The last of this extraordinary batch of aged people is called Petratsch Zortan or Czartan, aged one hundred and eighty-five; and like the preceding pair, is Hungarian. In a Dutch dictionary entitled _Het algemeen Historich Woonderbok_, there is an account given of this ancient personage, of which the following is a translation: ‘Czartan was born in 1537 at Kosfrock, a village four miles from Temeswaer, in Hungary, where he had lived one hundred and eighty years. When the Turks took Temeswaer from the Christians, he kept his father’s cattle. A few days before his death he walked with the help of his stick to the post-house of Kosfrock, to ask alms of the travellers. He had but little eyesight; his hair and beard were of a greenish-white colour; he had few teeth remaining. His son was ninety-seven years of age—by his third wife. Being a Greek, the old man was a strict observer of fasts, and never used any food but milk and cakes, called by the Hungarians “Kollatschen,” together with a good glass of brandy. He had descendants in the fifth generation, with whom he sometimes played, carrying them in his arms. He died in 1724. Count Wallis had a portrait taken of this old man, when he fell in with him previous to his death. The Dutch envoy then at Vienna transmitted this account to the States-general.’
At night, when all is hushed in still repose, When ‘Nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep,’ Doth o’er our wearied frame soft vigil keep, And with her gentle hand our eyelids close, Then doth the restless spirit take its flight, While soft Imagination lends her wings, And the chained watchdog Will no longer springs To bar its progress through the realms of Night. Reason, the watchful porter at the gate, Tired with the constant labours of the day, Retires to rest, and leaves it free to stray Into the land where Fancy keeps her state, And her attendant fays glad homage shew To mortal visitants from earth below.
Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, NO. 751, MAY 18, 1878
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