Chapter VI: Introduction (6)

In 1811 a gentleman made a bet of one thousand guineas that he would have a coat made in a single day, from the first process of shearing the sheep till its completion by the tailor. The wager was decided at Newbury, England, on the 25th of June in that year, by Mr. John Coxeter, of Greenham mills, near that town. At five o'clock that morning Sir John Throckmorton presented two Southdown sheep to Mr. Coxeter, and the sheep were shorn, the wool spun, the yarn spooled, warped, loomed and wove, the cloth burred, milled, rowed, dried, sheared and pressed, and put into the hands of the tailors by four o'clock that afternoon. At twenty minutes past six the coat, entirely finished, was handed by Mr. Coxeter to Sir John Throckmorton, who appeared with it before more than five thousand spectators, who rent the air with acclamations at this remarkable instance of despatch.

_Wall Paper Pattern._

In the Great Exhibition at London, in 1851, a single pattern of wall paper, representing a chase in a forest, attracted much attention. To produce the pattern, twelve thousand blocks had been used.

_Feathers for the Ladies._

Statistics of a late feather sale in England show that to furnish material for that one sale, at least 9,700 herons or egrets and 15,574 humming birds must have been killed.

_A Man Carries his House on his Head._

Simeon Ellerton, of Craike, Durham, died in 1799, aged 104. This man, in his day, was a noted pedestrian, and before the establishment of regular "Posts," was frequently employed in walking commissions, from the northern counties to London and other places, which he executed with fidelity and despatch. He lived in a neat stone cottage of his own erecting, and, what is remarkable, he had literally carried his house on his head. It was his constant practice to bring back with him from every journey which he undertook, some suitable stone, or other material for his purpose, and which, not unfrequently, he carried 40 or 50 miles on his head.

_Queen Anne's Farthings._

The farthings of Queen Anne have attained a celebrity from the large prices sometimes given for them by collectors. Their rarity, however, has been much overrated; it was, indeed, long a popular notion that only three farthings were struck in her reign, of which two were in public keeping, while a third was still going about, and, if recovered, would bring a fabulous price. The Queen Anne farthings were designed by a German named Crocker or Croker, principal engraver to the mint. They were only patterns of an intended coin, and, though never put into circulation, are by no means exceedingly rare.

_No Lead in Lead Pencils._

Lead pencils contain no lead. Lead pencil is as much a misnomer as it would be to call a horse a cow. Red lead is an oxide of lead, and white lead is a carbonate of lead, but the black lead used in pencils is neither a metal nor a compound of metal. It is plumbago or graphite, one of the forms of carbon.

_Whalebone._

This substance is improperly named, since it has none of the properties of bone; its correct name is baleen. It is found attached to the upper jaw, and serves to strain the water which the whale takes into its mouth, and to retain the small animals upon which it subsists. For this purpose the baleen is abundant, sometimes eight hundred pieces in one whale, placed across each other at regular distances, with the fringed edge towards the mouth.

_Light from Potatoes._

The emission of light from the common potato, when in a state of decomposition, is sometimes very striking. Dr. Phipson, in his work on "Phosphorescence," mentions a case in which the light thus emitted from a cellarful of these vegetables was so strong as to lead an officer on guard at Strasburg to believe that the barracks were on fire.

_A Very Long Word._

The longest Nipmuck word in Eliot's Indian Bible is in St. Mark i. 40, _Wutteppesittukgussunnoowehtunkquoh_, and signifies "kneeling down to him."

_Cobblers' Stalls in Rome._

The streets of Rome in the time of Domitian were so blocked up with cobblers' stalls that he caused them to be removed.

_Luminous Human Bodies._

Bartholin, in his treatise "De Luce Hominumet Brutorum" (1647), gives an account of an Italian lady whom he designates as "mulier splendens," whose body shone with phosphoric radiations when gently rubbed with dry linen; and Dr. Kane, in his last voyage to the polar regions, witnessed almost as remarkable a case of phosphorescence. A few cases are recorded by Sir H. Marsh, Professor Donovan and other undoubted authorities, in which the human body, shortly before death, has presented a pale, luminous appearance.

_Sacred Anchors._

The ancient Greek vessels carried several anchors, one of which, called the "sacred anchor," was never let go until the ship was in dire distress.

_Anne Boleyn's Gloves._

Anne Boleyn was remarkably dainty about her gloves. She had a nail which turned up at the sides, and it was the delight of Queen Catherine to make her play at cards without her gloves, in order that the deformity might disgust King Hal.

_Adding Insult to Injury._

This expression has reached us from a fable by Phædrus, a Roman author who lived in the reign of Augustus Cæsar, and whose writings were first discovered to modern literature in 1596, at Rheims, in France. The fable is called "The Bald Man and the Fly," and reads as follows:—

"A fly bit the bare pate of a bald man, who, endeavoring to crush it, gave himself a heavy blow. Then said the fly, jeeringly, 'You wanted to avenge the sting of a tiny insect with death. What will you do to yourself, who have added insult to injury?'"

_St. Anthony's Fire._

St. Anthony's fire is an inflammatory disease which, in the eleventh century, raged violently in various parts. According to the legend, the intercession of St. Anthony was prayed for, when it miraculously ceased; and, therefore, from that time, the complaint has been called St. Anthony's fire.

_Before Houses were Numbered._

Before houses were numbered it was a common practice with tradesmen not much known, when they advertised, to mention the color of their next neighbor's door, balcony or lamp, of which custom the following copy of a hand-bill presents a curious instance:—

"Next to the _Golden Door_, opposite Great Suffolk street, near Pall Mall, at the Barber's Pole, liveth a certain person, Robert Barker, who has found out an excellent method for sweating or fluxing of wiggs; his prices are 2_s._ 6_d._ for each bob, and 3_s._ for every tye wigg and pig-tail, ready money."

