FAMINE STONES SEEN

Southland Times, Issue 19508, 6 May 1922, Page 8

FAMINE STONES SEEN

CUSTOMS Of' THE MOSELLE. The famous famine stones of the Moselle appeared during the recent dry period for the first time in many years. The Moselle, usally associated with a special sort of wetness, is also by the irony of fate periodically distinguished for particular dryness. As a compensation, perhaps, the great drought years 1842, 1857, and 1911 were also superior vintage years. This year, for the first time in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, great rocks in the middle of the stream were visible; one not far from Trier had not been seen for 121 years. Near Coblenz the drying waters revealed a stone inscribed, “When you see me weep, 1842.” One set of marks not far from Senheim dates back to 1609, and witnesses among others the'heavy drought of 1640, which added to the horrors this district suffered during the Thirty Years’ war. An interesting custom lias arisen in the wine district of Trarbach, where a wine reserve from the especially dry years is kept in the great rocka ordinarily covered by water. When the water is low enough to open the caches then the wine of the last dry time is drunk. The first bottles were laid by in 1842 and opened in 1857; again in 1911 wine was put aside and btoached on July 16, 1921, with a great celebration, attempted by old and young. The iron door over the bottles was opened, and everybody had at least a swallow or two of the old wine. The vintage of 1910, laid by in 1911, was found to have been especially fine.