A Japanese legend tells about a female ghost called Kuchisake-onna, who is the soul of a woman murdered by her jealous husband. This spirit is blamed for many deaths since the 1600s. She walks along dark streets and alleys, covering her mouth with either a fan, handkerchief, or medical mask, depending on which version you hear.

She asks travelers two questions. First, she inquires, “Do you think I’m pretty?” Then she removes her disguise to show her bloody mouth with the sides cut wide. She asks her final question: “Do you still think so?” If you affirm her beauty both times, you’ll only walk away with your face slit like hers. Otherwise, you’re dead.

Stories of Kuchisake-onna were told during the Edo period (1600s–1800s), but then she disappeared until the 1970s, when even a police investigation started, after a series of accidents involving the character .

Ghost [gəʊst] привидение, призрак.

Soul [səʊl] душа.

Jealous [ˈʤeləs] ревнивый.

Spirit [ˈspɪrɪt] дух.

Fan [fæn] веер.

Handkerchief [ˈhæŋkəʧɪf] носовой платок, платок.

Inquire [ɪnˈkwaɪə] спрашивать, осведомляться.

Disguise [dɪsˈgaɪz] маскировка.

Affirm [əˈfɜːm] подтверждать.

Slit [slɪt] разрезать. Slit — slit — slit. Неправильный глагол.

Otherwise[ˈʌðəwaɪz] иначе, по другому, в противном случае.

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San Francisco, California A psychedelic labyrinth on the San Francisco bay.

PEOPLE STUMBLE ABOUT THE LABYRINTH, arms outstretched. Even so, they sometimes find themselves smacking headfirst into their own reflection. Shrieking and giggling when they reach someone else they ask, “are you real?”

This maze is contained in a nondescript building on San Francisco’s Pier 39. It’s a disorienting dungeon of columns and mirrors, lit by blacklight and flashing neon and scored by rave music. Once you’ve managed to make it through the purveyors have been known to recommend trying it again, this time backwards.

This trippy scene is standard fare at Magowan’s Infinite Mirror Maze for visitors of all ages, no drugs required (or recommended for that matter). Its founder calls it “one part art, one part science.” The trick is simple–you’ve probably seen it before at a carnival–but the effect is still enchanting.

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Forman took up astrology in mid-life, and between 1596 and 1603, he averaged 2,000 consultations every year. That means he had an impact on huge number of Elizabethan lives, and since he documented them—and himself—in such detail, he is one of the major sources we have today on what everyday life was at the turn of the 16th century.

He wrote thousands of pages on everything from occult beliefs of the day to his own dreams and the concerns of the people who consulted him. He shaped history not by influencing the events around wars or nobility but by advising the everyday person on everything from their romantic lives to medical concerns and when and where they would find their missing socks.

Forman’s writing also contain some of the most complete documentation of Shakespearean plays as they were originally performed.

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Carl Linnaeus was an 18th-century botanist who developed a system of classification and taxonomy that we still use today. He saw similarities that allowed plants and animals to be grouped into categories, and he believed in a lot of mythical creatures that no one had ever seen.

One creature classified in his Systema Naturae was the kraken, which he assigned the scientific name Microcosmus marinus. The kraken was in the first few editions of the book (with the footnote that he had never seen one).

He also wrote about mermaids. He did believe that he had seen this creature, which he described in the 10th edition of his master work. The mermaid was housed in a museum in Leyden, had come from Brazil, and was fed a diet of little fish and pieces of bread

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Imagine, if a bold explorer had pioneered the sea route from Europe to India centuries before Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama. Well, that’s exactly what the brothers Vadino and Ugolino Vivaldi attempted to do in 1291.

The Vivaldi were Italian merchants close to the wealthy Doria family of Genoa, who probably financed the expedition. (A man named Tedisio Doria accompanied the brothers). Details are scarce, but we know that the brothers set off in two galleys and passed through the Strait of Gibraltar in May, intending to journey across “the Ocean Sea to parts of India and to bring back useful merchandise from there.”

Interestingly, the Genoese annals don’t specify the route they intended to take, leading some historians to suggest they were trying to reach India across the Atlantic, just as Columbus would do 200 years later. However, it remains much more likely that they were planning to hug the coast of Africa, which would have been at least somewhat safer in the primitive galleys of the 13th century.

According to the Genoese chronicler Jacopo Doria, the brothers reached a place known as Gozora before disappearing into the unknown, never to be heard from again. Historians are somewhat divided on the matter, but the most likely explanation is that Gozora refers to the African coast near the Canary Islands, in what is now southern Morocco.

The Genoese admiral Benedetto Zuccaria was cruising the Moroccan coastline with a Spanish fleet at the time, so it’s not surprising that Jacopo Doria would have heard of the brothers passing through. But afterward the Vivaldi passed out of the sphere of European knowledge, and nobody knows where they went or how far they traveled before their voyage reached its end.

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In 1503, the Portuguese courtier Vasco Corte-Real equipped two ships for an expedition to what is now Northeastern Canada. His goal was to search for his younger brother Miguel, who had vanished off the coast of Newfoundland while searching for his even younger brother Gaspar, who had also vanished off the coast of Newfoundland.

Sensing the pattern, the Portuguese king eventually stepped in and banned Vasco from going anywhere near the coast of Newfoundland. To this day, the disappearance of Gaspar and Miguel remains one of the most intriguing mysteries in Portuguese naval history.

The three brothers were the only sons of Joao Vaz Corte-Real, a notoriously cruel landlord from the Azores, and his kidnapped Spanish wife. Joao Vaz himself made a poorly recorded voyage to the north in the 1470s, leading some to theorize that he reached the Americas before Columbus. (It’s more likely that he just cruised around Greenland for a while.) His sons seem to have inherited his interest in the region, prompting Gaspar to voyage to Greenland and Newfoundland in 1500. In 1501, Gaspar set sail with three ships to explore the region further.

The expedition reached Newfoundland without incident, but then a storm separated the ships. Two returned safely to Portugal, but Gaspar’s ship was never seen again. Desperate to find Gaspar, Miguel Corte-Real quickly outfitted three caravels of his own and sailed in May 1502. After exploring Labrador and Newfoundland, the three captains agreed to split up in order to search a wider area. They were supposed to rendezvous a month later, but Miguel and his ship never showed up.

Historians now speculate that one or both Corte-Real brothers may have sailed north along the coast of Labrador and into Hudson’s Bay, where they would have been trapped by ice as the weather grew colder. Whatever their fate, the Corte-Reals’ disappearance brought Portuguese Arctic exploration to an abrupt end.

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