_Monkish Prayers._

The monks used to say their prayers no less than seven times in twenty-four hours—

1st. Nocturnal, at cock-crowing (2 o'clock in the morning).
2d. Matins, at 6 o'clock in the morning.
3d. Tierce, at 9 o'clock in the morning.
4th. Sext, at 12 o'clock noon.
5th. None, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
6th. Vespers, at 6 o'clock in the afternoon.
7th. Compline, soon after 7.

Quarles wrote a neat epigram on the subject—

"For all our prayers the Almighty does regard
The judgment of the _balance_, not the _yard_;
He loves not words, but matter; 't is His pleasure
To buy His wares by _weight_, and not by _measure_."

_A Mammoth Feast._

Leland mentions a feast given by the Archbishop of York, at his installation, in the reign of Edward IV. There were disposed of—300 quarters of wheat, 300 tuns of ale, 100 tuns of wine, 1000 sheep, 104 oxen, 304 calves, 304 swine, 2000 geese, 1000 capons, 400 swans, 104 peacocks, 1500 hot vension pasties, 4000 cold ones, 5000 custards, hot and cold.

_Gluttony of the Monks._

The monks of St. Swithin made formal complaint to Henry II. because the Abbot deprived them of three dishes out of thirteen at every meal. The monks of Canterbury had seventeen rich and savory dishes every day.

_Ancient Smokers._

When the ancient tower of Kukstatt Abbey fell, in 1779, Whitaker, a few days afterwards, discovered, embedded in the mortar of the fallen fragments, several little smoking pipes, such as were used in the reign of James I., for tobacco, a proof of the fact, which has not been generally recorded, that long prior to the introduction of that plant from America, the practice of inhaling the smoke of some indigenous vegetable prevailed in England.

_Gipsy Dance._

The gipsy women of Spain especially and exclusively dance the Romalis, imported from the Orient. It is said to be the voluptuous dance which the daughter of Herodias danced before Herod and his court.

_Chinese Medical Prescriptions._

The Chinese divide their prescriptions into seven classes: 1. The great prescription; 2. The little prescription; 3. The slow prescription; 4. The prompt prescription; 5. The odd prescription; 6. The even prescription; 7. The double prescription. Each of these recipes apply to particular cases, and the ingredients are weighed with scrupulous accuracy.

_Queer Evidence of Divinity._

Among the ancients the voluntary motion of inanimate objects was considered an evidence of their divinity. When Juno paid her celebrated visit to Vulcan, she found him engaged in the manufacture of tripods, which moved about and performed their office with a bustling air of zealous activity—

"Full twenty tripods for his hall be framed,
That, placed on living wheels of massive gold,
Wondrous to tell, instinct with spirit, roll'd
From place to place around the blest abodes,
Self-moved, obedient to the beck of gods."

_Picnics Centuries Ago._

Mainwaring, in a letter to the Earl of Arundel, dated November 22d, 1618, says: "The prince his birthday has been solemnized here by the few marquises and lords which found themselves here; and (to supply the want of lords) knights and squires were added to a consultation, wherein it was resolved that such a number should meet at Gamiges, _and bring every man his dish of meat_. It was left to their own choice what to bring; some chose to be substantial, some curious, some extravagant. Sir George Young's invention bore away the bell, and that was four huge brawny pigs, piping hot, bitted and harnessed with ropes of sarsiges, all tied to a monstrous bag-pudding."

_Skeletons at Feasts._

In old times the guests at an Egyptian feast, when they grew hilarious, were called back to sober propriety by the exhibition of a little skeleton, and the admonition to reflect upon the lesson it conveyed.

_Hair Cutting in Russia._

Among the lower classes in Russia, the barber, a primitive artist, claps an earthen pot over the head and ears, and trims off whatever hair protrudes from the pot.

_Antiquity of Tarring and Feathering._

Tarring and feathering, it seems, is an European invention. One of Richard Cœur de Leon's ordinances for seamen was, "that if any man were taken with theft and pickery, and thereof convicted, he should have his head polled, and hot pitch poured upon his pate, and upon that the feathers of some pillow or cushion shaken aloft, that he might thereby be known as a thief, and at the next arrival of the ships to any land be put forth of the company to seek his adventures without all hope of return unto his fellows."—_Holinshed_.

_Grinning for a Wager._

In 1796, at Hendon, England, on Whit-Tuesday, a burlesque imitation of the Olympic Games was held. One prize was a gold-laced hat, to be grinned for by six candidates, who were placed on a platform with horse-collars to exhibit through. Over their heads was printed in capitals—

Detur Tetriori; or,
The ugliest grinner
Shall be the winner.

Each party grinned five minutes _solus_, and then all united in a grand _chorus_ of distortion. The prize was carried off by a porter to a _vinegar_ merchant, though he was accused by his competitors of foul play for rinsing his mouth with _verjuice_.

_Eating for a Wager._

The hand-bill, of which the subjoined is a copy, was circulated by the keeper of the public house at which the gluttony was to happen, as an attraction for all the neighborhood to witness—

"_Bromley in Kent_, July 14th, 1726.—A strange eating worthy is to perform a Tryal of Skill on St. James's Day, which is the day of our _Fair_, for a wager of Five Guineas, viz: he is to eat four pounds of bacon, a bushel of French beans, with two pounds of butter, a quartern loaf, and to drink a gallon of strong beer."

