Quite a notable industry is carried on in Paris, namely, the manufacture of what are termed veneered diamonds. The body of the gem is of quartz or crystal. After being cut into a proper shape, it is put into a galvanic battery, which coats it with a liquid, the latter being made of diamonds which are too small to be cut and of the clippings taken from diamonds during the process of shapening them. In this way all the small particles of diamonds that heretofore have been regarded as comparatively worthless, can, by means of this ingenious process, be made of service to the jeweler.
This is a spirit of wine distilled upon rosemary, and contains a powerful aroma of the plant. For many years it was mainly manufactured at Beaucaire and Montpellier, in France, where the plant grows in abundance. The name seems to signify that this water, so celebrated for its medicinal virtues, is an Hungarian invention; and we read in various books that the recipe for preparing it was given to a queen of Hungary by a hermit, or, as others say, by an angel, who appeared to her in a garden, all entrance to which was shut, in the form of a hermit or youth. Others affirm that Elizabeth, wife ofCharles Robert, king of Hungary, who died in 1380, was the inventor. By often washing with this spirit of rosemary, when in the seventieth year of her age, she was cured, as we are told, of the gout and an universal lameness; so that she not only lived to pass eighty, but became so lively and beautiful that she was courted by the king of Poland, who was then a widower, and who wished to make her his second wife. Hoyer says that the recipe for preparing this water, written by Queen Elizabeth's own hand, in golden characters, is still preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna. Beckmann says such is not the case.
The use of cork for making jackets, as an aid to swimming, is very old. We are informed that the Roman whom Camillus sent to the Capitol, when besieged by the Gauls, put on a light dress, and took cork with him under it, because, to avoid being taken by the enemy, it was necessary for him to swim across the Tiber.
The Romans used movable types to mark their pottery and indorse their books. Mr. Layard found, in Nineveh, a magnificent lens of rock-crystal, which Sir D. Brewster considers a true optical lens, and the origin of the microscope. The principle of the stereoscope, invented by Professor Wheatstone, was known to Euclid, described by Galen fifteen hundred years ago, and more fully in 1599, A. D., in the works of Baptista Porta. The Thames tunnel, though such a novelty, was anticipated by that under the Euphrates at Babylon, and the ancient Egyptians had a Suez canal. Such examples might be indefinitely multiplied; but we turn to Photography.M. Jobarb, in his "Neuvelles Inventions aux Expositions Universelles," 1856, says a translation from German was discovered in Russia, three hundred years old, which contains a clear explanation of Photography. The old alchemists understood the properties of chloride of silver in relation to light, and its photographic action is explained by Fabricius in "De Rubus Metallicis," 1566. The daguerreotype process was anticipated by De La Roche, in his "Giphantie," 1760, though it was only the statement of a dreamer.
A Roman architect discovered the means of so far altering the nature of glass as to render it malleable; but the Emperor Tiberius caused the architect to be beheaded. A similar discovery was made in France during the reign of LouisXIII.The inventor presented a bust, formed of malleable glass, to Cardinal Richelieu, and was rewarded for his ingenuity by perpetual imprisonment, lest the French glass manufacturers should be injured by the discovery of it.
A German newspaper tells an amusing story of the famous scientist, Alexander von Humboldt, who took advantage of the exemption from duty of the covering of articles free from duty, formerly the rule in France. In the year 1805 he and Gay-Lussac were in Paris, engaged in their experiments on the compression of air. The two scientists found themselves in need of a large number of glass tubes, and since this article was exceedingly dear in France at that time, and the duty on imported glass tubes was something alarming, Humboldt sent an order to Germany for the needed articles, giving directionsthat the manufacturer should seal the tubes at both ends, and put a label upon each with the words "Deutsche Luft" (German air). The air of Germany was an article upon which there was no duty, and the tubes were passed by the custom officers without any demand, arriving free of duty in the hands of the two experimenters.
Merlin, the enchanter, is the great hero of the Bretons as he is of the Welsh, the same legends being common to both people. Among other lays respecting him is the following, which is of high antiquity:—
"Merlin! Merlin! whither boundWith your black dog by your side?"[1]"I seek until the prize be found,Where the red egg loves to hide."The red egg of the sea-snake's nest,[2]Where the ocean caves are seen,And the cress that grows the best,In the valley fresh and green."I must find the golden herb,[3]And the oak's high bough must have,[4]Where no sound the trees disturbNear the fountain as they wave.""Merlin! Merlin! turn again—Leave the oak-branch where it grew;Seek no more the cress to gain,Nor the herb of gold pursue."Nor the red egg of the snake,Where amid the foam it lies,In the cave where billows break:Leave these fearful mysteries."Merlin, turn! to God aloneAre such fatal secrets known!"
"Merlin! Merlin! whither boundWith your black dog by your side?"[1]"I seek until the prize be found,Where the red egg loves to hide.
"The red egg of the sea-snake's nest,[2]Where the ocean caves are seen,And the cress that grows the best,In the valley fresh and green.
"I must find the golden herb,[3]And the oak's high bough must have,[4]Where no sound the trees disturbNear the fountain as they wave."
"Merlin! Merlin! turn again—Leave the oak-branch where it grew;Seek no more the cress to gain,Nor the herb of gold pursue.
