TOOTH FOR TOOTH.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 10

TOOTH FOR TOOTH.

Colonel Stuart, in his “Reminiscences," relates the following curious and interesting story : “ Colonel C was one of the most gentlemanly and refined of men. He was handsome, and possessed a singularly perfect and beautiful set of teeth. On one occasion while stationed in Ireland, ho visited the small town of Anghrim, celebrated for a desperate battle between the troops of King William and those of James 11. The slaughter of tho Irish Kernes had been so great that pyramids were erected with their skulls.

“ Inspecting the skulls closely, Colonel C perceived remaining in one of them a tooth, which ho pulled out and placed in bis waistcoat pocket. “After this ho returned to the inn, and went to bod. About the middle of the night he dreamt that a man, dressed in the garb of an old hisli Kerne, entered Lhe room, and approaching the bed, said, ‘A tooth for a tooth,’at the same time putting his bands into Colonel C ’s mouth, and extracting one of his front teeth.

“ Dream or no dream, in the morning when Colonel C awoke the tooth was gone ! He had never suffered in the slightest degree from toothache, nor ever had a rotten or decayed tooth in his life. There was no pain or swelling in the mouth ; the tooth was simply missing. “All who had the pleasure of knowing Colonel C are aware that he was the very last man to attempt a practical joke ; and so annoying to him was the mention of tho above s'.ory, that he would not allow it to be spoken of in his presence. He told it, however, to a brother officer, and this gentleman published the story in a pamphlet in the West Indies, upwards of forty years ago."