_Curious Wagers._

Mr. Whalley, an Irish gentleman, for a wager of twenty thousand pounds, set out on Monday, the 22d of September, 1788, to walk to Constantinople and back in one year. Some years ago Sir Henry Liddel, a rich baronet, laid a considerable wager that he would go to Lapland, bring home two females of that country, and two reindeer, in a given time. He performed the journey, and effected his purpose in every respect. The Lapland women lived with him about a year, but, desiring to go back to their own country, the baronet furnished them with the means.

_The Jumping Jack._

This toy is of quite antiquated parentage. In the tombs of ancient Egypt figures have been found whose limbs were made movable, for the delight of children, before Moses was born.

_Love-handkerchiefs._

At one time it was the custom in England to present love-handkerchiefs. They were not more than three or four inches square, wrought with embroidery, a tassel at each corner and a small button in the centre. The finest of these favors were edged with narrow gold lace or twist, and then, being folded up in four cross-folds, so that the middle might be seen, they were worn by the accepted lovers in their hats or on the breast. These tokens of love became at last so much in vogue that they were sold ready-made in the shops in Elizabeth's time at from sixpence to sixteen-pence apiece. Tokens were also given by the gentlemen, and accepted by the ladies, as is indicated in an old comedy of the time—

"Given earrings we will wear,
Bracelets of our lover's hair;
Which they on our arms shall twist,
(With our names carved) on our wrists."

_Umbrellas._

Umbrellas are an older invention than some writers would have us suppose. Even the usually entertained notion that Jonas Hanway introduced the umbrella into England, in the year 1752, is proved to be false by evidence that can be cited. Ben Jonson refers to it by name in a comedy produced in 1616; and so do Beaumont and Fletcher in "Rule a Wife and Have a Wife." Swift, in the "Tatler" of October 17th, 1710, says, in "The City Shower"—

"The tucked-up seamstress walks with hasty strides,
While streams run down her oiled umbrella's sides."

The following couplet also occurs in a poem written by Gay in 1712—

"Housewives underneath th' umbrella's oily shed
Safe through the wet in clinking pattens tread."

It is probable that Hanway was the first _man_ seen carrying an umbrella in London.

At Persepolis, in Persia, are some sculptures supposed to be as old as the time of Alexander the Great, and on one of these is represented a chief or king, over whose head some servants are holding an umbrella. At Takht-i-Bostan are other sculptures, one of which is a king witnessing a boar hunt attended by an umbrella-bearer. Recent discoveries at Nineveh show that the umbrella was in use there, it being common to the sculpturings, but always represented open. The same is to be seen upon the celebrated Hamilton vases preserved in the British Museum. In many Chinese drawings ladies are attended by servants holding umbrellas over their heads.

Loubère, who went to Siam as envoy from the king of France, describes the use of umbrellas as being governed by curious regulations. Those umbrellas resembling ours are used principally by the officers of state; while those several tiers in height, as if two or more umbrellas were fixed on one stick, are reserved for the king alone. In Ava, a country adjacent to Siam, the king designates himself, among other titles, as "Lord of the Ebbing and Flowing Tide, King of the White Elephant, and Lord of the Twenty-four Umbrellas." This last title, although ridiculous to us, is supposed to relate to twenty-four states or provinces combined under the rule of the king, the umbrella being especially a royal emblem in Ava. The umbrella is also the distinguishing sign of sovereignty in Morocco.

_Fashionable Disfigurement._

The custom of dotting the face with black patches, of different patterns, was introduced into England and France from Arabia, and was at its height during the reign of Charles I. The ladies, old and young, covered their faces with black spots shaped like suns, moons, stars, hearts, crosses and lozenges, and some even carried the mode to the extravagant extent of shapening the patches to represent a carriage and horses.

_Fine for Insulting a King._

The use of gold and silver was not unknown to the Welsh in 842, when their laws were collected. The man who dared to insult the king of Aberfraw was to pay (besides certain cows and a silver rod) a cup which would hold as much wine as his majesty could swallow at a draught. It was to be made of gold; its cover was to be as broad as the king's face, and the whole as thick as a goose's egg or a ploughman's thumbnail.

_True-Lovers' Knots._

Among the ancient Northern nations a knot was the symbol of indissoluble love, faith and friendship. Hence the ancient runic inscriptions are in the form of a knot, and hence, among the Northern English and Scots, who still retain, in a great measure, the language and manners of the ancient Danes, that curious kind of knot exists which is a mutual present between the lover and his mistress, and which, being considered as the emblem of plighted fidelity, is therefore called "a true-love knot." The name is not derived, however, as would be naturally supposed, from the words "true" and "love," but is formed from the Danish verb "trulofa," _fidem do_, I plight my troth or faith. In Davidson's "Poetical Rhapsody," published in 1611, the following is the opening verse of a poem entitled "The True-Love's Knot"—

"Love is the linke, the knot, the band of unity,
And all that love do love with their beloved to be;
Love only did decree
To change this kind in me."

_Hundred Families' Lock._

A common Chinese talisman is the "hundred families' lock," to procure which a father goes round among his friends, and, having obtained from an hundred different parties a few of the copper coins of the country, he himself adds the balance to purchase an ornament or appendage fashioned like a lock, which he hangs on his child's neck for the purpose of figuratively locking him to life and causing the hundred persons to be concerned in his attaining old age.

