DOMESTIC COMFORT.
How to make Home comfortable.--The Bed in its various Forms.--The
Feather Bed of Man.--The Eider-duck and her Plumage.--The Rabbit
and her Down.--The Long-tailed Titmouse and her wonderful
Nest.--The Hammock of civilised Man and Savage.--The Sailor’s
Canvas Hammock.--The String Hammock of tropical America.--Nest of
the Pensile Oriole.--Silken Hammock of the Tiger-moth and other
Insects.--The Mat Bed.--Cocoa-nut Matting.--The Robber-crab and its
Bed.--Strength and Uses of the Cocoa-nut Fibre.--The Surgeon’s
“Cradle” and the Pupa of Tabanus.--The Art of Sewing and the
Tailor-bird.--Principle of the Umbrella and its Original
Use.--Natural Umbrella on the Rosemary.--Servants and Slaves, and
the Distinction between them.--The Use of Slaves in hot
Countries.--Slavery in the Insect World.--The Ants and their
Slaves.--Ornamental Gardening and Pleasure-grounds.--The Hanging
Gardens of Babylon.--The Bower-birds and their Pleasure-grounds.
We now come to a different branch of the same subject, namely, the means
by which our dwellings are rendered comfortable.
After having procured a dwelling which can withstand the elements, we
next look for a bed on which to repose, and which will ease the limbs
and brain, wearied by the toils of the day.
Allusion has already been made to the ordinary feather bed and its
multitudinous natural springs. We now have to see how the various kinds
of beds are anticipated in Nature, and will begin with the feather bed.
As to our own beds, nothing need be said about objects so familiar,
although, in order to preserve the parallelism, it is necessary to
introduce an illustration on the right hand of the page.
On the left hand are shown two examples of natural feather beds,
selected from many others on account of the exact parallels which they
afford.
We all know the wonderful warmth and lightness of the Eider-down
mattress or quilt, though there are comparatively few who know how the
Eider-down is procured.
In common with many other creatures, the Eider-duck forms a bed for her
young by plucking the down from her own body. Rabbits do exactly the
same thing, as all boys know who have kept them, the only difference
being that fur is substituted for feathers. So do many insects,
stripping themselves of their own downy covering, and employing it for
the comfort of their offspring.
[Illustration: LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE.]
[Illustration: EIDER-DUCK.]
[Illustration: FEATHER BED.]
The lower figure on the left hand represents the Eider-duck in the act
of plucking the far-famed down from her breast in order to make a soft
and warm couch for her young, and the amount of feathers which she will
devote to this purpose is simply astonishing. Their weight is
insignificant, but their bulk is wonderful.
Above the Eider-duck is shown the nest of the common Long-tailed
Titmouse. It is the most perfect nest that is constructed by any British
bird. Its shape exactly resembles that of an egg, and it has but one
small aperture, as is shown in the illustration.
The Titmouse lays a vast number of eggs, and almost fills the nest with
soft downy feathers, on which they can rest. If the finger be introduced
into the nest through the aperture, the tiny eggs can be felt reposing
in their natural feather-bed. In this case, however, the bird does not
denude herself of feathers, but has a way of picking them up wherever
she can find them.
* * * * *
NOW we will take another form of bed, namely, the Hammock, which is used
in many parts of the world.
Putting aside the well-known hammock as used on board our ships, we will
take the same kind of bed as used among the natives of tropical America.
In that wonderful part of the world, where water and vegetation reign
supreme, an aërial couch of some kind is absolutely needful, and is
supplied by the singularly ingenious hammocks which are constructed by
the natives. They are made of a fine, but marvellously strong fibre,
procured from the aloe plant by the simple process of soaking the long
leaves in water, and dashing them against a stone. The soft green parts
are eaten away, and the tough fibres remain in all their strength.
From these fibres are woven the strings of which the Hammocks are made.
I possess four of the Hammocks, all made on different lines, but all
based on the same principle. In some the strings are laid parallel to
each other, and connected by transverse strings at regular intervals,
but in the best specimens they are interlaced diagonally into a sort of
loose network without knots, so that it yields in every direction to the
outlines of the body.
It is one of the most comfortable couches ever invented, especially when
it is of considerable size. I have one specimen which, even in its
curved state, extends completely across a tolerably sized room. I never
use it because it is so comfortable that the temptation to lie in it is
almost too strong to be resisted.
* * * * *
AS to Hammocks in Nature, they are almost too many to be computed.
