bunch of leaves. All laughed at the sight of this harmless weapon.
But alas! when the leaves struck Balder’s breast he fell, and died
instantly. They were mistletoe leaves, and when Frigg had asked the oak
tree to spare her son, she forgot to ask the mistletoe, which grows
upon the oak. So the mistletoe had given no promise; and now Balder was
dead. The brother who had thrown the leaves was greatly distressed, and
all Walhalla was filled with mourning.
Balder being dead, the other gods must die. The giant, who had escaped
Thor’s hammer, killed some of them, and others died in various ways.
Finally Thor was killed by the sea-serpent; and the great Odin was torn
in pieces by the wolf Fenris.
And that was the end of the Scandinavian gods.
Then the Druid priests brought their religion into the country; and,
after many years, the Romans came, and taught the Scandinavians the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
WORK AND WATER.
It is so easy for most of us to get a drink of water when we feel
thirsty, that we are not apt to even think of the vast amount of
thought and labor and money that is necessary in many parts of every
country in the world in order to give people a glass or a cup of water
when they want it.
And yet water is often a very costly thing, so much so indeed that
there are lands where people, and civilized people too, cannot afford a
drink of it every time they feel thirsty.
If we live in the country we go to our well, or our spring, or our pump
from the cistern, and we get all the water we want. If we live in the
city we have our hydrants, and perhaps have the water carried to every
floor of the house. This is because we are Americans, and, as a nation,
we believe that we cannot spend too much money in making ourselves
comfortable, and having thing’s convenient around us.
We build great reservoirs and conduct into them the pure water from the
streams, often far distant from our cities, and we have pipes running
through every street, and into every house, so that even the poorest
people can always have plenty of water, no matter what else they may
have to go without.
But in many countries that were civilized and enlightened long before
America was ever thought of, there are to-day no such conveniences for
obtaining a drink of water.
In some places in Europe water is carried about from house to house, as
the milk-man brings us milk, and some of the plans of carrying it are
very curious.
In parts of Holland where the canals serve as roads, there are
water-boats, that go up and down the canals serving water to everyone
who wishes to buy it, and has money to pay for it. And sometimes it is
pretty stale water when the last families get their supply. But people
who are not used to Croton water, or Schuylkill, or Cochituate water do
not seem to care much for this. They are glad enough to get water at
all.
In other parts of Europe, and in this continent too, the water is
carried about by men and women.
In the opposite picture you may see how some of these water-carriers
supply their customers.
In Malaga a jaunty Spaniard with a cigar in his mouth, and two jars
of water hanging from his shoulders and arms, walks up and down the
streets selling the precious fluid at so much a quart or a pint.
[Illustration: WATER CARRIERS.
1. Water Carrier of Malaga.
2. Pongo.
3. Water Carrier of Mexico.
4. Water Carrier of Guaymas.
5. French Water Carrier.
6. Arabian Woman at the Fountain.
VARIOUS METHODS OF CARRYING WATER.]
In Pongo the water is conveyed in a great leathern jar on the back of
a stout, bare-legged fellow who carries a long funnel, so that he can
pour the water into the pitcher and pails without taking his jar from
his shoulders.
In parts of Mexico the jars are fastened to broad straps which pass
around the water-carrier’s head, while in Guaymas, the carrier has no
load at all himself, but puts two great skins of water on the back of a
little donkey.
The French water-carrier has a stick on his shoulders with a pail of
water on each end; and when one shoulder is tired he can shift his load
to the other, which is, perhaps, the next best thing to having a donkey.
But the water-carriers of Arabia and Egypt, who very often are women,
are the most graceful and in some respects the most sensible of all.
They carry their jar of water on their heads.
As this makes it necessary for them to keep themselves very erect,
it gives them fine, straight figures, and a graceful walk. The
disadvantage of their plan is that they cannot carry very much water at
a time.
Carrying water on the head reminds me of a little negro girl I once saw
in the South. This girl had been to a spring to get a pail of water.
The pail was so large and the girl was so small that she had a hard
time of it as she staggered along, holding the handle of the pail with
both hands, and with the greatest difficulty keeping it from touching
the ground.