_The King's Cock-crower._

A singular custom of matchless absurdity formerly existed in the English court. During Lent an ancient officer of the crown, called the King's Cock-crower, crowed the hour each night within the precincts of the palace. On Ash Wednesday, after the accession of the House of Hanover, as the Prince of Wales (afterwards George II.) sat down to supper, this officer abruptly entered the apartment, and in a sound resembling the shrill pipe of a cock, crowed past ten o'clock. The astonished prince, at first conceiving it to be a premeditated insult, rose to resent the affront, but upon the nature of the ceremony being explained to him, he was satisfied.

_Mourning Robes._

Under the empire male Romans wore black, and Roman women wore white mourning. In Turkey, at the present day, it is violet; in China, white; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia, brown; in Europe and America, black; it was white in Spain until the year 1498. The mourning worn by sovereigns and their families is purple.

_Mole-skin Eyebrows._

Some of the ladies of the Court of Louis XV., in connection with the patches, rouge and paint with which they disfigured their faces, were so whimsical as to wear eyebrows made out of mole-skin.

_Praying for Revenge._

In North Wales, when a person supposes himself highly injured, it is not uncommon for him to go to some church dedicated to a celebrated saint, as Llan Elian, in Anglesea, and Clynog, in Carnarvonshire, and there to offer up his enemy. He kneels down on his bare knees, and offering a piece of money to the saint, calls down curses and misfortunes upon the offender and his family for generations to come, in the most firm belief that the imprecations will be fulfilled. Sometimes they repair to a sacred well instead of to a church.

_Selling Snails._

The sale of snails in the town of Tivoli, near Rome, is a source of much profit to the inhabitants of that district in rainy weather, when this curious edible is abundant in the olive groves. The flavor is pronounced delicious, and when artistically cooked, the foreigner does not long decline this much despised crustacea. The cooked snail is said to restore tone to the coating of the stomach when badly injured by strong drink.

_Coral and Bells._

A superstitious belief exists that the color of coral is affected by the state of health of the wearer, it becoming paler in disease. Paracelsus recommended it to be worn around the necks of infants as an admirable preservative against fits, charms and poison. "In addition to the supposed virtues of coral usually suspended around the necks of children, it may be remarked that silver bells are generally attached to it, which are regarded as mere accompaniments to amuse children by their jingle; but the fact is, they have a very different origin, having been designed to frighten away evil spirits."—_Dr. Paris._

_Bagging his Rival._

Two gentlemen, one a Spaniard, the other a German, asked of Maximilian II. the hand of his daughter, the fair Helene Scharfequinn, in marriage. After a long delay, the emperor one day informed them that, esteeming them equally, and not being able to bestow a preference, he should leave it to the force and address of the claimants to decide the question. He did not mean, however, to risk the life of one or the other, or perhaps of both. He could not, therefore, permit them to encounter with offensive weapons, but had ordered a large bag to be produced. It was his decree that whichever succeeded in putting his rival into the bag should have the hand of his daughter. The singular encounter between the two gentlemen took place in the presence of the whole court. The contest lasted for more than an hour. At length the Spaniard yielded, and the German, Ehberhard, Baron de Talbert, having planted his rival in the bag, took it upon his back and gallantly laid it at the feet of his mistress, whom he espoused the next day. This incident is gravely vouched for by M. de St. Foix.

_Deepened Damnation._

In his "History of all the Heresies," Bernino records an instance of diabolical superstition. Pope Theodorus wrote the sentence of deposition against the Monothelite secretary Pyrrhus with ink in which had been mingled the blood from the sacramental cup, in order that the fulmination of the pope might possess the greater potency of damnation.

_Ancient Bit of Waggery._

We find the following in a book printed in 1607, entitled, "Pleasant Conceits of old Hobson, the merry Londoner; full of Humourous Discourses and Merry Merriments:"—

"When the order of hanging out lanterne first of all was brought about, the bedell of the warde where Maister Hobson dwelt, in a darke evening, crieing up and down, 'Hang out your lanternes! Hang out your lanternes!' using no other words, Maister Hobson tooke an emptie lanterne, and, according to the bedell's call, hung it out. This flout, by the lord mayor, was taken in ill part, and for the offence Hobson was sent to the Counter, but being released the next night following, thinking to amende his call, the bedell cryed out, with a loud voice, 'Hang out your lanternes and candle!' Maister Hobson hereupon hung out a lanterne and candle unlighted, as the bedell again commanded; whereupon he was sent again to the Counter; but the next night, the bedell being better advised, cryed 'Hang out your lanterne and candle-light!' which Maister Hobson at last did, to his great commendations, which cry of lanterne and candle-light is in right manner used to this day."

_A Walking Apothecary Shop._

Mr. Samuel Jessup, an opulent grazier, of pill-taking memory, died at Heckington, England, on the 17th of June, 1817. In twenty-one years the deceased took 226,934 pills, supplied by a respectable apothecary at Bottesford, which was at the rate of 10,806 pills a year, or twenty-nine pills each day; but as the patient began with a more moderate appetite, and increased it as he proceeded, in the last five years he took the pills at the rate of seventy-eight a day, and in the year 1814 he swallowed not less than 51,590. Notwithstanding this, and the addition of 40,000 bottles of mixture and juleps and electuaries, extending altogether to fifty-five closely written columns of an apothecary's bill, the deceased lived to attain the age of sixty-five years.—_Hone._

_To Disappoint his Wife._

On the 20th of May, 1736, the body of Samuel Baldwin, Esq., was, in compliance with a request in his will, buried, _sans ceremonie_, in the sea at Lymington, Hants. His motive for this extraordinary mode and place of interment was to prevent his wife from "dancing over his grave," which she had frequently threatened to do in case she survived him.

