More than three hundred years ago, Poland was a vast power stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. This area included the Ukraine, home of the fierce, daring cavalry - the Cossacks.
The year 1647 in Poland was a year in which there were strange signs in the heavens and on the earth. First there was a great eclipse of the sun, and soon after a comet appeared in the sky. In Warsaw, a tomb was seen over the city and a fiery cross in the clouds. Wolves and vampires howled in the night and whole legions of ghosts marched. These were believed to be signs a great war was coming.
New Scientist - 11 January 2014. New Scientist is superbly written, features great design and photography throughout and is accessible to anyone interested in science, regardless of their level of knowledge or qualifications. Each issue of this great weekly mag brings you all the news from the world of science, covering every discipline such as physics, biology, chemistry and some wonderfully advanced ideas such as quantum mechanics and string theory.
The story begins with strange lights and sounds, including blaring trumpet music, reported in the skies all over the world. The events are capped by the mysterious appearance of black flags with gold suns atop tall historic landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
'With due admiration for the knowledge of professional detail, I feel that enthusiasm will overcome the want of acquintance' ... such was the conviction of the strong young man who lived and wrote this account of his days in the American merchant service before the sail-less, spar-less days of engine driven hulks, when the sea brewed a witchery seasoned with hardships, and the great ships that dipped into Neptune's briny cup, quaffed the gall of drudgery.
Out of the depths of time ... out of mysterious India comes the Moonstone worshipped by the Hindus and bearing for the white man the death curse of the great god Vishnu.