I pitied the poor little creature, for her load was a great deal too
heavy for her.
But at length she reached a stump of a tree, and by great efforts she
got the pail on the top of this. Then she stooped down and managed to
slide the pail from the stump to the crown of her head.
Then she stood up. She was all right! She seemed to forget that she
had a load, and skipped away as if she had nothing heavier on her head
than a spring bonnet. She did not go directly to the house where she
was to carry the water, but trotted over to where some children were
playing, and began running around in a perfectly easy and unconcerned
way, not appearing to think at all of her pail. But she did not spill a
drop of the water.
The Southern negroes are very dexterous in this matter of carrying
things on their heads.
On some of the water-melon plantations there may sometimes be seen
long lines of men walking from the fields to the boats which are to be
loaded with these melons, and each man carries a water-melon under each
arm and one on his head.
Sometimes one of these men will drop a water-melon from under his arm,
but no one ever drops one from his head.
Such a thing would be considered a disgrace.
I think it is likely that very few of us would ever have a pail of
water or a water-melon, if we were obliged to carry either of them very
far on our heads.
THE LAND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT.
This is the kingdom of Siam in Southern Asia. It has this name because
the white elephant is the national emblem, and is represented on the
Siamese flag, as the eagle is on the American flag.
Siam is a very pleasant country to live in, and a good many Europeans
have from time to time had their homes there, so that the Siamese, who
seem to be a teachable people, have learned a great deal from them,
and have copied some of their ways. The missionaries, too, have done
very much to improve the manners and customs of the Siamese. But still
they retain many of their old customs, and the result is a queer sort
of mixture—in some things the people show themselves to be manly and
intelligent, and, in others, they appear very ignorant, and degraded.
For instance, a fine-looking Siamese gentleman will be standing by your
side, conversing with you. He is a nobleman of the country, dressed
in silk and diamonds. He will talk with you about foreign countries,
perhaps about books, and you will be astonished at his information,
and will regard him as a very superior man; as, indeed, he is. But
suddenly, he will go down on his hands and knees, right in the dust.
What has happened? The King has appeared upon the scene! If he wishes
to speak to the king this nobleman will crawl up to him on all fours,
and, as long as he is in the king’s presence, if it is for two or three
hours, he remains in this degrading position. The king may be a very
well-informed, and a kind-hearted man, but it has never occurred to him
that this old custom of his country is ridiculous and disgraceful.
The Siamese are very fond of ornament. On the next page is a portrait
of one of the little princes of the royal family.
His silken suit is covered with gold and silver embroidery, and with
rows of precious stones. I hope that high pointed affair he has upon
his head is not very heavy. It would be a very inconvenient thing to
take off when he wished to make a bow to a lady. But then he never does
wish to make a bow to a lady. That is a piece of good manners that no
Siamese boy is ever taught.
When this young prince has his meals his attendants crouch before him
on their hands and knees. When he wishes anything they crawl towards
him with the articles. To stand erect in his presence would be an
unheard of impropriety.
[Illustration: A SIAMESE PRINCE.]
When he goes out for an airing he rides upon an elephant. Perhaps
you think that would not be a very agreeable way of traveling, but
there you are mistaken. The motion of an elephant is very easy, and
pleasant to the rider; and it is a much more intelligent animal than
the horse, and quite as gentle, and docile. A little child can lead a
well-trained, tame elephant. The disadvantage of this kind of steed is
that when it does take it into its great head to behave badly, it is
sometimes very difficult to control, for it is exceedingly strong, and
capable of doing a great deal of mischief. But these trained elephants
of the Siamese seldom get into tantrums.
When the young prince takes his ride he has, at least, one attendant to
walk by the elephant, and keep things all straight. The prince sits in
a little ornamental tower on the beast’s back. From this lofty seat he
gets a good view of the surrounding country.
Near Ayuthia, in Siam, there is a large stockade, into which the king’s
elephants are driven once a year, and the finest ones are selected for
use during the ensuing year. This stockade is made of posts of teak
wood, driven firmly into the ground, a few feet apart. In the middle of
the enclosure, thus made, is a small tower-like house, built on poles,
and surrounded by strong stakes. In this are the men who are to secure
the animals after they are chosen.
