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"Dr R. Brasch's Library of Origins",1,0,0,0
Have you ever wondered why magicians say "abracadabra" or why there are seven days in a week? Let Dr Brasch share with you his thoughts about the origins of hundreds of sayings, superstitions, and customs from all over the world.
\IMaterial from works by Dr. R Brasch have been included with the permission of Dr. R. Brasch and HarperCollins Publishers Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia.\i
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"A1",2,0,0,0
To be "A.1." is the most succinct description of anything being in top condition. After all, there could hardly be a better symbol for topping the list and coming first than the combination of the first letter in the alphabet with number one.
The choice of A.1. for first rate was not the result of a merely popular consideration. Very business-like, it was deliberately selected. To begin with, it was solely applied to shipping.
Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping gave every vessel listed its specific designation, determined by the ship's state of seaworthiness. For this, two important features had to be ascertained: the condition of its hull and that of its equipment, i.e., the chain, the anchor and the rudder. These were indicated by a letter of the alphabet (for the hull) and a figure (for the gear).
A ship listed A.1. was in excellent condition. The company would take little risk to insure it. Such a simple system for appraising values was soon adopted generally and A.1. came to stand for anything that was "tops."
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"Abbatoir - a French Camouflage",3,0,0,0
A slaughterhouse says exactly what it means. Its name is very much to the point, though it may offend sensitive ears. Hence to make it more attractive, a French word, \Iabattoir,\i was adopted in its stead.
No one nowadays is really aware of the original meaning of this substitute. But as restaurateurs have learned to call very ordinary dishes by French names to make them more exotic, attractive, (and expensive), so the novel French abattoir gave the old slaughterhouse a new image.
Speaking of an abattoir literally refers merely to the fact that something or somebody has been "knocked off" or "beaten down," which is the \Jetymology\j of the word.
As everywhere, costs have risen at abattoirs. This made their name a very paradoxical term, as its linguistic root, \Iabate,\i is generally used as well for the reduction of prices!
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"Aboriginal Art: Namatjira School",4,0,0,0
The indigenous art of Australian \JAborigines\j is not only of great beauty, but profoundly religious in spirit and content. In a most unexpected and different way, religion came to play its part in a totally new development and unique expression of the Aboriginal talent.
The Namatjira school of Australian \JAboriginal art\j is an interesting phenomenon. It owes its existence to the religious faith of a Lutheran pastor, the Rev. F. W. Albrecht. As the superintendent of a mission station at Hermannsburg, near \JAlice Springs\j, at the "dead heart" of \JAustralia\j, he had tried to teach some saleable craft or skill to the \JAborigines\j in his care, mostly members of the Aranda tribe. He wanted to enable them to earn their living and not to depend on charity or government hand-outs which, he felt, was degrading to any man. But all his attempts proved futile. In spite of it, Albrecht persevered. He was convinced that God had endowed every human being with a special gift in which to excel.
In 1934, Rex Battarbee and John A. Gardner, two Melbourne painters, went on a caravan painting trip to Central \JAustralia\j to capture on canvas its awe-inspiring beauty. Having completed a sizeable number of pictures, they exhibited them at \JAlice Springs\j. When Pastor Albrecht saw the collection, an idea suddenly struck him. Once the show was over, why not take all the pictures into the desert, to put them on display for the \JAborigines\j. Perhaps they, too, might enjoy them.
The result exceeded his expectations. The Arandas were enthralled. It astonished them to see the countryside they knew so well, reproduced in representational paintings. Their own art was very different. For the two days of the exhibition, scores of \JAborigines\j came. One, Albert Namatjira, fascinated by what he saw, came on both days, just to sit and to look at the pictures. Subsequently, he approached Rex, expressing the wish to try himself to produce something like it. Would Rex be good enough to provide him with the necessary equipment and then teach him the rudiments of his art?
Delighted, Rex did so. Soon other members of the tribe followed Albert's example, and a popular school of painting was born that found a ready market among white Australians. All this was the result of the devotion of a missionary. It gave a people long ignored, if not humiliated, unexpected fame, and presented art galleries and collectors with much treasured exhibits.
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"Aboriginal Burials",5,0,0,0
Aborigines cherish their own burial grounds. All the more conspicuous are Aboriginal graves in ordinary cemeteries, or by the roadside, reminders of the part \JAborigines\j have played in modern Australian history.
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"Aboriginal Who Sold Thousands of Shirts",6,0,0,0
"Mulga Fred" sold thousands of Pelaco shirts. He did not do so as a salesman, but as the model for the smiling Aborigine whose face appeared on all the advertisements promoting the product, which made it renowned nationwide. The advertisement shows Mulga, immaculately dressed in a white shirt, and quotes him saying, in \Jpidgin\j English, "Mine tinkit it fit," words which became a memorable slogan.
The manufacturers paid him for his "appearances," both in money and in kind. He received a fee of รบ100 ($200) and, to his dying day, was given annually four new shirts.
Mulga's real name was Freddy Wilson. He was born in Port Hedland, in the Kimberleys, Western \JAustralia\j; the exact year of his birth is not certain and is quoted to have been either 1874 or 1884.
Reports differ as to the cause of his death. Some say that, whilst waiting for a connection to Dimboola, he was run over by a train at Horsham station. Others have it that he was hit by a train when asleep on the tracks.
Mulga, in spite of his broken English in the Pelaco advertisements, spoke perfect English. He became a popular figure first through his feats with the whip and the \Jboomerang\j. He was the last full-blooded Aborigine to visit the Wimmera Show and, in acknowledgment of his prowess, a cup awarded at the annual whip-cracking competition is called after him. Unforgettable too were his performances in rough riding at side shows, rodeos, and circuses.
Fred is buried in the Horsham Cemetery and the headstone on his grave has three distinctions. It makes no mention of the role he played in publicizing Pelaco shirts. However, recalling his excellence in throwing the \Jboomerang\j and cracking the whip, both items are engraved on it in a stylized manner. Lastly, the words of the epitaph are kept to a very minimum. All they say is:
\IMULGA FRED
2-11-1948
R.I.P.\i
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"Above Board",7,0,0,0
For anything to be "above board" suggests complete honesty. There is no subterfuge. Nothing is concealed and therefore open to doubt or suspicion. Yet, so incongruously, the origin of the phrase is uncertain and two possible, totally unconnected explanations have been given.
All that is "above board" may have started at sea - on board ship. Not stowed (or hidden) away in the holds under hatches, it is on deck, for all to see.
The nefarious practice of cardsharpers has equally been linked, though in a negative way, with the saying. To cheat their opponents, surreptitiously they would exchange cards under the gaming table with their accomplices. The honest player - to avoid even the slightest suspicion of foul play - would always keep his hands "above [the] board."
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"Abracadabra",8,0,0,0
Magicians and conjurers traditionally use \Iabracadabra\i as a mystical formula which they pronounce solemnly to achieve their greatly admired tricks. Those watching their art, of course, "know" deep down that it is all mere showmanship and that abracadabra is a word that makes no sense and certainly has neither meaning nor power.
Their assumption, however, is completely erroneous. In abracadabra survives an age-old mystical formula and tradition which through centuries has played a serious role in thousands of lives: it was thought to ward off evil and to cure disease.
The first record of abracadabra dates back to Serenus Sammonicus, a second-century Roman author and the physician to Emperor Caracalla. He stated (in his only surviving work) that abracadabra could serve as a potent antidote to sickness, if applied according to strict rules. There are numerous explanations as to what the strict rules were, how the abracadabra worked and, not least, what its name signified.
It has been frequently suggested that the abracadabra was a combination or abbreviation of several slightly mutilated \JHebrew\j words. But, again, there was a multitude of confusing claims as to what the words were. Some authorities traced in the term the \JHebrew\j \Ib'racha\i which was a "blessing." Abracadabra, they said, really meant: "pronounce the blessing." Blessing, however, was not used here in its traditional benedictory sense alone, but specifically referred to God. By speaking of him, the abracadabra immediately would cause all evil spirits to depart, as they were most allergic to hearing the divine name uttered!
A second interpretation found in the abracadabra the linking of the \JHebrew\j "blessing" - \Ib'racha\i - with the (mystical) "word" - \Idavar.\i The word of blessing was sure to destroy any curse - magically.
Yet another suggestion was that abracadabra was a contracted quotation from the Psalmist's call on God (Psalm 144,6) to "cast forth \Jlightning\j" (in \JHebrew\j, \Ib'rok barak)\i to scatter the evil forces. No doubt, this theory was also based on the similarity of sound.
Another view was no longer associated with Jewish tradition but reflected Christian \Jtheology\j. Nevertheless, it still discovered the Jews' \JHebrew\j and \JAramaic\j tongues in the obscure word which it regarded as an appeal to the trinity. In the name of the father \I(ab),\i the son \I(bar),\i and the \Jholy spirit\j \I(ru'ach ha-kodesh),\i the formula tried to expel demons. It was a well-known method in the ritual of exorcism.
None of these opinions was correct according to another expert on the occult: abracadabra contained nothing godly, nor did it quote from the \JBible\j however fragmentarily or misconstrued. On the contrary, abracadabra was the actual (\JAramaic\j or Greek) name of a powerful demon which could affect people in different ways. It could make them terribly sick - with ague or fever - or inflict on them general misfortune.
Once the demon had taken hold of a person, only immediate remedial action to drive out the malevolent spirit could save the afflicted. And in the world of magic, you had to fight fire with fire, like with like. And that is why, by using Abracadabra's own name, you expelled it from the victim. Hearing its name, the demon could not resist answering "the call" and left the possessed person who at once was restored to his former state of normalcy. This explanation makes special sense if it is realized that, according to magic belief, one who knows the name of a being can control it.
Others, however, have denied any legitimate, inherent value of the abracadabra. It only existed, they said, by confusion and was derived by corrupting the name of Abraxas, a powerful Gnostic deity who originally played a significant medical role in the Basilidian heretic sect of the Gnostics.
This sect was called after its founder, Basilides of Alexandria, who had claimed that by esoteric means he had gained knowledge of the existence of this mighty god. Abraxas' Greek name was explained to mean: "Hurt me not." It could work wonders, as once uttered, it magically removed the sting from any attack by demonic forces.
Going far beyond its literal meaning, Abraxas' mystical power was mostly based on the Oriental and Greek tradition which doubled up letters for figures. As each individual letter of the alphabet had also a numerical value, the seven-lettered Abraxas added up to the significant figure of 365. This stood not just for the 365 days of the solar year, but for the number of spirits that had emanated from the god and that, subject to him, ruled the entire world. Indeed, they represented individual virtues, each allotted to one of the 365 days. The authority of Abraxas - abracadabra thus was both infinite and eternal.
Going back even further and more to the East, it is said that the Persian people used to worship 365 different deities. To be totally blessed, they had to invoke each one of them. In terms of time alone this was a most difficult and extended task, but because of the multiplicity of names it was also subject to grievous error. To omit just one god's name might play havoc with a man's life. He therefore contrived to combine the "365" in one word which, by the numerical value of its letters, represented the entire pantheon. This rendered the original abracadabra a fantastic, error-proof capsule, ready for use by the faithful. Without any waste of time or fear of mistake, it cast out evil spirits in man's ceaseless battle against dark forces. Man had all his gods at his disposal in the one word: their combined power could not be surpassed and was irresistible.
Certainly, there are few words in any tongue that can have caused more speculation and diversity of interpretations. But no matter what abracadabra really meant, people were most concerned with its application in life. And this as well was distinguished by a variety of methods which, in turn, depended on how it was thought the abracadabra worked.
The most widely adopted practice was based on sympathetic magic. By manipulating the abracadabra, it was believed, you could have a similar effect on the sickness or the evil spirit that inflicted a person. The very working of the charm was achieved by the systematic reduction of the abracadabra, letter by letter. And just like the abracadabra, the harmful influence would grow ever smaller till it reached "vanishing point." Gradually, but inevitably, it would disappear.
The usual form of the charm was that of a document. Of small size, it consisted of paper or parchment, a thin metal sheet or even an (engraved) gemstone. The magic formula followed a fixed pattern. The top line contained the whole word, abracadabra. On each following line, the last letter was dropped until, finally, at the very bottom, one single letter was left!
The occult power of the amulet was further strengthened by arranging the text in the shape of an inverted triangle.
The choice of the triangle was not accidental. It was a holy figure, the symbol of trinity and hence a powerful opponent of devilish forces.
The "abracadabra" was worn either suspended from the neck or fixed at whatever was regarded as its most effective place. Usually it was dispensed with after nine days. Before sunrise it was thrown backward over the left shoulder, if possible into a stream that flowed in an easterly direction. Each of these rituals had a significant meaning. Nine, of course, was a sacred figure, three times three. The left side was the sinister side - that of the devil. The East was linked with the rising sun which would dispel all darkness.
There were patients however who, going beyond "external use only", actually swallowed the script and by doing so made it part of their system. Yet another group of people used the abracadabra "orally" - in the literal sense of the word. Instead of having the formula written down in its ever diminishing size, line following line, they uttered it repeatedly, on each occasion dropping one letter, until in the end nothing was left.
A common occurrence in life is that the original purpose of a custom is completely forgotten with the passing of time. And exactly that happened to the abracadabra. Eventually people no longer realized its original meaning and were ever more mystified by its strange-sounding name, which only added to its mystic and occult efficacy. This was particularly true for those who sought it out to combat their fears and their not rarely psychosomatically caused ailments.
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"Abram Louis Buvelot",9,0,0,0
Like all great artists, Australian painters of renown are distinguished by their individual style. And yet after their death most of them share one feature: almost all their headstones are among the plainest in cemeteries. Inconspicuous and without ornamentation, even their inscriptions modestly refer only to who they were and perhaps to the specific category of art to which they devoted their lives. With a few exceptions, they say nothing more.
Swiss-born Abram Louis Buvelot is regarded as the grandfather of Australian \Jlandscape painting\j. The inscription on his grave in the Kew Cemetery is in French, his mother tongue.
The dates of his birth (3 March 1814) and death (30 May 1888), are followed by a quotation the painter had liked so much that he had copied it onto a piece of paper and carried with him in his wallet. It was therefore only fitting that the words should accompany him to the grave. Rendered into English they read:
\IThose whom we have loved
and whom we have lost
are no longer where they were
but they are always and everywhere
where we are.\i
Indicative of the high regard in which Buvelot was held, the monument - "in memory of the dearly beloved artist" - was paid for by public subscription. Simultaneously with its dedication a large retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Melbourne National Gallery, opened by the Governor of Victoria.
Buvelot was already 51 years old and an accomplished painter when he came to Melbourne in 1865. He had decided to migrate to \JAustralia\j because, having lived some considerable time in \JBrazil\j, he could no longer tolerate the harsh Swiss winters.
Buvelot never learned to speak English. His wife not only acted as his interpreter and business manager but, by giving French lessons, earned a living for both of them. This enabled Buvelot to devote all his time to what he knew and loved best - painting.
Until that time, Australian artists had followed conventional English and European traditions. Buvelot succeeded in giving his paintings a new Australian quality, which was to inspire all those who came after him, not least the famous "Heidelberg School."
Sometimes, people unaware of Buvelot's novel Australian style, naively questioned it. A story tells of a woman who criticized him for not showing any kangaroos in his pictures. With a twinkle in his eyes, Buvelot replied, "They are in my paintings all right, but they are hiding behind the trees!"
Age did not exist for him. He believed that one "remained young as long as one's heart could feel the wonders of nature." He not only felt them but conveyed them on canvas. Tragically, four years before his death, failing eyesight and arthritic hands forced him to abandon painting.
Nearly all of Buvelot's pictures are characterized by the inclusion of a \Jgum tree\j. "It is so beautiful, it can take so many shapes," he said. Indeed, he was the first to open Australians' eyes to the eucalypt's magnificence. When his powers were waning, he wrote to a friend, "I am like my old gum trees on the right of my picture, ready to fall into the creek."
Landscapes change, and so does taste. To a new generation, Buvelot's pictures lost their appeal to a great degree, possibly because they seemed too idyllic. However, Buvelot occupies a permanent place in the history of Australian art. Even if he was not among the most outstanding painters, he was a great pioneer.
One hundred years after his death he was not forgotten; in 1988 a special memorial service was held at his gravesite and a Buvelot Centenary Exhibition held at the Bendigo Art Gallery, the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever held of his work. "It seemed a good time to attempt to revive interest in this 19th century master," wrote the director of the Gallery in the catalog published on the occasion.
Among Buvelot's pupils and admirers was Arthur Streeton.
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"Absolute Justice",10,0,0,0
The ideal of absolute justice is based on the biblical injunction that "you shall not pervert justice in measurement of length, weight or quantity" but "you shall have true scales, true weights and true measures" (Lev. 19.35-36). Early religious authorities expanded this law, to apply not merely to the world of commerce but to every aspect of judicial practice. Justice must be meted out objectively and in equity, without discrimination or differentiation, without fear or favor.
The very same passage suggested the well-known allegorical "figure of Justice" crowning the \JOld Bailey\j, the \JCentral Criminal Court\j in London. Blind-folded, she holds evenly balanced scales in her hands.
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"Academic Hood",11,0,0,0
The academic hood had a very practical origin, far removed from its present-day scholarly distinction. It can be traced to a shoulder covering worn in the \JMiddle Ages\j by begging friars. Apart from keeping the itinerant monks warm on cold days, it served as a cloth receptacle and carrier bag for gifts presented to them by the pious.
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"Accident on the Tramline",12,0,0,0
Even Port Douglas, in once isolated Northern \JQueensland\j, has had its toll of fatal "traffic" accidents and as early as the first decade of this century. Buried in its local cemetery is John M. Cole "who died 8.12.1909 after an accident on the Mobray Tramline aged 23 years 7 months."
Men looking for waterholes accidentally came across some strange colored stone. A Cornish woman living in the area, when shown their find, immediately identified it as copper, the ore she knew so well from back home. Such were the beginnings of the Great Cobar Copper Mine. Cobar's name, so folk \Jetymology\j has it, was the \JAborigines\j' way of pronouncing "copper."
Cobar was soon to develop into a significant mining town and source of Australian wealth. It did so not without paying in human lives, however, as is shown by the victims of accidents, buried in the local cemetery.
Patrick Hannan was 38 years old, when he was "accidentally killed in the Great Cobar Mine on 3 October 1918." Reassuringly, the inscription on his headstone quotes St Ambrose's words that those "who have loved him in life will not forget him in death."
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"Accidental Shooting and Drowning",13,0,0,0
Beautifully sculptured, a descending dove and angel's wings make up almost half of the memorial on the grave of 20 year old George Brabham. The victim of a gun accident more than a century ago, he was "accidentally shot to death in 1875."
A great number of monuments recall death by drowning. One such stone at Goulburn marks the grave of Elizabeth Duce, a child of eight years and six months. She "was drounded on 23 January 1848." Her passing evoked this "farewell:"
\IGo spotless honor and
unsullied truth
Go smiling innocence
and blooming youth
Go modesty that never
wore a frown
Go Virtue and receive
thy heavenly crown
Not from a stranger comes
this heart felt verse
The friend inscribes thy
tomb whose tears bedew
thy hearse\i
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"Accidentally Drowned",14,0,0,0
A headstone at \JOphir\j, "In memory of Samuel, the second son of John and Sarah McConnell," recalls his death at the age of 20. He "was accidentally drowned in the Macquarie River [on] September 23rd 1890."
