DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0339
WONDERFUL HISTORY OF A SWEDISH WOMAN. 303
Estrid is a maid of delicate countenance, brownish, her
body white and beautiful, can move her arms which way
she pleases, has no use of the rest of her limbs. Her’sto-
mach lies close to her back, since she uses no food. She
has no strength in her back, but must be kept upright with
a string, upon which she hangs with her breast. If the
same string happen to be let go at any time, she falls di-
rectly on her face, which gives her sometimes a little ease.
If she again is set upright, her back-bone cracks, which
also happens sometimes, when she hangs upright: her
legs and thighs are contracted underneath her. She feels
no change of cold or heat, let it be ever so great or vehe-
ment.
She was 25 years of age in September, 1707, when the
minister of her parish delivered the certificate above-
mentioned. He says, that though for the space of three
years and a half she has not used so much meat or drink
as would be a meal for a child, her body and limbs never-
theless feel as well and as firm as if she had, and that she
could eat very heartily. Her nails upon her fingers and
toes do not grow at all, but are as soft as those of a new-
born child. There is not a day passes but she swoons
away two hundred times, as if she were dead, and again
recovers.
These are the most remarkable circumstances contained
in the certificate, in the account printed at Skara, 1710,
in the Swedish language, and written by M. Peter Gud-
hemius, minister, and in the abstract of a letter of the
Bishop of Skara, to the Lord Bishop of Bristol, dated the
9th of November, 1710. The Swedish bishop says in his
letter: By the enclosed printed account, your Lordship
will learn a surprising thing, whereof the truth is as cer-
tain as that I am now writing this letter. I have written
about it to his Excellency the Field-Marshal Count
Magnus Steinbock, who confirms it, having often visited
the
Estrid is a maid of delicate countenance, brownish, her
body white and beautiful, can move her arms which way
she pleases, has no use of the rest of her limbs. Her’sto-
mach lies close to her back, since she uses no food. She
has no strength in her back, but must be kept upright with
a string, upon which she hangs with her breast. If the
same string happen to be let go at any time, she falls di-
rectly on her face, which gives her sometimes a little ease.
If she again is set upright, her back-bone cracks, which
also happens sometimes, when she hangs upright: her
legs and thighs are contracted underneath her. She feels
no change of cold or heat, let it be ever so great or vehe-
ment.
She was 25 years of age in September, 1707, when the
minister of her parish delivered the certificate above-
mentioned. He says, that though for the space of three
years and a half she has not used so much meat or drink
as would be a meal for a child, her body and limbs never-
theless feel as well and as firm as if she had, and that she
could eat very heartily. Her nails upon her fingers and
toes do not grow at all, but are as soft as those of a new-
born child. There is not a day passes but she swoons
away two hundred times, as if she were dead, and again
recovers.
These are the most remarkable circumstances contained
in the certificate, in the account printed at Skara, 1710,
in the Swedish language, and written by M. Peter Gud-
hemius, minister, and in the abstract of a letter of the
Bishop of Skara, to the Lord Bishop of Bristol, dated the
9th of November, 1710. The Swedish bishop says in his
letter: By the enclosed printed account, your Lordship
will learn a surprising thing, whereof the truth is as cer-
tain as that I am now writing this letter. I have written
about it to his Excellency the Field-Marshal Count
Magnus Steinbock, who confirms it, having often visited
the