Rapunzel - Part 1.

For a very long time a man his wife had wanted a child, but in vain. At least the woman geban to hope that God was going to grant her dearest wish.

               

Now there was a tiny window at the back of their house, from which they could see a splendid garden, full of the rarest flowers and the strangest herbs. But this lovely garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dated to go in. It belonged to an old lady who was a powerful witch, and everyone feared her.

                

One day the women was standing at her window, looking down into the garden below, and she saw a new bed of the most beautiful green herbs. They looked so fresh and appetizing that she felt a great longing to taste them. As the days went by she longed more and more for the bright green herbs, and when she realized that she would never taste them, she grew pale and wretched and waste away.

                

Her husband was frightened and asked, “What is the matter, dear wife?”

“Alas,” she replied, “if I do not have some of those lovely green herbs from the garden behind our house, I am sure I shall die!”

                

The man was in despair, for he loved his wife dearly, and he made up his mind to fetch some herbs, no matter what the cost. When night began to fall he climbed the high wall into the witch’s garden, plucked a handful of herbs, and took them to his wife. She was delighted and immediately made them into a salad, which she ate with great appetite.

                

But she enjoyed them so much that the next day she wanted to herbs more than ever, and she gave her husband no peace until he climbed the wall a second time. No sooner had be dropped down on the other side than he found himself face to face with the witch.

                

“How dare you come into my garden and steal my plants,” she said, aher eyes flashing in anger. “I’ll see that you pay dearly for this!”

                

“Alas!” he replied in terror. “Please forgive me this time. My need was great, for my wife would have died without your herbs.”

               

“Very well,” said the witch. “If it is as you say, you may take all of herbs you want, but on one condition: I must have your baby, as soon as it is born. I shall be a good mother to it and take great care of it.”

                

In this fear the man agreed to everything. When the baby was born the witch appeared immediately, called the child Rapunzel after the name of the herbs the mother had eaten, and took it away with her.

                

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun, When she was twelve, the witch shut her up at the top a high tower which lay deep in the forest and her neither door nor stairs, only a tiny window right at the top. Whenever the witch wanted to enter the tower, she would call up from below, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

                

Rapunzel had beautiful long hair, as fine as spun gold. When she heard the witch call her, she would unbraid her hair, make it fast round the window latch, and then let it tumble down to the witch, who would climb up to her.

                

The years passed by, until one day the king’s son came riding through the wood near the tower. As he rode he heard the most beautiful singing. He stopped and listened, enchanted. It was Rapunzel, who was whiling away her lonely hours by singing in her sweet, soft voice. The king’s son wanted to climb up to her and searched for the door of the tower, but there was none to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so moved his heart that day after day he rode to the wood to listen.

                

One day, as he stood hidden behind a tree, he saw the witch arrive, and heard her call, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!” Rapunzel let down her beautiful long tresses, and the witch climbed up.

                

“If that is the ladder one must use, then I will try my luck,” murmured the king’s son to himself. And the following day at dusk he went to the tower, and called, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” At once the long tresses came rippling down to him, and the king’s son began to climb.

                

At first Rapunzel was frightened when she saw a young man climbing into her room, but the king;s son gently explained how her beautiful singing had so entranced him that he could find no peace until he had seen her for himself.

                

Soon Rapunzel lost her fear, and when a young and handsome king’s son asked her to his wife she thought, “ He will love me better than the old woman.” So she laid her hand in his, and said, “Yes, I will marry you and go with you gladly, but now am I to climb down the tower? Each time you come here you must bring me a silken cord, and I will make a ladder with it. When it is finished I shall climb down, and you shall take me away on your horse.”

                

They agreed that he would come every evening until the ladder was ready, for the old woman came by day. The witch knew nothing of what was going on until one day Rapunzel asked her, “Why are you so much heavier to pull up than the young prince? He is with me in a twinkling.”

                

“You wicked child!” cried the witch. “What is this hear? I thought I had kept you well hidden from the whole world, and yet you have deceived me!”