The epitaph adds to a simple eulogy words of solace, expressed as if they were spoken by the youth himself:
\IA dutiful son, an affectionate brother
And a never to be forgotten friend
ln the midst of life we are in death
So parents dear grieve not for me
For ..... be always sad
The fewer years I lived on earth
The fewer faults I had.\i
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"Ace",15,0,0,0
The simple "spot" both on dice and cards is known as the \Iace.\i But in spite of its apparent simplicity, its \Jgenealogy\j is quite considerable and its ancestry rather dubious.
An ancient tradition has it that the \JCelts\j invented the ace which they called \Ias,\i because in their tongue this word described the first of all things, the source of being, the origin.
More plausible is the explanation that the ace came from the Romans. In their Latin they referred to it as the \Iunit,\i the "one" - \Iunus.\i Greeks corrupted this numeral into \Ionos\i and German adapted it into \IAss,\i which eventually deteriorated into \Iace.\i
Most likely is a third suggestion - that ace originated from the Roman coin called the \Ias,\i which also served as a unit of weight.
A French writer was convinced that the ace of cards and on dice was so called because it pointed directly to an ass - a fool.
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"Achilles Heel",16,0,0,0
When speaking of a person's \JAchilles\j heel, we refer to their only vulnerable spot.
The figure of speech is based on a Greek myth which tells how \JAchilles\j' mother, to make her son's body unassailable and safe from the infliction of a mortal wound, dipped the baby into the river \JStyx\j. She did not realize then that though the waters covered his entire body, not so the one heel by which she held him. It was an omission for which he had to pay with his life!
Paris, his arch-enemy in the \JTrojan War\j, was aware of \JAchilles\j' unprotected heel. By piercing it with an arrow, he slew the principal hero of the Iliad.
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"Acting Origins",17,0,0,0
Anything funny is "humorous." So simple a word, nevertheless, like the early actor's mask, it covers up an entirely different world. The first "humor" had nothing to do with a joke or the wish to make people laugh, it was a liquid in the body.
Ancient physiological theory taught, and medieval medical practice believed, that four "humors" (or "fluids") controlled man's health and general attitude. They were phlegm, blood \I(sanguis\i in Latin), \Jbile\j \I(chole),\i and (a non-existent) black \Jbile\j. The proportion in which they were combined determined a person's temperament, a term literally referring to this "mixture." His or her "temper" was dependent on which of the four humors preponderated. Accordingly, a person would be phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric (i.e. short-tempered), or melancholic ("black-biled").
No doubt, an imbalance in humors made a man act peculiarly, and people have always laughed at the eccentric. They did so originally to force him to conform. A nail that stuck out had to be hammered in, lest it caused damage, and that is how humor came on to the stage. A misdiagnosis of sickness, it derived from a condition that was anything but a laughing matter.
It has been rightly asked why Dante entitled his masterpiece \IThe Divine Comedy.\i A most serious work, it presents a world view of beauty, light, and song. Its aim most certainly was not to amuse people, but morally to edify them. To understand the apparent paradox, it must be realized that in former days the term comedy could be used as well for the portrayal of truth without horror, lacking a tragic ending. This is exactly what Dante did in the Divine Comedy and the reason why he so called it.
Without stealing the thunder of great art, it is thus good to have a look behind the scenes of the world of make-believe and of music. As in the examples of "humor" and Dante's "Comedy," it will reveal un-expected beginnings and explain many a mystery. It will show, as well, good reason for actors to be superstitious and how, to ensure the success of the role they are playing, they perform, off stage, their private magic rituals and exorcisms. They well know the truth of the Chinese proverb that "those who have free seats at the play, are the first to hiss."
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"Adam's Ale",18,0,0,0
Water has been called \IAdam's aIe.\i And for an obvious reason: there was nothing stronger for him to drink in paradise. That, in spite of this deficiency, the garden of Eden has been portrayed as so beautiful and heavenly a place, might supply much food for thought.
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"Adam's Apple: Origin of the Name",19,0,0,0
The Adam's apple is the little projection in the neck which is formed by the thyroid cartilage. It seems to move up and down the throat. When early anatomists were legally permitted to dissect corpses, they were greatly perplexed in identifying it. In spite of their scientific outlook they had to go on calling this firm but elastic tissue the Adam's apple.
Ancient \Jfolklore\j said that when Adam committed his "original sin" and, at Eve's invitation, ate of the forbidden fruit, a piece of the apple stuck in his throat. Some assert that this happened when he swallowed his first bite. It is a claim which, from a psychological point of view, is most feasible. Ever since, all of Adam's descendants, but especially the males, have been born with that lump in the throat as a constant reminder of man's first sin and a warning to resist any future temptations.
Adding insult to injury, it is now realized that Holy Scripture never identified the forbidden fruit. Nowhere in the \JBible\j are we told that it was an apple. Most of the authorities now agree that probably it was an apricot. Being so much softer than an apple, an apricot is less likely to get stuck in one's throat, so that the "Adam's apple" has fallen to the ground.
Yet an unscientific name, based on an erroneous notion about a fruit that was not eaten and did not even exist at the time and place in question, got stuck in speech!
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"Added Flavor",20,0,0,0
To add special spices or herbs to food is thought to enhance its taste. The introduction of the practices however, was far removed from any such consideration. A variety of reasons has been suggested. When refrigeration was unknown, meat often deteriorated, and to cover up the smell and off-taste, it was seasoned. In addition, meals were heavy and, not rarely, caused \Jindigestion\j. It was imagined that spices would prevent such ill effects. Finally in the days when stimulants now served after dinner, such as \Jcoffee\j, tea, liqueurs, brandy, and cigars, were still unknown, spices took their place.
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"Adding Insult to Injury",21,0,0,0
Not satisfied with having inflicted \Jbodily harm\j, some people aggravate the damage they have done by further hurting their victim with wounding words. They "add insult to injury," as the saying goes.
Unfortunately, it must have been a human failing from early on, as the descriptive phrase goes back to one of Aesop's Fables, quoted by Phaedrus, the first-century Roman author.
The \Jfable\j tells of a fly biting a bald man on his head. Trying to kill it, he not only missed the insect but hit himself. Highly amused and happy to have escaped the blow, the fly now addressed the man. "You intended to kill me for a mere touch," it said. "What will you do to yourself, now that you have added insult to injury!" The legendary fly's words are the source of the so modern-sounding phrase!
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"Admiral: History of the Name",22,0,0,0
Even those of highest rank are not exempt from error. This applies to an Admiral as well. His title, of Arab stock, contains a letter which does not belong there and, altogether, is jumbled.
A \JMoslem\j ruler, prince or commander is known as Amir or Emir. \JArabs\j thus referred (at least as early as the twelfth century) to those in charge of their Mediterranean navy as \IAmir-al-bahr\i - "ruler of the sea." Crusaders possibly brought the title to Europe, where it was finally adopted by the British. Though a maritime nation, they strangely dropped the "sea" \I(bahr),\i so that all that was left was Amir-al. Ignorant of Arabic, they further confused the already truncated name with the Latin for "admirable," resulting in Admiral.
Later generations tried to rationalize the error. They explained that, as a seafaring people, the British admired their navy and wanted to pay special respect to its chief. This led them to imagine that the description of his rank was not derived from the Moslems but expressed (from Roman roots) all that was "admirable."
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"Advent Meanings",23,0,0,0
Advent is four weeks before Christmas. It starts either on St Andrew's Day or the Sunday nearest to it - known as Advent Sunday - and it ends on Christmas Eve.
The name Advent, from the Latin \Iadventus,\i means the "coming" or advent of Jesus Christ. This is most obviously the occasion of His birth, which is remembered and celebrated on Christmas Day. However, it can also refer to His "second coming" when He is expected to judge the world on its "Judgement Day."
Advent was once a solemn time, a period of penitence. It has now totally changed in character. Young children in particular look forward to the "coming" of Christmas. They are given colorful Advent calendars which they use to eagerly count the days until Christmas Day. Advent has become a happy and exciting adventure.
Fixing wreaths to the outside of the front door is a well-known custom during Advent, and is an expression of joyful anticipation.
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"Advice on what an Epitaph should Say",24,0,0,0
\BSarah Wife of Frederick Newbery\b
This memorial is in the Goulburn Historical Cemetery:
\ISacred
to
The Memory of
Sarah Wife of Frederick M
Newbery died Novr. 24 1847
Aged 31 Years\i
It gives no personal information or eulogy. However, as if to explain such brevity, a verse reminds the reader that:
\IPraises on Tombs are
Vanly [sic] Spent Womans
Good Deeds are the
Best Monument.\i
One is left to wonder why the principle is restricted to females.
#
"Aeroplane Jelly",25,0,0,0
Aeroplane Jelly is yet another Australian product. Its success was the result of the enterprise and imaginative mind of one man - Adolphus Herbert Appleroth. He first manufactured the jelly and chose the name that was to make it popular nationwide.
Adolphus had learnt how to make jelly crystals whilst working for Lipton Teas in the late 1920s. Determined to produce them himself, he gave up his job to start his own firm, in a rented shed. Whilst establishing himself and making his new venture a payable proposition, he earned his living as a tram conductor and sold his goods by hawking them from door to door.
At the time, civil air races were the vogue, and Adolphus decided to cash in on the craze and call his product "Aeroplane Jelly."
A true pioneer, he was the first to broadcast commercials, almost saturating the airwaves with his advertisements. Even in this he showed himself an innovator; his commercials took the form not of spoken words, but of a catchy, now famous jingle, "I like Aeroplane Jelly," sung by a five-year-old-girl, Joy King.
Soon known and sold nationwide, Aeroplane Jelly lived up to its name, being delivered by charter Tiger Moth planes!
The company Adolphus started in 1927 has become a family dynasty, now run by the third generation. Adolphus is buried in the Anglican section of the Rookwood Cemetery. The inscription on his beautifully kept grave does not refer to his place in Australian history as a pioneer merchant, but shows him as the family man:
\IIn
Loving Memory of
A Dear Husband and Father
ADOLPHUS HERBERT APPLEROTH
Who departed this life 17th July 1952
Aged 65 Years
Too dearly loved to be forgotten\i
#
"Afghan Cameleers",26,0,0,0
The grave sites of Afghans, whether in the \JMoslem\j sections of cemeteries or at isolated spots, can be found from the Kimberleys to Broken Hill and all over the \JNorthern Territory\j. They recall the significant part Afghans played in the building of \JAustralia\j.
Afghans came to this country as camel drivers, and soon proved their worth. Indeed, they became so much identified with the role of cameleer that even Indians, brought from the Punjab to fulfill the same function, often were referred to as "Afghans."
The value of the camel in \JAustralia\j, particularly in the outback and the many desert areas, was realized by \JAustralia\j's early pioneers. Horses needed grass and water daily. Though bullocks could subsist on all kinds of fodder, they, too, had to have water every day.
Not so the camel - this four-wheel-drive of its day. It could pull wagons over vast distances of arid land and carry heavy loads, often in "camel trains," without having to be watered for days on end.
With foresight, men like Sir Thomas Elder and J. A. Horrocks imported camels, together with their drivers. Some communities in the outback would have been completely isolated without the camel.
The work of the cameleers was hard. They often started at four o'clock in the morning and went on without stopping till sunset, at times thus moving continuously for up to 20 hours a day.
As devout Muslims, Afghans refused to carry pork or bacon. Should they discover that these had been surreptitiously loaded onto their animals, they removed and burnt them! Conscientiously they abstained from drinking hard liquor and never went to rest without first having had a ritual ablution and saying their prayers.
The majority of the cameleers were exceedingly poor and in some parts of the country had to work for starvation wages. The \IBourke Banner\i quoted the wage paid by Afghan companies in the late 1890s at รบ24 ($48) per annum. Contractually, the cameleers had to serve for six years. Almost half of their promised wage was withheld to pay for their passage, which left them with two shillings and three pence (23 cents) per week.
On one occasion two Afghans were found so emaciated that, to save their lives, they were put into the local prison to feed them, certainly a unique kind of protective custody. The leaders and managers of the camel companies fared very well, and became wealthy and respected entrepreneurs.
The different status and conditions of the cameleers is reflected by the way they were buried. Many of them are interred in unidentified graves. Others' last resting places are marked by monuments of various kinds.
Two Afghan graves in the Broken Hill Cemetery have small tiled gabled roofs. Buried in the same cemetery is Gunny Khan. He died on 1 June 1905 at the age of 50. His headstone is especially significant because it was erected, as its inscription says, by Dost Mahomet.
Dost was the Afghan cameleer who became famous through his association with the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860-61. He had been brought to \JAustralia\j with his 24 charges especially to accompany the explorers, which he did as far as Cooper Creek.
There he died and was buried, a short distance from the present road, three kilometers south of Menindee.
After the expiration of their contract, many Afghans stayed in \JAustralia\j, which became their permanent home. Their descendants were greatly to enrich and serve \JAustralia\j, both in peace and in war.
A. Aziz's grave, also in the Muslim section of the Broken Hill Cemetery, is marked with the traditional simple stone of Australian servicemen. Headed by the Australian Army Badge its inscription, in both English and Arabic, tells that he was a private in the 24th Infantry Battalion of the Australian Forces and had died, on 19 October 1951, at the young age of 28.
Conspicuously placed within an enclosure in the Bourke Cemetery is the well-preserved monument on the grave of another Afghan, clearly identifying the deceased as such. A voluminous Arabic inscription covers two-thirds of the headstone, which is decorated with ivy leaves and carries an added inscription in English that it was the resting place of:
\IZERIPH KHAN [AFGHAN]
Born in \JAfghanistan\j 1871
Died 23rd March 1903, Aged 32 Years\i
Outstanding in a different way is the last resting place of Bye Khan, also in the Bourke Cemetery. He died on 9 June 1947 - "Aged 107 Years."
He passed away in the Bourke \JHospital\j. His phenomenal age is not substantiated by any document. The figure had been arrived at by calculation, as he was known to have served in the Afghan War, which had ended in 1880. According to newspaper reports of the time, to perform his interment service, "a Mohammedan priest specially came from Sydney to Bourke."
Traditionally, Muslims are buried orientated towards Mecca. But as the graves in the Bourke Cemetery are aligned from south to north, Bye Khan was laid to rest on his side, so that his face was turned towards the holy Muslim city.
Like many of his countrymen, Bye Khan had come to \JAustralia\j, "temporarily," to manage nine strings of camels and their 50 drivers. He had left his wife behind in \JAfghanistan\j. But when some of his men, who had returned with their savings to their homeland, informed Bye that his wife had died, he had no incentive to go back. He stayed on in \JAustralia\j and, working hard, invested his savings in real estate, finally to die in Bourke.
\JAlice Springs\j once served as one of the most significant centres for cameleers. This explains the great number of Afghans buried in the Muslim section of its cemetery.
Among the graves is that of Sallay Mahomet. His father arrived in \JAustralia\j from \JAfghanistan\j in 1897, and he was born in \JKalgoorlie\j in 1911. First assisting his father as a camel handler, he eventually settled in \JAlice Springs\j. Though busy with \Jcattle\j and sheep, he also took up the breeding of camels and the making of saddles for these ships of the desert.
Highly respected, he became the spiritual leader of the Muslim community. He looked after the religious education of the children and conducted all the practices Muslim faith required, including the ritual slaughtering of animals.
The highlight of Mahomet's life, no doubt, was when, in 1975, Jim Cairns, the then Minister for Overseas Trade, asked him to provide Australian camels, to be sent as a gift to King Khalid of Saudi \JArabia\j. He not only caught and trained four such camels, but subsequently was delegated to deliver them personally to the royal recipient.
The best known of all his enterprises, perhaps, was the part he played in the annual Lions "Camel Cup." In importance and excitement, for the people of the Center, it equaled the \JMelbourne Cup\j.
Sallay passed away in July 1983, 71 years old. His grave, paved with small tiles, is marked by a simple plaque. This displays the Muslim emblem and, in its superscription, calls on the name of Allah.
Gool Mahomed, who died on 28 May 1985, aged 77 years, "Beloved Husband of Beth [and] Loved Father to All His Children," was, as a special tablet on his memorial tells:
\I'The Last of the Original
Cameleers'\i
#
"Aftermath",27,0,0,0
In spite of modern urbanization, many terms of everyday life recall the rural roots of civilization and society's original close contact with nature. Thus to call the follow-up of an event its inevitable consequence (mainly when this is of an unfortunate nature, as in the case of disaster and war) goes back to the soil and farm life.
"Math" from the Old English meath, originally referred to "mowing," the harvesting of the grass, then done with a scythe or a sickle. Once this crop, which provided the best sort of hay, had been gathered, new shoots came up. They were public property and therefore welcomed by landless people. It was their chance to reap for themselves (like the biblical gleaning) the new growth. This, very much to the point, came to be known as the "aftermowing" - the aftermath.
#
"Ahoy",28,0,0,0
Ahoy, now used as a call to hail a ship or to attract attention, began much more awesomely. The war cry of the Vikings, it was meant to put fear into the hearts of their enemies.
#
"Air Crash Victims Last Resting Place",29,0,0,0
\JAustralia\j happily has been spared many major air disasters. The first was shrouded for many years in mystery. On 21 March 1931, the \ISouthern Cloud,\i a three-engined Avro 10 passenger \Jaircraft\j, vanished whilst on its regular flight from Sydney to Melbourne. An extensive air and ground search for survivors or wreckage failed to come across a single trace.
Twenty-seven years later, on 26 October 1958, the wreckage was discovered - by mere chance. Whilst on a Sunday afternoon walk, taking photographs near "World End," a young workman employed by a contractor to the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Authority, came across it.
The cause of the crash was never fully ascertained. Most likely, it was linked with unexpected severe cyclonic weather conditions: continuous rain, low cloud, exceptionally strong winds, and poor visibility.
The victims' remains were buried in the Cooma Cemetery. The inscription on the headstone on their common grave records the dates of both the loss of the \Jaircraft\j at "Deep Creek" and its ultimate recovery. The names of the two pilots and of the six passengers are listed in separate columns.
An additional plaque has been fixed to the memorial on this grave. Its first short line expresses a traditional prayerful wish in a most personal way: "Rest in Peace Shorty." Added to this petition is the quotation of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's opinion on the crash: "Whatever the circumstances of the disaster I feel that they were beyond human control." The great aviator's words were meant to exonerate both the pilot and co-pilot from having in any way been responsible for what happened.
#
"Air Pockets",30,0,0,0
It is wrong to assume that all misnomers are carry-overs from non-scientific days. We have our share in creating them.
One such common error concerns the so-called "air pockets" blamed for a plane being tossed about. They do not exist. The unpleasant experience is due to a totally different circumstance. It occurs when a plane, mostly while flying through a cloud (particularly of the cumulus type) is caught by a very strong up or down current. This, and not an air pocket or vacuum, causes the very uncomfortable sudden drop or lift.
