Eight mysterious figures in history

There are always some mysterious passers-by in history, who left no words but were passed down orally from generation to generation. It seems that he is outside his own society, leaving future generations with mysterious conjectures. Here are eight such strange historical figures.

1. The Count of Saint-Germain

The mysterious Count of Saint-Germain, or the Marquis of Montferrat, or the Knight of Schoening? In fact, this mysterious interloper into 18th-century European society went by many names, and that's just the beginning.

He claimed to be over 500 years old and was clearly a well-educated man. He appeared at the French court around 1750 and became a skilled philosopher, composer and writer. Traveling around the courts of Europe, impressing everyone he met but always remaining aloof.

Legend has it that Saint Germain achieved success in the mysterious art of alchemy, a "science" that sought to control the elements and create the Philosopher's Stone. The Count of Saint-Germain is said to have discovered this secret of alchemy.

Those who met him were impressed by his many abilities and characteristics:

He could play a violin like a violin.

·He is an excellent painter.

Wherever he went, he set up an elaborate laboratory, presumably for alchemical works.

He appears to be a wealthy man but is not known to have any bank account.

He often eats with friends, but is rarely seen eating in public places. It is said that he survived on oats.

·He loves jewelry and most of his clothes - including his shoes - are studded with them.

·He claims to be able to fuse several small diamonds into one large diamond. He also said that he could make the pearls look incredible.

He was associated with several secret societies, including the Rosicrucians, the Franciscans, the Knights of Light, the Illuminati and the Knights Templar.

Throughout the 18th century, the Count of Saint-Germain was active in the political and social movements of the European elite:

In the 1740s, he became a member of the court of King Louis XV of France A trusted diplomat who performs secret missions for him in England.

·In 1760, he met his lover Giacomo Girolamo Casanova in The Hague. Casanova later said to Saint-Germain: "This extraordinary man... would say in an easy and reassuring way that he had been 300 years old, that he knew the secrets of cosmic medicine, that he had His mastery of nature, his ability to melt diamonds... all these, he said, were but trivial matters to him. "In 1762 he traveled to Russia, where he was said to have participated in the murder of Catherine the Great. Cabal. He later gave advice to the commanders of the Turkish Imperial Army.

He returned to France in 1774 when Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette occupied the throne. He allegedly warned them of future revolutions.

Saint Germain died on February 27, 1784, which for any ordinary person would have been the end of the story. But not to the Count de Saint-Germain.

In 1785, he met the pioneer hypnotist Anton Mesmer in Germany.

Official Franciscan records show that they chose Saint-Germain as their representative at a conference in 1785.

After the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution in 1789, Countess Ademar said she had a lengthy conversation with the Count of Saint-Germain. He allegedly told her about France's immediate future, as if he knew what was coming. In 1821 she wrote: "I saw Saint-Germain again, and each time it amazed me, on the day after the death of the duke, when the queen [Antoinette] was murdered on the 18th of Brummel I met him." The last time she saw him was in 1820 - and each time he looked like a man no older than about 40 years old.

After 1821, Saint-Germain may assume another identity. In his memoirs, Albert Vandamme wrote of meeting a man who bore a striking resemblance to the Comte de Saint-Germain, but whose name was Major Fraser.

Vandam wrote:

"He called himself Major Fraser, lived alone, never mentioned his family, and was wealthy, although the source of his wealth was a mystery to everyone , his knowledge of all European countries and all periods was absolutely miraculous, and curiously he often gave his listeners knowledge which he had acquired elsewhere, much more than he had learned from books. He told me with a strange smile that he was sure he had known Nero, had spoken to Dent, etc. "

Major Fraser disappeared without a trace.

The name of Saint-Germain came to prominence again from 1880 to 1900, when a member of the Occult Society, the mystic Helena Blavatsky, claimed that he was still alive and working towards the "development of the West" Spirit". There is even an actual photo purportedly taken with Saint-Germain. In 1897, the famous French singer Emma Calve dedicated her autographed portrait to Saint-Germain.

So who is the Count of Saint-Germain? Was he a successful alchemist who discovered the secret to eternal life? Is he a time traveler? Or is he a very clever liar?

This is unlikely, however, for obvious reasons: the real "Earl" died almost penniless in 1784.

2. Caspar Hauser

On May 26, 1828, in Nuremberg, Germany, a teenage boy was found wandering the streets with a Holding a letter saying he was from the Bavarian border. He was in good health and seemed to understand the basics of German society, such as how to buy bread. But as to why he came to Nuremberg, he did not know.

