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._
On the 30th of April, 1745, the battle of Fontenoy was fought between
the allied armies of England, Holland and Austria, under the command of
the Duke of Cumberland, and the French army under Marshal Count De Saxe.
The battle was commenced with the formal politeness of a court minuet
Captain Lord Charles Hay, of the English guards, advanced from the
ranks with his hat off; at the same moment Lieutenant Count D'Auteroche,
of the French guards, advanced also, uncovered, to meet him. Lord
Charles bowed, and said: "Gentlemen of the French guards, fire!" The
Count bowed to Lord Charles. "No, my lord," he answered, "we never fire
first." They again bowed; each resumed his place in his own ranks, and
after these testimonies of "high consideration," the bloody conflict
commenced, ending with a loss of twelve thousand men on each side.
_Can a Clergyman Marry Himself?_
This question was officially decided in the affirmative in the Court of
Queen's Bench, Dublin, on November 16th, 1855, in the case of Beamish
vs. Beamish, where the point came into direct issue.
_Novel Way of Curing Vicious Horses._
Burckhardt tells us of the strange mode of curing a vicious horse. He
has seen, he says, vicious horses in Egypt cured of the habit of biting
by presenting to them, while in the act of doing so, a leg of mutton
just taken from the fire. The pain which the horse feels in biting
through the hot meat causes it to abandon the practice.
_Pope's Skull._
William Howitt says that, by one of those acts, which neither science
nor curiosity can excuse, the skull of Pope is now in the private
collection made by a phrenologist. On some occasion of alteration in the
church, or burial of some one in the same spot, the coffin of Pope was
disinterred and opened to see the state of the remains. By a bribe to
the sexton at the time, possession of the skull was obtained for a
night, and another skull was returned instead of it, in the morning.
Fifty pounds were paid to manage and carry out the transaction. Be that
as it may, the skull of Pope figures in a private museum.
_Pawning Bibles and Waterloo Medals._
Among a list comprising the articles found in a pawn-broker's
establishment in Glasgow, in 1836, were one hundred and two Bibles and
forty-eight Waterloo medals.
_A Drum made of Human Skin._
John Zisca, general of the insurgents who took up arms in 1419 against
the Emperor Sigismund, to revenge the deaths of John Huss and Jerome of
Prague, who had been cruelly burned at the stake for their religious
tenets, defeated the emperor in several pitched battles. He gave orders
that, after his death, they should make a drum out of his skin. The
order was most religiously obeyed, and those very remains of the
enthusiastic Zisca proved, for many years, fatal to the emperor, who,
with difficulty, in the space of sixteen years, recovered Bohemia,
assisted by the forces of Germany. The insurgents were 40,000 in number,
and well disciplined.
_Groaning Boards._
Groaning boards were the wonder in London in 1682. An elm plank was
exhibited to the king, which, being touched by a hot iron, invariably
produced a sound resembling deep groans. At the Bowman tavern, in Drury
Lane, the mantelpiece gave forth like sounds, and was supposed to be
part of the same elm tree. The dresser at the Queen's Arm Tavern, St.
Martin le Grand, was found to possess the same quality. Strange times,
when such things were deemed wonderful—so much so as to merit
exhibition before the monarch.
_Abyssinian Tradition._
A curious tradition exists among the Abyssinians concerning the origin
of burial. They say that when Adam found the body of the murdered Abel
he carried it about upon his shoulders for twenty days, not knowing how
to dispose of it. The Almighty took pity on him and sent forth a crow
with a dead young one on its back. The crow flew before Adam until it
came to a tract of sandy ground, in which it dug a hole with its feet,
and there buried its young one. When Adam saw this, he dug a grave in
the sand and buried his dead boy in it.
_Cutting Timber by the Moon._
Columella, Cato, Vitruvius and Pliny all had their notions of the
advantage of cutting timber at certain ages of the moon—a piece of
mummery which was long preserved in the royal ordonnances of France to
the conservators of the forests, who were directed to fell oaks only "in
the wane of the moon" and "when the wind was in the north."
_An Artist Tradition._
There is a tradition that Poussin, the French painter, unable to depict
the foam on a horse's mouth in a picture he was finishing, angrily threw
his sponge at the canvas, and thus accidentally produced the desired
effect. It is a pity to spoil such an effective story, but it was told
of Apelles, the Greek painter, nearly two thousand years before Poussin
was born.
_Born of a Peri._
A Peri, according to the mythical lore of the East, is a being begotten
by fallen spirits, which spends its life in all imaginable delights. It
is immortal, but is forever excluded from the joys of Paradise. It takes
an intermediate place between angels and demons, and is either male or
female. One of the finest compliments to be paid to a Persian lady is to
speak of her as _Perizadeh_—born of a Peri.
_A Regal Hunting Party._
The following is an account of the destruction of game in Bohemia, by a
hunting party of which the Emperor Francis made one, in 1755. There were
twenty-three persons in the party, three of whom were ladies, among the
latter the Princess Charlotte of Lorraine. The chase lasted eighteen
days, and during that time they killed 47,950 head of game. 19 stags, 77
roebucks, 10 foxes, 18,243 hares, 19,545 partridges, 9499 pheasants, 114
larks, 353 quails, 454 other birds. The emperor fired 9798 shots, and
the princess 9010; in all there were 116,209 shots fired.
_Care of the Beard._
The Mahometans are very superstitious touching the beard. They bury the
hairs which come off in combing it, and break them first, because they
believe that angels have charge of every hair, and that they gain them
their dismissal by breaking it. They used to wear pasteboard covers over
their beards at night, lest they should turn upon them and rumple them
in their sleep. The famous Raskolniki Schismatics had a similar
superstition about the beard. They believed that the divine image of man
resided in it.
_A Royal Sportsman._
When the King of Naples (the greatest sportsman of Europe) was in
Germany, about the year 1792, it was said in the German papers that he
had killed, in Austria, Bohemia and Moravia, 5 bears, 1,820 wild boars,
1,968 stags, 13 wolves, 354 foxes, 15,350 pheasants, 1,121 rabbits,
16,354 hares, 1,625 she-goats, 1,625 roebucks and 12,435 partridges.
_Origin of Attar of Roses._