               

In her anger she seized Rapunzel’s beautiful hair took her scissors and – snip, snap – cut it off. There on the floor lay the lovely golden tresses. The old witch was angry and merciless, and left her there to live in wretchedness and misery.

                

As dusk was falling that evening, the witch returned from the wilderness to the tower, where she had fastened Rapunzel’s long hair to the window latch. When the young prince stood below and called, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” – she lowered the hair to him. He climbed up, but when he reached the top he found not his dearest Rapunzel, but the witch, who glared at him with baleful eyes.

               

“So,” she cried scornfully, “you have come to find your lady-love! But the cat has taken your sweet little singing-bird from the nest, and is waiting to catch you too! You will never see Rapunzel again. For you she is as good as lost.”

                

The grief of the king’s son was so great that he could not bear it, and in despair he leaped from the window. He escaped with his life, but the thorn bushes in which he landed blinded him. He wandered to eat, lamenting and weeping over the loss of his dear bride.

                

He roamed the world for some years in great misery, and eventually came to the wilderness where Rapunzel lived. He heard the dear, familiar voice, and hastened towards it. As he approached, Rapunzel recognized him and fell on his neck, weeping. Two of her tears dropped on to his eyelids. At once his eyes became clear and he could see as perfectly as ever.

                

He took her back to his kingdom, where he was welcomed with great joy, and they lived happily and contentedly for many, many years.

To be continued...............

The Chinese perception on number eight.

The people of China are naturally superstitious human beings. As it has been established, even the smallest of things can be an act of superstition for a serious gambler. This involves the choice of numbers and some specific behaviors. The Chinese people are very much into number. Almost every numeric symbol has a meaning. Primaly, the number eight is considered lucky. Its infinite structure is relative to prosperity based on Chine beliefs. Red is a lucky colour for Chinese people.

For Chinese people, the lucky letters and numbers are were A, S and 8. The unlucky were F, Z and 4. Reasons for the perceived lucky for the number are based on homonym and phonetics. In Chinese culture, certain number are believed by some to be auspicious or inauspicious based on the Chinese word that the number name sounds similar to. Some Chinese people regard these beliefs to be superstitions. Lucky number are based on Chinese words that sounds similar to other Chinese words. 6, 8 and 9 are believed to have auspicious meanings because their names sound similar to words thah have positive meanings.

Besides that, number for 8 Chinese is people involved with a number of interesting mathematical phenomena related to the notion Bott Periodicity. A figure 8 is the common name of a geometric shape. For Chinese, number 8 is a considered lucky just like 7 considered in west. Come as number surprise that the Olympic games in China start on 8 August 2008. In China, you have to pay extra to have number 8 in your phone number or license plate.

So, why 8 considered lucky in mind Chinese people? The main reason has to do with pronunciation of the world for the number 8 in China. It is a perfect symmetrical shape. Its refer to perfectly balance. In Chinese Astrology, perfectly balance is considered the ideal. According to Chinese the date 8 August 2008 is in the year of the rat, month of the monkey and day of the dragon. That means the three Chinese zodiac animal signs are perfectly compatible with each other. From the science of number, we learn that the number 8 is the vibration of prosperity, vastness, balance and progression, number 8 pronounced ‘ba’ sound close to ‘fa’ which mean ‘prosper’..

Besides, if you’re Chinese, the number 8 not only signifies or portends prosperity but confidence and money worth even millions, means ‘prosper’ and ‘wealth’ in rasional dialects the words for and fortune are also similar. Other than that, Chinese people think number 8 was so lucky because the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics in Beijing began on 8 August 2008 at 8 seconds and 8 minutes past 8 PM.

Did you know that 8 August 2008 is considered equally as lucky especially in Chinese culture and Chinese wedding especially? The number 8 and the month of August are great to get married in because it is summer and many out of towners may be able to travel to your wedding. Additionally, if you lay and on its side, it represents the symbol for infinity the Chinese believe that the number 8 can give chance for luck and wealth, weddings held on this lucky will be lavish and lush.

Chine culture is very interesting, considering the lucky and unlucky numbers. They have many beliefs into whether or not the numbers are considered lucky and unlucky. The number 8 in the Chinese language sounds like ‘good fortune’.