The king and his nobles are on a raised platform near the stockade;
and they select those of the animals that have been driven into the
enclosure, that they consider the most desirable.
The fine points in an elephant are these: a color approaching to white
or red, black nails on the toes, and tails that have not been injured.
Elephants are so fond of fighting each other that it is a rare thing
to find one in a herd that has not lost some portion of its tail in a
battle.
[Illustration: Elephant herd]
It occasionally happens, when a hunting party is out, that a
white elephant is captured. This is considered a very fortunate
circumstance, as the possession of a white elephant by the king is
supposed to bring prosperity upon the whole kingdom. The fortunate
finder of this precious animal is received with great honor upon his
return to court, and is magnificently rewarded.
The elephant is placed in a large enclosure, and treated with great
distinction. It is caparisoned with cloth of gold; and is fed with
all the dainties that elephants like. Rings of gold are placed on its
tusks, and a diadem on its head. When it is sick the court physician
attends it, the priests pray for it; and when it dies the whole kingdom
mourns.
Of late years the people of Siam have grown less superstitious, and
do not pay as many honors to white elephants as they did while in an
entirely uncivilized state. But they still retain the white elephant on
their flag as the emblem of their country.
CURIOSITIES OF VEGETABLE LIFE.
It is not necessary to travel in order to find a great many curious
things in vegetable growth. They lie around us everywhere.
We will find a great deal to surprise us, if we study the habits of the
trees and plants about us. Some have very peculiar methods of growth;
some go to sleep, and wake up at regular hours; some set little traps
for catching insects; some often change the colors of their flowers;
and many other curious ways they have.
But men, who travel in various countries, and study the vegetable
growth of all climates, meet with very marvelous things indeed. Let
us follow them about the world for awhile. But we will have to travel
very swiftly, and to skip from one country to another, and back again,
perhaps, with great haste.
We will first look at some trees that surprise us by their size.
On Mount Etna, in Sicily, there is a famous chestnut tree. It stands on
one of the lower slopes of the mountain, so that it is often visited.
There are quite a number of huge chestnut trees in that neighborhood,
each of which has a distinctive name. But the “Chestnut of a Hundred
Horses” is much larger than any of the others. It is a very, very old
tree, and the people who now live near it, are not sure how it first
got its name. Some say it was named many years ago by a Spanish queen
because its thick wide branches once sheltered her and her party of a
hundred horsemen, from the rain. Others say it is so called because a
hundred horses can be sheltered within, and around it. It is now the
home of a shepherd, who has built a hut for himself, and a fold for his
sheep, within the hollow of the tree.
The trunk measures 190 feet around. It looks as if there were several
trees growing together, but it is known to be all one tree.
[Illustration: THE GREAT CHESTNUT TREE OF MOUNT ETNA.]
In the centre of a graveyard, in the village of Allouville, in
Normandy, there stands an oak that is over nine-hundred years old.
Near the ground its trunk measures thirty feet in circumference. Two
hundred years ago it was fitted up as a little chapel, and is used for
that purpose to this day.
The tree is hollow, as are all these very old trees. The lower part of
this hollow is lined with wood, carefully plastered and wainscoted.
This is the chapel. Above it, is a second story, and in this room
lives a solitary man—a hermit. Above, in the branches, is a belfry,
ornamented with a cross.
In another part of France, there is an oak that is known to be fifteen
hundred years old. It also is hollow, but every year, like the Hundred
Horse Chestnut, and the Allouville Oak, it covers itself with thick and
luxuriant foliage. The circumference of this oak is over 80 feet, and
its branches spread over a circumference of 380 feet.
The inside of this tree is used for a dining hall by pleasure parties.
A circular bench has been cut out of the wood, and a dozen persons can
sit comfortably around the table. The room has a glass door, and a
window. Beautiful ferns and mosses spring out of the sides of the tree,
and decorate this hall.