"Nor the red egg of the snake,Where amid the foam it lies,In the cave where billows break:Leave these fearful mysteries.
"Merlin, turn! to God aloneAre such fatal secrets known!"
[1]At the foot of Mont St. Michel extends a wide marsh. If the mountaineer sees in the dusk of the evening a tall man, thin and pale, followed by a black dog, whose steps are directed toward the marsh, he hurries home, shuts and locks the door of his cottage, and throws himself on his knees to pray, for he knows that the tempest is approaching. Soon after, the winds begin to howl, the thunder bursts forth in tremendous peals, and the mountain trembles to its base. It is the moment when Merlin, the enchanter, evokes the souls of the dead.
[1]At the foot of Mont St. Michel extends a wide marsh. If the mountaineer sees in the dusk of the evening a tall man, thin and pale, followed by a black dog, whose steps are directed toward the marsh, he hurries home, shuts and locks the door of his cottage, and throws himself on his knees to pray, for he knows that the tempest is approaching. Soon after, the winds begin to howl, the thunder bursts forth in tremendous peals, and the mountain trembles to its base. It is the moment when Merlin, the enchanter, evokes the souls of the dead.
[2]The red egg of the sea-snake was a powerful talisman, whose virtue nothing could equal; it was to be worn around the neck.
[2]The red egg of the sea-snake was a powerful talisman, whose virtue nothing could equal; it was to be worn around the neck.
[3]The golden herb is a medicinal plant. The peasants of Bretagne hold it in great esteem, and say that it shines at a distance like gold. If any one tread it under foot he falls asleep, and can understand the language of dogs, wolves and birds. This simple is supposed to be rarely met with, and only at daybreak. In order to gather it (a privilege only granted to the devout), it is necessary to been chemiseand with bare feet. It must be torn up, not cut. Another way is to go with naked feet, in a white robe, fasting, and, without using a knife, gather the herb by slipping the right hand under the left arm and letting it fall into a cloth, which can only be used once.
[3]The golden herb is a medicinal plant. The peasants of Bretagne hold it in great esteem, and say that it shines at a distance like gold. If any one tread it under foot he falls asleep, and can understand the language of dogs, wolves and birds. This simple is supposed to be rarely met with, and only at daybreak. In order to gather it (a privilege only granted to the devout), it is necessary to been chemiseand with bare feet. It must be torn up, not cut. Another way is to go with naked feet, in a white robe, fasting, and, without using a knife, gather the herb by slipping the right hand under the left arm and letting it fall into a cloth, which can only be used once.
[4]The high oak bough is probably the mistletoe. The voice which warns Merlin in the poem may be intended for that of Saint Colombar, who is said to have converted Merlin.
[4]The high oak bough is probably the mistletoe. The voice which warns Merlin in the poem may be intended for that of Saint Colombar, who is said to have converted Merlin.
Brought to Europe from the East, after the first crusade under Peter the Hermit, late in the eleventh century, was the legend of the Wandering Jew. This appellation was givenby the popular voice to almost every mendicant with a long white beard and scanty clothing, who, supported by a long staff, trudged along the roads with eyes downcast, and without opening his lips.
In the year 1228 this legend was told for the first time by an Armenian bishop, then lately arrived from the Holy Land, to the monks of St. Alban, in England. According to his narrative, Joseph Cartaphilus was door-keeper at the prætorium of Pontius Pilate when Jesus was led away to be crucified. As Jesus halted upon the threshold of the prætorium, Cartaphilus struck him in the loins and said: "Move faster! Why do you stop here?" Jesus, the legend continues, turned round to him and said, with a severe look: "I go, but you will await my coming."
Cartaphilus, who was then thirty years old, and who since then has always returned to that age when he had completed a hundred years, has ever since been awaiting the coming of our Lord and the end of the world. He was said to suffer under the peculiar doom of ceaselessly traversing the earth on foot. The general belief was that he was a man of great piety, of sad and gentle manners, of few words, often weeping, seldom smiling, and content with the scantiest and simplest food and the most poverty-stricken garments. Such was the tradition which poets and romancists in various lands and many languages have introduced into song and story.
As the ages rolled on new circumstances were added to this tale. Paul of Eitzen, a German bishop, wrote in a letter to a friend that he had met the Wandering Jew at Hamburg, in 1564, and had a long conversation with him. He appeared to be fifty years of age. His hair was long, and he went barefoot. His dress consisted of very full breeches, a short petticoat or kilt reaching to the knees, and a cloak so long that it descended to his heels. Instead of Joseph Cartaphilus, he then was called Ahasuerus. He attended Christian worship,prostrating himself with sighs, tears and beating of the breast whenever the name of Jesus was spoken. The bishop further stated that this man's speech was very edifying. He could not hear an oath without bursting into tears, and when offered money would accept only a few sous.
According to the bishop's version of the affair, Cartaphilus was standing in front of his house, in Jerusalem, with his wife and children, when he roughly accosted Jesus, who had halted to take breath while carrying his cross to Calvary. "I shall stop and be at rest," was all that the Lord said; "but you will ever be on foot." After this sentence Cartaphilus quitted home and family to do perpetual penance by wandering on foot over the whole world. He did not know, the bishop said, what God intended to do with him, in compelling him so long to lead such a miserable life, but had hope and faith in His mercy. There was scarcely a town or village in Europe, in the sixteenth century, but what claimed to have given hospitality to this unfortunate witness of the Passion of our Lord.
