The Old Man of the MountainAuthor(s): Jan KnappertSource: Folklore, Vol. 99, No. 2 (1988), p. 250Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260465 .

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250 NOTES AND COMMENTS

LINNAEUS AND THE CHANGELING

ROY VICKERY

In view of Susan Eberly's article on 'Fairies and the Folklore of Disability' (Folklore 99, 1988, 58-77), it may be of interest to observe the reactions of the biologist Linnaeus to a 'changeling' he was shown on the island of Oland on 10 June, 1741: 'A child was brought to us, who was considered to be a changeling. He was a thirteen-year-old boy, misbegotten and without wits; he could not sit or stand up or walk; his hands and legs did not obey his mind; he could not talk but only mumble; he had protruding front teeth and a squint; he appeared to be deaf; his legs were thin, his flesh loose, and he looked more like a girl than a boy; his movements were so ungraceful that they made us shiver. He was born to unhappiness, being of no delight to himself nor of use to the public, and no praise to his Creator, but others would learn from him to praise their Creator for a well-shaped body. He was no changeling, but suffered from a disease called Hieranosos. I asked the mother if she had been frightened during the time she was pregnant with him, and she told me that she had been terrified by two men who were fighting with knives and nearly killed each other; after this she noticed that the foetus was lying motionless on its side, as if it were dead, and not moving like her other children.'

NOTES

1. From Marie Asberg and William J. Stern, 'Linnaeus's Oland and Gotland Journey, 1741' (translated from the Swedish editon of 1745), in Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 5 (1973), 1-220; the passage cited is on pp. 79-80.

THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN

JAN KNAPPERT

I would like to point out some inaccuracies and omissions in Juliette Wood's article 'The Old Man of the Mountain in Medieval Folklore' (Folkore 99, 1988, 78-87). Firstly, several names are misspelled. 'Hashishiyin' or at least 'Hashishiin' has a double long vowel in the plural. Their leader's name should be given as Hasan-e (or -i)Sabbah or as-Sabbah, the Arabic form. Nizam ul-Mulk and Omar Khayyam are so well known that they should not be misspelled. The story of their pact is a fable, according to Marshall G.S. Hodgson in the Encyclopedia of Islam III, 253. Hodgson's 1955 book should be in the bibliography to Wood's article. Nor does she mention the article 'Hashishiya' by Bernard Lewis in the same Encyclopedia, where the argument of Sylvestre de Sacy is discussed in detail. She might also have found the story in my Islamic Legends (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1985, vol. II, p. 344).

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