#
"Meat Origins",31,0,0,0
A cut of beef from the rump used to provide a comparatively inexpensive meal. No wonder that among the English it became the "poor man's sirloin." In the nomenclature of meat cuts, it came to be known as "aitch-bone," a somewhat puzzling description. How did the letter "h" find its way there? In fact, its presence is not justified and due only to a confusion of sound. The original "aitch-bone" was the "edge-bone."
#
"Akubra Hat",32,0,0,0
A grave in the Randwick Cemetery and a niche in one of the walls of the Sydney Northern Suburbs Crematorium hold the remains of the two men who jointly created the Akubra hat. They were Benjamin Dunkerley and Stephen Keir.
It would be hard to find a product more Australian than the Akubra. It is manufactured by a wholly Australian-owned firm employing Australian workers, and uses exclusively Australian \Jrabbit\j skins, 60,000 to 70,000 per week.
Akubra (registered as a product name in 1911) is the Aboriginal word for "headgear." Their range includes designs named "Aussie Gold," "Snowy River," "Squatter," "Stockman," "Drover," "Cloncurry," and "Down Under."
Benjamin Dunkerley was born in Cheshire, England, in 1840 and was a hatter by trade. In 1872, he visited \JTasmania\j to explore prospects there, and found them so promising that he stayed on, with his wife and five children soon joining him. (Ultimately, the couple was to have ten children.) But Benjamin was not to remain in \JTasmania\j. He moved on to Sydney where, in Surry Hills, he established himself as a hatmaker.
Until then, the fur used for hats was manually cut from the \Jrabbit\j skins. With his innate gift of gadgetry, Benjamin invented a machine to do the task.
Stephen Keir, who was also English-born and a hatter by occupation, was working at that time for Anderson's, renowned Sydney hat-makers.
Attracted by Dunkerley's drive and ingenuity, he joined his firm. Their partnership was to prove fruitful in more senses than one. Not only did the two men's combined efforts show quick results in a profitable manufacturing business, but young Steve fell in love with one of his associate's daughters and married her.
A third man now came into the picture. He was Arthur Pringle Stewart, a local merchant and distributor of a great variety of goods. After seeing the success of the enterprising hat-makers, in 1911 he approached Keir and offered to take over the marketing of their products. Keir agreed, and the enterprise grew to be so profitable that Stewart gave up all his other lines to concentrate solely on the Akubra hats. It was he who first suggested the brand name!
Dunkerley was a generous man and money meant little to him. When still struggling to make ends meet, he thought nothing of lending to others of the few savings he had or, when there was hardly enough food for his large family, to invite guests home to dinner. He did not mind spending all he had. He used to say, "Money in the bank is money wasted!"
Dunkerley was also remembered for his practice of smoothing a hat with his hands and, when approving of it, to say, "That's a good piece of work!" Each well-made hat gave him a personal sense of achievement.
Akubra was a family business and each generation of Keirs took its place in the management. But each had to learn the trade first, starting at the very bottom on leaving school at the age of 15. The tradition was changed in the case of the founder's grandson, another Stephen Keir. His father did not let him join the hat mills until he had qualified as an accountant.
Working in the mercantile section of Dalgety's, Stephen met a young man who, always short of money, kept on borrowing small amounts from his mates. It did not take long for him to approach young Stephen, who gave him a loan of รบ5 ($10). The fellow then left the firm without making an effort to repay the money. He migrated to the United States, where he made good.
Hearing of his success, Stephen wrote to him, reminding him of the รบ5 still owing to him. His letter was duly answered. But instead of the money, he sent an autographed photograph. The young man was Errol Flynn!
Dunkerley worked until late in his life. When eventually he retired, it was not in his nature to do nothing. So he started all over again, opening another small factory. He fell ill and died on 20 February 1918, at the age of 78. His body was interred in the Methodist section of the Randwick Cemetery.
Stephen Keir passed away, almost 40 years later on 11 November 1957. He was cremated and his ashes were placed in a wall in the grounds of the Sydney Northern Suburbs Crematorium.
#
"Alabaster and Cat Worshiping",33,0,0,0
It was not without reason that the cat was worshiped in ancient \JEgypt\j. Egyptians then were deeply indebted to the feline which helped to keep their vast silos of grain free from rats and mice. The goddess linked with the cat was Bast or Bastet, and she was therefore always represented as cat-headed.
No wonder that sacred cats were kept in Bastet's temple, there to be ritually fed and cared for. When a cat died, as the goddess' \Jincarnation\j, it was given a special burial. Its often mummified body was solemnly placed into a coffin. Made of the finest type of grained \Jgypsum\j, the casket became known as \Ia-la-Baste,\i "the vessel of Bastet." This was the divine (and funereal) origin of our \Ialabaster\i in which, as it were, the cat goddess still hides.
#
"Alarm",34,0,0,0
The background of all "alarm" is an imminent fight. A warning call, it reminds all concerned to get ready for combat by taking up "arms." This is the literal meaning of the word, derived from the Old Italian \Iall'arme,\i "To arms!"
#
"Albatross and Sailors",35,0,0,0
The \Jalbatross\j has been the companion of sailors on the high seas far back into history. When all other birds had left off following a ship, this largest of web-footed birds kept on circling it, now and then alighting on the ocean, perhaps dropping back for a while, but always reappearing. In a sense, it became part of a crew who regarded it with superstitious fondness.
Anxiously they looked out for its presence. This fact alone could explain the objection to killing it, such a steady and loyal friend, whose company helped to relieve the monotony of sailing.
Imagination runs high on the lonely watches at sea. We do not know who the sailor was who first began to fancy that there was something mysterious about the way the \Jalbatross\j clung to the company of a ship and showed such stupendous power, flying long distances against the wind, apparently without ever using its wings as a means of propulsion. From his musing there sprang the haunting legend that the bird embodied the soul of a drowned sailor, clinging close to his own kind.
Once that was accepted, it was only a logical step to believe that the killing of an \Jalbatross\j was unlucky.
Samuel Coleridge's great poem, "The Ancient Mariner," which tells the tragedy of a sailor who deliberately shoots down one of the great birds, reinforced the spread of the old \Jsuperstition\j.
As late as 1959, the belief was the cause of a sit-down strike of some 50 sailors on board the cargo boat \ICalpean Star.\i After an unlucky voyage in the Antarctic, she was tied up in the port of Liverpool, England, because of engine trouble.
The sailors had attributed all their misfortunes on the trip to the presence on board of an \Jalbatross\j, consigned to a German zoo. When, on the day after arrival in port, the bird was found dead in its cage, even the sturdiest of the crew refused to continue the voyage.
Perhaps, after all, mere self-preservation could account for the \Jsuperstition\j among sailors. The bird was so strong that tales soon were current that it had lifted up ship-wrecked sailors out of the sea and brought them to safety. To kill a potential rescuer was tantamount to suicide.
#
"Albert Namatjira",36,0,0,0
Albert Namatjira's paintings are now priceless and his establishment of a school for the Aranda, his tribe, is a proud chapter of Australian history. He is the most famous full-blooded native of central \JAustralia\j and his works occupy a prominent place in national galleries.
\JAlice Springs\j has a suburb named after him, and the headstone on his grave in the \JAlice Springs\j Cemetery is as unusual as the monument put up in his honor and memory near the Hermannsburg Mission, where he was born, grew up, and first discovered the love of painting.
Namatjira's headstone is four feet (1.2 metres) high and weighs about two tonnes. It is roughly hewn from a granite boulder from Mount Gillen, a conspicuous landmark near \JAlice Springs\j and a favorite subject in his paintings.
The plaque on the stone, under the sign of the cross, quotes a passage from St Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (I Cor.15,10), "By the Grace of God I am what I am." lt does so not in English but in Aranda, the language of his tribe. The words express Albert's deep religious faith, imbibed at the mission station, and his conviction that his talent was God's gift to him.
\IALTJIRAKA NGUANGIBERANTAMA JINGA NAMA NANA
JINGA NAMANGA I. Cor. 15. 10A
Artist
ALBERT NAMATJIRA
Born at Hermannsburg July 28th. 1902
Died at \JAlice Springs\j August 8th 1959.\i
The monument cost รบ103 ($206), which was collected by author Frank Clune, one of Namatjira's admirers and patrons. In fact, the contributions received exceeded by far the amount needed. The surplus was spent on the erection of the monument, in the form of a cairn, near Hermannsburg Mission. Of natural stone, it is six metres high and 1.2 metres square and overlooks both Mount Hermannsburg and Mount Sonder. The inscription on its plaque says:
\IIn Memory
of
ALBERT NAMATJIRA
1902 - 1959
'This is the Landscape which Inspired the Artist'\i
After Albert had learnt painting from Rex Battarbee, it became his world. He never forgot the proud day he sold his first painting for five shillings (50 cents). And just as Rex had taught him, he became a teacher himself, forming his own school of art. He trained almost 20 of his tribesmen, many of whom soon copied their master's style.
In 1938 Rex arranged Albert's first one-man exhibition. Held at the Fine Arts Society's Gallery in Melbourne, it was opened by the Victorian governor's wife. All the 41 pictures shown were sold within three days. Indeed, Albert was to become the best-seller among Australian artists.
People came from far and wide to meet him. And when in 1953 the Queen visited \JAustralia\j, Namatjira was flown to \JCanberra\j to be presented to her.
Namatjira's phenomenal success unhappily led to his undoing as well. With the unending demand for his and his pupils' works, they began to turn out paintings as if on an assembly line.
During the 23 years of his painting career, Albert earned thousands of dollars ($160,000 altogether, it is estimated). In true Aboriginal custom, to start with, he shared much of the money with his tribe. The rest however, he spent none too wisely.
In spite of his fame, as an Aborigine, Albert was still a charge of the State and restricted in his rights. He was not even allowed to own a house in \JAlice Springs\j. In protest, and not afraid to make his voice heard, he made it known that "his people were tired of living like animals."
Eventually, in 1957, Namatjira was given full citizen's rights, and could share all the white man's advantages and temptations, including alcohol. He took to drink, with which he could not cope. When one day he was caught supplying liquor to an Aboriginal ward, he was arrested, tried, found guilty, and given a prison sentence. Though this was eventually reduced, then changed into a mere token punishment, Albert never forgot or forgave it. He felt humiliated and embittered.
He lost his zest for painting and often merely sat and stared. He contracted \Jpneumonia\j, and was taken to the \JAlice Springs\j \Jhospital\j, where he died on the evening of 8 August 1959. Shortly before his passing, he knelt at his bedside, saying the \JLord's Prayer\j in his native tongue.
Pastor Albrecht, whose friendship he had cherished for so many years and who had been instrumental in starting him on his career, even helping him obtain his first paints and brushes, took the funeral service. He chose as the text of his eulogy the words from the Epistles which now head Albert's epitaph. He stressed how, in spite of all the honors bestowed on him and the publicity he had received as a public figure, Albert had never forgotten his roots. To his very death, "Albert remained a member of the Aranda tribe of Central \JAustralia\j [and] he was given every encouragement by us to remain a true Aboriginal."
Namatjira will always be remembered as the first Aboriginal painter to gain world fame and by the eminent place he occupies in the annals of Australian art.
#
"Albie Hounslow and his Reel",37,0,0,0
A monument of white marble marks the grave of "Albie" Hounslow, a surf lifesaver buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery. He passed away in 1964 at the early age of 33. The services he rendered are recalled by a miniature replica of a lifesaver with his reel, wrought in metal and placed at the base of the memorial.
#
"Alcohol Warms",38,0,0,0
Almost paradoxical is the assumption that alcohol has a warming effect on a cold day. On the contrary, the spirit dilates small blood vessels and thereby causes warmth to leave the body. It is the ensuing sensation which creates the illusion. In actual fact, liquor lowers body temperature.
#
"Alimony Meaning",39,0,0,0
Cynics have suggested that alimony stood for "all his money." Linguistically, there is no mention of money at all in the legal term. Nor is this allowance to a divorced wife regarded as "alms," as dissatisfied parties have been led to believe. The \Imony\i of the word has merely grammatical significance. It is a common \Jsuffix\j without pecuniary meaning and occurs in such diverse conditions and occasions as matrimony, acrimony, and ceremony. The decisive part of alimony is contained in \Iali,\i its first half. From the Latin for "nourishment" and "sustenance," it is also found in the \Jalimentary canal\j. Alimony thus speaks of ensuring that the divorced spouse will not go hungry.
#
"Allergies",40,0,0,0
One of the earliest recorded cases of \Jallergy\j was that of a sixteenth century \JArchbishop\j of St Andrew's who suffered from \Jasthma\j. His physician, a Dr Cardano, diagnosed his complaint as an \Jallergy\j. Taking into account his hypersensitiveness, he made the ecclesiastic remove his feather pillow.
#
"Alpha and Omega",41,0,0,0
A well-known figure of speech in the Book of Revelation (first written in Greek), was intended to express God's and, in a later passage, Christ's eternity (1,8 and 22,13): "I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End." Alpha, of course, was the first and Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet.
Though Greek was no longer the spoken tongue, the old \Jsymbolism\j was adopted in the graveyard. The two letters, displayed on either side of an open book (representing the book of life), affirm God's presence - from beginning to end - in the life of the deceased.
Additionally, the Alpha and Omega are meant to remind all Christians visiting the grave, that God is "the beginning and the end" of all things.
#
"Alphabet Origins",42,0,0,0
All alphabets - and there are more than 200 of them - derived from one original alphabet. This came, as so many other benefits of Western civilization, from the Orient. Just as the Ten Commandments were revealed on the \JSinai\j Peninsula, so - as discoveries of inscriptions in our century have suggested - one of the earliest alphabets, if not the very first one, was conceived in that very region as well!
There is no doubt that the desert land between \JEgypt\j and \JBabylonia\j, between the home of \Jhieroglyphics\j and cuneiform, gave mankind its alphabet. The approximate date of its birth is the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C.
The alphabet's very name reflects its Semitic parents, \IAleph\i and \IBeth\i being the first two letters of the \JHebrew\j alphabet. It was adopted through the Phoenicians by the Greeks, who spread it throughout Europe.
All letters developed from pictures. The prototype of our present-day writing are drawings of some common object, such as a fence, a camel, a hand, a head, a fish or a spear. In Oriental languages, the letters are still called by their names, whose initial sounds represent the letters of the alphabet in most tongues to this day.
"A" originally depicted the head of an ox \I(A\ileph in \JHebrew\j); "B" was the simplified drawing of a house \I(B\ieth in \JHebrew\j); "G" derived from a camel \I(G\iamal in \JHebrew\j); in the "M" we can still recognize water, shown by one of its waves \I(M\ia'yim in \JHebrew\j), and in the "O" the shape of an eye. The "T," most obviously, is a cross.
The number of the letters in the alphabet differs slightly from nation to nation. Whilst the English alphabet, for instance, counts 26 letters, that of the Russians has 36, of the Spanish 27 and of the \JHebrew\j language 22 characters.
The reason for this fluctuation is easy to discover. The general rule of the alphabet is "one sound - one letter." People vary not only in the language they speak but in the kind of sounds they are able to produce. \JArabs\j are even more guttural than the Germans. The Greek tongue could not make any use of our "C" and "V," whilst the letter "J" was "unpalatable" to the Romans.
The sounds represented in the earliest alphabet completely lacked any vowels. Originally, this consisted of consonants only, which complicated interpretation. The most simple text would thus baffle the reader, who had to decide for himself where a vowel was intended and which one was needed.
Take, for example, one of our best-known \Jnursery rhymes\j. Written in the ancient manner it would appear thus-
\IMR HD LTTL LMB\i
Even if it were suggested what this line of consonants represented, it would still take some considerable time to read into it that-
\IMaRy HaD a LiTTLe LaMB.\i
But this is exactly how, in earliest times and for almost 2,000 years, people wrote. A simple three-letter word, for instance, made up of the consonants BRD thus presented a choice of many meanings. It could be read as-
\IBeaRD, BaRD, BiRD, BReaD, BReeD, BRoaD, or BRooD\i
-to mention the most obvious possibilities.
It is not surprising, therefore, that this lack of vowels became a frequent source of misunderstanding and error, as actually ""reading" was merely "guessing." When, finally, vowel signs were introduced, they were simple in form - Morse-like dots and dashes.
Other obvious features of present-day script are equally the result of thousands of years of evolution. Originally, only capital letters were known; small or lower case letters were not developed until the \JMiddle Ages\j. At first, all writing moved from right to left, as \JHebrew\j and Arabic still do to this day. To unravel the above nursery rhyme would thus be an even greater problem-
\IBML LTTL DH RM\i
Another later development was punctuation, which for centuries was non-existent. A further difficulty of early writing was that all words were strung together without spaces, in order not to waste precious writing material like \Jpapyrus\j and parchment. Applying the original way of writing, from right to left and without vowels and spacing, the verse would have been this short line of consonants-
\IBMLLTTLDHRM\i
No wonder that the reading of documents was confined to a small circle of experts!
It was one of the great innovations in the history of civilization when, for the first time, an unknown genius comprised the idea "literally" to pause between words and to separate them not only on his tongue but on whatever then took the place of paper.
The alphabet is one of the most revolutionary inventions made by man in his cultural development. It came into existence not suddenly but, as has been shown, as the result of continuous growth and many stages of trial and error. We owe our letters to the brilliant minds of men whose names and identities we shall never know.
#
"Altar, Urn, Shroud, and Altar Cloth",43,0,0,0
A combination of four symbols on a tombstone, one reinforcing the other, shows a cloth-draped urn standing on an altar which is covered with the traditional altar cloth.
The altar, the most sacred part of a church until the days of the Reformation, was mostly made of stone and to add to its sanctity the body of a saint was sometimes buried under it. Its intense holiness came to denote the very presence of Christ.
Even the cloth covering the altar had a deeply religious meaning, also associated with death. Of pure linen and often richly ornamented, it was not, as many assume, a mere embellishment of the holy table to which the faithful proceeded during the Holy Communion service. Actually, the altar cloth is meant to represent the shroud that once covered the body of crucified Christ.
The urn is emblematic of the dust into which the dead body will change, whilst the spirit of the departed eternally rests with God.
The cloth draping the urn symbolically guarded the ashes. It also served as an expression of grief and, as the replica of a shroud, as a reminder of death.
#
"Ambulance",44,0,0,0
Ambulance (as a name) contains neither the injured nor the sick. All it says is that it is "moving." It goes back to early, temporary field hospitals which served and moved with the army and in their French description were known as \Ihโ pital ambulant.\i
With the introduction of base hospitals, the "ambulant" one became redundant, to take on as its new function the transporting of the wounded and sick. On the way, in a manner of speaking, it lost the "\Jhospital\j" part and thus survives as the modern ambulance.
#
"Ambush",45,0,0,0
The ambush is so well camouflaged (as a word) that its original situation is no longer realized. Any ambush - no matter where - goes back to the woods where those lying in wait were hiding. There is only a slight difference between the Italian and French roots of the ambush.
Whilst the French speak of "going into the woods" \I(embucher),\i the Italians refer to the actual being "concealed in the woods" \I(emboscata).\i
#
"Amen Origins",46,0,0,0
\IAmen\i is the most widely known and frequently used of all religious words. Jews, Christians, and Moslems have made it a significant part of their worship. It concludes hymns, prayers, creeds, and the recital of the first Sura of the Mohammedan \JBible\j the Koran. Marking their ends, it is like a seal, affirming what has been said or sung before, promised or threatened.