Verstegan, in his "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence," 1634, relates the following strange story: "Hulberstadt, in Germany, was extremely infested with rats, which a certain musician, called, from his habit, the Pyed Piper, agreed for a large sum of money to destroy. He tuned his pipes, and the rats immediately followed him to the next river, where they were all drowned. But when the piper demanded his pay he was refused with scorn and contempt, upon which he began another tune, and was followed by all the children of the town to a neighboring hill called Hamelen, which opened and swallowed them up, then closed again. One boy, being lame, came after the rest, but seeing what had happened, hereturned and related the strange circumstance. The story was believed, for the parents never after heard of their lost children. This incident is stated to have happened on the 22d of July, in the year 1376, and since that time the people of Hulberstadt permit not any drum, pipe or other instrument to be sounded in that street which leads to the gate through which the children passed. They also established a decree that in all writings of contract or bargain, after the date of our Saviour's nativity, the date also of the year of the children's going forth should be added, in perpetual remembrance of this surprising event."
This character was one of the earliest poets of Scotland. His life and writings are involved in much obscurity, though he is supposed to have been Thomas Learmount, of Ercildonne. The time of his birth is unknown, but he appears to have reached the height of his reputation in 1283, when he is said to have predicted the death of AlexanderIII., king of Scotland. One day the Rhymer, when visiting at the Castle of Dunbar, was interrogated by the Earl of March in a jocular manner as to what the morrow would bring forth. "Alas for to-morrow! a day of calamity and misery!" replied the Rhymer. "Before the twelfth hour shall be heard a blast so vehement that it shall exceed all those which have yet been heard in Scotland—a blast which shall strike the nations with amazement; shall confound those who hear it; shall humble what is lofty, and what is unbending shall level with the ground." On the following day the earl, who had been unable to discover any unusual appearance in the weather, when seating himself at table, observed the hand of the dial to point to the hour of noon, while, at the same moment, a messenger appeared, bringing the mournful tidings of the accidentaldeath of the king. The legend says that the Rhymer was carried off at an early age to Fairyland, where he acquired all the knowledge which made him so famous. After seven years' residence there, he was permitted to return to the earth to enlighten and astonish his countrymen by his prophetic powers, but bound to return to the Fairy Queen, his royal mistress, whenever she should intimate her pleasure. Accordingly, while the Rhymer was making merry with his friends at his tower at Ercildonne, a person came running in and told, with marks of alarm and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the neighboring forest, and were slowly and composedly parading the street of the village. The Rhymer instantly rose, left his habitation, and followed the animals to the forest, whence he was never seen to return.
There is a tradition at Vienne, in Provence, that in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was exiled to that city, where he died not long after of grief and despair for not having prevented the crucifixion of the Saviour, and his body was thrown into the Rhone. There it remained, neither carried away by the force of the current nor consumed by decay, for five hundred years, until the town, being afflicted with the plague, it was revealed to the then archbishop, in a vision, that the calamity was occasioned by Pilate's body, which, unknown to the good people of Vienne, was lying at the foot of a certain tower. The place was accordingly searched, and the body drawn up entire, but nothing could equal its intolerable odor. It was carried to a marsh two leagues from the town and there interred, but for many years after strange noises were reported to issue continually from the place. The sounds were believed to be the groans of Pontius Pilate, and the cries of the devils tormenting him. It wasimagined that it was the presence of his body which caused the violent thunder-storms which are so frequent at Vienne; and as the tower where the body was found has been several times struck by lightning, it is called the tower ofMauconseil.
In the "History of the Netherlands" there is the following strange account of the Sea-woman of Haarlem:—
"At that time there was a great tempest at sea, with exceeding high tides, the which did drowne many villages in Friseland and Holland; by which tempest there came a sea-woman swimming in the Zuyderzee betwixt the towns of Campen and Edam, the which passing by the Purmerie, entered into the straight of a broken dyke in the Purmermer, where she remained a long time, and could not find the hole by which she entered, for that the breach had been stopped after that the tempest had ceased. Some country women and their servants who did dayly pass the Pourmery to milk their kine in the next pastures, did often see this woman swimming on the water, whereof at first they were much afraid; but in the end, being accustomed to see it very often, they viewed it neerer, and at last they resolved to take it if they could. Having discovered it, they rowed towards it, and drew it out of the water by force, carrying it into the town of Edam.
"When she had been well washed and cleansed from the sea-moss which was grown about her, she was like unto another woman. She was appareled, and began to accustome herself to ordinary meats like unto any other, yet she sought still means to escape and to get into the water, but she was straightly guarded. They came from farre to see her. Those of Haarlem made great sute to them of Edam to have this woman, by reason of the strangenesse thereof. In the end they obtained her, where she did learn to spin, and livedmany years (some say fifteen), and for the reverance which she bore unto the signe of the crosse whereunto she had been accustomed, she was buried in the church-yarde. Many persons worthy of credit have justified in their writings that they had seene her in the said towne of Haarlem."
