Daily History Picture: German Trench March 7, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesErgot Madness in Historians March 7, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Contemporary, Medieval, Modern
Ergot is a fungus that grows on some crops, particularly rye, and is most common in northern temporal climes. When ingested by humans or animals it can cause hallucinations, temporary neurological disorders and circulation difficulties including burning limbs and, in serious cases, gangrene: there are records of peasants who lost all four limbs to ergot poisoning […]
New History Books: Wings of Empire March 6, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : New History BooksLate Somerset Witch Caught as Rabbit March 6, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
Beach has long tradition of posts of unusual nineteenth-century accounts of the survival of witchcraft in Britain and Ireland. Here is one from Bridgewater, Somerset (the south-west), which appeared in Notes and Queries in 1853. A cottager, who does not live five minutes’ walk from my house, found his pig seized with a strange and […]
New History Books: Invincible Beast March 5, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : New History BooksDreaming Death: Early Registration of Death March 5, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
This appeared in the newspaper as ‘an extraordinary hallucination’: Beach had very tentatively put it in his list of Victorian urban legends until he verified the existence of Sheriff Balfour. It could alternatively be sure bloody chance; or a murder case (if you close your eyes and squint at it from an unusual angle): any views […]
Daily History Picture: Communist Dies March 4, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
Execution of a communist in Munich 1919. I’ve always had problems believing this picture… Everyone seems to be posing.
The Earliest Cargo Cult? March 4, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
Cargo cults are Melanesian religious movements centred on the ability of the colonial powers to bring the kind of trinkets that fill shopping malls and dollar stores to the some of the virgin corners of the earth. The first references to cargo cults, the Vailala Madness, which began in 1919, for example, saw Papuans preach […]
Daily History Picture: Czech Refugees March 3, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesDead Hands, Live Wens: Latest Record? March 3, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
There is a well attested belief that the bodies of executed criminals could heal certain illnesses. This led in past centuries to bits of executed felons being bought, sold and even eaten. Though the most gentle version was as simple as going to the gallows and begging the hangmen to let you run the dead […]
Daily History Picture: Boot Black March 2, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesKiller Cameras March 2, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Modern
When many years ago Beach travelled in Sub-Saharan Africa he was warned by anxious parents, and relatives not to take photographs of the natives. They might believe that their soul had been taken. Where does this idea come from? And did anyone anywhere ever actually believe it? Well, a run through sources suggests that the […]
Beachcombed 69 March 1, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Beachcombed
Dear Reader, Uni holidays coming up so a restful week ahead and this week Mrs B took the kids away skiing so restful weekend behind. Happy days. Thanks, as always, to the multiple linkers: Amanda, Invisible, Chris S, Joan, Ricardo, Wade and others. I’ve put the very best contributions below to the posts from this […]
Daily History Picture: Armless Queen February 29, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesIndex Biography #27: Prize a book February 29, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
***Seb got this, scroll down for the answer*** The Index Biography is a new form of biography pioneered by this blog and introduced in a previous post. The creator must find a biography of a famous individual from history, they must turn to the index and write down eight peripheral facts about the individual’s life. We […]