He claimed to remember living in a dark cell, but had no other useful memories to help authorities determine who he was. He started a new life in Nuremberg and six years after his discovery he was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant for reasons unknown.

Rumors abounded that he was actually the hereditary Prince of Baden, and that Hauser was said to have been switched as a baby, with the claim to the throne becoming his uncle's. He is then spirited out of the castle, only to return one day and take his title back. However, no conclusive evidence was found to explain his true identity.

Caspar Hauser was buried in the Ansbach cemetery on December 20, 1833, with strong public sympathy. The inscription is in Latin:

"HIC JACET CASPARUS HAUSER AENIGMA SUI TEMPORIS IGNOTA NATIVITAS OCCULTA MORS MDCCCXXXIII ("Here is buried Caspar Hauser, unknown and mysterious, who died in 1833." ). ”

Soon another monument was erected, also in Latin:

“HIC OCCULTUS OCCULTO OCCISUS EST XIV. DEC. MDCCCXXXIII

(“This mysterious tester, assassinated in 1833")"

3. The Formosa

In 1701 or 1702, a stranger working as a mercenary in Europe was discovered. , he had a baffling story. The man claimed to have been kidnapped by an evil Jesuit missionary named Avignon and taken to Europe to convert him to Catholicism. The man claimed to be from Formosa, which is today. Taiwan.

For one thing, the blond, blue-eyed man spoke fluent Latin with a Dutch accent. Yet Formosa was a remote and mysterious island. , many people who knew nothing about the Far East believed his story.

An Anglican priest took him in and named him George Psama Nazar. He was favored by British society. Welcome, where he entertained his hosts by talking nonsense and eating raw meat. He wrote books about the language, customs, and people of Taiwan, which turned out to be completely wrong.

4.

An alchemist from early 20th century France, Fulcanelli, is only known through the publications and descriptions of his students.

His most famous student was. Eugene Cancelit. It is said that this man turned lead into gold, a technique he learned from his teacher.

Another student, Sauvage, witnessed Cancelit turning lead into gold.

After Fulcanelli disappeared, his student Cancelit was responsible for publishing his book "The Mystery of the Cathedral". Some people believe that the physicist Jules Violet was Ful. Kane, unfortunately, doesn't have any solid evidence to support this theory. It was added to the lore simply because it left a lot of gaps in the information about this mysterious man.

5. Dolores Barrios

The year was 1954, and the United States was in the grip of the UFO craze following the Roswell incident in 1947. Hundreds of UFO reports followed, and that year believers gathered at a conference atop Palomar Mountain in California. Many people there believe they have encountered aliens.

Accompanied by two mysterious men, walking through the crowd, a tall and thin woman walked towards her. Her facial features were very obvious: wide forehead, big eyes. The three of them have fair skin, and the woman has a blond bob, but her eyes are dark and fierce.

Famous UFO researcher George Adamski had given a lecture on Venusians, and this woman seemed to match his physical description.

Someone approached the girl and asked her a direct question: "Are you Venusians?" She did not deny it and said that they were at the conference because "they are particularly interested in the issues here."

They also asked her whether aliens came to the earth from Venus, and the woman's answer was straightforward: "Yes, most of them are from that planet." So those who came from Rio de Janeiro to attend the conference Brazilian journalist Joao Martins decided to go one step further and interview these three strangers.

During the conversation, he learned that the woman's name was Dolores Barrios, who claimed to be a fashion designer from New York. The two men were his friends, Donald Moran and Bill Jackmart, musicians from Manhattan Beach, California.

The next day, Brazilian reporters approached the three men again and took several photos that they did not like. After the impromptu photo session, Dolores Barrios and her two companions left in the direction of the forest surrounding the headquarters where the UFO convention was held. No one has seen them since.

Martins published the full story, the so-called "Venusians" and their bizarre escape, in the Brazilian weekly "O Cruzeiro" in October 1954, and achieved good sales.

At the same time, for some unknown reason, only Martins took photos of the three strangers at the conference, although many people who came to the conference had cameras.

Additionally, Adamski, the organizer of the conference, did not like the spread of this story because he believed that the three men deliberately attended his event to "pass themselves off as Venusians" and damage his reputation as an expert on extraterrestrial life. .

Yet UFO investigators have been trying to uncover the truth about Barrios for years, but they have been unable to find them, whether in New York, California or any other state in the United States.