It was believed in Pier della Valle's time that the descendants of Judas Iscariot still existed at Corfu, though the persons who suffered under the imputation stoutly denied it.
When the ceremony of washing the feet is performed in the Greek Church at Smyrna, the bishop represents Christ, and the twelve apostles are acted by as many priests. He who personates Judas must be paid for it, and such is the feeling of the people, that whoever accepts this odious part commonly retains the name of Judas for life.—Hasselquiet, p. 43.
Judas serves in Brazil for a Guy Faux to be carried about by the boys. The Spanish sailors hang him at the yard-arm. The Armenians, who believe hell and limbo to be the same place, say that Judas, after having betrayed the Lord, resolved to hang himself, because he knew Christ was to go to limbo and deliver all the souls which he found there, and therefore he thought to get there in time. But the devil was more cunning than he, and knowing his intention, held him over limbo till the Lord had passed through, and then let him fall plum into hell.—Thevenot.
Perrault, the author of "Blue Beard," founded the story, popular belief assures us, on the history of a real person. The original was Giles de Retz, Lord of Laval, who was made Marshal of France in 1429. He was born in 1406, andfought under the command of Joan of Arc. He lived like a king in his castle, with two hundred horsemen for his guard of honor, besides fifty choristers, chaplains and musicians. He was wild and profligate, lavish with his own money and of other people's, and lived at the costliest rate.
When he had squandered his property, he took to the study of sorcery and magic, having an especial fancy for murdering young children. From the villages within a circuit of twenty miles, little boys and girls were seduced into his castle and there immolated according to some wild Pagan rites. Among his papers, history says, was found a list of two hundred children whom he had thus sacrificed.
On the 26th of October, 1440, then being thirty-four years old, he was burned in the city of Nantes, having been previously strangled in view of a vast multitude. The records of his trial, which lasted a whole month, are preserved among the manuscripts of the public library in Paris. In one of his castles the bones of forty-six, and in another of eighty children, were discovered. Marshal de Retz was certainly the type of Perrault's story. It appears that in his lifetime he was known by thesobriquetof Barbe Bleu.
How a belief inimaginaryvirtues of things may grow out of the evidence of theirrealvirtues, is indicated by Dr. Livingstone, when speaking of the belief in rain-making among the tribes in the heart of South Africa. The African priest and the medicine-man is one and the same, and his chief function is to make the clouds to give out rain. The preparations for this purpose are various: charcoal made of burned bats; lion's hearts, and hairy calculi from the bowels of old cows; serpent skins and vertebræ, and every kind of tuber, bulb, root and plant to be found in the country.
"Although you disbelieve their efficacy in charming the clouds to pour out their refreshing treasures, yet, conscious that civility is useful everywhere, you kindly state that you think they are mistaken as to their power. The rain-doctor selects a particular bulbous root, pounds it, and administers a cold infusion of it to a sheep, which in five minutes afterwards expires in convulsions. Part of the same bulb is converted into smoke and ascends towards the sky: rain follows in a day or two. The inference is obvious."
This fable of the cat is borrowed from the East. Sir William Gore Ousely, speaking of the origin of the name of an island in the Persian Gulf, says that in the tenth century, one Keis, the son of a poor widow in Siraf, embarked for India with his sole property, a cat. "He fortunately arrived there at a time when the palace was so infested by mice or rats that they invaded the king's food, and persons were employed to drive them away from the royal banquet. Keis produced his cat; the noxious animals disappeared; Keis was magnificently rewarded, sent for his mother and brother, and settled on the island, which was subsequently called after him."
The king was slain in the battle at Flodden Field. At the close of the bloody arbitrament his body was found among a heap of the fallen. The discoverers made a prize of the corpse, wrapped it up in lead, and transmitted it as a thanksgiving offering to the monastery of Sheen, in Surrey. It was well taken care of by the honest people there as long as the monastery stood; but when the dissolution of those religiousestablishments took place, and the edifice was converted into a mansion for the Duke of Suffolk, the king's body was put into a fresh wrapping of lead and carried into an upper lumber-room. Some workmen engaged in the house cut off the head out of sheer wantonness. Their master, a glazier from Cheapside, carried the head with him to the city. There, on his sideboard, the dried remnant of a crowned king, with its red hair and beard, was long the admiration of the glazier's evening parties and a subject of conversation for his guests. John Stow saw it there, expostulated, purchased the anointed skull, and gave it quiet and decent burial within the old church of St. Michael's.
In June, 1776, some workmen who were repairing Winchester Cathedral discovered a monument which contained the body of King Canute. It was remarkably fresh, had a wreath round the head and several ornaments of gold and silver bands. On his finger was a ring, in which was set a large and remarkably fine stone, and in one of his hands a silver coin. The coin found in the hand is a singular instance of a continuance of the Pagan custom of always providing the dead with money to pay Charon.
There is a tradition that the prophet Isaiah suffered martyrdom by a saw. The ancient book entitled, "The Ascension of Isaiah the Prophet," accords with the tradition. It says: "Then they seized Isaiah the son of Amos and sawed him with a wooden saw. And Manasseh, Melakira, the false prophets, the princess and the people, all stood looking on.But he said to the prophets who were with him before he was sawn, 'Go ye to the country of Tyre and Sidon, for the Lord hath mixed the cup for me alone.' Neither while they were sawing him did he cry out nor weep, but he continued addressing himself to the Holy Spirit until he was sawn asunder."