Not far from Smyrna, in Asia Minor, there is a very old, and a very
large Plane tree. It has three stems from one root. These join into
one trunk at the height of about twenty feet from the ground, thus
forming a gateway. The main road runs right through this gateway, and
cavalcades of horsemen, and camel riders, and vehicles pass under this
singular arch.
There is another Plane tree in the island of Cos, which is almost as
well known as that of Smyrna. Its spreading branches cover the whole of
a large square of a city, and are so heavy that the old trunk is not
able to bear their weight. The inhabitants of the city, proud of their
tree, and anxious to keep it, have built columns of marble under the
branches to support them.
[Illustration: CHAPEL OAK OF ALLOUVILLE.]
We have been visiting single trees of different kinds. There is a
family of trees, every member of which attains a great size. The
Baobabs ought to be large, for they require 800 years to attain their
full growth. They then measure, usually, from 70 to 77 feet in girth.
Enormous branches spread out from the central stem, each one of which
is a respectable size for a tree. So these trees give a splendid shade,
covering a space of ground 300 feet in circumference. They do not grow
very tall. These trees are found chiefly in Africa.
The Baobabs remind us of another marvel of the vegetable kingdom—the
great age of some trees. We have mentioned one 900 years old, and
another 1,500. The ages of these are known because the trees have been
traced back historically for that length of time. But these are babies
in age by the side of the Baobabs. Botanists calculate the ages of
the largest Baobabs to be over 5,000 years! We must remember this is
_calculation_, not _certainty_. It is positively known, however, that
some of them are several hundred years old; and there are olive trees
known to have lived over a thousand years. This is a very good old age
when we consider that man seldom lives to a hundred.
[Illustration: THE GIANT CANDLE.]
The height to which some tropical plants that are not trees grow is
surprising. You have, no doubt, all seen the queer fleshy-leaved cactus
that is cultivated in green-houses. This plant has no woody stem, and
yet one species of it grows to the height of twenty and thirty feet.
[Illustration: TREE FERNS.]
It is called the giant candle, and it certainly looks like one.
The great height of this plant is the more surprising because it grows
right out of crevices of rocks where no soil can be seen, and pushes
its straight, fleshy stem up into the air without anything to shelter
it from the furious winds that often sweep over the country. But it
braves the winds, and grows, and grows; and every year puts forth its
large white flowers, and bears upon its queer stalk a very savory fruit.
The largest palms rise to a height of 45 feet, and more or sometimes as
high as 70 feet—before putting out a single branch. Then they spread
out a great plume of feathery leaves. The wax palm of the Andes is
said to grow to the height of 200 feet.
In New Zealand, the ferns, that are here so fragile and delicate, grow
so high that they look, at a little distance like small palms.
The tallest trees in the world are the giant trees of California. These
are from 300 to 350 feet high; and one that was cut down was 450 feet
high.
We cannot very well speak of the height of vines, but there are species
of these that grow to a very great length. Sometimes one stalk will
stretch itself out to the length of 150 yards. Some of the sea-weeds,
thrown upon the shore, measure 500 yards in a single strip.
We must again go to the tropics if we want to find large leaves. You
have, no doubt, heard of the great water-lily—the Victoria Regia, but
I think you would open your eyes if you could get a sight of a river
filled with these floating mammoths of leaves. They are from four to
eight feet in diameter. They are, in shape, almost circular, and are
turned up a little around the edges.
The strength of these leaves is almost as surprising as their size. The
fibres are large, and are so woven together on the under side that they
form a solid framework to support the upper part of the leaf, which is
of a beautiful green, and thick, and velvety. The water-fowl choose
these leaves often for sleeping places in the hot nights, and find it
very pleasant, doubtless, to be thus rocked on the cool water, in a
velvet bed, that will not sink.
Palms have ridges running lengthwise of their leaves, as you may see by
examining a palm leaf fan. One ridged leaf of the talipot palm, when
well grown, it is said, will shelter forty persons. This sounds like a
traveler’s story, but single leaves of this tree have been brought to
this country, and one of them will completely cover the ceiling of a
good-sized room.
[Illustration: THE GUTTA PERCHA TREE.]
The leaves of the cocoanut palm are several feet long.
