The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories (18 page)

The macabre past of Mary King's Close, located in the Old Town section of Edinburgh, Scotland, and sealed off in the 1600s, is seeing the light of day again. In 2003 the close was reopened, becoming a new tourist attraction—a preserved slice of seventeenth-century life.

Much mystery surrounds Mary King's Close. For centuries, locals have told tales of the close being sealed off to prevent the spread of the Plague. No evidence disputes this story, and there are some who say that the quarantine was voluntary. But lifelong inhabitants of Edinburgh say that after the close was sealed off,
those outside heard anguished cries of people dying of starvation and begging to be let out. And they say that after the close was reopened, finger marks were found clawed into the bricks.

Mary King's Close is now open to the public and is the site of much paranormal and historical investigation. It is thought to be one of the most haunted places in Scotland.

SCRYING FOR LAMAS

Every Tibetan Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of his predecessor. After the thirteenth Dalai Lama died in 1933, the search for his replacement began. Lake Lhamoi Latso at Chokhorgyal, Tibet, is a lake long believed by Tibetans to reveal visions of the future. So the regent of the government-appointed search party traveled to Lake Lahmoi Latso, hoping that meditation and prayer would help him find the next Dalai Lama. After several days the regent saw a vision in the lake waters: a great monastery with green and gold roofs, and near the monastery, a small building with turquoise tiles. The young boy who was destined to be the fourteenth Dalai Lama lived in a house with turquoise tiles.

NO FEAR

The first human cannonball was a beautiful young girl named Zazel. She was only fourteen when the London circus she worked for recruited her for the honor. Zazel was catapulted out of the cannon not with gunpowder, as is widely believed, but with elastic springs that made no sound; the circus used firecrackers to create sparks and crackling sounds that mimicked gunpowder.

“In modern America, anyone who attempts to write satirically about the events of the day finds it difficult to concoct a situation so bizarre that it may not actually come to pass while the article is still on the presses.” —CALVIN TRILLIN

ARMAGEDDON BRAS

In 1999, the
Times
of London reported that the firm Triumph International Japan had invented a bra that lets its wearer know of any incoming missiles. Called the Armageddon bra, it was designed to take advantage
of the doomsday-prophecy craze sweeping Japan. It had a sensor on the strap and a control box. Unfortunately, it didn't work all that well under clothes; to be most effective, it had to be worn on the outside. No word on how many women took advantage of this spin on bust control.

BATHING BEAUTIES

Cleopatra is said to have bathed in donkey milk, and Mary Queen of Scots bathed in wine. Novelist George Sands preferred cow's milk (three quarts) and honey (three pounds). Isabeau, queen of France in the late twelfth century, was renowned for her beauty. To keep her looks, she used a beauty regimen that included bathing in asses' milk and rubbing crocodile glands and the brains of boars onto her skin.

PAIN FOR BEAUTY

For thousands of years, women poisoned themselves with their face makeup by using ceruse, a powder that caused lead poisoning. Rouge, too, was not safe—it contained mercury, which leads to miscarriages and birth defects.

Chicago's Lincoln Park, created in 1864, was originally a burial ground. The 120-acre cemetery had most of its graves removed and was expanded to more than 1,000 acres for recreational use.