The following extract from the life of the wife of the Conqueror is exceedingly curious as characteristic of the manners of a semi-civilized age and nation:—
"After some years of delay, William appears to have become desperate, and, if we may trust to the evidence of the 'Chronicle of Ingerbe,' he waylaid Matilda in the streets of Bruges as she was returning from mass, seized her, rolled her in the dirt, spoiled her rich array; and, not content with these outrages, struck her repeatedly, then rode off at full speed. This Teutonic method of courtship, according to our author, brought the affair to a crisis: for Matilda, either convinced of the strength of William's passion by the violence of his behaviour, or afraid of encountering a second beating, consented to become his wife. How he ever presumed to enter her presence again after such enormities the chronicler sayeth not, and we are at a loss to imagine."
From very ancient times there existed a class of persons whose business it was to amuse the rich and noble, particularly at table, by jests and witty sayings. It was, however, during the Middle Ages that this singular vocation became fully developed. The symbols of the court fool were: the shaven crown, the fool's cap of gay colors with asses' ears and cock'scomb and bells, the fool's sceptre, and a wide collar. Some of these professional fools obtained an historical reputation, as Triboulet, jester to FrancisI.of France; Klaus Narr, at the Court of the Elector Frederic, the Wise of Prussia, and Scogan, court fool to EdwardIV.of England. Besides the regular fools, dressed and recognized as such, there was a higher class called merry counsellors, generally men of talent, who availed themselves of the privilege of free speech to ridicule in the most merciless manner the follies and vices of their contemporaries. At a later period, imbecile or weak-minded persons were kept for the entertainment of company. Even ordinary noblemen considered such an attendant indispensable, and thus the system reached its last stage, and toward the end of the seventeenth century it was abolished. It survived longest in Russia, where Peter the Great had so many fools that he divided them into distinct classes.
An astrologer in the reign of LouisXI.of France, having foretold something disagreeable to the king, his majesty, in revenge, resolved to have him killed. The next day he sent for the astrologer and ordered the people about him, at a given signal, to throw him out of the window. The king said to him: "You pretend to be such a wise man, and know so perfectly the fate of others, inform me a little what will be your own, and how long you have to live." The astrologer, who now began to apprehend some danger, promptly answered, with great presence of mind, "I know my destiny, and am sure I shall die three days before your majesty." The king, on this, was so far from having him thrown out of the window, that, on the contrary, he took particular care not to have him want for anything, and did all that was possible to retard the death of one whom he was likely soon to follow.
A Finland newspaper mentions a stone in the northern part of Finland which serves the inhabitants instead of a barometer. This stone, which they call Tlmakiur, turns black, or blackish gray, when it is going to rain; but on the approach of fine weather it is covered with white spots. Probably it is a fossil mixed with clay, and containing rock-salt, nitre or ammonia, which, according to the degree of dampness in the atmosphere, attracts it, or otherwise. In the latter case the salt appears, forming the white spots.
Addison, who wrote a good deal about female fashions in the "Spectator," very much ridiculed the hoop-petticoat, which was so large, about the year 1744, that a woman wearing one occupied the space of six men.
The head-dresses of the ladies in 1776 were remarkable for their enormous height. Fashion ruled its votaries then as arbitrarily as in our day. Thecoiffureof a belle of fashion was described as "a mountain of wool, hair, powder, lawn, muslin, net, lace, gauze, ribbon, flowers, feathers and wire." Sometimes these varied materials were built up tier upon tier, like the stages of a pagoda!
We are told that Pharnaces caused the body of his father, Mithridates, to be deposited in salt brine, in order that he might transmit it to Pompey. Sigebert, who died in 1113,informs us that a like process was employed upon the body of St. Guibert, that it might be kept during a journey in summer. The priests preserved in salt the sow which afforded a happy omen to Æneas by having brought forth a litter of thirty pigs, as we are told by Varro, in whose time the animal was still shown at Lavinium. The hippopotamus described by Columna was sent to him from Egypt preserved in salt.
The luxury of the present time does not equal, in one article at least, that of the sixteenth century. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, the queen's ambassador at Paris, in a letter to Sir Thomas Chaloner, the ambassador at Madrid, in June 1562, says—
"I pray you good my Lord Ambassador sende me two paire of perfumed gloves, perfumed with orrange flowers and jacemin, th' one for my wives hand, the other for mine owne; and wherin soever I can pleasure you with anything in this countrey, you shall have it in recompence thereof, or els so moche money as they shall coste you, provided alwaies that they be of the best choise, wherin your judgment is inferior to none."
In Mr. Wright's collection of Latin stories, there is one of the fourteenth century—a monkish satire upon dresses with long trains—
Of a Proud Woman.—I have heard of a proud woman who wore a white dress with a long train, which, trailing behind her, raised a dust as far as the altar and the crucifix. But, as she left the church, and lifted up her train on account of the dirt, a certain holy man saw a devil laughing; andhaving adjured him to tell why he laughed, the devil said: "A companion of mine was just now sitting on the train of that woman, using it as if it were his chariot, but when she lifted her train up, my companion was shaken off into the dirt, and that is why I was laughing."