_Boots an Object of Honor._

Among the Chinese no relics are more valuable than the boots which have been worn by an upright magistrate. In Davis's interesting description of the Empire of China we are informed that whenever a judge of unusual integrity resigns his situation, the people congregate to do him honor. If he leaves the city where he has resided, the crowd accompany him from his residence to the gates, where his boots are drawn off with great ceremony, to be preserved in the hall of justice. Their place is immediately supplied by a new pair, which, in turn, are drawn off to make room for others before he has worn them five minutes, it being considered sufficient to consecrate them that he should have merely drawn them on.

_St. Cuthbert's Beads._

These beads were made from the single joints of the articulated stems of Encrinites. The central perforation permitted them to be strung. From the fancied resemblance of this perforation to a cross, they were formerly used as rosaries, and associated with the name of St. Cuthbert—

"On a rock by Lindisfarm
St. Cuthbert sits and toils to frame
The sea-born beads that bear his name."

_Eating Animals that have Died a Natural Death._

The gypsies in Europe are very peculiar in their eating, and are, perhaps, the only race who will eat animals that have died a natural death. "Dead pig" is their favorite delicacy; and one of the most typical and most amusing of the Rommany ballads which Borrow has collected, celebrates the trick formerly so common among them of poisoning a pig in order the next day to beg its carcass for food.

_Embalmed in Honey._

The ancients put dead bodies into honey to preserve them from putrefaction. The body of Agesipolis, King of Sparta, who died in Macedonia, was sent home in honey. The faithless Cleomenes caused the head of Archonides to be put in honey, and had it always placed near him when he was deliberating upon any affair of great importance, in order to fulfil the oath he had made to undertake nothing without consulting the head. The body of the Emperor Justin II. was embalmed in honey. The wish of Democritus to be buried in honey is a confirmation of the practice.

_Perfumed Butter._

We are told by Plutarch that a Spartan lady paid a visit to Berenice, the wife of Dejotarus, and that the one smelled so much of sweet ointment and the other of butter that neither of them could endure the other. Was it customary, therefore, at that period, for the ladies to perfume themselves with butter?

_Wine at Two Millions a Bottle._

Some years ago wine graced the table of the King of Wurtemburg, which had been deposited in a cellar at Bremen two centuries and a half before. One large case of the wine, containing five oxhoft of two hundred and forty bottles, cost five hundred rix-dollars in 1624. Including the expenses of keeping up the cellar, and of the contributions, interest of the amount, and interest upon interest, an oxhoft costs at the present time 555,657,640 rix-dollars, and consequently a bottle is worth 2,723,812 rix-dollars. The fact illustrates the operation of interest, if it does not show the cost of the luxury.—_Bombaugh._

_Opal of Nonius._

The ancients valued opals very highly. The Roman senator, Nonius, preferred exile to giving up an opal to Mark Antony. This opal was still to be seen in the days of Pliny, who ascribed to it a value of more than $500,000.

_Children's Day in Japan._

There is a children's day in Japan on the fifth day of the fifth month, when a flag of gay colors is hung from every house where there are children. The family and friends have a feast, and, among the articles of food are long, narrow rice cakes, upon each of which a sweet-flavored rush-leaf is fastened by straws. Where there are no children there may be a family party, but no flag can be exhibited. On this day ornaments made of paper, of five different colors, are bound into balls and hung up in the house as a charm against sickness.

_Cock-Fighting among the Ancient Greeks._

Æschines reproaches Timarchus for spending the whole day in gaming and cock-fighting. Cock-fights were represented by the Greeks on coins and cut stones. Mr. Pegge caused engravings to be made of two gems in the collection of Sir William Hamilton, on one of which is seen a cock in the humble attitude of defeat, with its head hanging down, and another in the attitude of victory, with an ear of corn in its bill as the object of contest. On the other stone two cocks are fighting, while a mouse carries away the ear of corn, for the possession of which they had quarreled—a caricature of law-suits, in which the greater part of the property in dispute falls to the lawyers. Two cocks in the attitude of fighting are represented also on a lamp found in Herculaneum.

_Colors Most Frequently Hit in Battle._

It would appear, from numerous observations, that soldiers are hit during battle according to the color of their dress in the following order: Red is the most fatal color; Austrian gray is the least fatal. The proportions are—red, twelve; rifle green, seven; brown, six; Austrian bluish-gray, five.

_Immense Value Placed upon Gems by the Ancients._

The immense value placed by the ancients on their gems can be estimated by the scabbard of Mithridates, valued at 400 talents, or £7,572; the pearl given by Julius Cæsar to Servillia was worth £4,800; that swallowed by Cleopatra valued at £5,000; and the pearls and emeralds worn by Lollia Paulina, wife of Caligula, valued at £320,000.

_Candle Clock._

Alfred the Great noted the time by the gradual burning down of candles colored in rings. He had six tapers made, each twelve inches long, and each divided into twelve parts or inches. Three of these would burn for one hour, and the six tapers, lighted one after the other, would burn for twenty-four hours.

_Twins in Africa._

Among some of the tribes in Africa if two babies come to a family at the same time they think it a dreadful thing. Nobody except the family can go into the hut where they were born, nor even use any of the things in it. The twins cannot play with other children, and the mother cannot talk to anyone outside of the family. This is kept up for six years. If the babies live to be six years old, the restrictions are removed, and they are treated like other children.

_Right and Left Hand._

Dr. Zinchinelli, of Padua, in an essay on the "Reasons why People use the Right Hand in preference to the Left," will not allow custom or imitation to be the cause. He affirms that the left arm cannot be in violent and continued motion without causing pain in the left side, because there is the seat of the heart and of the arterial system; and that, therefore, nature herself compels man to make use of the right hand.

