A painter of Toledo, having to represent the three wise men of the
East coming to worship on the nativity of Christ, depicted three
Arabian or Indian kings, two of them white and one black, and all
of them in the posture of kneeling. The position of the legs of each
figure not being very distinct, he inadvertently painted three black
feet for the negro king, and three also between the two white kings;
and he did not discover his error until the picture was hung up in the
cathedral.
In another picture of the Adoration of the Magi, which was in the
Houghton Hall collection, the painter, Brughel, had introduced a
multitude of little figures, finished off with true Dutch exactitude,
but one was accoutred in boots and spurs, and another was handing in,
as a present, a little model of a Dutch ship.
The same collection contained a painting of the stoning of Stephen,
the martyr, by Le Soeur, in which the saint was attired in the habit of
a Roman Catholic priest at high mass.
A picture by Rubens, in the Luxembourg, represents the Virgin Mary
in council, with two cardinals and the god Mercury assisting in her
deliberations.
A STOPPAGE OF THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.
The following remarkable account of the stoppage of Niagara Falls,
appeared in the _Niagara Mail_ at the time of the occurrence: "That
mysterious personage, the oldest inhabitant, has no recollection of
so singular an occurrence as took place at the Falls on the 30th of
March, 1847. The 'six hundred and twenty thousand tons of water each
minute' nearly ceased to flow, and dwindled away into the appearance
of a mere milldam.
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