Peculiarities of dress, even amounting to foppery, so common among eminent men, are carried off from ridicule by ease in some or stateliness in others. We may smile at Chatham, scrupulously crowned in his best wig, if intending to speak; at Erskine, drawing on his bright yellow gloves before he rose to plead; at Horace Walpole, in a cravat of Gibbon's carvings; at Raleigh, loading his shoes with jewels so heavy that he could scarcely walk; at Petrarch, pinching his feet till he crippled them; at the rings which covered the philosophical fingers of Aristotle; at the bare throat of Byron; the American dress of Rousseau; the scarlet and gold coat of Voltaire; or the prudent carefulness with which Cæsar scratched his head so as not to disturb the locks arranged over the bald place. But most of these men, we apprehend, found it easy to enforce respect and curb impertinence.—Edinburgh Review.
A fashionable Arab will wear fifteen caps one above the other, some of which are linen, but the greater part of which are thick cloth or cotton. That which covers the whole is richly embroidered with gold, and inwrought with texts or passages from the Koran. Over all there is wrapped a sash or large piece of muslin, with the ends hanging down, and ornamented with silk or gold fringe. This useless encumbranceis considered a mark of respect towards superiors. It is also used, as the beard was formerly in Europe, to indicate literary merit; and those who affect to be thought men of learning, discover their pretensions by the size of their turbans. No part of oriental costume is so variable as this covering for the head. Niebuhr has given illustrations of forty-eight different ways of wearing it.—King.
The list of the queen's wardrobe, in 1600, shows us that she had thenonly99 robes, 126 kirtles, 269 gowns (round, loose and French), 136 fore parts, 125 petticoats, 27 fans, 96 cloaks, 83 safe guards, 85 doublets, 18 lap mantles.
The ladies of Japan gild their teeth; those of the Indies paint them red; while in Guzerat the test of beauty is to render them sable. In Greenland the women used to color their faces blue and yellow. The Chinese torture their feet into the smallest possible dimensions. The ancient Peruvians used to flatten their heads; among other nations, the mothers, in a similar way, maltreat the nose of their offspring.
Such is the passion among the Chinese for gambling, that when they have lost all their money they will stake houses, lands, their wives, the clothes on their backs. Those who have nothing more to lose will collect around a table and actually play fortheir fingers, which they will cut off reciprocally with frightful stoicism.—Hue's Chinese Empire.
"Among vulgar errors is set down this, that there is a nation of pigmies, not above two or three feet high, and that they solemnly set themselves in battle to fight against the cranes."—Strabo.
"Strabo thought this a fiction; and our age, which has fully discovered all the wonders of the world, as fully declares it to be one."—Brand.
This refers to accounts of the Pechinians of Ethiopia, who are represented of small stature, and as being accustomed every year to drive away the cranes which flocked to their country in the winter. They are portrayed on ancient gems as mounted on cocks or partridges, to fight the cranes; or carrying grasshoppers, and leaning on staves to support the burden.
The "Frankforter Journal," of September 21st, 1870, remarked, that among other superstitions peculiar to the Napoleons, is that of regarding the letter M as ominous, either of good or of evil, and it took the pains to make the following catalogue of men, things and events, the names of which begin with M, with the view of showing that the two emperors of France had cause for considering the letter a red or a black one, according to circumstances.
It says, "Marbœuf was the first to recognize the genius of NapoleonI.at the military college. Marengo was the first great battle won by General Bonaparte, and Melas made room for him in Italy. Mortier was one of his best generals, Moreau betrayed him, and Marat was the first martyr to his cause. Marie Louise shared his highest fortunes; Moscow was the abyss of ruin into which he fell. Metternich vanquished him in the field of diplomacy. Six marshals (Massena,Mortie, Marmont, Macdonald, Murat, Moncey) and twenty-six generals of division under NapoleonI.had the letter M for their initial. Marat, Duke of Bassano, was his most trusted counsellor. His first battle was that of Montenotte; his last, Mont St. Jean, as the French term Waterloo. He won the battles of Millesimo, Mondovi, Montmirail and Montereau; then came the storming of Montmartre. Milan was the first enemy's capital, and Moscow the last, into which he entered victorious. He lost Egypt through Menou, and employed Miellis to take PiusVIII.prisoner. Mallet conspired against him; Murat was the first to desert him, then Marmont. Three of his ministers were Maret, Montalivet and Mallieu; his first charmberlaind was Montesquien. His last halting place in France was Malmaison. He surrendered to Captain Maitland, and his companions at St. Helena were Montholon and his valet Marchand."
If we turn to the career of his nephew, NapoleonIII., we find the same letter no less prominent, and it is said that he attached even greater importance to its mystic influence than did his uncle.
De Paris tells us that the Physician of the present day continues to prefix to his prescriptions the letter R, which is generally supposed to meanRecipe, but which is, in truth, a relic of the astrological symbol of Jupiter, formerly used as a species of superstitious invocation.