So we will first take the nest of the Pensile Oriole, which is shown in
the illustration, and which is an admirable example of the Hammock,
being woven from long vegetable fibres intertwisted very much like the
strings of the South American Hammock. And as if to increase the
resemblance, the bird, whenever it can do so, will carry off hanks of
cotton, linen, thread, or pieces of string, and weave them into its
nest.
I have one of these nests, and, directly I saw it, was struck with its
exact similitude to the Hammock of human manufacture.
[Illustration: NEST OF PENSILE ORIOLE.]
[Illustration: HAMMOCK.]
There are many other birds in various parts of the world especially in
Australia, which make their nests on exactly the same principle, though
in slightly varied forms.
Also, in the insect world, there are innumerable examples of the natural
Hammock, the most common of which is that made by the caterpillars of
the Tiger-moth, and in which it slings itself while undergoing its
changes from the chrysalis to the perfect state.
It is made of silken threads, interwoven so slightly that the chrysalis
can be seen through them, and so exactly like the Hammock of the South
American Indian that if a drawing were made and enlarged, one might
easily be taken for the other.
* * * * *
NOW we come to the Mat Bed, which is so much used in the warmer parts of
the world, where the earth is dry, and the air so warm that nothing is
required but the slightest possible protection from the soil.
In inland places, such as Southern Africa, the bed is made of long
grass-stems laid side by side, and sewn together with a sort of twine.
One of these beds in my collection is some three feet wide by seven feet
long, and can be rolled up into a cylinder so compact and light that
even a child could carry it.
[Illustration: ROBBER-CRAB.]
[Illustration: COCOA-NUT MAT.]
Of course, when the Kafirs are on a journey, the women have to carry the
beds, together with the heavy wooden pillows and other necessaries, the
men carrying nothing but their weapons. I have a pair of figures made by
a native artist, representing a Kafir man and woman on a journey, the
woman staggering under her heavy burdens, the bed being included, and
the man stepping lightly along, with nothing but his spears and
knobkerries.
* * * * *
ON the sea-coasts, however, where the cocoa-nut palm grows, the fibre of
the husk is the principal material for bedding. These fibres lie so
parallel to each other on the surface of the cocoa-nut, that they are
easily stripped off, fastened together, and formed into mats of any
shape or thickness. One of these mats is shown on the right hand of the
illustration, and the reader will see how simple is its manufacture.
Owing to the ease with which it is made into a fabric, the cocoa-nut
fibre was in great use as armour before the bullet set all armour at
defiance. It will be remembered that when Captain Cook was murdered, he
committed the mistake of firing a charge of small shot instead of a
bullet, and the fact that the cocoa-nut mat carried by the man at whom
he fired resisted the shot, encouraged the natives to attack and murder
him.
* * * * *
EVEN the cocoa-nut mat has its precursor in Nature.
There is a certain Crab inhabiting the cocoa-nut bearing parts of the
world, which not only makes itself a bed from the fibre, but supplies it
to mankind.
This wonderful Crab has the power of ascending the cocoa-nut palms,
which is beyond the power of any man except a trained gymnast. It picks
out the ripest fruits, and with its powerful claws tears off the fibre
before breaking the shell and devouring the kernel, as is shown in the
left-hand figure of the illustration.
After eating the kernel, which is at that time a soft, creamy substance,
quite unlike the hard, indigestible material which we in England know by
the name of cocoa-nut, the Crab carries off the external fibres into its
den, and there makes its bed of them. So great, indeed, is the amount of
cocoa-nut fibre thus collected that the natives are accustomed to save
themselves the trouble of climbing the trees, and merely search for the
holes in which these Crabs have made their nests, knowing the amount of
ready-gathered cocoa-nut fibre that is always to be found in them.
* * * * *
ANOTHER modification of the bed needs a short notice, especially as I
have practical and sad experience on the subject.
[Illustration: PUPA OF TABANUS.]
[Illustration: SURGICAL CRADLE.]
It is technically named the “cradle,” and is used to keep the bedclothes
from pressing on a damaged limb.
When a mere lad I contrived, at cricket, to dislocate the right ankle,
and break the bone. An ignorant surgeon refused my request for a cradle,
and absolutely tied the cover of a book to the sole of the foot. Of
course this appliance was worse than useless. It acted as a lever,
allowing the clothes to turn the foot round, and to the present day the
right foot has never recovered its faculties. Had the simple “cradle”
been used--_i.e._ a few sticks bent into an arch-like shape, and tied
together, so as to keep the clothes from even touching the foot--all
would have been right.