Lessons from Quran.

1. Respect and honour all human beings irrespective of their religion, colour, race, sex, language, status, property, birth, profession/job and so on [17:70]
 
2. Talk straight, to the point, without any ambiguity or deception [33:70]
 
3. Choose best words to speak and say them in the best possible way [17:53, 2:83]
 
4. Do not shout. Speak politely keeping your voice low. [31:19]
 
5. Always speak the truth. Shun words that are deceitful and ostentatious [22:30]
 
6. Do not confound truth with falsehood [2:42]
 
7. Say with your mouth what is in your heart [3:167]
 
8. Speak in a civilised manner in a language that is recognised by the society and is commonly used [4:5]
 
9. When you voice an opinion, be just, even if it is against a relative [6:152]
 
10. Do not be a bragging boaster [31:18]
 
11. Do not talk, listen or do anything vain [23:3, 28:55]
 
12. Do not participate in any paltry. If you pass near a futile play, then pass by with dignity [25:72]
 
13. Do not verge upon any immodesty or lewdness whether surreptitious or overt [6:151]
 
14. If, unintentionally, any misconduct occurs by you, then correct yourself expeditiously [3:134]
 
15. Do not be contemptuous or arrogant with people [31:18]
 
16. Do not walk haughtily or with conceit [17:37, 31:18]
 
17. Be moderate in thy pace [31:19]
 
18. Walk with humility and sedateness [25:63]
 
19. Keep your gazes lowered devoid of any lecherous leers and salacious stares [24:30-31, 40:19]
 
20. If you do not have complete knowledge about anything, better keep your mouth shut. You might think that speaking about something without full knowledge is a trivial matter. But it might have grave consequences [24:15-16]
 
21. When you hear something malicious about someone, keep a favourable view about him/her until you attain full knowledge about the matter. Consider others innocent until they are proven guilty with solid and truthful evidence [24:12-13]
 
22. Ascertain the truth of any news, lest you smite someone in ignorance and afterwards repent of what you did [49:6]
 
23. Do not follow blindly any information of which you have no direct knowledge. (Using your faculties of perception and conception) you must verify it for yourself. In the Court of your Lord, you will be held accountable for your hearing, sight, and the faculty of reasoning [17:36]
 
24. Never think that you have reached the final stage of knowledge and nobody knows more than yourself. Remember! Above everyone endowed with knowledge is another endowed with more knowledge [12/76]. Even the Prophet [p.b.u.h] was asked to keep praying, "O My sustainer! Advance me in knowledge." [20:114]
 
25. The believers are but a single Brotherhood. Live like members of one family, brothers and sisters unto one another [49:10]
 
26. Do not make mockery of others or ridicule others [49:11]
 
27. Do not defame others [49:11]
 
28. Do not insult others by nicknames [49:11]
 
29. Avoid suspicion and guesswork. Suspicion and guesswork might deplete your communal energy [49:12]
 
30. Spy not upon one another [49:12]
 
31. Do not backbite one another [49:12]
 
32. When you meet each other, offer good wishes and blessings for safety. One who conveys to you a message of safety and security and also when a courteous greeting is offered to you, meet it with a greeting still more courteous or (at least) of equal courtesy [4:86]
 
33. When you enter your own home or the home of somebody else, compliment the inmates [24:61]
 
34. Do not enter houses other than your own until you have sought permission; and then greet the inmates and wish them a life of blessing, purity and pleasure [24:27]
 
35. Treat kindly
-Your parents
-Relatives
-The orphans
-And those who have been left alone in the society [4:36]
 
36. Take care of
-The needy
-The disabled
-Those whose hard earned income is insufficient to meet their needs
-And those whose businesses have stalled
-And those who have lost their jobs. [4:36]
 
37. Treat kindly
-Your related neighbours, and unrelated neighbours
-Companions by your side in public gatherings, or public transportation. [4:36]
 
38. Be generous to the needy wayfarer, the homeless son of the street, and the one who reaches you in a destitute condition [4:36]
 
