Wandering Jew Plays Roulette January 10, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
There is a book, admittedly a very small book to be written about sightings of the wandering jew: the man cursed by Christ to walk all over the earth for refusing a drink on the road to crucifixion. Here is one of the most curious of these myths. This one was first attested 18 Jan 1902 and appeared in the Dundee Evening Telegraph; though perhaps someone can find an earlier record in French, it sounds like it might have been kicking around for half a century?
Amongst the many stock superstitions of the croupiers Monte Carlo that of the Wandering Jew is perhaps the most striking; strange to say, too, is the least known to the stay-at-home public… The first person, says the legend, to enter the Grande Nouvelle Salle de Jen at Monte Carlo the day after Good Friday — the one day in the year when the rooms are closed — is an old man of venerable aspect. He wastes no time, as so many of the habitues, in seeking to divine which number is likely to appear, but with the trembling finger of extreme age places his ‘raise’ upon a certain number. The wheel is turned, the croupier’s nasal cry falls upon the ear, then with a bitterly savage exclamation the old man snatches his winnings, hurls the coins from him, and flies from the Casino for until he can lose at Monte Carlo the Wandering Jew must haunt the earth!
Monte Carlo: you can check out, but never leave… Does the WJ have a villa by the beach or a flat in a high tenement? And what is his number? 07, 66, 96…
Beach would love to run some more wandering jew stories. Folklore is everywhere. What is interesting are the encounters: drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com
A previous post dealt with the wandering jew in Burnley.
