbled stones between his fingeTs, and cleft trees with his hands. Cains Afarius, nominated to the Romaii Empire hv the soldiers, ts said to have stayed with his .fourth finger a cart drawn-7jy Jioi'ses, and t° have drawn it backward in the sa rae way. fingers of bis Awo hands, acting against one another, lie could break'strong, cords twisted together. The Emperor Aurcliau is stated to have been-of g 1 eat stature, and of such marvellous strength that in one engagement with the Sam r,;! ' I_ tans he slew no fewer than 49 men, Froissart writes of a comPanionknight to Die. -Earl of F'oix, one-Or-lando Burg, who, beiiijr hurriep foi fuel one cold day, descended a long flight of steps, and, finding' asses loaded with, wood in. the court, seized The largest, of them, burden and all, and never stopped till lie bad laid ass and all from liis shoulders on t llc fire.' In French chronicles we. are told of a rnan named Barsahas, a soldier of Louise XlV.’s guard, who, when the king’s' heavy coach of stale stuck so fast: in' the j*oad that «11 the oxen' and horses that could he yoked to it were Unable to Pnl{ it out lifted it out of place. 1 A man was about to fight'.with Barsnbas. AYhen Die i.To . w r 're holding ovt their hands, the strong follow seized the fist of the other, and, hr, a gentle, squeeze, utterly disabled him 1 rom using the limb. Bo could snap horseshoes in two as easily as wafers. He w f .ut to a Milage farrier’s, and asked , for horseshoes. Several were shown to him. Ife broke them to pieces one by 6 ae with Ins fingers, saying that they were uselessly brittle.. The farrier staved, but proposed to make stronger shoos. . ; •. , Barsahas ,took'up the large anv il, and lieid it; under; his cloak. : AYhe.n the .anvil waj- sought' he sc-f. it dot'll- • Seeing s-u(-h -miraculous mfjis: as ’he thought,, them- tile- farrier boitetlywith -the exclamation that the devil was in liis smitliy; B.U’sabas once met his match, however.'' He entered a tope shop in Flanders, his -native region; a nd sought to purchase smr.o strong ropes. Several being pr« st’nfed tohim; lie snapped them like, paektlir, ad, and said: “They ar<> v®ry bad.” . “I will give vou : hotter ones,'-' said the woman who was s'-1 ling the articles. “if you have money io pay for them.'’ Barsahas produced several crow pieces. The woman 'took them and broke two or three of them as easily as Barsahas had snapped - the ropes; “Your crowns are as had as my ropes’’ said the woman smiling. Barsahas iound a solution of th e mystery of the woman’s strength i n the fact that she was his sifter. Thev had not met from infancy.