On the right hand of the illustration is shown the surgical cradle, as a
defence to a damaged leg. On the left is shown the curious natural
cradle of the Gad-fly while undergoing its change into the perfect
state. It is quite hard and rounded, being formed from the skin of the
larva, and allows the pupa to lie within it, protected from any ordinary
pressure.
* * * * *
ANOTHER point now comes before us.
We cannot well have our bedclothes--indeed, any kind of clothes--without
the use of needles and thread. The simplest form of sewing is that which
is adopted in many parts of the world, namely, of boring holes and
pushing a thread through them, no eye being required in the needle. In
this way the Kafirs of Southern Africa and the Esquimaux of the Polar
regions make their beautiful garments of skins. I have for many years
had in constant use two South African cloaks, or karosses, and one made
by the natives of Vancouver’s Island, and they are now as good as they
were when they were first given to me. Naturally, such a mode of sewing
consumes much time, but, as time is not of the least value to these
native furriers, no harm is done, and the junctions of the different
skins is absolutely perfect. Even where holes have been made in the
skin, the native furrier has supplied their places with circular pieces
so neatly inserted, that on the outside not a trace of the junction is
visible, and even the very set of the hairs is preserved.
Our very modern needles, with their eyes which carry the thread, are but
a modification of the original plan of boring holes, and pushing the
thread through them.
* * * * *
NATURE has a singular parallel in the case of the Tailor-bird, which
sews leaves together by their edges, and makes its nest inside them. It
acts exactly like one of our own shoemakers, using its slender and
sharply pointed beak in lieu of the awl, and employing a slight but
strong vegetable fibre in place of the “waxed end” of the shoemaker, or
the sinew-thread of the Kafir.
In the illustration an ordinary needle and thread are seen on the
right-hand side, and on the left are two nests of the Tailor-bird, taken
from specimens in the British Museum.
[Illustration: TAILOR-BIRDS AND NESTS.]
[Illustration: SEWING CLOTH.]
The mode of sewing is strangely like that which is employed by the
uncivilised furriers who have been described, and much superior to that
which is seen in many other parts of the world. For example, I have a
West African quiver made of hide sewn together with stitches infinitely
more clumsy than those of the Tailor-bird.
The reader will also remark that I might have placed this singular nest
in the category of beds, on account of the soft and warm lining on which
the young repose. I have, however, thought that it more properly belongs
to the present division of the subject.
* * * * *
SOMETIMES we require a temporary as well as a permanent shelter from the
elements, and procure it by means of the Umbrella.
In many countries, especially those where the climate is hot, the
Umbrella is almost exclusively used, as, indeed, its name denotes, to
preserve its owner from the direct sunbeams, and is, in fact, the
“parasol” of our European ladies. It also is a mark of dignity, the
amount and quality of its decorations indicating rank, even though the
man who sits under its shade is clothed in a modest cotton cloth wrapped
round his waist.
For the purpose of shielding the bearer from the sun the Umbrella was
first introduced, and the introducer incurred the obloquy usual in such
cases. Now, however, the Umbrella has by common consent become a
defence against rain and snow, the male sex leaving the parasol to the
gentler half of creation, and submitting themselves to the chance of a
sunstroke.
* * * * *
WE all know the ingenious Umbrellas of Africa, China, Japan, Siam, &c.;
but there are few persons who know that a common magnifying-glass will
disclose thousands of beautifully perfect umbrellas on the leaf of the
Rosemary.
[Illustration: HAIRS OF ROSEMARY.]
[Illustration: UMBRELLA.]
Pinch the Rosemary-leaf between the fingers, and a strong and peculiar
perfume is evolved, just as when the peel of the orange is squeezed. The
reason is the same in both cases, namely, the presence of multitudes of
spherical vessels which contain their essential oil, secreted by the
plant.
In the orange they are sunk below the surface of the skin, and are
protected by it; but in the Rosemary they stand on slight footstalks, as
shown in the illustration.
Being very delicate, and liable to be broken at the least touch, they
are protected by a series of curiously formed hairs, which extend over
them exactly as would an umbrella, and defend them from the elements.
The surface of a Rosemary-leaf affords a singularly beautiful sight,
even with a common magnifying-glass, the tiny perfume-globes gleaming
like little pearls in the broken lights that shine through the
umbrella-like hairs.