_Earliest Traders._

The earliest record we have of nations trading with each other occurs in the Book of Genesis, when Joseph's brethren sold him to a caravan of Ishmaelites who were carrying spices, balm and myrrh into Egypt. The balm was from Gilead and the myrrh from Arabia. Thus commerce is of great antiquity.

_The First Hermits._

The first hermit was Paul, of Thebes, in Egypt, who lived about the year 260; the second was Anthony, also of Egypt, who died in 345, at the age of 105.

_The First Opera._

The first composer who tried his hand at setting an opera to music was Francisco Bamirino, an Italian artist. The piece to which he affixed the charms of a melodious accompaniment was "The Conversion of St. Paul," which was brought out at Rome in 1460.

_The First Artificial Limb._

The first artificial limb on record is the iron hand of the German knight, Gotz Von Berlichingen, who flourished in the early part of the sixteenth century (1513), and who was named _The Iron-Handed_. The hand weighed three pounds, was so constructed as to grasp a sword or lance, and was invented by a mechanic at Nuremberg. It is preserved at Jaxthausen, near Heilbronn, and a duplicate of it is in the Castle of Erbach, in the Odenwald.

_Kircher's Speaking-Trumpet._

"The Musurgia," printed in 1650, gives an account of a speaking-trumpet invented by Kircher. From a convent situated on the top of a mountain, he assembled twelve hundred persons to divine service, and read the litany to them through the trumpet, at a distance of from two to five Italian miles. Soon after a tube was made, according to Kircher's directions, by which words, without elevating the voice, could be understood from Ebersdorf to Neugeben.

_Fish Market at Scarborough._

The fish market is held on the sands by the sides of the boats, which, at low water, are run upon wheels with a sail set, and are conducted by the fishermen, who dispose of their cargoes in the following manner:

One of the female fishmongers inquires the price, and bids a groat; the fishermen ask a sum in the opposite extreme; the one bids up, and the other reduces the demand, till they meet at a reasonable point, when the bidder suddenly exclaims: "Het!" The purchase is afterwards retailed among the regular or occasional purchasers.

_Few Fish Found at Sea._

Paradoxical as the fact may appear, there is no class of persons who eat so few fish as the sailors; and the reason is, they seldom obtain them. With the exception of flying-fish and dolphins, and perhaps a few others, fish are not found on the high seas at a great distance from land. They abound most along coasts, in straights and bays, and are seldom caught in water more than forty or fifty fathoms in depth.—_Wells._

_Musical Stones._

A correspondent of _Nature_ writes that, in roaming over the hills and rocks in the neighborhood of Kendal, near Lancaster, England, which are composed chiefly of limestone, he had often found what are called "musical stones." They are generally thin, flat, weather-beaten stones, of different sizes and peculiar shapes, which, when struck with a piece of iron or another stone, produce a musical tone, instead of the dull, heavy, leaden sound of an ordinary stone. The sound of these stones is, in general, very much alike, but sets of eight stones have been collected which produce, when struck, a distinct octave.

The new French scientific weekly, _La Nature_, copies the communication from its English namesake, and brings forward some additional instances of the same phenomenon. We are also informed of the accidental discovery of musical properties in a stone fountain at the French Institute. Its musical sound, when struck, corresponds with extreme precision to the perfect accord major of _fa_ natural. The fountain in question is in the grand court of the institute.

_Musical Sand._

A singular phenomenon is the "musical sand" of Jebel Nagus, a sandy hill lying to the west of the mountain usually called Sinai. According to Captain Palmer, an English traveler, the sand of this hill possesses the marvellous property of giving out musical sounds whenever it is set in motion. The sandy slope is two hundred feet in height, the sand being very much the same as that in the desert around. When any considerable quantity of this sand is set in motion, it is seen to move in undulations, and, simultaneously, a singular sound is heard, which is first feeble, but may be heard at some distance when it has attained its maximum intensity.

The sound is not easily described. It is neither metallic nor vibratory. It might be compared to the sharpest notes of the Æolian harp, or the sound produced by forcibly drawing a cork over wet glass. The phenomenon attains its greatest intensity during the day in summer, when the sun is hottest, and while the wind blows from the northwest. Captain Palmer has observed it on all sides of the hill, and the only difference he has found are such as depend on the direction of the wind.

_A River of Ink._

In Algeria there is a river of genuine ink. It is formed by the union of two streams, one coming from a region of ferruginous soil, the other draining a peat swamp. The water of the former is strongly impregnated with iron, that of the latter with gallic acid. When the two waters mingle, the acid of the one unites with the iron of the other, forming a true ink. We are familiar with a stream called Black Brook, in the northern part of New York, the inky color of whose water is evidently due to like conditions.—_Scientific American._

_A Warlike Bantam._

In the "Life of Rodney" it is related that in the famous victory of the 12th of April, 1782, a bantam cock perched himself upon the poop of Rodney's ship, and at every broadside that was poured into the _Ville-de-Paris_, clapped his wings and crew. Rodney gave special orders that this cock should be taken care of as long as he lived.

_Oyster-dredging Chaunt._

During the oyster-dredging the fishermen keep up a wild monotonous song, or rather chaunt, which they assert charm the oysters into the dredge—

"The herring loves the merry moonlight,
The mackeral loves the wind.
But the oyster loves the dredger's song,
For he comes of a gentle kind."