The word Amen is found 13 times in the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j and strangely, occurs there first in the case of a jealous husband suspecting his wife of adultery.
An ancient ritual test demanded of her to drink "bitter waters." While she was doing so, a priest pronounced a curse to the effect that should she be guilty, her belly would swell and her thigh sag. Whereupon the woman, still protesting her innocence, had to affirm the curse by uttering Amen twice.
The \JNew Testament\j mentions Amen 119 times. Whenever Jesus wished to emphasize the significance and solemnity of what He said, He prefaced His words with an Amen.
Amen is a \JHebrew\j word. Though commonly explained to mean "so be it," and hence to express simultaneously assent, agreement, and a supplication, it is derived from a root that signifies "truth." Therefore anyone saying Amen confirms all that has gone before in speech or song as being true, trustworthy, and reliable.
But some think that even the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j is not the original source of this affirmation and that the Amen actually goes back to \IAmun,\i the name of an Egyptian deity of highest rank, indeed their "king of gods," who at one time was worshiped all through the \JMiddle East\j. His name meant "the hidden one."
So Amen might have originated in polytheistic faith, when Egyptian pagan believers (just as Greeks and Romans did later on, as we still recall in our own "By Jove") invoked their god in the form of an oath, saying "By \JAmun\j." Perhaps it was from those early Egyptian sources that the Hebrews adopted the Amen. Wisely, however, they gave it a new interpretation by linking it with all that was "true" and "established." Naturally both the Church and the Mosque, as children of Israel, continued the use of the Amen which, nevertheless, carries concealed, within itself the ancient Egyptian god.
Such a simple and common word as the Amen "affirms" the mystery and paradox that make up human life. We endorse our faith in spiritual divinity by a word that once described a pagan deity.
#
"America: Origin of the Name",47,0,0,0
America is called after Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator who least deserved to be so honored. A combination of circumstances by-passed Columbus whose name, if any man's, should thus have been perpetuated.
Vespucci was a somewhat enigmatic figure. He made himself widely known by accounts he published of voyages he had undertaken to the newly-discovered regions across the Atlantic and which he - cleverly - sent to people of renown and influence. Though his claim roused controversy and doubt on the part of experts, they gained wide currency among the general public. All that people seemed to remember of Columbus was that he had been mistaken in assuming that he had merely reached India.
In a pamphlet Vespucci published in 1503, entitled "New World," he was the first to suggest that this should be the very name of the land across the Atlantic, "There was no knowledge of it among our ancestors, and it is a totally new thing to all who hear of it."
No wonder that he became more identified with the new territory. This prompted Martin Waldseemโฟller, a young German cartographer, on a global map he prepared for a work printed at St Diฮ in Lorraine, to "label" the new continent Amerigo, Vespucci's Christian name. He justified his choice by the fallacious belief that "since Amerigo Vespucci has discovered a fourth part of the world, I do not see any reason why anyone should rightfully object to calling this part after him."
Latinized, Amerigo became Americus. However, as other continents of the world were called after women, Vespucci's name underwent a change of sex as it were, and - in consonance with Africa and Asia - in its Latin feminine form, was rendered America.
#
"American Fall",48,0,0,0
"Fall" is taken to be typically American, for the English "autumn." Descriptively, it pictures falling of the leaves during that season.
However, "fall" is not an American word at all. It is traditionally English, frequently occurring in the works of the great Elizabethan writers. British settlers brought it with them to the American colony and, whilst the word died out in the Old Country, it was preserved as an English heirloom in the New World, never to fall by the way.
#
"American GI",49,0,0,0
The American G.I. is a product of World War II. As everything he wore or ate was supplied to him by the American nation, he himself was regarded as a Government Issue, in short, a G.I.
#
"American Horse Racing",50,0,0,0
A miniature three-toed horse, the \JHipparion\j, existed in America more than a million years ago, then completely vanished at the close of the Pliocene from the whole of the vast continent. The modern horse was introduced by the Spanish Conquistadores and colonizers only in the sixteenth century. A great number of the horses (the majority were Arabians) that the Spaniards had brought with them managed to escape. Roaming the country, they bred and multiplied, to be joined by other horses that had escaped from French settlers in the north. Together they established the wild American breeds.
\JHorse racing\j on American soil has the distinction of being the country's oldest organized sport. It was practiced in colonial times. Certainly, Americans owe the introduction of \Jhorse racing\j to the British, who established the first race course soon after having captured New \JAmsterdam\j from the Dutch. In fact, this was one of the first actions - in 1655 - of Richard Nicolls, first Royal Governor of New York. At a public meeting he convened for the purpose in February of that year, he declared that he did so not so much "for the divertissement of youth as for encouraging the bettering of the breed of horses which, through neglect, has been impaired."
The two-mile-long course, laid out on Long Island, Nicolls called Newmarket, after England's most famous track. To promote the venture, he also offered a silver cup to be won by the fastest horse at a race to be run each spring and fall.
Governor Frank Lovelace, Colonel Nicoll's successor, was responsible for America's first sweepstake. In 1669 he sponsored at Newmarket a race run for two silver cups, with a subscription of "one crown each or its equivalent in goode wheate."
The next most significant date in the evolution of American racing was the arrival of the first thoroughbred sire. Generally it is believed that the first stallion - Bulle Rock, a son of Darley Arabian - was imported from England to Virginia around 1730. Further purchases of numerous English thoroughbreds gave American breeding its foundation. The better horses became, the faster they ran and the more they attracted the masses.
Indicative of the popularity racing had gained was an event in 1823 on the Union Race Course, Long Island, which drew an estimated 60,000 people - the first large crowd ever to watch an American sporting function. Spectators came from all over the country to see the exciting match, not least perhaps because it also presented a contest between the North and the South. The North ran its fabulous, unbeaten American Eclipse. The South said they had many horses to offer that could eclipse, and finally chose Sir Henry. Eclipse won.
The first recorded race between American and British thoroughbreds took place in 1829, when the American horse Rattler was the victor.
Even the \JCivil War\j could not stop racing altogether, at least in the North. A race run at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1863, was such an outstanding success that, within a few years, more and more tracks were opened all over the country. One of them was Churchill Downs, \JLouisville\j, which in 1875 was the venue for the first Kentucky Derby, named after "the blue ribbon of the [English] turf." At the time, no one could guess that it was to become the most famous of all American stake races.
Americans gave to the world of racing the short stirrups and the "monkey crouch" that replaced everywhere the traditional English seat. (It is only fair to state that Australians claim to have pioneered the "monkey seat" almost simultaneously and, certainly, independently.) In 1936, at Hialeah, the photo-finish was introduced.
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"American Preference for Coffee",51,0,0,0
Legend tells that man acquired the habit of drinking \Jcoffee\j as a stimulant by mere accident. Thousands of years ago, Arab shepherds noticed the exhilaration of their sheep after having eaten berries from a certain bush. The animals frolicked around all night. It did not take the shepherds long to follow their sheep's example, with almost identical results. The rest is history.
That Americans prefer \Jcoffee\j to tea has nothing to do with taste. It goes back to the night of 16 December 1773 and the history-making \JBoston Tea Party\j. Until then the British colonists in the New World had continued their tea-drinking habit from back home. In protest against the British tax on tea, fifty men disguised as Indians then boarded a British vessel and emptied 342 tea chests into the harbor. It is well known how this was one of the events leading up to the War of Independence.
Five hundred \JBoston\j women were determined to show how strongly they felt about the iniquitous English tax.
With this purpose in mind, they resolved henceforth not to use any more tea but to drink \Jcoffee\j instead. (A first consignment of \Jcoffee\j had reached New England in 1660.) Their patriotic action was one of the main factors in making Americans a \Jcoffee\j-drinking nation.
#
"Amino Acids: Origin of the Name",52,0,0,0
Described as the building blocks of the human body, amino acids play an all-important role in life and in preserving good health. Through \Iamino,\i a part of the name of the substance, these "building blocks" partake of divinity - not only symbolically speaking, because they are vital - but because the name enshrines \JAmun\j, the Egyptian god who - during the eighteenth dynasty (in the sixteenth century B.C.) - became the state god of all \JEgypt\j.
\IAmmonia,\i which suggested the term of amino acid, has a story of its own, also based on religion. When Greek culture flooded the North African region and \JMiddle East\j, the Greeks identified \JAmun\j with their own god Zeus. Joining their names, they dedicated a Lybian temple to Zeus-Ammon.
Salt-like crystals discovered in or near the sanctuary were linked with, if not ascribed to, the god. The substance was called "the salt of Ammon" - \Isal ammoniac\i - and from it ammonia was derived. The crystals had formed in the soot, rising from burning camel dung, that covered the walls and ceiling of the sanctuary. (Dung was the only available fuel.)
A modern discovery of a fundamental fact of life thus is linked with religion of thousands of years ago.
#
"Ammunition",53,0,0,0
Fusion has played an unexpected role in the creation of modern ammunition. It has changed its total meaning. However, it did so not in the realm of explosives but in the world of mistakes.
Originally, a city's "fortification" was known by the French \Ila munition.\i Derived from the Latin \Imunitio,\i the description referred to the "building" of a defensive wall. Those not acquainted with French, mistook and misspelled the word. They detached the "a" from (the French article) \Ila,\i to link it with the (French) "wall," thereby transforming \Ila munition\i into l'ammunition. This produced (in English) the world's first "ammunition." At the beginning, it continued to denote a mere rampart, only subsequently to take on its explosive connotation.
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"Amulet",54,0,0,0
The considerations that prompted man to produce amulets were varied. The ancient assumption that "like cures like" is reflected in the phrase "hair of the dog." It was believed that a person bitten by a (mad) dog could be saved from \Jhydrophobia\j by the application of "a hair of the dog that bit him." In modern times this very principle is actually used in the case of an (alcoholic) hangover. It is imagined that a man "the worse for drink" would at once feel good again by having another drink!
The use of the \Jcowrie\j shell for an amulet goes back to the identical reasoning. Closely resembling the female private parts, it was thought to possess as well their life-giving power. Wearing it would increase one's sexual potency. Placed on graves, the shells would ensure the immortality of the dead buried below.
The forms amulets could take were as varied as their purpose. They could be a precious stone, a sacred inscription, or a magic symbol. They could represent part of a human or animal body: for instance a foot, a hand, a paw, or a tail. A flower, a root, or a herb could be adopted as an amulet. A five, six, or seven-pointed star symbol was another magic protection.
#
"Amulets in Judaism and Islam",55,0,0,0
The position in which amulets were placed was often closely related to the specific task allotted to them. Fixed outside a home, obviously an amulet was meant to keep out the devil or any other evil-bringer. That is the purpose, of course, of the horseshoe, the hex sign and the original meaning of the \IMezuzzah,\i the small scroll Jews still \Jaffix\j to the right hand doorpost of their homes. Apart from containing a sacred text (a \JHebrew\j quotation from the \JBible\j), the Mezuzzah conspicuously carries on its outside one of God's "powerful" names: \Ishaddai - \i"the Almighty."
Yet another type of amulet was "a script." To carry a sacred text on one's person has been a universal custom from primitive times. The wearer was sure that evil forces would catch sight of it and immediately take to flight.
Jews thus "fortified" themselves with \JHebrew\j quotations from the \JBible\j. Written on minute scrolls and placed in two boxes, they were bound by means of leather straps on the left arm ("opposite the heart") and on the center of the forehead ("between the eyes"). Referred to in \JHebrew\j as \ITefillin\i (for "prayers"), they were called in Greek \Iphylacteries.\i This term, which the \JNew Testament\j uses, stems from a root which very appropriately explains their function as a "guardian" and a "protector." Nowadays they are put on only by orthodox Jews while saying their (week-day) morning prayers, but originally, and at the time of Jesus, they were worn throughout the day.
Moslems adopted the Jewish custom but improved on it. In fact, they went to extremes. They used to carry on them not just excerpts from, but an entire copy of, the \IKoran.\i They did so not only to have an opportunity of studying its text at all times but also to be magically protected by it wherever they went.
They tied the book to their body by means of a cord, known by the Arabic \Ihimalah.\i And, according to some authorities, it was this very word which originated the term amulet in the sense we now use it! If so, it is a telling example of how, by constant association, we acquire the qualities of a close "contact."
\IHimalah\i simply referred to the fact that the book was "bound" to the person or "carried" by him by means of a cord. But by the amulet's "attachment" to the holy book, the \IKoran's\i sanctity rubbed off on the \Ihimalah;\i eventually, in people's minds, it gained equal efficacy to guard and protect. And that is how a mere string assumed the new meaningful and magic role of "amulet."
The very description of the amulet certainly has puzzled men and not least the philologist who is always anxious to trace the \Jetymology\j of a word. The controversy the amulet roused could only add to its mystery.
An unsubstantiated claim traced the word amulet back to a Greek sacramental vessel known as \Iamay.\i Another source often quoted is the \Iamuletum\i to which Pliny refers in his \INatural History,\i in which he gives many of its possible applications. It could preserve man from trouble, he writes, and act as an effective prophylactic against sickness; in fact, it could be taken as a medicine. Not least, Pliny adds, it could guard man against magic, evil spells, and incantations.
Apart from such general observations, the Roman writer cites many individual cases and examples. For instance, anyone could keep evil beings out of his home and render any poisonous drugs harmless by planting \Jcyclamen\j in his garden. Pliny goes on to relate that it was for this reason that people in his time colloquially called that plant \Iamuletum!\i
The snout of a wolf fixed on a door was thought to ward off evil. Spitting into the right shoe would immunize its wearer from being "hurt" by demons. A piece of amber tied to an infant of delicate health would give it extra resistance. Pliny's mention of the \Iamuletum\i proves the popularity it had gained in his time. Still, he does not supply its \Jetymology\j. A widely accepted suggestion is that the Latin root of \Iamuletum\i was \Iamolior.\i This spoke of "driving away," "repelling" danger, and "baffling" evil forces. This would account for the amulet being truly "an instrument of defense."
Since many amulets were actually worn on or tied to the body, in \JHebrew\j they were - very appropriately - known as \Ikamea.\i This word is derived from a root meaning "to bind" or "to knot." However, to see the English "cameo" as an heirloom of the \JHebrew\j \Ikamea,\i as has been frequently done, is incorrect.
#
"Amulets in the Bible",56,0,0,0
The \JBible\j contains numerous references to the use of amulets. Most of them are obvious. For instance, there is the report of how the \Jpatriarch\j Jacob collected, from members of his own household, treasured divine images and earrings they had worn or carried with them "for luck," and buried them "out of the way" under a tree. His purpose, of course, was to wean the household from idolatrous \Jsuperstition\j.
One case is most intriguing because of the way it has been misinterpreted and is being misunderstood to this very day. It concerns Cain. When he had killed Abel, so Scripture tells (Gen. 4,15), God had marked him with a special "sign." This passage led people to speak of "the brand of Cain" and see in it a symbol of punishment and contempt. But though widespread and generally adopted, this idea completely misses the point.
Cain received the tattoo from God "lest any[one] finding him, should smite him." It was not meant as a token of disgrace but, on the contrary (and paradoxically), as a protective charm - to safeguard the murderer's life.
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"An Aborigine's Grave in Britain",57,0,0,0
Governor Phillip, anxious to introduce \JAborigines\j to the British, had two natives brought to England in 1792. Bennelong was one of them. Somehow he must have enjoyed the visit, the admiration paid him by London society, and his presentation to King \JGeorge III\j.
Yemmerrawanyea Kebbarah, his companion, fared badly however. He just could not take the English climate or adjust himself to the new surroundings, which overpowered him. He died in London (from tuberculosis or some other chest complaint), a young man of 18, and was buried in the Eltham Parish Church, St John the Baptist. His gravestone is inscribed:
\IIn
Memory of
YEMMERRAWANYEA
a Native of
NEW SOUTH WALES
who died the 18th May
1794
In the l9th Year of his
AGE\i
The epitaph omits his second name, which appears in the burial register of the church. The register also records that he died "at the house of Mr Edward Kent," who, it is generally assumed, ran a lodging place at the time.
Present-day Aboriginal activists are trying to have the remains of Yemmerrawanyea exhumed and brought back to \JAustralia\j, to be interred among the people of his tribe at Port Jackson.
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"An Act of God",58,0,0,0
It is indeed strange that, while good luck and success are taken for granted as natural phenomena or assumed to be merited, yet, for the purposes of insurance, natural disasters - such as floods, earthquakes and tidal waves - are defined, in a quaint legal phrase, as "acts of God." For many people, it is the only time that God's presence and power are recognized.
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"An Eye for an Eye",59,0,0,0
"An eye for an eye" has often been condemned as a principle of revenge. This completely misinterprets the intention of the \JHebrew\j axiom, taking it out of its historical context. The law aimed not at ruthless retaliation, but at establishing a system of dispassionate justice in a world of blood feuds, vendettas, and wild vengeance.
When the law was first promulgated, society was divided into classes and punishment meted out according to the status of both victim and culprit. For instance, if anyone considered inferior had inflicted \Jbodily harm\j on a man of superior standing, the punishment never fitted, but by far exceeded the crime.
The principle of "an eye for an eye" therefore for the first time ever introduced one type of justice for all, irrespective of the individual's social position. More significantly, it limited punishment to its right proportions, was equitable and removed from hatred.
To make the new kind of advanced justice clear to everyone, the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j used not general terms but telling examples. They could easily be understood by everyone. That is why it ruled, "one eye for an eye, one tooth for a tooth, one hand for a hand ..." When Augustine, one of the early Fathers of the Church discussed the passage, he remarked on this notable development in which the pagans' unbounded lust for revenge was replaced by the \JHebrew\j concept of, righteous world, "One eye, not two, for an eye; one tooth not ten, for a tooth; one life, not the whole family, for a Iife; and the tooth of a poor man must be regarded as precious as that of the rich."
Actually, the injunction was never literally applied which, in any case, would have been a practical impossibility. From early days, Jewish authorities interpreted the passage to refer to monetary compensation, in which the guilty party had "to pay for the crime," the amount of the fine carefully to be determined by an impartial judge.
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"Anagrams and Monograms",60,0,0,0
Letters embossed on headstones, singly or combined, have their individual \Jsymbolism\j. Using either English or Greek characters, they may be the initials of a word too sacred to be spelled out in full, or serve as an \Jacrostic\j for a religious concept, a declaration of faith or a petition too lengthy to be given in full in the space available.
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"Anatomy in the Early Days",61,0,0,0
Babylonian and Egyptian priests were the early pioneers of anatomy, but they made their studies independently of one another and for different reasons.
A main concern of Babylonian religion was foretelling the future. It was believed that this could be done by a detailed study of the condition of the intestines, and particularly of the liver, of sacrificed animals. Soothsaying became a major function of Babylonian priests, and they were conscientiously trained for their role. As a result, they were among the first to acquire an intimate knowledge of the internal organs and the ability to recognize their slightest abnormality.
Egyptian priests, on the other hand, became anatomists because of their belief in immortality. This included the conviction that, at some future point in time, the soul would re-enter the body to resume life after death. To make this possible, it was essential to preserve the body and its individual organs. To do so, the priests developed the art of embalming and the skill to carefully remove the various organs, which they then stored separately in jars. The practice necessitated a precise knowledge of their exact position and characteristics.