The juices of many vegetables possess very singular properties. The
cow-tree, is so called because the sap that flows from it closely
resembles milk, and is used as such by the natives.
A substance, with which you are very familiar, India-rubber, is nothing
but the sap of a tree. A very useful sap it is; and, when hardened, and
properly prepared, is impervious to water; and shoes, coats, coverlets,
&c., are made of it. Put through another hardening process it takes
a fine polish, and is made up into beautiful ornaments and useful
articles.
India-rubber trees are found in South America, the East Indies, and in
some parts of Africa.
In the same countries there grows a beautiful tree, which yields a
thick sap, called gutta-percha. This is similar, in substance, to
India-rubber, and is used for a great variety of purposes, from making
lifeboats to knife-handles.
Sugar and molasses are made from the juice of a cane; maple sugar from
the sap of a tree that grows plentifully in all our mountain districts.
You think it wonderful that milk can be taken from a tree. Is it not
quite as strange to find sugar there? I suppose you will reply to this
that the milk is ready prepared, while we have to make the sugar. That
is true, but we add nothing to what we take from the tree. We simply
apply heat to the sap, and behold the sugar! The chief reason, I think,
why we are not surprised at this sugar tree is that we are familiar
with it. The inhabitants of Central America do not see anything strange
in the fact of a tree bearing milk.
But there is a tree that produces sugar ready-made. This is the manna
tree of Sicily. The sap hardens on the trunk and branches into sugary
particles, which are scraped off with wooden knives. This kind of sugar
is used principally in medicine. It is insipid in taste.
A species of Laurel in India contains camphor in all its juices. Break
up twigs, stems, and leaves of this tree, and heat them, and the liquid
that comes from them will soon condense into camphor gum.
The seeds of one kind of palm produce a fine oil; and the stalks of
another give us wax, of which candles are made. This wax forms on the
outside of the stalk, at the places where the leaves join the stem.
From another palm is extracted a juice that when exposed to the air for
a short time, becomes wine.
In arid deserts, and in unwholesome marshes plants flourish
luxuriantly, the leaves of which contain pure, sweet, freshwater,
always ready for the thirsty traveler.
So far we have only spoken of the wholesome juices of plants and trees,
but a large number are full of deadly poisons. Many of these grow in
our own woods and fields. Some of the poisons have been utilized in
medicines, for it has been found that, properly prepared, and given in
small quantities, they can frequently arrest disease. Such is opium,
which we get from the poppy, strychnine, and prussic acid. All of these
are terrible poisons, but when administered by a physician in small
doses, they relieve pain, and help to cure disease.
Other vegetable poisons seem to be only destructive. If a man should,
ignorantly take refuge under a Machineel tree from a shower, and remain
there for any length of time after the rain began to drip upon him, he
would suddenly discover that blisters were breaking out on his skin,
and that sharp pains were running through his limbs, and he might well
feel thankful if he escaped without a fit of sickness. This, at least
is the story that the savages tell who live in the regions where the
Machineel grows. It is probable that they exaggerate the facts, but
they will none of them go near a tree of this species if they can help
it; and there is no doubt that it is very poisonous.
[Illustration: THE DEADLY UPAS.]
The most celebrated of the poison-trees is the Upas, which grows
in several tropical countries, but chiefly in the island of Java.
The accounts given of the Machineel tree are nothing compared to the
wonderful stories told of the Upas. No plant, not even grass, will grow
under one of these trees, or anywhere near it. A drop of water falling
from a leaf on any one beneath it, will produce inflammation. Whoever
walks under one of these trees bare-headed, must expect to lose all
his hair. To stay under it for a short time will cause sickness. To
sleep under it is certain death. Birds fly over the tree with great
difficulty, and if one should chance to alight upon it, woe be to him!
Instantly he drops down dead. The wild beasts know the fatal tree, and
shun it, but, if one venture beneath its shadow, he never comes forth
again, but leaves his bones there.
These stories which the natives really believe, they told to travelers,
and, for a long time they were supposed to be true. One thing which
caused these accounts to be so readily credited was the condition of
things in a valley in Java, where these trees were found in abundance.