Strange Stories, Amazing Facts

Yes! Finally got the time to read this book. The Reader's Digest Book Of "Strange Stories, Amazing Facts". Stories that are bizarre, unusual, odd, astonishing, incredible... but true... This book was published way back 1975. Pretty antique huh?... I borrowed this book from my bestfriend. This was one of the reason why we got closer during our highschool days. The contents are very interesting. The book is divided into 5 parts with subcategories.
Part 1
-> The enigma of space - The universe... eternally fixed or forever exploding?
->The astonishing human body - The miraculous mechanism that is ourselves
-> Wonders of the natural world - Secrets of the planet on which we live
-> The surprising animal kingdom - Strange and mysterious creatures that share our world

Part 2
-> The marvels of science - Man's endless quest for knowledge
-> Feats of building and engineering - Immortal milestones of civilization
-> Man's amazing inventions - Weird and wonderful answers to the problems of living
-> Daring and epic journeys - Tales of courage and high endeavor
-> The quest for the past - Detectives with spades and aqualungs

Part 3
-> Strange customs and superstitions - Ancient defenses to counter perils of the unknown
-> Popular facts and fallacies - A second look at long-cherished notions
-> Intriguing and unsolved mysteries - Theories abound, but the questions remains
-> Footsteps into the unknown - Adventures beyond the material world
-> Legendary lands and beasts - Dismissed as travellers' tales - but where they true?

Part 4
-> Hoaxes, frauds and forgeries - Tricksters who rocked and shocked the world
-> Eccentrics and prophecies - Brilliant, original thinkers - pr charlatans?
-> Curious and bizarre beginnings - The unconscious heritage shared by us all

Part 5
-> The world of tomorrow - Triumph pf man... or Armageddon?


These are the contents of the book. I'm gonna share to ya'll one mysterious stories that I've read in the book. This story is quiet popular in London. In fact it was published on one the newspapers in London way back 1854. You may google the news for more information. Here goes...

WHEN THE DEVIL WALKED IN DEVON
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What else could leave a 100 mile trail of cloven hoofprints?

All over southern England, the winter of 1854-5 was the coldest living memory. Overnight, on February 9, there had been a severe frost and 2 in. of snow blanketed the County of Devon. The River Exe was frozen over and birds were trapped where they had stood in the ice.
When dawn came, the snow lay white, smooth and even, marked only by bird and animal tracks and, across about 100 miles of the county, a trail of mysterious footprints. They zigzagged through five parishes, across gardens, over rooftops, haystacks, walls and in and out of barns.
They were 4 in. long, 2 3/4 in. wide and 8 in. apart, and appeared to have been made by a creature with cloven hooves, walking upright on two legs.
To the country people of the area, there was no doubt about the cause of the cloven hooves of the Devil.

Hooves of fire
The weird prints began in the middle of a garden in the parish of Totnes and ended a mysteriously as they had started, in a field at Littleham. In one village they led into a shed and out at the other side. Whatever made them had gone through 6 in. diameter hole.
In another village, the creature appeared to have crawled through a drain pipe, leaving tracks at both ends.
In some places, the marks seemed to have been made by fiery hooves in the hard-frozen snow or, as at Woodbury, by a hot iron outside the door of the church.
Hundreds of people saw the prints and scores letters poured in to newspapers in which people debated what could have caused them.
Near the village of Dawlish, the trail led into dense bracken and undergrowth. When dogs were brought in to flush out the thicket, they are said to have retreated, howling dismally.


Many theories
The naturalist Sir Richard Owen, in a letter to the Illustrated London News, suggested the prints were those of a badger. He pointed out that the badger places its hind feet in the marks left by its forefeet. Although it hibernates, it sometimes ventures out in search of food.
Other suggestions included a fox, an otter, cranes, wild cats, a donkey or a pony with broken shoe. One amateur naturalist even suggested that the prints resembled those of a kangaroo and that the animal might have escaped from a travelling menagerie, then returned to its cage without anyone noticing its absence.
Rats, rabbits, squirrels and toads were also suggested as possible culprits.
One group of villagers, believing there might be a wild beast at large, set out with pitchforks and bludgeons to track it down, but without success.
But local people were not convinced. Many refused to go out after sunset, and children hid in closets and cupboards, terrified by the fireside gossip they had heard: that the Devil had walked in Devon that winter night.

-----> Source: The Reader's Digest Book Of "Strange Stories, Amazing Facts".. page 377

There goes. That would be all for now. Maybe I can put some stories from the book in my blog in time.... *^____^*