The Chinese pretend to have men among them so prodigious as fifteen feet high. Melchior Nunnez, in his letters from India, speaks of porters who guarded the gates of Pekin,who were of that immense height; and in a letter dated in 1555, he avers that the emperor of that country entertained and fed five hundred of such men for archers of his guard. Hakewill, in his "Apologie," 1627, repeats this story. Purchas, in his "Pilgrimes," 1625, refers to a man in China who "was cloathed with a tyger's skin, the hayre outward, his arms, head and legges bare, with a rude pole in his hand; well-shaped, seeming ten palmes or spans long; his hayre hanging on his shoulders."
According to the "Asiatic Researches," a very curious mode of trying the titles of land is practised in Hindostan: Two holes are dug in the disputed spot, in each of which the lawyer for the plaintiff and the lawyer for the defendant put one of their legs, and remain there until one of them is tired or complains of being stung by the insects, in which case his client is defeated. In this country it is theclient, and not the lawyer, whoputs his foot into it.
Of all the curious charitable institutions in the world, the most curious, probably, is the Cat Asylum at Aleppo, which is attached to one of the mosques there, and was founded by a misanthropic old Turk, who, being possessed of large granaries, was much annoyed by rats and mice, to rid himself of which he employed a legion of cats, who so effectually rendered him service, that in return he left them a sum in the Turkish funds, with strict injunctions that all destitute and sickly cats should be provided for till such time as they took themselves off again. In 1845, when a famine was raging in all North Syria,when scores of poor people were dropping down in the streets and dying there, from sheer exhaustion and want, men might daily be encountered carrying away sack loads of cats to be well fed on the proceeds of the last will and testament of that vagabond old Turk.
A patent passed the great seal in the fifteenth year of James I. "to allow to Mary Middlemore, one of the maydes of honor to our dearest consort Queen Anne (of Denmark), and her deputies, power and authority to enter into the abbies of St. Albans, St. Edmunsbury, Glassenbury and Ramsay, and into all lands, houses and places, within a mile belonging to said abbies, there to dig and search after treasure supposed to be hidden in such places."
There exists at Pekin a phalanstery which surpasses in eccentrictity all that the fertile imagination of Fourier could have conceived. It is called Ki-mao-fan; that is, "House of Hen's Feathers." This marvellous establishment is simply composed of one great hall, the floor of which is covered over its whole extent with one vast, thick layer of feathers. Mendicants and vagabonds who have no other domicile come to pass the night in this immense dormitory. Men, women and children, old and young, are admitted without exception. Every one settles himself, and makes his nest as well as he can for the night in this ocean of feathers. When day dawns he must quit the premises, and an officer of the company stands at the door to receive the rent of one sapeck (one-fifth of a farthing) each for the night's lodging. In deference, nodoubt, to the principle of equality, half places are not allowed, and a child must pay the same as a grown person.
On the first establishment of this eminently philanthropic institution, the managers of it furnished each of the guests with a covering; but it was found necessary to modify this regulation, for the communist company got into the habit of carrying off their coverlets to sell them, or to supply an additional garment during the cold weather. It was necessary, therefore, to devise some method of reconciling the interests of the establishment with the comfort of the guests, and the way in which the problem was solved was this—
An immense coverlet, of such gigantic dimensions as to cover the whole dormitory, was made, and in the day-time suspended from the ceiling like a great canopy. When everybody had gone to bed—that is to say, had lain down upon the feathers—the counterpane was let down by pulleys, the precaution having been previously taken to make a number of holes in it for the sleepers to put their heads through in order to escape the danger of suffocation. As soon as it is daylight the phalansterian coverlet is hoisted up again, after a signal has been made on the tam-tam to awaken those who are asleep, and invite them to draw their heads back into the feathers in order not to be caught by the neck.
Near the town of Moldavia, on the Danube, is shown the cavern where St. George slew the dragon, from which, at certain periods, issue myriads of small flies, which tradition reports to proceed from the carcass of the dragon. It is thought when the Danube rises, as it does in the early part of the summer, the caverns are flooded, and the water which remains in them becomes putrid, and produces the noxious fly. But this supposition appears to be at fault, for the peopleclosed up the caverns, and still they were annoyed with the flies. The latter resemble mosquitoes, and appear in such swarms as to look like a volume of smoke, sometimes covering a space of six to seven miles. Covered with these insects, horses not unfrequently gallop about until death puts an end to their sufferings. Shepherds anoint their hands with a decoction of wormwood, and keep large fires burning to protect themselves from them.
In the gardens of Les Rochas, which was the residence of Madame de Sevigne, is a remarkable echo which finely illustrates the conducting and reverberating powers of a flat surface. The chateau is situated near the old town of Vitre. A broad gravel walk on a dead flat conducts through the garden to the house. In the centre of this, on a particular spot, the listener is placed at the distance of about ten or twelve yards from another person, who, similarly placed addresses him in a low and, in the common acceptation of the term, inaudible whisper, when, "Lo! what myriads rise!" for immediately, from thousands and tens of thousands of invisible tongues, starting from the earth beneath, or as if every pebble was gifted with powers of speech, the sentence is repeated with a slight hissing sound, not unlike the whirling of small shot through the air. On removing from this spot, however trifling the distance, the intensity of the repetition is sensibly diminished, and within a few feet ceases to be heard. Under the idea that the ground was hollow beneath, the soil has been dug up to a considerable depth, but without discovering any clue to the solution of the mystery.