* * * * *
NOW we come to another part of domestic life, namely, Servants.
There is a diversity of ideas on this subject, as we know by the
various discussions respecting “lady-helps” and “gentlemen-helps,” which
bid fair to initiate a revolution in domestic life. Servants are
sometimes called the greatest plagues in life, but it is difficult to
see what could be done without them.
Then there is the complaint that servants are not what they used to
be--the faithful retainers of the household, and considering themselves
members of it. Perhaps not, but I have had experience of several
faithful retainers, and invariably found them to be unmitigated tyrants,
assuming power, repudiating responsibility, and being practically the
master or mistress of the household.
Then we come to the great question of slavery in its various bearings.
Putting aside the now acknowledged diversity of races, and the
well-known fact that the negro in a state of slavery to a European is
infinitely better off than he would have been in his own country, where
there is no law but that of might, we must entertain the question of
enforced servitude, i.e. where the servants have no choice either in
entering or leaving their situations.
It is, of course, opposed, and rightly, to our modern English ideas that
a slave, under such a name, should exist on British ground. Yet there
are thousands of Englishmen who are more wholly enslaved than was any
negro in the worst times of slavery. The chains may not be of visible
iron, nor the whips of tangible thongs, but they are, perhaps, all the
more galling and biting.
* * * * *
SOME of my readers may be aware that slavery exists in the insect world,
and probably existed long before man came on earth.
There are many species of Ants which are absolutely incapable of
managing their own nests or rearing their own young, and which, in
consequence, impress into their service the workers of other species of
Ant, and hand over to them the entire labour of the establishment. They
can fight, and they can establish fresh colonies, but they cannot build
nests, nor nurse their young, and so they impress into their service
those Ants whose instinct teaches them to do both.
Periodically the master Ants, if we may so call them, set off on a
slave-hunting expedition. They find out the nest of the special Ant
whose aid they need, penetrate into it, and bear off the pupæ, or “ants’
eggs,” as they are popularly called. These are carried to their new
home, and are speedily hatched. They know no other home, and, led by
instinct, set to work as industriously as if they had never been
removed.
[Illustration: SLAVE-CAPTURING ANTS.]
[Illustration: AFRICAN SLAVE-GANG.]
Those who have watched their habits are unanimous in declaring that they
seem perfectly happy and contented. No compulsion is used towards them,
and they work because told to do so by their own instinct. Work they
must, and it does not in the least matter to them for whom the work is
done.
* * * * *
ANOTHER branch of this subject is shown in the accompanying
illustration, namely, the pleasure garden or playground.
This is, as we all know, a token of high civilisation, and even in the
ancient times the hanging gardens of Babylon were reckoned as the
greatest wonders of that great city, the then mistress of the world.
No savage ever dreamed of such a thing as a pleasure garden, nor could
appreciate it if he saw it. Yet there are birds which far surpass the
savage in this respect, and which build recreation grounds for the sole
purpose of amusement.
These are the well-known Bower-birds of Australia, which I sincerely
hope may not be extirpated by the white man, as has been the case with
so many creatures, including the aborigines of Tasmania themselves.
The Bower-birds, which are distantly related to our thrush and
blackbird, but are about as large as jackdaws, have a curious habit of
building arched bowers quite independent of their nests.
The shape of one of these bowers is shown in the accompanying
illustration.
The bird first weaves a sort of platform of flexible sticks, and then
fastens into them a number of other sticks, so set that they form a sort
of arched gallery. Through this gallery the birds love to run, and they
invariably decorate the ends with anything pretty that they can pick up,
such as feathers, coloured stones, shells, ornaments, and the like. So
well is this proclivity known, that whenever any one who is living in
the Bush loses any small piece of property, such as a pencil-case or
watch-key, or even a tobacco-pipe, he always goes to the Bower-bird’s
pleasure garden, and mostly discovers the lost property.
[Illustration: PLAYGROUND OF BOWER-BIRD.]
[Illustration: GARDEN BOWER.]
At the Zoological Gardens these Bower-birds have long lived, and it is a
most interesting sight to watch them weaving their platforms, raising
the bowers over them, and then keep running in at one end and out at the
other, like children at play, and with their burnished plumage gleaming
in the sunbeams.
The right-hand figure simply depicts a modern pleasure garden, and needs
no description.
USEFUL ARTS.