39. Be nice to people who work under your care. [4:36]
 
40. Do not follow up what you have given to others to afflict them with reminders of your generosity [2:262]
 
41. Do not expect a return for your good behaviour, not even thanks [76:9]
 
42. Cooperate with one another in good deeds and do not cooperate with others in evil and bad matters [5:2]
 
43. Do no try to impress people on account of self-proclaimed virtues [53:32]
 
44. You should enjoin right conduct on others but mend your own ways first. Actions speak louder than words. You must first practice good deeds yourself, then preach [2:44]
 
45. Correct yourself and your families first [before trying to correct others] [66:6]
 
46. Pardon gracefully if anyone among you who commits a bad deed out of ignorance, and then repents and amends [6:54, 3:134]
 
47. Divert and sublimate your anger and potentially virulent emotions to creative energy, and become a source of tranquillity and comfort to people [3:134]
 
48. Call people to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful exhortation. Reason with them most decently [16:125]
 
49. Leave to themselves those who do not give any importance to the Divine code and have adopted and consider it as mere play and amusement [6:70]
 
50. Sit not in the company of those who ridicule Divine Law unless they engage in some other conversation [4:140]
 
51. Do not be jealous of those who are blessed [4:54]
 
52. In your collective life, make rooms for others [58:11]
 
53. When invited to dine, Go at the appointed time. Do not arrive too early to wait for the preparation of meal or linger after eating to engage in bootless babble. Such things may cause inconvenience to the host [33:53]
 
54. Eat and drink [what is lawful] in moderation [7:31]
 
55. Do not squander your wealth senselessly [17:26]
 
56. Fulfil your promises and commitments [17:34]
 
57. Keep yourself clean, pure [9:108, 4:43, 5:6]
 
58. Dress-up in agreeable attire and adorn yourself with exquisite character from inside out [7:26]
 
59. Seek your provision only by fair endeavour [29:17, 2:188]
 
60. Do not devour the wealth and property of others unjustly, nor bribe the officials or the judges to deprive others of their possessions [2:188]
 
Note: The points above may not be word by word translations of Quranic verses.

The Mysterious Death of Justice Godfrey - Part I.

The killing of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey - in Oktober 1678 - has been called the greatest murder mystery in English history. Its consequences were certainly appalling, a wave of hatred and violence unleashed against English Roman Catholics, resulting in more then twenty judicial murders and over a hundred imprisonments.

                

Godfrey was known as a decent and scrupulous man, courageous and rigidly honest. This is why his murder caused such widespread outrage among British Protestants, and why they allowed themselves to be persuaded that their Catholic countrymen were about to burn them all at the stake. The man whose sick imagination invented this ‘Popish Plot’ was paranoid clergyman named Titus Oates, who is remembered as one of the most malevolent and vicious individuals in English history.

                

Edmund Berry Godfrey was born on 23 December 1621, the son of a Kentish gentleman of independent means. Educated at Westminister School and Christ Church, Oxford, he was prevented from entering his chosen profession, the law, by increasing deafness and ill health. His father solved the problem of a career by lending him a thousand pounds – worth about forty thousand pounds in today’s money – with which he and a friend named Harrison bought a wood-wharf at Dowgate, near Thames Street in the City of London, and proceeded to sell wood and coal to their fellow Londoners. It was a good time to be in the fuel business. Winters were often so cold that the Thames froze solid. And the uncertainties of the Civil Wear between the Roundheads and the Royalists enabled them to charge high prices. By 1649, when King Charles lost his head. Godfrey and Harrison were already wealthy men. And the excitement of a business career had cause an enormous improvement in Godfrey’s health. In 1658, when Godfrey took a house in Greens Lane, a road that ran between the Strand and the river (somewhere near present day Villiers Street) he was the only coal merchant outside the city followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a Justice of the Peace for Westminister and Middlesex.

                

He showed himself severe but fair minded. Harsh towards tramps and vagabonds, he was compassionate towards those whose misery and poverty was no fault of their own – in one case, he supported a family at a rate of ten pounds a year for several years until they were able to support themselves.