_Normandy Treasures._

At Bayeux, Normandy, a strong belief exists among the people of some hidden treasure in the ground beneath the ruined churches and castles so abundant in the neighborhood; but they are supposed to be guarded by supernatural means. Even so late as 1827 persons were found credulous enough to follow the directions of a Douster-swivel and employ much time and labor uselessly in searching after imaginary riches beneath the stones in front of the Cathedral. This belief that the hidden or lost treasure is guarded by a spiritual attendant is very generally diffused. On this point Southey, in the "Doctor," observes: "The popular belief that places are haunted where money has been concealed, or where some great and undiscovered crime has been committed, shows how consistent this is with our natural sense of likelihood and fitness."

_Tenacity of Odors._

Dr. Carpenter states, in his "Comparative Physiology," that a grain of musk has been kept freely exposed to the air of a room, of which the door and window were constantly open, for ten years, during all which time the air, though constantly changed, was completely impregnated with the odor of musk, and yet at the end of that time the particle was found not to have sensibly diminished in weight.

_Antiquity of Acrobatic Figures._

Modern toys of acrobats are made to perform evolutions by the use of quicksilver. Dædalus, the famous Greek figure-maker, who is said to have lived about a thousand years before Christ, introduced quicksilver into a wooden image of Venus, thereby lending to it a sort of Chinese tumbling motion.—_Dr. Doran._

_Saffron as a Perfume._

It seems a little odd to us that the ancients used saffron as a perfume. Not only were halls, theatres and courts strewn with the plant, but it entered into the composition of many spirituous extracts, which retained the scent. These costly smelling waters were often made to flow in small streams, which spread abroad their much admired odor. Luxurious people even moistened with them all those things with which they were desirous of surprising their guests in an agreeable manner, or with which they ornamented their appartment. From saffron, with the addition of wax and other ingredients, the Greeks and Romans prepared scented salves.

_Spontaneous Combustion._

In Levoux's "Journal de Medicine" is an account of a very fat woman, twenty-eight years of age, who was found on fire in her chamber, where nothing else was burning. The neighbors heard a noise of something like frying, and when the body was removed it left a layer of black grease. The doctor conceived that the combustion began in the internal parts, and that the clothes were burned secondarily.

_Egyptian Perfumes._

So perfect were the Egyptians in the manufacture of perfumes, that some of their ancient ointment, preserved in an alabaster vase in the museum at Alnwick, still retains a very powerful odor, though it must be almost three thousand years old.

_Magic Rain Stone._

The Indian magi, who are to invoke Yo He Wah, and meditate with the supreme holy fire that he may give seasonable rains, have a transparent stone of supposed great power in assisting to bring down the rain when it is put in a basin of water. It is reputed to possess divine virtue; it would suffer decay, they assert, were it even seen by their own laity; but if by foreigners, it would be utterly despoiled of its divine communicative power.

_Decapitation by the Guillotine._

A reliable gentleman who witnessed an execution, wrote as follows: "It appears to be the best of all modes of inflicting the punishment of death, combining the greatest impression on the spectator with the least possible suffering to the victim. It is so rapid that I should doubt whether there was any suffering; but from the expression of the countenance, when the executioner held up the head, I am inclined to believe that sense and consciousness may remain for a few seconds after the head is off. The eyes seemed to retain speculation for a moment or two, and there was a look in the ghastly stare with which they stared upon the crowd, which implied that the head was aware of its ignominious situation."

_Chateaubrun's Escape from the Guillotine._

During the Reign of Terror, M. de Chateaubrun was sentenced to death and sent to execution with twenty other prisoners; but after the fifteenth head had fallen, the guillotine got out of order, and a workman was required to repair it. The six remaining victims were left standing in front of the machine with their hands tied behind them. A French crowd is very curious, and the people kept pressing forward to see the man who was arranging the guillotine. By degrees M. de Chateaubrun, who was to the rear of his companions, found himself in the front line of the spectators, then in the second, and finally well behind those who had come to see his head cut off. Before the man could get the guillotine in working order night began to fall, and M. de Chateaubrun slipped away. When in the Champs Elysees he told a man that a wag had tied his hands and stole his hat, and this simple individual cut him free. A few days later M. de Chateaubrun escaped from France.

_A Lucky Find._

During the month of April, 1733, Sir Simon Stuart, of Hartley, England, while looking over some old writings, found on the back of one of them a memorandum noting that 1500 broad pieces were buried in a certain spot in an adjoining field. After a little digging the treasure was found in a pot, hidden there in the time of the civil wars by his grandfather, Sir Nicholas Stuart.

_Paradise of Old Hats._

The group of islands known as the Nicobars, situated about one hundred and fifty miles south of the Andamans, have been but little explored, though the manners and customs of the inhabitants of these islands offer interesting peculiarities. One of the most noticeable, and one which seriously affects the trade of the islands, is the passion for old hats which pervades the whole frame-work of society. No one is exempt, and young and old endeavor to outvie each other in the singularity of shape no less than in the number of the old hats they can acquire during a lifetime. On a fine morning at the Nicobars it is not unusual to see the surface of the ocean in the vicinity of the islands dotted over with canoes, in each of which the noble savage, with nothing whatever on but the conventional slip of cloth and a tall white hat with a black band, may be watched standing up and catching fish for his daily meal. Second-hand hats are more in request, new hats being looked upon with suspicion and disfavor. The passion is so well known that traders from Calcutta make annual excursions to the Nicobars with cargoes of old hats, which they barter for cocoanuts, the only product of the island, a good, tall white hat with a black band bringing from fifty-five to sixty-five good cocoanuts. Intense excitement pervades the island while the trade is going on. When the hats or the cocoanuts have come to an end, the trader generally lands a flask or two of rum, and the whole population, in their hats, get drunk without intermission until the rum also comes to an end.