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"Ancestor of Robert the Bruce",62,0,0,0
Lieutenant-Colonel John Bruce, buried in the East Perth Cemetery, was a direct descendant of Robert Bruce of Scotland, the legendary figure of Scottish history who won independence for his country. But this is not the only reason that the colonel's grave historically is so significant. John Bruce, "late of H.M's 16th and 18th Foot, 62 years old when he passed away on 5 November 1870," had also served for "20 years [as] Staff Officer of Pensioners and Commandant in WA."
The reference to a "Pensioners Force," found only on headstones in Western \JAustralia\j, is puzzling. The term might easily be misunderstood and imagined to apply to a company of old soldiers who, having retired, are enjoying their leisure recounting and reliving ancient battles.
However, the "Pensioners Force" in which Bruce played his part and which was peculiar to Western \JAustralia\j, was something totally different.
An active military unit in existence from 1850 to 1880, it could be joined only by men who had served in the British army for a minimum of 21 years and who had been involved in military action in a war zone. Theirs was the task of guarding convicts in the colony. They took over the duty from members of the regular army, who could no longer cope with this additional burden, originally included in their many and varied assignments.
The Pensioners' term of service and payment was strictly regulated. The convicts were under their charge during their voyage out to \JAustralia\j, and until the arrival of the next contingent. "Demobbed," the pensioners, as free settlers, were given a grant of land valued at รบ10 ($20), and could make use of convict labor.
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"Anchor on a Headstone",63,0,0,0
An anchor on a headstone may simply identify a grave as that of a sailor. However, much more frequently, the anchor is used symbolically, either to convey a religious message or to refer to an outstanding character trait of the deceased.
As an anchor is designed to prevent a ship from drifting, it became an emblem of steadfastness.
St Paul, who on his missionary journeys frequently had to cross the seas, no doubt was well acquainted with the important function of an anchor, as were those he addressed. He therefore made use of it as a \Jmetaphor\j. He knew that his message would easily be understood and remembered. This made him in his "Epistle to the Hebrews," (6, 19) write "that the hope for salvation was like an anchor for our lives, an anchor safe and sure."
The anchor became a religious symbol, expressing the hope for salvation. With this in mind, early Christians in ancient \JRome\j carved its picture on jewels and gems, and on the walls of the \Jcatacombs\j.
An anchor on a headstone expresses the conviction that the deceased was certain of salvation. He would not drift into nothingness, indeed, his immortality and ultimate \Jresurrection\j were assured.
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"Ancient Forms of Basketball",64,0,0,0
There is no doubt that \Jbasketball\j owes its existence to James Naismith. However, it is possible that he was influenced by an indigenous game played thousands of years earlier on American soil by Mayan and Toltec races.
As a student of religion, Naismith must have been aware of the exciting discoveries of Mayan and Toltec ballcourts at excavations in Mexico. They had been buried for more than 1,500 years under thick jungle. They varied in size. One of the largest is at Chichen Itza. It is in a state of almost perfect preservation.
These ancient races did not play ball to amuse themselves or for the sake of physical culture. For them it was a most serious and solemn fertility rite. The result of the game, they were convinced, determined the life of future generations and the continuation of the cycle of nature - whether there would be rain or \Jdrought\j, fecundity, or barrenness.
The playing field was huge - 480 feet by 120 feet (144 m by 36 m) - and surrounded by temples. Two long, high walls flanked it on either side, and, protruding from them, high up at their very center, were two huge, vertical, stone rings. These were the ancestors of the modern hoops in the game of \Jbasketball\j. The \Jacoustics\j were so perfect that anyone speaking in an ordinary tone of voice at one end of the court could be heard clearly at the other.
When playing, two teams passed a solid, rubber ball to and fro between them, thereby scoring points. The players, however, were not permitted to touch the ball with their hands. They had to strike it either with the knee, elbow, or hip, for which protectors were worn.
The object was to get the ball through one of the rings. This was most difficult to achieve. When accomplished, it marked the end of the game and of the losing side's captain. Immediately afterwards, he was beheaded by the captain of the winning team!
The spectators did not go scot-free, either. Fortunately, they were apt to lose only their belongings: clothes and jewelry which they forfeited to the player who had shot the winning goal. No wonder that they tried to escape the moment this happened. But friends of the goal-shooter pursued them to exact the tribute due to him.
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"Ancient Legends of Swimming",65,0,0,0
Most animals are born swimmers, but man has had to learn to swim. He possibly did so in earliest times by watching animals in the water and his most primitive style was thus that of "animal paddling" or the "dog paddle" stroke. To begin with, he might have held on to a floating log, trying to propel himself by movements with his legs as if he were walking or running.
Ancient monuments and records uncovered by archaeologists depict him moving along or beneath the water. These prove that swimming was practiced by many races in that early period of civilization.
Obviously, swimming at first was not a sport or a health-giving exercise, but a life saver and part of warfare. Man took to the water of necessity. He swam to take his foes by surprise, to make his escape (from man or beast), or to save himself from drowning. Swimming was part of early military training.
Its technique imitated the animals' movements. The swimmers thrashed the water with hands, arms, and legs, and though their speed was slow they were able to reach the shore if the distance was not too great. Man, however, swam "with the strength of fear rather than with his own." It was inevitable that he soon experienced the exhilaration of swimming and adopted it as a healthy pastime. Once he had mastered the art of staying afloat, his competitive instinct led him to develop the sport, step by step.
Hieroglyphic symbols, ancient Assyrian sculptures, Greek legend, Roman documents, and the \JBible\j, all testify to the early existence of swimming. Thousands of years ago man had learned to use inflated animal bladders as an aid to keep himself afloat.
In Egyptian writing, the sign for "swim" shows a man's head and one arm forward and the other back, a position anticipating the Trudgen stroke. The British Museum treasures Assyrian stone carvings depicting men swimming, upheld by inflated bladders. Three warriors can be seen crossing a stream in flight from their foe, trying to reach their fortress. Two of them make use of blown-up skins, while the third, wounded by an arrow, is struggling against the current, apparently having lost his support. The portrayal carries the telling legend: "They fled - like fishes crossed the river."
Well known is the Greek myth of young Leander, who fell in love with beautiful Hero, priestess of \JAphrodite\j. As such she could not marry and the two lovers had to meet secretly. That is how Leander was forced to pursue his courtship in most uncommon ways and difficult circumstances.
They were separated by the waters of the \JHellespont\j (later to be known as the Dardanelles). Secretly, every night, Leander swam across to his lady love, to spend at least a few hours with her and to return home before dawn.
Leander had to cover a considerable distance (of at least two miles - 3.20 km) each night and his feat may be considered the earliest marathon swim. He must have been a great athlete, and we may well wonder how he was able each day to conceal his fatigue from the previous night's swim.
Hero, anxiously waiting for Leander's arrival, guided him to the shore with a lamp. One night when a storm put out the light, Leander lost his bearings and was drowned. When Hero eventually saw his body floating in the surf, heart-broken she threw herself into the \JHellespont\j.
Through the centuries, many had doubted the possibility of Leander's achievement. After all, they said, the story was a mere myth. Lord Byron, however, an expert swimmer himself, on his visit to the Dardanelles in 1810, was determined to test the feasibility of such a swim. He decided to cross the \JHellespont\j, as he later wrote to his mother from \JAthens\j, "in imitation of Leander, though without his lady." Lieutenant Ekenhead joined him in the adventure.
They succeeded, and that same day (3 May), proud of his deed and in great exhilaration, Byron wrote to Henry Drury from aboard the \Jfrigate\j \ISalsette:
This morning I swam from Sestos to Abydos. The immediate distance is not above a mile, but the current renders it hazardous, so much so that I doubt whether Leander's conjugal affection must have been a little chilled in his passage to Paradise. I attempted it a week ago, and failed - owing to the north wind, and the wonderful rapidity of the tide - though I have been from my childhood a strong swimmer. But this morning, I succeeded and crossed the "broad \JHellespont\j" in an hour and ten minutes.\i
Six days after the event, while the \Jfrigate\j was still lying at anchor at the historic site, he recalled his exploit. With poetic license he claimed that his verses had been penned immediately after the swim:
\IWritten After Swimming From Sestos To Abydos
If, in the month of dark December,
Leander, who was nightly wont
(What maid will not the tale remember?)
To cross thy stream, broad \JHellespont\j!
If, when the wintry tempest roar'd,
He sped to Hero, nothing loth,
And thus of old thy current pour'd,
Fair Venus! how I pity both!
For me, degenerate modern wretch,
Though in the genial month of May,
My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,
And think I've done a feat today.\i
A note which he added to the poem, stated: "The only thing that surprised me was that, as doubts have been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveler had ever endeavored to ascertain its practicability." In a controversy, roused by this claim, he was forced to admit that, after all, he had not been the first to re-enact Leander's swim. He had been preceded by four others. In the years to follow, his example was emulated by more than a hundred swimmers who embarked not as Leander "for love," but as Byron, "for glory."
Romans were renowned for their mastery of the water. Horatius, holding back the \JEtruscans\j from a wooden bridge until it could be demolished, is said to have dived into the Tiber to swim across it to safety in spite of his wounds and his armor. Even his foes had to admire his prowess.
No less, Julius Caesar was a superb swimmer. Whenever on his campaigns rivers obstructed his advance, it is said he was the first, ahead of his legions, to have dived into the water and to have crossed them with a powerful stroke. Well known is the tradition that, when ship-wrecked off Alexandria, Caesar jumped overboard to swim ashore. Carrying his sword between his teeth he held his \ICommentaries\i with this left hand above the water while beating it with his right.
Shakespeare makes Cassius in \IJulius Caesar\i relate:
\ICaesar said to me, "Dar'st thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,
And bade him follow; so indeed, he did.\i
Romans regarded swimming as part of their education. A Latin definition could say of an uncultured person that "he learnt neither to read nor to swim."
Just as the Assyrians had done earlier, so the Romans too used animal bladders to support learner-swimmers. When Horace in his \ISatires\i in 35 BC discussed hard and easy ways of training, he referred to the use of animal bladders which he called water wings. "It is one method," Bacon wrote, "to practice swimming with bladders and another to practice dancing with heavy shoes."
Northern races, such as the Scandinavians, also knew how to swim.
Swimming, certainly, was well known in biblical days and taken for granted. The \Jprophet\j Isaiah employed a graphic picture of a swimmer's powerful arm stroke. He could not have done so without assuming that his listeners were acquainted with it and, hence, immediately grasped the meaning of his \Jmetaphor\j. The Hebrews had mastered the art, and used it in war and peace.
Jonathan, one of the Maccabean heroes, swam the Jordan to evade his pursuers, and Josephus, first-century Jewish military leader and historian, tells in his \Jautobiography\j how after he and a group of priests had been shipwrecked on their way to \JRome\j, they swam all through the night until another ship picked them up. Rabbi Akiba, second-century luminary of the \Jsynagogue\j, ruled that it was a father's sacred duty to teach his sons to swim.
Other evidence comes from the \JNew Testament\j. St John's Gospel (Chapter XXI) contains the story of how Peter, while fishing with friends on the lake of \JTiberias\j, saw Christ manifesting himself on the shore. He jumped into the water and swam the hundred yards (91 m) or so that separated their boat from land.
When St Paul's ship was wrecked off the Maltese coast, the centurion commanded that, to save their lives, all men able to swim should do so. The fact that the whole company, including Paul, safely reached the shore proves they were efficient swimmers.
#
"And Yet it Does Move",66,0,0,0
"And yet, it does move!" are the famous words with which \JGalileo\j is said to have defiantly recanted his submission to the Court of the Inquisition. He had uttered them after he had been forced into recognizing as "true" the teaching of the Church that the earth was the immovable center of the universe, something he knew to be incorrect.
There are two versions of the incident. One tells that \JGalileo\j had only whispered the words to a friend after having put his signature to the ignominious document. The other claims that loudly and daringly he had called out his denial when rising from his knees.
The fact is that no contemporaneous source records the event. The earliest known account of the alleged words appeared 128 years after his repudiation, in \IQuerelles litteraires,\i published by Abbฮ Trailh in Paris in 1761. It might well be that \JGalileo\j's admirers invented the incident to save his scientific integrity.
#
"Andrews Salt",67,0,0,0
The oddest situations may be responsible for enduring products and the most extraordinary namings. One such coincidence associated a renowned saint with a laxative. Andrews Salt was so called and patented by the name (in 1909) because the offices of the manufacturer in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, were situated in close proximity to St Andrew's Church.
As has been wryly noted, the proverbial saying that "cleanliness is next to Godliness" may have had something to do with the odd and, to some people, perhaps even blasphemous choice of name.
#
"Anecdote",68,0,0,0
In Greek \Ian\i is a prefix meaning "not." It indicates a lack. Anyone who is anonymous is without a name, he is "not" known. Anemia describes a deficiency of red blood cells. Few would suspect such negative message in an anecdote.
Anecdotes are considered entertaining accounts of incidents from someone's life. They make most popular reading. However, their description as an anecdote implies the exact opposite. Taken literally, they should be a closely guarded secret and told, if at all, only in strictest confidence. The term combined the Greek negative \Ian\i with \Iekdotos,\i "published." It is something unpublished, a secret history.
This, in fact, is the very sense in which \IAnecdotes\i were first used in the literature, as the title of a collection of stories attributed to \JProcopius\j, sixth-century Byzantine historian and prefect of Constantinople. He had chosen if for a very good reason. The anecdotes were scandalous accounts from the lives of his most prominent comtemporaries, many of whom filled the highest offices. Their public circulation would have had serious consequences. Hence, he "published" them "privately," as a hidden supplement, so to speak, to his official and renowned \IHistories.\i The name he gave them was therefore well chosen and appropriate, meaning what it said.
#
"Angels",69,0,0,0
For a long time, angels used to be a popular feature on graves, depicted or sculpted in many sizes and forms. At times, only the head and wings were shown. Angels might appear as solitary figures and in giant size, sometimes holding the anchor of hope, or in pairs flanking a tablet or an open book.
Literally, "angel" - from the Greek - refers to a "messenger." He was God's envoy to man, a divine link with the world of the spirit. His presence on a grave intimated that, just as he had protected the deceased during his lifetime, so he did now in death. Truly, he was a guardian angel.
The winged angel can also be interpreted as symbolic of the soul winging its way heavenwards.
#
"Animal Liberation",70,0,0,0
"Animal liberation" may be a modern slogan (popularized in 1975 by Peter Singer's book of that title). But as a philosophy and policy it has its roots in ancient religious tradition.
The \JBible\j observes that "the righteous knows the soul of his beast" (Prov. 12.10). Not a mere theoretical maxim, it was enforced by detailed priestly legislation. No farmer, for instance, was permitted to muzzle an ox when it was treading corn (Deut. 25.4). The animal could not be expected to perform the task while having food before its eyes without being able to eat some of it. To be unfeeling towards an animal was considered a sin. The Jewish religion permitted the catching of fish only by netting them. Significantly, the word "hook" occurs in the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j solely as a \Jmetaphor\j for cruelty.
The rabbis based God's choice of Moses as the Israelites' leader on a single incident relating to a small animal. God regarded him as qualified for the position, because he had felt pity for a lost lamb. He had traced and then carried it home to its mother. Jewish law forbade anyone to sit down for a meal until he had fed his pet.
Two millennia ago, a Jewish sage put the rhetorical question, why had God created a \Jflea\j before humans. It was, he pointed out, to remind man that even the smallest of creatures had preceded him and was treasured by God.
St Francis of Assisi (b. 1181) was renowned for his unparallelled concern for animals. He addressed them as his brothers and sisters and preached to the birds. He included all creatures in the family of man. No wonder that Catholicism regards him as the patron saint of \Jecology\j.
In incredible variety and actuality, religion thus blazed the trail for animal liberation. It was the first to campaign to make people realize the enduring value of animals, that they have rights of their own and are entitled to be treated with kindness and consideration in the same way that humans are.
#
"Animals in our Language",71,0,0,0
Animals are among man's best friends. Once worshiped and considered sacred, they have fulfilled a significant task in his daily life for thousands of years.
Even where technological advance has supplanted animals, we remember them as faithful servants who have left their mark in civilization and culture. That is why, for instance, we still reckon the force of our cars in horse-power. No wonder, therefore, that our language is rich in references to animals, used as similes and analogies.
Many superstitions attach also to the animal kingdom. The origins of these phrases and beliefs are sometimes much more complex than they appear on the surface.
Animals have the habit of creeping into many places. But no creature excelled in this more than the cat. And perhaps not without reason. After all, it is renowned for its curiosity; we all know of the nosey cat.
The cat has found its way even into the loom of language and left its traces there in most diverse ways, to discover which is almost a game of "cat and mouse." Everyone likes to be thought the cat's whiskers, and lucky are those able to indulge in a catnap. Though we must beware of cat-burglars and of being used as a cat's paw.
It is also good for us to appreciate that often we have been misled. There are cases when what appears as (part of) an animal is only something else in disguise. Catgut comes from horses or sheep, and the cat o'nine tails is a frightening instrument of flogging, far removed from our purring friend. A dogwatch has nothing to do with the canine species. Elephants do not have a good memory, and bees are not as busy as we may think. They spend most of their time doing nothing.
Man prides himself in having tamed wild beasts and having taught animals many a lesson. He forgets, however, that he himself could learn from his dumb friends, who excel him in numerous ways.
An owl's eyes, for instance, are sensitive to infra-red radiation. A bat in flight has been using its own system of radar for thousands of years. Dogs pick up sound waves of a frequency up to 100,000 vibrations a second, as compared with man's limit of a mere 30,000.
Animals, indeed, have been sacrificed numberless times to serve man, for better or worse, on altars, on menus and for the sake of medicine and civilization.
All this should make man humble if not ashamed. "Why was man created only on the sixth day and as the very last of all creatures?," an ancient sage asked. He himself gave the answer, which is still valid. He said: "To be able to tell man, whenever he becomes overbearing or is swollen with pride, 'Even a \Jflea\j preceded you in creation!'"
#
"Animals in the Chinese Calendar",72,0,0,0
Each year has its individual name, called after one of the twelve animals that make up the Chinese zodiac.
A \Jfable\j about an event in \JBuddha\j's life explains their choice. He had extended an invitation to all living creatures, but only twelve of them answered his call. They were the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the \JRabbit\j, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Sheep, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog and the Pig. As a reward, \JBuddha\j commemorated their visit by naming a year after each of them.
The sequence of the years, so a legend tells, was determined by a cross-country race between these very animals, and is the order in which they reached the finish.
#
"Anointment",73,0,0,0
Christ - from the Greek - means "the anointed" and is the literal translation of the \JHebrew\j word, \JMessiah\j. It was an obvious choice of a name for Jesus by those who considered Him "The King," just as the Roman executioners superscribed His cross by the telling words, "Jesus, the \IKing\i of the Jews."