An echo in Woodstock Park, Oxfordshire, repeats seventeen syllables by day and twenty by night. One on the bank of the Lago del Lupo, above the fall of Terni, repeats fifteen.The most remarkable echo known is one on the north side of Shipley church, in Sussex, which distinctly repeats twenty-one syllables. In the Abbey church at St. Albans is a curious echo. The tick of a watch may be heard from one end of the church to the other. In Gloucester Cathedral a gallery of an octagonal form conveys a whisper seventy-five feet across the nave.
In the Cathedral of Girgenti, in Sicily, the slightest whisper is borne with perfect distinctness from the great door to the cornice behind the high altar, a distance of two hundred and fifty feet. In the whispering gallery of St. Paul's, London, the faintest sound is faithfully conveyed from one side of the dome to another, but is not heard at any intermediate point.
In the Manfroni Palace at Venice is a square room, about twenty-five feet high, with a concave roof, in which a person standing in the centre and stamping gently with his foot on the floor, hears the sound repeated a great many times; but as his position deviates from the centre, the reflected sounds grow fainter, and at a short distance wholly cease. The same phenomenon occurs in a large room of the library of the Museum at Naples.
The Italian temples were celebrated for their moving gods. In the fane of the two fortunes at Antium, the goddess moved her arms and head when that solemnity was required. So at Præneste, the figures of the youthful Jupiter and Juno, lying in the lap of Fortune, moved, and thereby excited awe. The marble Servius Tullius is said to have shaded his eyes with his hand whenever that remarkably strong-minded woman, his daughter and murderess, passed before him. When the Athenians were tardy in deserting their capital, and taking to the ships for flight, it is said that the sacred wooden dragon ofMinerva rolled himself out of the temple and down into the sea, as though to indicate to the people the direction in which safety was to be secured.—Dr. Doran.
In the Irish county of Donegal there is a tradition antagonistic to the race of tinkers. The alleged cause of this is the belief that, when the blacksmith was ordered to make nails for the Cross, he refused, but that the tinker consented. Hence he and his race had cast on them the doom of being perpetual wanderers, without any roof to cover them.
The free-shooters is the name given in the legend to a hunter or marksman who, by entering into a compact with the devil, procured balls, six of which infallibly hit, however great the distance, while the seventh, or, according to some, one of the seven, belonged to the devil, who directed it at his pleasure. Legends of this nature were rife among the troopers of Germany of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and during the thirty years' war. The story was adapted, in 1843, to the opera composed by Weber in 1821, which has made it known in all civilized countries.
In the 121st Psalm it is written of those who put their trust in God's protection, "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." The allusion to the moon is explained by the common belief in the East that exposure tothe moon's rays while sleeping is injurious. Travelers in oriental countries have noticed that when the natives slept out of doors they invariably, if the moon was shining, covered their faces.
Francis Atkins was porter at the palace gate at Salisbury from the time of Bishop Burnet to the period of his death, in 1761, at the age of 104 years. It was his office every night to wind up the clock, which he was capable of performing regularly till within a year of his decease, though on the summit of the palace. In ascending the lofty flight of stairs, he usually made a halt at a particular place and said his evening prayers. He lived a regular and temperate life, and took a great deal of exercise; he walked well, and carried his frame upright and well-balanced to the last.
Montaigne says it was an Egyptian law that the physician, for the first three days, should take charge of a patient at the patient's peril, but afterwards at his own. He mentions that, in his time, physicians gave their pills in odd numbers, appointed remarkable days in the year for taking medicine, gathered their simples at certain hours, assumed austere and even severe looks, and prescribed, among their choice drugs, the left foot of a tortoise, the liver of a mole, and blood drawn from under the wing of a white pigeon.
The inhabitants of the village of Balonda, in Africa, manufacture their idols by rudely carving a head upon acrooked stick. There is nothing divine about the idol, however, until it is dotted over with a mixture of medicine and red ochre.—Livingstone.
A gipsy will never give a history of himself nor of his race. "My father is a crow, and my mother a magpie," is frequently the only answer obtained.
The old North of England phrase, "To carry coals to Newcastle," finds its parallel in the Persian taunt of "carrying pepper to Hindostan," and in the Hebrew, "To carry oil to the City of Olives."
TheMonte de piété, in Paris, established by royal command in 1717, often has in its possession forty casks filled with gold watches that have been pledged.
In 1060, when William the Conqueror began to reign, the penny was cast with a deep cross, so that it might be broken in half, as a half-penny, or in quarters, forfour-things orfarthings, as we now call them.
Linnæus announced to the king and council, in 1761, that he had discovered an art by which mussels might be made toproduce pearls. In the year 1763 it was said, in the German newspapers that Linnæus was ennobled on account of his discovery, and that he bore a pearl in his coat-of-arms. Both statements were false. His patent of nobility makes no mention of the pearl discovery, and what in his arms has been taken for a pearl is an egg, which is meant to represent all nature, after the manner of the ancient Egyptians.
The old English halls were sometimes so spacious as to admit of a knight riding up to the high table, as the champion of England was accustomed to do at the coronation. Chaucer says—