_Wedding-Rings._

The wedding-ring, symbolical of the perpetuity of the conjugal relation, has ever been the accepted accompaniment of marriage. Its being put on the fourth finger of the left hand has been continued from long-established usage, because of the fanciful conceit that from this finger a nerve went direct to the heart.

_The Prince of Charlatans._

Paracelsus was the prince of charlatans; indeed he styled himself the "King of Physic." Although he professed to have discovered the "Elixir of Life," it did not seem to have been available in his own case, for he died at the early age of forty-eight years.

_One Meal a Day._

Dr. Fordyce contended that as one meal a day was enough for a lion, it ought to suffice for a man. Accordingly, for more than twenty years, the doctor used to eat only a dinner in the whole course of a day. A pound and a half of rump steak, half a broiled chicken, a plate of fish, a bottle of port, a tankard of strong ale, and a quarter of a pint of brandy satisfied his moderate wants. Dinner over, occupying an hour and a half, he returned home from the chop house to deliver his six o'clock lecture on anatomy and chemistry.

_Gold-headed Canes for Physicians._

In the times of the renowned Radcliffe, the gold-headed cane was the sceptre of authority among the medical profession. Dignity dwelt in the mysterious symbol. It also protected the owner against contagious diseases, being filled with disinfecting herbs, which he applied to his nose when visiting patients.

He pursed his brows, then wink'd his eyes,
Put his cane to his nose and look'd wise.

_Yearly Food of one Man._

From the army and navy diet scales of France and England, which, of course, are based upon the recognized necessities of large numbers of men in active life, it is inferred that about two and one-fourth pounds avordupois of dry food per day are required for each individual; of this amount three-fourths are vegetable and the rest animal. At the close of an entire year, the amount is upwards of eight hundred pounds. Enumerating under the title of water all the various drinks—coffee, tea, alcohol, wine, etc.—its estimated quantity is about fifteen hundred pounds per annum; that for the air received by breathing may be taken at eight hundred pounds. The food, water and air which a man consumes amount in the aggregate to more than three thousand pounds a year; that is, about a ton and a half, or more than twenty times his own weight.—_Wells._

_Eating Tea._

It was not until the end of the seventeenth century that tea was indulged in as a beverage. The first brewers of tea were often sorely perplexed with the preparation of the new mystery; after boiling the tea, "they sat down to eat the leaves with butter and salt." The Dutch were the first to discover the utility and value of the herb, and when, in 1666, it was first introduced into England, it sold at about three guineas per pound.—_Salad for the Solitary._

_Human Hair._

It has been estimated that a single square inch of the scalp—the skin of the head—contains about seven hundred and forty-four hairs. This number, multiplied by one hundred and twenty square inches—the surface of the head—gives us eighty-nine thousand two hundred and eighty as the number of the hairs of the head. If a lady's hair is a half-yard in length, she will have one hundred and thirty three thousand nine hundred and twenty feet of hair. A man who has arrived at the age of fifty years will have lost, by hair cutting, about thirteen feet, which, multiplied by the number of hairs (eighty-nine thousand two hundred and eighty), will amount to one million one hundred and sixty thousand six hundred and forty feet of hair tubing, or about two hundred and twenty miles.

_Durability of Bricks._

The bricks of Nineveh and Babylon, in the museums, show that they were selected by the ancients as the most lasting material. Plutarch thinks them superior to stone, if properly prepared; and it is admitted that the baths of Caracalla, those of Titus, and the Thermæ of Dioclesian, have withstood the effects of time and fire better than the stone of the Colisseum or the marble of the Forum Trajan.

_Origin of Long-toed Shoes._

Long-toed shoes were invented by Fulk, Count of Anjou, to hide an excrescence on one of his feet. These toes were so long as to be fastened to the knees with gold chains, and carved at the extreme point with the representation of a church-window, a bird or some fantastic device.

_A Good Tenant._

In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for September, 1775, Mr. Clayton, a wealthy farmer of Berkshire, is related to have died at the extraordinary age of one hundred and fifteen years, during which time he rented the same farm for ninety years. An occupancy of so great duration, by one individual, is perhaps unequalled in the history of landlord and tenant.

_Three Borrowed Days._

There is an old proverb still used by the English and Scotch rustics, which represent March as borrowing three days from April. In the "Complaynt of Scotland" they are thus described—

"The first it shall be wind and weet;
The next it shall be snaw and sleet;
The third it shall be sic a freeze
Shall gar the birds stick to the trees."

But it is disputed whether these "borrowed days" are the last three of March or the first three of April.

_Luncheon._

This word is said to have been originally _noon-shun_, a meal partaken of by laborers in the fields at _noon_, when they retire to the shade to _shun_ the noontide heat.

_Value of a Long Psalm._

In old times a culprit, when at the gallows, was allowed to select a Psalm, which was then sung, thereby lengthening the chances for the arrival of a reprieve. It is reported of one of the chaplains to the famous Montrose, that being condemned in Scotland to die for attending his master in some of his exploits, he selected the 119th Psalm. It was well for him that he did so, for they had sung it half through before the reprieve came. A shorter Psalm, and he would have been hung.

_Barbers' Basins._

Anciently, one of the utensils of the barber was a brass basin with a semi-circular gap in one side, to encompass a man's throat, by means of which, in applying the lather to the face, the clothes were not soiled. It will be recollected that Don Quixote crazily assumed a barber's basin as a helmet.

_Strained Politeness._