From earliest days, anointment has been an essential feature of a coronation. At times, British monarchs themselves wondered what was the purpose of anointment, apart from its \Jsymbolism\j. In 1246, for instance, King Henry III, in a letter to the Bishop of Lincoln, asked for an explanation of the rite. He was told that the sacrament of unction conferred on a king the seven-fold gift of the \JHoly Spirit\j, the better to help him serve his people. The Bishop wrote:
\I"To His Most Excellent Lord, Henry, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland... His Devoted Robe," by Divine Mercy the humble servant of the Church of Lincoln, greeting:... As to that which you have commanded..., to wit, that we should inform you in what manner the \Bsacrament of unction\b increased the royal dignity; our modesty is unable to satisfy it, as there are many kings who are in no way adorned with the gift of unction. But of this we are not ignorant, that the \Broyal anointing\b is the sign of the privilege of receiving the \Bsevenfold gift\b of the most \BHoly Spirit,\b and by this sevenfold gift the anointed King is bound in more especial manner than those kings who are not anointed, to carefulness in all his royal actions and those of his government; that is to say, by the gift of \Bfear\b he is not by ordinary means, but with vigour and courage, to restrain from all illegal acts, in the first instant himself, and secondly, those subject to his government. By the gift of true \Bgodliness\b he must defend, help, and cause to be helped widows, orphans, and in general all who are distressed; by the gift of \Bknowledge\b he must make, observe, and cause to be observed, righteous laws made for the just government of his realm, and abolish those that are evil; by the gift of \Bmight\b he must repel all the attacks of the enemies of his country, and must not be fearful of death for the good of the State.
In addition to these duties, which he is specially to perform, he must be adorned with the spirit of \Bcounsel\b by which the rational order of this world is taught with art and knowledge; also, with the spirit of \Bunderstanding\b by which the order of the company of angels can be discerned; and lastly, by the gift of \Bwisdom\b by which we attain a clear knowledge of \BGod,\b so that he may be a pattern to the order of the world and the order of the angels; and at last, following the eternal laws, written according to the eternal purpose of God, by which He rules the whole creation, may rule in order the State subject to him."\i
In reality, the anointment of a king was the result of several deeply rooted beliefs and practices which, by many years, anticipated even the anointment of Saul, the first Jewish king, by Samuel, the \Jprophet\j, who took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head, and kissed him and said, "Is it not that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over His inheritance."
The primary, motivating force in anointment can be traced to the tradition that kings were divine. The sacred unction ceremoniously bestowed on them not merely symbolically, but actually, that distinction.
Primitive races imagined that certain types of organic matter were charged with mystical power and divine spirit. Potency varied according to the substance.
It was believed that man, particularly the elect, could absorb this sacred essence into his body by actually eating (the flesh) or drinking (the blood), which thus became a sacramental rite.
More than anything else, fat was regarded as saturated with the divine. It was thought, also, to be the very seat of life. But fat was too holy, and hence too dangerous, to be eaten. Therefore it was externally applied. Because of its highly potent sanctity, mere contact was sufficient to transfer its gift of \Jsupernatural\j power. At first, the king's whole body was rubbed with fat. Subsequently fat was replaced by oil, in which the king was bathed. Finally oil was poured on his head only.
Among the famous Tell el-Amarna Letters (stemming from the 14th century B.C.) has been discovered a "note" that once accompanied the gift of "a flask of good oil," sent by the King of Cyprus to the King of \JEgypt\j, advising that the oil was "to pour on you head, now that you have ascended the throne of your kingdom."
It also was believed formerly that the sacred unguent permanently immunized the king from the influence of harmful spirits. It served as a magical, protective armor against any kind of evil forces. \JHedging\j the king with an invisible fence of sanctity, it rendered him invulnerable in the execution of his so dangerous office.
Lastly, it must be remembered that anointment was practised generally by the noble and rich of ancient races, especially on festive occasions. It was part of their toilet and a mark of honor. It refreshed the body, creating a feeling of comfort and personal well-being. But, most of all, by the extra sheen it gave to the skin, it lent that air of distinction and shining presence to the anointed which is so fitting to the supreme moment of a monarch's enthronement.
#
"Answer the Door",74,0,0,0
Whenever we "answer the door," we do not know what we are talking about. It is not the door that is answered, but the caller who knocks or rings the bell.
#
"Ant: Origin of the Name",75,0,0,0
The ant, as it were, crawled straight out of the \JBible\j into our vocabulary. We even know the exact date of its first appearance. Prior to this time, the insect was mostly known by the Old English \Iaemete,\i "the cutter," a word still popular in crossword puzzles, though spelled there \Iemmet.\i The modern name for the tireless little creature was first used in the King James version of Scripture, published in 1611. It occurs in Proverbs (6. 6-7) in the well-known passage exhorting those shirking work to "go to the ant" and follow its example of industry and forethought.
No doubt, the frequent quotation of the maxim popularized this new version of the name in no time, until it came to replace all older forms.
#
"Antagonism Perpetuated",76,0,0,0
Mount Gambier's cemetery has a profusion of the most varied inscriptions. Some are strange indeed. One of the most striking, though no longer in existence, is well remembered:
\IHere lies the mother of children five,
Of whom two are dead and three alive;
Those that are dead preferring rather
To die with mother than live with father.\i
#
"Anticoagulants: the Discovery",77,0,0,0
Thousands of people who have suffered a coronary occlusion which once would have proved fatal, now survive and can lead normal lives. They do so because of a mere accident.
In the state of \JWisconsin\j, USA, \Jcattle\j had mysteriously died. Investigation traced their death to contaminated hay, on which they had fed. Further research (by Dr Karl P. Link of the University of \JWisconsin\j in 1941) was able to identify "dicumarin" as the substance that had brought about their death. Unaccountably, it had thinned the animals' blood with fatal effect. There is no ill wind that does not blow someone some good. The discovery led to the development of \Janticoagulants\j which proved such extraordinary life savers.
#
"ANZAC Origins",78,0,0,0
\JANZAC\j is one of \JAustralia\j's most sacred words, expressing a spirit of heroic values and sacrifice. Yet few of the very men who landed on \JGallipoli\j had ever heard the word, which their action was to immortalize. According to one claim, it was not even an Australian, but an Englishman, who coined it.
There was no emotional quality or military glory attached to the expression when it was first introduced. It was born as a mere code-word to replace the cumbersome title of the \IAustralian and \JNew Zealand\j Army Corps.\i
Soon after the outbreak of World War I, \JAustralia\j's special volunteer army for overseas service was formed and named the Australian Imperial Force by General Bridges. It is best known by its initials as the (First) A.I.F.
It was sent to \JEgypt\j where Poona-born General Birdwood was appointed to establish and command a joint Army Corps of Australian and \JNew Zealand\j troops. He intended to call it the A.A.C., standing for Australian Army Corps, but then agreed, as was only fair, to include \JNew Zealand\j's name. Thus the title Australian and \JNew Zealand\j Army Corps came into existence.
Stationery headed \IA & N.Z. Army Corps\i was printed. The new name became even more familiar to those who frequented headquarters at \JCairo\j's famous Shepheard's Hotel, as numerous boxes stored outside the clerks' room carried the Corps' title.
Those in charge of communications soon realized how tedious it was to use the long string of words. To register correspondence, therefore, two sergeants cut out a rubber stamp bearing just the initials A. & N.Z.A.C. In no time the clerks started referring to it as their \JANZAC\j stamp.
One morning, Major Wagstaff called at the office and asked the men whether they could think of a suitable abbreviation for the extended title of the Corps. Sergeant K. M. Little, trying to recollect in later years what happened, asserted: "We all had a shot and \II\i suggested \JANZAC\j."
His claim was contradicted by Lt. A. T. White, a member of the English Army Service Corps. With equal sincerity he alleged that it was he, also a clerk in the office when Major Wagstaff made his request, who - with the rubber stamp in his mind - had called out: "How about \JANZAC\j?"
No matter to whom the merit really belongs, New Zealander or Englishman, Sergeant or Lieutenant, the fact is that the Major immediately took a liking to the new word. He duly passed it on, in January 1915, to his superior, General Birdwood, who approved of its choice, and \JANZAC\j was thus adopted as the Corps' official code-name, though no one at the time could guess the part it was going to play in the destiny and history of the Australian people.
#
"Appendicitis Fallacy",79,0,0,0
People fear that to swallow the stone of a cherry or plum or any other fruit-seed may give appendicitis. In the majority of such accidents, the stone will not get stuck, but in the usual way will pass harmlessly through the body, without causing \Jinflammation\j of the appendix.
#
"Applause",80,0,0,0
A modern audience shows its appreciation of a performance by clapping hands. In the classical theater, the "applause" did not follow, but preceded the show. It was not a spontaneous reaction, but contrived. Actually, it was initiated and directed by one of the actors! Facing the audience from the stage, he instructed them to "Clap your hands!." In Latin he said, \IPlaudite!,\i the source of all "applause." The purpose of the practice was to ensure the play's success.
If a play failed, it was superstitiously believed (or cleverly rationalized), bad acting or a poor script was not at fault, but the devil. He delighted in spoiling success and possibly was present in the theater to do his nefarious work with the play about to be enacted. The first thing to be done, therefore, before the performance even started, was to get rid of the devil. Traditionally, he was thought to be allergic to noise. Hence the clapping of hands would drive him out and the show could begin without fear of interference on his part.
#
"Apple of the Eye",81,0,0,0
It is a strange phenomenon that even the most fervent atheist cannot get away from the \JBible\j. Its text has become so interwoven with western culture that without our knowing we quote from Scripture at least as much as from Shakespeare. To cherish anyone like "the apple of the eye" is a biblical \Jmetaphor\j, though, unfortunately, the result of yet another of its mistranslations. It is quoted as a simile to describe God's care for Israel who was as precious to him "as the apple of the eye."
The original \JHebrew\j text however does not mention the apple at all. Instead, it simply speaks of the "pupil" of the eye (Dt. 32:10). It was a well-chosen comparison, as this most treasured part of the organ of vision, if damaged, could cause \Jblindness\j. Hence, it needed special care.
In the early days, it was erroneously assumed that the pupil was a solid, spherical body, very much like an infinitesimally small "apple." This misconception introduced the "apple of the eye," a mistake that has never been discarded.
#
"Apple Pie Order",82,0,0,0
Some believe that the expression "apple-pie order" recalls an early practice of American housewives, particularly in New England. Working ahead, they used to bake an entire week's supply of apple-pies. These were then placed on a shelf in the pantry. They did so not haphazardly but in orderly fashion. Each pie was allotted its place, according to the day of the week on which it was meant to be eaten. Not surprisingly, their "apple-pie order" became proverbial.
Another explanation disregards the individual days, but recalls that early larders were restricted in space. Hence, the American women learned carefully to stack the many pies they had baked. Their neat arrangement, with one pie sitting on top of the other, was duly admired and their "apple-pie order" became a general figure of speech for anything that was neat and tidy.
However, convincing these theories sound, the original apple-pie order contained neither a pie nor an apple. It was a French phrase mispronounced and then misunderstood by the English.
Fashionable Frenchmen used to refer to their napkins as "folded linen" \I(nappe pliee),\i stressing the neat manner in which it was placed in front of the diner. It showed a sense of orderliness and elegance.
The English, reading the word in their own way, changed the French \Inappe pliee\i to something sounding very much like an apple-pie. And that is how most likely the apple-pie order came into being. This, too, would explain the "apple-pie bed." That is bed linen so folded that the bottom part of the sheet did not permit the sleeper to stretch out his (or her) legs.
Another derivation - from the Old French - sees in the apple-pie (order) a French military remnant, entirely misunderstood. The French phrase spoke of a knight who was fully armed from "head to foot" as \Icap a pied.\i At least in the case of the apple-pie thus, a confusion of tongues whether around the dining table or on the battlefield, had a tasteful result.
#
"Apples on Gravestones",83,0,0,0
It is generally, though wrongly, believed that "the forbidden fruit" in Paradise was an apple, which made it a symbol of sin. That the sound of \Imalum,\i the Latin for "apple" and of \Imalus,\i "evil," was almost identical, reinforced the idea.
The erroneous belief that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in Paradise was an apple is another reason for its portrayal on some gravestones. The deceased, who had now entered Paradise, was sure to partake of the fruit and therefore share divine wisdom, a privilege \JAdam and Eve\j were not granted.
When, according to Christian belief, Jesus by his death on the cross redeemed man from sin, the apple lost its original \Jsymbolism\j. It came to denote salvation, the redemption from sin by Christ. This explains the tradition of some early artists depicting Jesus - as the Christ-child or the Savior - holding an apple in his hand. In this new sense, the apple became part of sepulchral \Jsymbolism\j. It was meant to imply that the deceased was now free from sin.
To those acquainted with Scripture, the apple conveyed yet a third significant message. In the Song of Songs (2, 3) the young girl, using highly imaginative metaphors, compares her lover with an apple tree, standing out among all other trees: "under its shadows I delighted to sit and its fruit was sweet to my taste." Like a delicious and fragrant apple, so the deceased excelled, surpassing many others.
#
"April",84,0,0,0
Nature and romance have given us the month of April and may have done so in one of two ways.
In the northern hemisphere it is the time when the buds of flowers and trees begin to open up, to blossom. Highlighting this delicate stage of natural growth, the month was identified with it. April is derived from the Latin \Iaperio,\i meaning I open.
On the other hand, recognizing the significant part played by the reproductive forces in this month, the Greeks may have dedicated it to \JAphrodite\j, their goddess of fertility, beauty and life. April is, perhaps, merely a shortened form of her name.
#
"April 1",85,0,0,0
\BApril Fools' Day\b
On 1 April people play practical jokes on each other.
It all started long ago - with Noah, according to one tradition. Having spent months in the Ark, he anxiously waited for the Flood to subside. When he thought that at long last this had happened, he sent out a dove, hopeful that it might find some firm ground. He was mistaken. It was much too soon and the dove, "having found no rest for the sole of her foot," returned to the Ark. It had been a fool's errand.
The date of the failed mission was said to have been 1 April which, because of Noah's folly, was called the "Old Fool's Day." Eventually, however, either the circumstances were forgotten or, more kindly, it was considered unfair that so decent, righteous and blameless a man as Noah should be remembered as the Old Fool. So the "Old Fool's Day" was changed into "\JAll Fools' Day\j," which it has remained ever since.
Another explanation has much greater historical validity. It relates to the adoption of the modern calendar and the fact that, until the sixteenth century, \JNew Year's Day\j was celebrated on 25 March. It frequently happened that this very day, so jolly and happy, fell during Passion Week, and sometimes even coincided with \JGood Friday\j itself. To avoid such an unfortunate circumstance, the authorities postponed the traditional New Year celebrations to 1 April.
Old habits die hard. When the calendar was reformed and \JNew Year's Day\j was moved back to 1 January, some people did not keep up with the times! They forgot all about the new New Year. Taking advantage of their confusion, jokers made fun of them. They paid them ceremonial (mock) visits and asked them for presents, making real fools of their hosts, who took them seriously.
It has also been suggested that the custom is a relic of the once prevalent practice of unlocking the gates of mental institutions and allowing the insane to roam at large on 1 April. Released from the asylum for this one day, they became the unfortunate victims of heartless pranksters who asked them to perform acts which obviously were beyond them. In every sense, they sent them on fools' errands.
Whatever the reason, 1 April has become a day licenced for mischief, though of an innocuous kind. It is a day reserved for laughter. But tradition also demands that all hoaxing must cease at noon. Anyone extending the time limit makes a fool of himself.
#
"April 23",86,0,0,0
\BSt George's Day: The Feast of England's Patron Saint\b
How St George killed the dragon to save the life of a beautiful girl is a well-known legend that has had a significant influence on historical events.
Although it all happened in \JLibya\j, it was far-off England that made the hero her patron saint. English warriors adopted St George's name as their rallying call, and the banner of St George used to be carried into battle before the kings of England.
Hardly any facts are known about St George. Even the dates of his birth and of his martyr's death (in C. 303) are the subject of conjecture.
A soldier in the Roman army, and a pagan, George abandoned his military career when, in the pursuit of his duties, he was ordered to imprison converts to the Christian faith. He adopted \JChristianity\j and promised henceforth to dedicate his entire life to doing good and to spreading the Christian message wherever he went.
On his arrival in Silene, in \JLibya\j, he was told of a fearsome dragon that was terrorizing the city by demanding a daily offering of two sheep. When the town ran out of animals, the monster insisted on a human sacrifice in their stead. Sadly, the people submitted, choosing by lot the daily victim.
On the day of George's visit, the king's daughter had been picked. Trembling and sobbing, the beautiful girl awaited the gruesome fate of being devoured by the beast. George fearlessly confronted the dragon. He badly wounded it with his lance and then used the princess' belt to lead the now powerless creature into the city!
After returning the girl to her royal father, he killed the dragon. He explained to the king and the people that his Christian faith had given him the \Jsupernatural\j strength needed to achieve the feat. As a result, the entire population, of well over 15,000 people, converted to \JChristianity\j.
George then continued on his travels till he was beheaded at the order of the Roman emperor Diocletian, at Lydda in Palestine on 23 April. His martyrdom was in punishment for having reprimanded Diocletian for his cruel and inhumane acts.
The story of George's life and heroic deeds grew in the telling. People were convinced, moreover, that, as well as his fabled exploits, he had performed many other good works that were "known only to God."
English Crusaders first heard of St George, his feats and his fate while they were in the Holy Land. Greatly inspired, they carried his story home to England, where it was soon to capture the imagination of their countrymen. The English came to feel St George's presence in their midst, so much so that eventually they made him their patron saint.
Mystery still surrounds the details of his adoption for this role. Officially, St George became England's patron saint during the reign of King Edward III when, in C. 1348, he founded the famous Most Noble Order of the Garter and placed it under the Saint's patronage. St George's badge - a red cross on white background - became the symbol of England. It was emblazoned on the standards of the army and on the English flag, and the date of his death was celebrated as St George's Day.
By a strange coincidence, Shakespeare, England's greatest dramatist, is believed to have been born (in 1564), and to have died (in 1616), on St George's Day.
#
"April 25",87,0,0,0
\BAnzac Day\b
\JAnzac\j Day is a national holiday in \JAustralia\j. It is considered by many to commemorate the occasion on which \JAustralia\j came of age as a nation. Historically it recalls not a victory, but what ultimately amounted to a military defeat. On that day in 1915, the second year of World War I, the joint forces of the Australian and \JNew Zealand\j Army Corps (known by their initials as \JANZAC\j) landed at \JGallipoli\j on the Turkish peninsula, at what is now called \JAnzac\j Cove.
Lacking support, outnumbered and with inadequate munitions, they were eventually forced to withdraw. In spite of this, many people believe that their experiences and sacrifices gave Australians a sense of national identity. General Sir John Monash, reflecting on the campaign in later years, spoke of its far-reaching results. The evacuation had shown the true value of Australian character and discipline. If there had been one man on the peninsula who had disobeyed orders, the withdrawal would have become a disaster. It depended for its success upon the absolute and rigid obedience of every man.
\JAnzac\j Day is now a memorial to all those who have fought and fallen in every conflict in which Australians served. Solemn "dawn services," held in all parts of the country, start the day, and these are followed by a march. The rest of the day is devoted to reunions of former service personnel.
