A MOUNTAIN LEGEND
PONTIUS PILATE'S GRAVE. Mount Pilatus, near Lucerne, is pro« bably the “most climbed” mountain in the world. The Rev. J. K. Nettlefold, writing about a recent visit in the Eastern Daily Express, says:— “Pilatus has a bad name among those who climb rim for pleasure. Clouds hang about him in an extraordinary way, and they have caused many legends to be told about him. The most picturesque, is that which connects him with Pontius Pilate, making him the final resting-place of Pilate’s muchtravelled body. “Legend says that after the Crucifixion Pontius Pijate was so consumed , with remorse, that, unable to rest in Palestine, he began to roam wildly over ' the world. He died at length in Rome,whereupon the people, considering him to be under a curse, threw his body into the River Tiber. Bu z the swift-flowing Tiber would have nothing, to do with the body, and threw it back again on to the land. It was then transported - to Gaul, and flung into the River Rhone. “But the Rhone, which also flows swiftly, would not keep it either, and flung it out again. Then at last is was carried to the top of Mount Pilatus and sunk in a , lonely tarn. The tarn nttered angry. rumblings of disgust,-but it had to keep Pilate, since it had ino current of water running through it to wash him out again. So there the body remains—but it does not rest. For the unquiet spirit of Pontius Pilate is never still. Ho is continually gathering clouds on the top., of Pilatus, and trying to spoff the weather for the holi-day-makers in Lucerne. “That is the legend I should be more inclined to believe it if I could be certain that there really is a tarn on the top of Pilatus. When I went up I - looked for one, but could not see it. When anyone can show mo the tarn, I will then begin to consider the truth of the legend. In the meantime I think.it more ’likely that the legend was invented to. explain the name Mount Pilatus. But the name has probably nothing to do with Pontius Pilate. v
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Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1929, Page 9
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361A MOUNTAIN LEGEND Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1929, Page 9
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