                

In the Great Plague of 1665, Godfrey wass one of the few rich men who remained in London. This may not have been entirely a matter of altruism – in those days, it was firmly believed that smoke could offer protection from the plague, and enormous fires were kept burning permanently in the streets, provided with fuel from Godfrey’s coal and wood yard. Godfrey took charge of the digging of the largest mass grave in England – with plague deaths at two thousand a week, individual burials had become impossible. Every  night, carts drove through the streets, their drivers shouting ‘bring out your dead’; blotched bodies, stinking of black vomit, were tossed onto the pile.

                

Godfrey himself seems to have have no fear of the plague. When he heard that a rgave robber had taken refuge in a house full of plague victims, where the constables were afraid to follow him, he strode in with drawn sword and dragged  the man out by the scruff of the neck. Later, the same man met him in the street, and hurled himself of him with a heavy cudgel; Godfrey held him at bay with his sword until constableas arrived to drag him away.

                

Since it was believed that dogs and cats spread the plague, thousands were exterminated. Nobody realized that the real culpit was the rats carrying the Bubonic Plague germ and who bred in their thousands among the garbage that lay in London’s streets. Fortunately, the winter that year was so cold that the plague slowly began to lose its grip. It was finally brought to an end by the Great Fire of London, which began in September 1666 and burned half the city in four days. Here again, Godfrey displayed his usual courage and industry, and soon after the end of the fire, King Charles II knighted him.

                

Three year later, Godfre again revealed his courage in a conflict with the king. Alexander Frazier, one of the kig;ss physicians, owef him thirty pounds for firewood – over a thousand pounds in modern money – and obviously had no intention of paying. As a member of the king’s household, Frazier could be taken to a court of law. Godfrey obtained a warrant from the Sheriff and had Frasier arrested by bailiffs. The king was so enraged that he ordered the bailiffs to be whipped, but Godfrey ignored the king’s command to have the warrant cancelled. Imprisoned in the porter’s lodge at Whitehall, he went on hunger strike until, after six days, the king finally gave way. Fortunately, Charles was entirely lacking in vindictiveness, and bore Godfrey no grudge. It is not clear whether Godfrey ever received his thirty pounds.

                

And so, in his late forties, Godfrey was one of the most respected and well-loved figures n London. What strange twist of fate led him to become the victim of unknown murderes, less than ten years later?

                

Some weeks before his disappearance, Godfrey was nervous, and it was clear that he expected to be killed. To one female acquaintance he remarked: “Have you not heard that I am to be hanged?”

                

Yet if Godfrey knew he was going to be murdered, why did he not have leave behind some clue that would bring the killers to justice? On the contrary, on the morning of his disappearance, he burnt all the papers that might have indicated who had killed him, and why.

                

On the morning of Saturday, 12 Oktober, 1678, Godfrey rose early and dressed in no less than three pairs of stockings – it was an icy cold day. When his housekeeper brought in his breakfast, Godfrey was talking to a man she did not recognize, and who remained there for a long time. At eight o’clock, he had left his house near Charing Cross, and walked up St. Martin’s Lane. Two acquaintance who said good morning noticed that he seemed to be withdrawn and depressed. In those days, there were fields north of Oxford Street, and two hours ;ater, Godfrey was seen near the little village of Paddington. Then about an hour later, he was seen walking back through the muddy fields towards London. This must have at about eleven o’clock in the morning.

                

Yet at about that same hour, an acquaintance named Richard Adams called at Godfrey’s house, and was told by the servants: “Was have cause to fear Sir Edmund is made away.”

                

Sir Edmund had arranged to dine that day with s friend called Wynned at a house not far from his home. When he failed to arrive by midday (which was the time they dinned in the seventeenth century), Wynnel went to Godfrey’s home, where the servants were looking upset and shaken. One of them told him: “Ah Mr Wynnel!, you will never see him more.”

                

Wynnel asked why. “They say the Papist have been watching him for a long time, and that now they are very confident they have got him.”

Wynnel’s efforts to extract further information were unsuccessful.

To be continued >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>