#
"April 30",88,0,0,0
\BWalpurgisnight: An Annual Witches' Convention\b
Walpurgisnight is a significant date in the occult calendar of the German people, but has attained world renown through Goethe's Faust. It falls on the eve of May Day, on 30 April. On that night, witches, warlocks, and demons are believed to be abroad, riotously and lasciviously celebrating a tryst with the devil. Their convention is held on some lofty summit, usually on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains. In actual fact, the occasion presents a combination of pagan and Christian traditions.
Originally the festival paid homage to the god Wodan and the goddess Freya who had given birth to Spring. To celebrate it so it was credulously assumed, witches from far and wide joined in festive gatherings. They made their way there, riding through the air on broomsticks, pitchforks, goats, and cats.
Women who attended those "get-togethers" genuinely believed themselves to be witches. In preparation for the night, they would rub their skin with a special ointment, which was made by mixing a variety of substances obtained mainly from poppies and \Jdeadly nightshade\j. Investigation has shown that the ointment had hallucinogenic qualities. It produced vivid, weird hallucinations in which the self-styled witches imagined themselves to fly up in the air and to engage in wild orgies with the devil.
Unaware that there was a scientific explanation, people believed in the myth. Terrified, they used every means at their disposal to counteract and nullify any possible evil effects of the witches' rendezvous. They lit bonfires, sprinkled herbs on the ground or nailed them to their barns. They made loud noises, notably by ringing the church bells, convinced that the devilish spirits could not tolerate the din and would turn tail! The Christian Church tried its very best to stop the ghostly "goings-on" and to rid the people of their fears and superstitious rites. A strange coincidence came to their aid.
It so happened that the night of 30 April was also sacred to St Walpurga. An English nun, she had been sent as a missionary to \JGermany\j where, in A.D. 761, she became abbess of the monastery at Heidenheim in \JFranconia\j. Many miracles were attributed to her during her lifetime and even after her death. Oil that exuded from the rock of her tomb, it was said, possessed miraculous healing powers. No wonder that she was made a saint!
The Church, therefore, had no difficulty in appropriating the night of the devil and in dedicating it to St Walpurga. It explains why, with a slight change in the spelling of the abbess' name, it has become known as Walpurgisnight. It is still celebrated as such - now with innocuous rites, lances, songs and bonfires - particularly in the area around the Brocken.
#
"Aquarius - the Water-carrier",89,0,0,0
The name of \JAquarius\j - the eleventh house of the Zodiac - is easily identified even by those not very conversant with classical languages. Everyone knows, from the aquarium, if nothing else, that \JAquarius\j, an almost identical word, is linked with \Iaqua,\i the Latin for "water."
Earliest civilizations already recognized the very basis of life in water, whether in the form of rain, or the inundation of a river. Its absence or scarcity could spell death. Cosmologies of old thus told how God or the gods created the waters first of all, or at least simultaneously with the earth. It has been suggested that the story of Genesis in the \JBible\j likewise really first had said that "in the beginning God created water and earth" (and not as the Authorized Version has it, "heaven and earth"). "The heaven" \I(shamayim\i in \JHebrew\j) took the place of "the waters" \I(mayim\i in \JHebrew\j) merely by a scribe's error caused by words so similar in sound and spelling.
Water was so much a part of man's existence that when inventing his first alphabet, he made it one of its elements: he could not even write without water. The letter "M" of our present-day alphabet actually stems from the original picture portraying water in the stylized form of a wave. It is still discernible in the \JHebrew\j character \Imem\i (the ancestor of the "M") the very name of which means "water" as well.
People soon realized that water poured down from heaven or (equally miraculous) came up from the river at specific times of the year. They also recognized that these fixed seasons always coincided with the passing of the sun through the identical part of the Zodiac. And using the experience and imagery of daily life on earth, they felt that there existed a celestial water carrier. Stationed at that very spot of the imagined band of stars, he was responsible for the supply of the power which fructified their fields and thereby saved man and his \Jcattle\j from \Jdrought\j and consequent \Jfamine\j.
That is how almost all cultures fancied they saw in that zodiacal house a man with a pitcher or a vase, pouring water downward towards the earth. The only difference in the choice of presentation was whether the receptacle was carried, stored, or emptied. The Chinese adopted "the filled vase" for the \Jconstellation\j. Chaldeans saw it as "a watering can." To the Greeks and Romans it became a "water pourer" or "water carrier," eventually called \JAquarius\j.
As in almost every part of the Zodiac, the Greeks were determined to personify and identify the so far general figure. They were not satisfied to see in it a "faceless" water carrier. Thus they discovered in \JAquarius\j the famous youth Ganymedes, whose ravishing beauty had taken the fancy of Zeus. The chief of gods had become so enamored with the lad that he had carried him off, away from his father with whom he left in his stead exquisite horses - a rather odd kind of compensation!
Zeus jealously kept Ganymedes for himself and installed him as his personal cup bearer. This was a very ancient and coveted office at royal courts, recalled in the biblical story of Joseph.
In his new profession, Ganymedes was responsible for the ample supply of intoxicating liquid. But it was also his duty to look after and ensure the annual flooding of the Nile.
His divine "connection" and well carried out obligations gained Ganymedes the highest award. He was given permanent occupancy of the celestial "house" known as \JAquarius\j.
#
"Arab Numerals: Indian Origins",90,0,0,0
There is nothing Arab in Arab figures. They stem from India. Arab traders visiting the country brought them to North Africa. Because it was from there that Arab Moors (in the tenth century) introduced them into \JSpain\j, they were thought to be Arabic. As so often in the naming of things, once again, not the originator but the importer is remembered.
Europeans did not take long to realize how superior the simple "Arab" numerals were to the commonly used, rather complicated Roman "figures," particularly so in calculations. Nevertheless, it took another six centuries before the "Arab" ciphers completely superseded them.
#
"Arabesques",91,0,0,0
An arabesque is a beautiful tracery, whether in script, dance or music. Decorative or highly ornamental, it gives extra beauty to a manuscript, a ballet, or a melody. It has its origin in \JIslam\j, which not only adopted, but applied even more strictly, the Jewish tradition which forbade the making of any image in the likeness of a figure: irrespective of whether it was the representation of a divine being, a human or any of God's creatures.
Rigidly obeying the law, but endowed with a keen sense of beauty, Moslems used their artistic gift, to create instead fanciful and ornate compositions of flowing lines, interlacings and scroll-work. Their abstract style was the Oriental counterpart of the representational art of the West.
As Moslems were \JArabs\j, their art form was called after them, in the French form \Iarabesque.\i
#
"Archery: Legends and Biblical Era",92,0,0,0
Greek legend refers to \Jarchery\j many times, and Homer's Odysseus used it most skillfully. Well known is the story of his return home after 20 years' absence to find his wife Penelope besieged by a hundred suitors, eating and drinking at his expense. In the guise of a beggar, he cleverly planned the things to come.
Penelope had just decided that she could no longer wait for her husband's return, and was ready to wed one of the men. All that remained was to select the right spouse. She would make her choice by means of a trial.
Odysseus's bow had lain idle for 20 years. She would choose for her husband the man able to string it and shoot an arrow at a target through the eyes of 12 axe-heads, set up in a row, just as her husband used to do.
One by one, the suitors tried the feat, but could not even string the bow. When all had failed, Odysseus, still in rags, was handed the bow, over the violent protest of the other men. Without effort, he strung the great bow, took a sharp arrow which lay on a table before him, and shot it through the tops of all the axes to the target. Then, stripping off his rags, he revealed himself, took aim at his wife's suitors, and struck them down one by one.
However, neither the Greeks nor the Romans were notable archers. They made frequent use of skilled bowmen from \JCrete\j and Asia, whom they enlisted as mercenaries in their armies. In fact, the \JParthians\j so excelled in \Jarchery\j that they defeated the Roman legions.
It was only toward the decline of their empire that the Romans themselves became adept in the art, and even kings took it up with zeal and, at times, sadistic enjoyment. It is told of Emperor Commodus that he shot ostriches with a special type of arrow and how, at gladiatorial combats, he sat in his royal box equipped with a bow and arrows. From there he watched the cruel spectacle of men being chased by lions and leopards, and at the very moment when a beast was about to spring on its prey, he took aim and killed it.
Archery occupies a prominent place in the \JBible\j and in the history of the early Hebrews. It is said of Ishmael, Abraham's son and the ancestor of the \JArabs\j, that "God was with the lad and he grew. . . and became an archer."
Prince Jonathan, King Saul's son, engaged in the sport and, on one occasion, used it to convey a message to his friend David, the future king. To tell him that his life was threatened and that he should make his escape, Jonathan shot arrows far beyond the usual target, calling out to the boy who stood ready at the customary distance to retrieve them, that they were much farther afield. This was a pre-arranged signal for David that he, too, had to go far beyond, out of King Saul's reach.
Much later, after the fatal battle of Gilboa, David lamented the deaths of Saul and Jonathan in a dirge that became known as "The Song of the Bow."
\JArchery\j was so common in biblical times that frequently the bow, arrow, and quiver were used as figures of speech by the poets and prophets of Israel. The Psalmist thus spoke of the armed might of the wicked, "who have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay such as are upright," but whose "bows shall be broken."
In powerful realism, suffering Job pictured himself as the target of archers who compassed him round about. God shoots at him, first letting His arrows whistle all about him, keeping him in fearful suspense, dreading that every shaft would strike the mark. Eventually, his apprehension comes true and each arrow hits his very vitals.
In \JJapan\j, \Jarchery\j became closely linked with the metaphysical system of Zen \JBuddhism\j. It became part of the education of the noble \JSamurai\j and was practiced not for such purposes as the hunt or war, or purely aesthetic enjoyment, but to discipline the mind. \JArchery\j was considered a lesson in effortless self-control, perfect equanimity, and the attainment of utter detachment.
#
"Aries - the Ram",93,0,0,0
It is not an accident that the ram - in its Latin form \JAries\j - is the first in the order of constellations. Rams were among the very first animals man worshiped - even in prehistoric times. The great number of ram-gods in existence in many parts of the world in early times testifies to the importance of the sheep in ancient cultures. The replica of a mummified ram was featured on artifacts in the first Egyptian dynasty! The \JBible\j tells how Isaac's life was saved by a ram which got caught by its horns in the thicket to take the place of the young boy as a sacrifice.
If the ram has thus occupied an eminent place in the life, thought and worship of man, it is not surprising that it was given a commensurate position up in the skies. Earliest astronomers gave it priority over all other constellations by choosing the ram as the name of the group of stars through which the sun passed at the vernal \Jequinox\j: the beginning of spring, when the renewed power of life asserted itself and the days began to grow longer.
And when the Greeks adopted the celestial (and zodiacal) ram, they immediately linked its lofty existence with one of their own myths. This presented a ready-made and most feasible explanation as to why the ram was so honored.
Greek legend told that the ram had been placed in the skies by Zeus himself, for weighty reasons. It was indeed not an ordinary sort of ram but the most famous ram of all: the winged ram renowned for its precious, \Jgolden fleece\j. And this was its well-known story: the ram, at the bidding of Hermes, had saved Phrixus and his sister Helle from the altar when (in consequence of a vicious intrigue) they were about to be offered to Zeus as a sacrifice.
The ram carried them away through the air to Colchis. But on that flight, while crossing the waters separating Asia and Europe, Helle had slipped off the ram's back and drowned in the straights, which ever since have been called after her - the \JHellespont\j.
However, the ram succeeded in taking Phrixus safely to his destination. After landing at Colchis, Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus, which to us appears a rather ungrateful action. He presented the ram's \Jgolden fleece\j to his new father-in-law who fastened it to an oak tree and had it guarded day and night by a dragon that never slept until, in spite of the precaution taken, the \JArgonauts\j were able to retrieve it.
Zeus was so deeply moved by the sacrifice of the ram that he bestowed on it the highest distinction and elevated it to the heavens. There it has stayed ever since as the gateway of the sun in spring and constitutes a group of stars that is easily recognized and continues to this day to honor that primal ram!
Apart from giving its name to the first sign of the Zodiac, the ram has been perpetuated in the language of warfare: both in the Roman nomenclature as \JAries\j and in English as the battering ram. In its primitive form this was a long heavy beam spiked at its end with an iron head. Obviously it received the name in recognition of the irresistible force of a charging ram that could knock down solid walls.
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"Armageddon Origins",94,0,0,0
Armageddon has become a figure of speech for a cataclysmic clash between opposing powers, representing irreconcilable ideologies and interests. The resulting most frightful devastation and slaughter would lead to the end of the world.
Actually, the term now synonymous with the horrendous prophecy is the corrupt rendering of the name of a geographical site. Situated in the north of the Holy Land, 35 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of Haifa, it was known in the \JHebrew\j tongue as Har \JMegiddo\j (the mountain of \JMegiddo\j) or Ir \JMegiddo\j (the city of \JMegiddo\j). Transposed into Greek, the name was disfigured into \JArmageddon\j and first appears as such in the \JNew Testament\j.
Strategically positioned on the crossroads between east and west, "the mountain of \JMegiddo\j" repeatedly - from the most ancient days to modern times - has been the scene of decisive battles, sometimes so momentous that they changed the course of history.
It was at \JMegiddo\j - in 609 BC - that Josiah, a most revered king of Judah, fell in battle. As an ally of the Babylonians, he had tried to stop their Egyptian enemy joining the Syrian forces. In the ensuing action, he was slain.
His loss was regarded as so disastrous for the nation that people came to identify the name of \JMegiddo\j, already linked with so many battles, bloodshed, and defeats, with a shattering catastrophe.
This, no doubt, prompted Christian tradition, as recorded in the Book of Revelation (16:16-21), to make Har \JMegiddo\j, \JArmageddon\j in its new spelling, the site of the final great battle of the world. A confrontation between the forces of good and evil, its scope would not only be of global but of cosmic proportions:
\I...and there were thunders and lightnings; and there was a great \Jearthquake\j, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an \Jearthquake\j, and so great...and every island vanished, and the mountains were not found...and a great hail...fell down out of heaven upon men...\i
Significantly, \JMegiddo\j came to play an historic role once again in modern times. General Allenby of Britain launched his offensive against the Turks from there on September 18, 1918, resulting in their ultimate defeat. When, on September 2, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender in \JTokyo\j Bay, he remembered the ancient city's place in its eschatological context. He used it as a warning. Mankind, he said, had had its last chance to determine the future of the world by means of war. Indeed, if no other peaceful solution was found, "\JArmageddon\j will be at our door."
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"Arrowroot: Origin of the Name",95,0,0,0
The arrow in \Jarrowroot\j is deceptive. It has nothing to do with the pointed weapon. Nevertheless, it has been assumed to be so real that most convincing explanations have been given for its presence in the name of this starch-yielding plant. This was so called, people believed, because Red Indians had discovered the healing property of the sap of its tuber in the treatment of wounds inflicted by poison arrows. The sap was supposed to absorb the venom.
The arrow in (the name of) the plant is derived from the American Indian word \Iaru-aru\i for "flour" or "meal of meals." There was a good reason for this. The starch obtained from its roots proved most nutritious and easy to digest, so much so that gruel made from it was given to children and invalids.
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"Arteries: Origin of the Name",96,0,0,0
Arteries are vessels which convey the blood from the heart to the various parts of the body. But their very name - literally - empties them out and, strange to believe, suggests that they contain nothing but "air" \I(aer\i in Greek).
The reason for this error and misnomer shows how misleading partial observation can be. Early anatomists dissecting the dead found that, whilst the veins contained blood, the arteries seemed "empty." Puzzled they came to believe that the arteries were airducts which served the vital "spirit" dwelling in man. In this context, it is interesting to note that \JHippocrates\j very appropriately called the \Jwindpipe\j an \Iarteria.\i
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"Artillery's Meaning",97,0,0,0
The range of artillery, as a term, has varied to a surprising degree. To start with, it vastly surpassed its present-day meaning. From the French \Iartiller,\i the artillery then encompassed all military "equipment," and not only guns. But then, in the 16th century, the word was restricted to refer solely to them. Two hundred years later, the artillery expanded again to include also the men serving the guns.
#
"Ash Wednesday Custom",98,0,0,0
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It received its name from a custom that is still practiced on this day, when the priest marks worshipers foreheads with the sign of the cross - in ashes! It is a symbol of penitence as well as a reminder to the faithful, who show their grief for the pain Jesus suffered and for their sins, that "thou art dust and unto dust shalt thou return."
The ritual is all that remains of an earlier tradition in which ashes were emptied all over the heads of penitents, who used to present themselves to the priest clad in sackcloth. This followed the ancient mourning custom of expressing sorrow symbolically by putting on sackcloth and sprinkling ashes on one's head.
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"Ashes",99,0,0,0
Most famous of all cricket terms is "the Ashes." Its origin goes back to an historical match between England and \JAustralia\j played at the Oval in London in 1882. The Englishmen were thoroughly beaten and, in fact, the test had been so exciting that one of the spectators dropped dead. On the following morning the \ISporting Times\i published an obituary note: not on the victim but on English cricket. It read:
\IIN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE
of ENGLISH CRICKET,
Which died at the Oval
29th August 1882.
Deeply lamented by a large circle
of Sorrowing Friends and
Acquaintances.
RIP
NB - The body will be cremated,
and the ashes taken to \JAustralia\j.\i
When, in the following year, an English team went to \JAustralia\j, its captain, the Hon. Ivo Bligh, was asked to bring back "the ashes." Taking the request literally, the Australians, when beaten, burned a bail and put its ashes into an urn which they presented to their victorious visitors. This urn, "the Ashes," now rests as a treasured possession at Lord's, and Australians and Englishmen have battled - in the traditional phrase - for them ever since.
#
"ASPRO",100,0,0,0
A stylized \Jsundial\j decorates the square stone that marks the last resting place of George Nicholas in the Ficus section of the Springvale Crematorium Park.
In a graveyard the symbol can have several meanings and convey a diversity of messages. As one of the earliest instruments for measuring time, it may serve as a reminder of the brevity of life and of how swiftly and inexorably its hours pass. Equally, as it is only effective when the sun is shining, the \Jsundial\j may admonish the living to appreciate the sunny hours, of which there may be only few.
On the other hand, its choice for ornamenting a gravesite may be most personal. Its presence may pay special tribute to the deceased for the brightness he or she bestowed on other people's lives, lighting up their hours of darkness and distress. This, indeed, would be the most fitting interpretation and meaning of the \Jsundial\j set up in memory of George Nicholas - who created Aspro.
Aspro is not merely a brand name, but a household word. Not many medicine chests in \JAustralia\j would be without a packet of this remedy for so many ills.
However, it is little realized that Aspro is an Australian product and that George Nicholas was its creator. Now exported worldwide, its beginnings were as humble as its inventor.
Born on 19 May 1884, George started his career as a small-time pharmaceutical chemist with a little iron-roofed shop in St Kilda, Melbourne. At his death on 20 September 1960, at the age of 76, he had become the founder of an "empire" and was renowned as one of Victoria's most prominent philanthropists, with many benefactions to his credit.
Apart from giving large donations, often anonymously, to numerous charities, Nicholas was responsible for the rebuilding of both the Wesley and Methodist Ladies' colleges in Melbourne. A lover of horses, he founded the Shirley Park Stud near Mt Macedon and served as a member of the Victorian Racing Club.