6. Mr. Chochani

Mr. Chochani is an anonymous and mysterious Jewish teacher. Among his students was Nobel Peace Prize-winning writer Elie Wiesel.

His disheveled, beggarly appearance is often mentioned in accounts of his life. Wiesel wrote that Chochani was "dirty," "hairy," and "looked like a clown playing a tramp," while according to another student, the Lithuanian-French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas "His appearance was very unpleasant, even repulsive," he said. But he was a master of philosophy, mathematics, and Talmud. Both consider him one of the most influential teachers they have ever had.

Little else is known about Chochani. Shortly after World War II, between 1947 and 1952, he lived in Paris, then disappeared for several years, popping up for a while in Israel. Then he wandered around Paris briefly. Finally, at some point he moved to South America, where he lived until his death. Other than that, all that is really known about the man is that he was born in 1895, not even his exact location.

So is his real name. Jochani is thought to be a nickname, possibly a pun; Shushani is a demonic name for someone from the biblical city of Shushan (now in modern-day Iran). But no one knows why he is called that.

What we do know is this: Chochani died in 1968 and was buried in Montevideo, Uruguay. Wiesel paid for his tombstone and wrote his epitaph: His birth date and his life remain a mystery. ”

7. The Unknown Woman of the Seine

At the end of the 19th century, people salvaged the body of an unknown woman from the Seine River in France. According to the BBC, they displayed her At the Paris morgue, in the hope that someone would recognize her. Although no one recognized her in the end, the morgue staff made a plaster mask of her face.

This kind of person is called an "unknown person" by some. The mask became a cultural phenomenon, inspiring artists, poets and novelists, as well as one particular toy manufacturer

A Norwegian toy manufacturer specializing in soft plastic created the first CPR device. The toymaker took inspiration from a mask that hung in his parents' house, and his creation became the standard CPR doll, according to the BBC. >

8. Roger Titchbourne

The Titchbournes were a very wealthy and titled family who owned land in Hampshire, England. , born in Paris in 1829, his uncle was the eighth baronet, and his English had a strong French accent.

When Roger was 20 years old, he joined the 6th Dragoon Guards in Dublin. His father became the 9th Baronet after the death of his two brothers, and in the same year Roger went to South America

In 1854, he sailed for New York on the Bella, but within a week. , the Bella was lost at sea. Roger was pronounced dead in 1855.

When Roger's father died in 1862, the title of Baron Titchborne passed to Roger's younger brother. Alfred. Alfred died only four years later, and his son inherited the title in 1866 while Alfred was still alive. Mrs Titchburn refused to believe that Roger had drowned. It was said that some of the passengers and crew survived the shipwreck and were rescued by a ship bound for Melbourne. Inquiries were made, including a reward notice in the Sydney Morning Herald, in an attempt to locate her son. In November 1865, Australian lawyer William Gibbs wrote to Mrs Titchburn, Said a man claiming to be her son, a butcher from Wagga Wagga named Tom Castro

He was taller than Sir Roger, had light hair and could not speak. French, and no French accent, but this did not bother Mrs. Titchburn - she had not seen her son for more than 10 years, and anything could have happened at this time. She sent for Castro, Castro arrived in London in December 1866.

Castro visited the family estate and met people who knew Sir Roger. A few weeks later he went to France to meet with Titchborne. Mrs. is quickly convinced that this is her son who has returned from the dead, and some other family members welcome him back.

Mrs. Titchburn settled Castro in England and gave him enough living expenses. By spending time with his family and soliciting their opinions, Castro managed to thoroughly research Sir Roger's life and continue to deceive everyone.

Others are less convinced. Through agents in Australia, they discovered that Tom Castro was actually Arthur Orton, who was born in London.

He went to Australia but jumped ship for a while and spent some time in Chile - because he had been to South America he was able to talk to Mrs Titchborne very eloquently this matter.

After Lady Titchburn's death in 1868, some family members took Orton to court. He was ultimately convicted of two counts of perjury and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor. Orton served 10 years in prison and was released in 1884.

Curiously, when Orton died in London in 1898, he was officially recognized as Sir Roger Titchborne: his death certificate and coffin board bear this name. London's Daily Mail? said:

"It took High Court judges two years to establish that the living Titchburn was Orton.

The Registrar of Births and Deaths determined within two minutes that the deceased Orton was Titchburn. ”