\JAustralia\j owes Aspro to World War I, when aspirin could no longer be obtained. Bayer, the giant German company that had the world monopoly, had cut off all supplies. The Australian government offered the license and the use of the trade name to any local manufacturer who was able to produce a tablet of equal standard and potency.
George Nicholas, helped by Harry Woolf Shmith, another oft-forgotten chemist, succeeded in doing so. In fact, as the then federal attorney general (and later prime minister) Billy Hughes assured the nation, Nicholas' aspirin exceeded the German product in purity.
When first marketing it in 1917, Nicholas retained its original German name. In his enthusiasm, he did not anticipate the damage this would cause. Identifying Aspirin with the German foe, people refused to purchase it, a typical symptom of war \Jhysteria\j, welcomed and fostered by jealous competitors, who had failed to win the prize.
Everything seemed to collapse around Nicholas. His tablet certainly gave him a headache that even his product could not relieve. In 1917 he changed its name. It was a Nichol\Ias pro\iduct; and joining the last two letters of his name with the first three of the tablet, he created ASPRO. It immediately caught on and, though now "dinkum" Australian, the brand name retained some echo of its German ancestor and, with it, references to its quality - which was all for the good.
Success did not change Nicholas' lifestyle; as the Rev Benson said on the occasion of Nicholas' passing, he "was unspoilt by any of the glittering successes he had." It is also reflected by the very position of his last resting place and the wording on his memorial. Located in a small clearing and shaded by overhanging tree branches, his epitaph merely gives his name and the dates of his birth and death.
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"Assassin",101,0,0,0
Assassination is a word born in the context of a religious fanaticism of the most violent kind. Its root has nothing to do with murder, but is a linguistic corruption of the Arabic word for \Jhashish\j.
In 1090 Hassan ibn al-Sabbah founded in \JPersia\j a sect of semi-military religious extremists. His teachings and practices combined features of the most varied traditions, principally selected from \JIslam\j. After a short sojourn in \JEgypt\j, he established himself and his order in a fortress on Mount \JLebanon\j. There he trained a corps of supporters, numbering at times thousands of men, whom he sent out far and wide to make converts, if necessary by ruthless intimidation. Anyone who opposed his teachings faced death. His, indeed, was a rule by terror.
Al-Sabbah was concerned that his emissaries should not weaken or be overcome by pity but pursue their brutal task fearlessly and with unbounded zeal. For this reason he not only brain-washed them, before sending them on such missions, but drugged them with \Jhashish\j. The ensuing experience of euphoria, he told them, equalled the joys of paradise sure to be theirs, should they be killed while carrying out their sacred task.
Many a Crusader fell victim to these drugged terrorist zealots. Soon they were identified with the very hallucinogen supplied to them. They became known as assassins, from the Arabic word for the drug, \Jhashish\j.
The gang did not disband with Hassan's death in 1124, but carried on its nefarious work until the late thirteenth century. With the circumstances of its coining and the narcotic root of the name forgotten, the modern word remains the horrendous heirloom of religion gone astray in one of its most fanatic aberrations.
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"Astrology in Myth and History",102,0,0,0
Myth and history tell many stories of how scanning the skies paid high dividends to all parties concerned. Taking due note of all they saw above and making their calculations, the astrologer-priests of ancient times seemed to prove the validity of the astral religion which they guarded and guided so faithfully.
King Sargon of Akkad, ruler of the third millennium B.C., was one of the earliest world conquerors. His rich kingdom, situated in the fertile two-river valley, \JMesopotamia\j, seemed a valuable prize to neighboring tribes and nomads. They were anxious to share the wealth and happy existence of a country so favored by nature. Well aware of the threat to his land and rule, Sargon was determined, once and for all, to destroy those adversaries and to put an end to their constant menace.
To do so, he planned - as other "great" leaders did after him - to extend his rule over the entire known world. He would make all people like "one flock under one shepherd." Anticipating dreams of our modern age which are still unfulfilled, he also intended to unify the language of all those countries. Their people should speak with one tongue and the entire earth thus become one large dominion.
And his well-laid plans succeeded. With the battles won, he established the hoped-for peace and introduced a universal tongue over the vast area he now ruled. Alas, the situation was not permanent. But the significant feature in this stupendous undertaking was the fact that Sargon had not timed the complicated operation according to advice given by his generals or military experts. Instead he had consulted and listened to the royal astrologers, who had watched out for the most propitious constellations of the stars to embark on the venture! And the time-table they had suggested had led him to victory.
A totally different example comes from China and the reign of Emperor Tehuen-Hio. The official astrologer of his court could have been regarded as the minister of agriculture as well. It was his duty to inform the people of the most favorable moment to commence planting the seeds. And his calculations were based on the situation of the stellar bodies.
In the Himalayan mountain kingdoms, rulers were crowned and the dates of marriages were fixed on the advice of those who scanned the skies. Their word was law and no one would have dared to ignore their bidding and prognostications.
Greek legend tells that when Olympias was about to give birth to her son, she was carefully watched by \JNeoptolemus\j, her father, the king of Epirus. He was steeped in the arts of the occult and particularly in \Jastrology\j. Having cast the horoscope of his grandson to be, he knew that should he be born at a given hour, he would be destined to become the master of the world. And thus, he caused his daughter artificially to delay the birth till the propitious moment had come. And the child born was the future Alexander the Great!
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"Asylums",103,0,0,0
\IAsylum,\i a Greek word, described a divinely protected "shelter," a place of safety from violence and persecution. All holy places, such as temples, altars and sacred groves (and, later still, churches) served as such sanctuaries.
This historical background eventually led to the same word being applied to hospitals reserved for the care of those with \Jmental disorders\j. They were conceived as refuges in the spirit of the sacred connotation of \Iasylum.\i
Regrettably, man's cruelty and lack of understanding tainted it so badly, that the word has long since been discarded and replaced as the name for an institution caring for the mentally ill or intellectually handicapped.
#
"At Loggerheads",104,0,0,0
A loggerhead was used in medieval sea battles. A long handled implement, it had a cup at one end. This was filled with heated tar or pitch, in close combat to be poured on the assailants, with devastating results. To be "at loggerheads" thus may recall those fierce encounters with, at times, scarring effects.
There was yet another loggerhead. This was part of whaling vessels when whales were still caught with hand-thrown harpoons. This loggerhead was a round wooden post, the bitt, in the stem of the whaling boat. Its function was to control the speed of the harpoon line, as it ran out. At times this moved so fast that the friction threatened to ignite the timber. To prevent this from happening, water had to be poured on to it. The emergency was announced by the shout, "At loggerheads!" No wonder that people so incensed that sparks fly, are described to be "at loggerheads," too. After all, their confrontation could easily become a conflagration.
A third derivation discovers in the "logger" the dialectical term for "timber." A loggerhead, therefore, was a person as hard-headed as wood. Nothing could change his mind. If two such people collided, each determined to get his own way, figuratively speaking, they knocked their (wooden) heads together. In short, they were at loggerheads.
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"At Sixes and Sevens",105,0,0,0
Those experiencing a state of confusion or unable to come to an agreement are said to be "at sixes and sevens." The odd \Ifigure\i of speech has been traced to pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. Chaucer tells how they whiled away their long journey by games of dice. These were said to have included higher numbers than those used nowadays. To roll for a six or a seven was most hazardous. Only someone who lacked self-discipline and was of an irresponsible disposition would venture "at sixes and sevens."
To confuse the issue further, another claim suggests that it all started in the City of London and one of its auspicious events. In the annual procession of \JGuilds\j, an unpleasant dispute arose between the Skinners and Master Tailors. Each claimed the right to precede the other and, as the sixth in line (and in status), immediately to follow the goldsmiths. They were truly "at sixes and sevens." In 1484, a typical British compromise finally resolved the acrimonious rivalry. The then Lord Mayor decreed that the two \JGuilds\j were to take precedence in alternate years.
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"At the Drop of a Hat",106,0,0,0
"At the drop of a hat" means instantly, right away. The phrase goes back to the days of the American frontier when fights between men were common. But in spite of their belligerence and adventurous spirit, they still obeyed rules. Two men ready to fight each other waited for the signal to start, given by a bystander "by the drop of a hat."
In later years, when people had settled down in every sense of the word, they transferred their passions to the sporting arena in which they adopted the gesture. A downward wave of a hat now signaled the beginning of a race or a contest. To delay the start by even a second, might well spell defeat.
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"At the Eleventh Hour",107,0,0,0
Something that happens in the nick of time, with hardly a moment to spare, is said to occur "at the eleventh hour." The puzzling expression for such lateness comes from the \Jparable\j of the laborers in the vineyard in the Gospels (Matth. 20. 1-16). This speaks of those men arriving almost at the very end of the working day as being hired "at the eleventh hour." However perplexing now, at the time the choice of words made good sense.
A working day then extended from dawn to dusk. This period was divided into twelve sections or "hours." The twelfth of them, obviously, was nearest to sunset and, hence, the end of the working day. A laborer starting his job only at the eleventh hour (of sunlight) therefore was truly late, with hardly any time left to do anything.
The system of keeping time was then changed. Hours were now counted throughout the day and night - irrespective of the rising or setting of the sun. Standardised, they were of equal duration in summer and winter. On the new, modified clock, 12 o'clock no longer coincided with nightfall but indicated either noon or midnight.
In spite of these changes, the influence of the Gospel story was so lasting that "the eleventh hour," though no longer in terms of modern time-telling, is still used in the now obsolete meaning of the \Jparable\j, as a figure of speech for the last possible moment.
It is a strange coincidence, and food for thought, that at the end of World War I, Armistice came into force at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
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"Atlantic Ocean and Atlas Mountains",108,0,0,0
If any ocean is divine, the \JAtlantic Ocean\j is doubly so, as it joins the name of the god, \JOceanus\j, with that of the Titan, Atlas. Indeed, in geographical terms, Atlas went from one extreme to the other. Whilst perpetuated in the waters of the \JAtlantic Ocean\j, he became petrified in North West Africa in the rocky \JAtlas Mountains\j. In fact, it was because of their proximity that the \JAtlantic Ocean\j was so called, first by the ancient Greeks.
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"Atlas",109,0,0,0
The fact that a collection of maps, usually in a volume, is called an Atlas, is based on Greek myth and an error.
Atlas was the mythological giant who led the Titans' rebellion against Zeus, the chief god. When the attempt proved abortive, Atlas was duly punished. He was condemned forthwith and forever to carry the heavens on his shoulders. To ease the burden, he was permitted to use his hands and head for support.
Artists must have misunderstood the tradition or used a garbled version of it because, when portraying Atlas, they showed him as holding up not the heavens, but the globe of the earth.
Mistakes are not always corrected, and this one was certainly not. When Rumold Mercator published his father's maps in 1595, he illustrated the title page and decorated the outside cover with the image of Atlas carrying the world on his back. This chance circumstance identified the giant's name with a book of maps ever after.
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"Atropine and Mythology",110,0,0,0
The name \Ibelladonna\i given to a drug obtained from the leaves and roots of the \Jdeadly nightshade\j is Italian for "fair lady." Most probably it was chosen because Italian beauties had learned to give luster to their eyes by dilating the pupils with the substance.
As \Jatropine\j (first isolated from the plant in 1831), the drug proved its medicinal value. Used prior to surgery, as a pre-anesthetic medication, it inhibits the flow of \Jsaliva\j. In ophthamology it dilates the pupils to allow easier examination and treatment of the eyes.
In his classification of plants, Linnaeus was the first to call the species of belladonna \Iatropa.\i He did so after Atropos, one of the three Fates of Greek \Jmythology\j. Hers was the tragic mission of cutting the thread of life. This explains why she is traditionally shown in the act of severing a cord with a pair of shears.
It is a strange paradox that a drug found, in modern times, to be so beneficial, should be associated with a \Jsupernatural\j figure dedicated to ending life. Linnaeus, no doubt, named it so because the substance could be fatally poisonous.
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"Auburn Hair",111,0,0,0
A person's hair color might not always be the original one. Individual taste, fads and modern dyes may be the root cause of the change. However, long before people ever thought of altering what nature had given them, error achieved the same - playing the trick by a simple mix-up.
It happened in the case of very fair-haired people. Their hair looked "rather white," \Ialburnus\i in the original Latin. (The word is related to albus for "white," which is still present in the albino and even in the "white" of an egg, the albumen.)
Romans thus called a fair-haired person \Ialburnus,\i a description which was adopted in Old French as \Ialborne,\i sometimes pronounced abron. The word then struck trouble. To English ears it sounded very much like their own "brown," \Ibroune\i at the time, and soon the two colors were mixed (up).
Misunderstanding what was being said, many people erroneously believed that "auburn" (the ultimate form of the new word) was not "rather white" but (reddish) brown! What modern chemistry still cannot do, incorrect hearing had achieved, at least linguistically: to dye hair permanently!
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"Auguries",112,0,0,0
When a new scheme is "inaugurated," when a meeting is held "under the auspices" of a certain society, or when we feel that the time is specially "auspicious" to introduce a new policy, we do not realize that on each of these occasions we use words which reflect occult belief. They are based on the conviction that unless we choose the right moment, our venture will fail. In each case, as well, the choice was originally determined not by logical or psychological considerations but by a \Jsupernatural\j message obtained from birds: one of the most ancient forms of \Jdivination\j. Looking into the future by aid of birds was the source from which the "inauguration," "auspices," and all that is "auspicious" have come!
Early man must have wondered what caused birds to soar high up into the air - far beyond his reach. He was equally mystified by the unpredictability of their flight, its direction, its various speeds, turns, and twists. What made birds suddenly, and for no apparent reason, take off or come down to earth? The peculiar formation in which they flew and veered when in a group, or the manner in which, all on their own, they hovered high up in the sky surveying a vast area of the earth, were other features that added to man's awe of them and to his puzzlement.
More intriguing still were the sounds birds made. What did they try to say with their cries, croaks, songs, calls, and twittering? Man was convinced that the wish to convey some message was behind it all. And because birds moved at all times between heaven and earth, they belonged to both those two dimensions and people came to regard them as divine messengers. They rose into the skies, man believed, to receive instructions from the gods.
Therefore, for the sake of his own life and his future, man had to find the key to understanding what the birds were telling so expressively, but in a language and in movements beyond the comprehension of ordinary human beings.
That is why, already in antiquity, special functionaries were appointed whose responsibility was to watch the flight of the birds carefully and then rightly to interpret the omens. They came to be known as "augurs" and very appropriately so. Their name clearly defined their professional duties: the divining by the flight of the birds. Augur is a contraction of the original Latin word for "bird" \I(auger,\i which preceded \Iavis)\i and either the verb \Igerere\i for "to manage" and "to perform" or the verb \Igarrio\i for "to talk" and "to chatter."
There were so many "signs" for the augur to observe. They ranged from the direction of the flight and the quarter of the sky in which the birds appeared, to the type of bird it was and the grain, worm, or meat on which it fed.
The augur fulfilled a most responsible function in the national life of the Romans. No government would embark on an important venture of any kind without having first consulted the appointed official. His considered opinion and "view" of the birds would determine the course of action. And this ancient "augur" is still part of our modern inauguration. Likewise, "auspices" speak of the "bird" \I(avis)\i being "watched" \I(specio)!\i This also explains why we always wait for the "auspicious" moment to ensure success. What was really meant by the term was the approval given by the gods and duly conveyed by their messenger birds.
Systems of augury naturally varied in different cultures and epochs. The Druids - as is one of the explanations of their very name - paid special attention to the "wren." The \JCelts\j selected their new settlements by watching where the crow "touched down." And Aztec legend claims that the site of the \JAztecs\j' capital city Tenochtitlan (the present-day \JMexico City\j) was "chosen" in the identical way. It was the spot where an eagle with a snake in its beak was seen to alight on a \Jcactus\j! The modern Mexican state recalls the incident in its coat of arms which is embossed on its coins and incorporated in its flag.
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"August",113,0,0,0
August is named after Augustus, Julius Caesar's nephew and successor as ruler of \JRome\j. He was originally called Octavian but, in acknowledgment of his distinguished services to the state, the Roman Senate conferred on him the honorific title "Augustus" - "The Majestic." And it is this epithet by which he became known and is remembered. August merely omits its Latin ending.
The month was not chosen, as July was in Caesar's case, because it marked Augustus' birthday (which fell in September), but because the month had proved lucky for him politically.
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"Australia's Contributions to Sport",114,0,0,0
\JAustralia\j is one of the most sports-minded countries in the world. Her contributions to sport are manifold and almost unparalleled. They include the life-savers' movement and the "Australian crawl." Australians gave the totalizator to the world of \Jhorse racing\j and made \JAustralian Rules Football\j a sport all of its own. Australians created \Jmotorcycle\j speedway racing and introduced the Fairbairn style into rowing.
\JAustralia\j, indeed, became the home of almost every sport, taking it up, sooner or later, with fervor and enthusiasm, and not rarely excelling in it. Australians became world champions in running, tennis, cricket, and rackets, to mention just a few examples. That \JAustralia\j, too, of all nations was the first to wrest the \JAmerica's Cup\j from the Americans, merely was another symptomatic event.
Alone among all primitive people of the world, the Australian \JAborigines\j, because of their superior \Jboomerang\j, never knew the bow and arrow as a means of hunting or fighting. Europeans introduced them towards the middle of last century and Wilbraham Liardet, a London-born publican who had opened a hotel at the future site of Port Melbourne, inaugurated \Barchery\b contests for the entertainment of his guests. From 1840 onward, he even provided those interested with the necessary equipment.
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"Australia's First White Child - Rebecca Oakes",115,0,0,0
In early records, figures and dates often differ. This makes it difficult to substantiate claims, particularly when they refer to "firsts."
A gravestone, kept in good condition in the Rookwood Cemetery, is said to be that of the first Australian-born white woman, Rebecca Oakes, nee Small. The daughter of a convict couple who had arrived with the \JFirst Fleet\j, she was born on 22 September 1788. At the age of 16, she married Francis Oakes, the Chief Constable of Parramatta.
Hers must have been a most sturdy constitution. Not only did she survive childhood at a time when infant mortality was extremely high, but she gave birth to twelve (some say fourteen) children. And she lived to the age of 94! When she passed away on 13 February 1883, she had certainly seen Australian history in the making. In fact, the year of her death was of special significance to women, as it just preceded the graduation of the first woman from an Australian university.
There is yet another credit often given to Rebecca, but it is possibly spurious. It asserts that Rebecca was the first (or second) "Anglo-Australian" to be married in the colony.
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"Australia's History in Surfing",116,0,0,0
With the ever increasing popularity and growth of surfing over the years, many lurking dangers became apparent. To safeguard against these was one of the reasons for the creation of the first Life Saving Association - in \JAustralia\j, where the sport had been introduced first by a South Sea Islander in the 1880s.
The actual circumstances have been related by a pioneer of surfing in \JAustralia\j, George Blackmore Philip (in his \ISixty Years Recollections of Swimming and Surfing in the [Sydney] Eastern Suburbs).\i He wrote:
\IThe Sunday morning came when the greatest tragedy of the beach occurred, and brought home to us that some practical use must be made of the friendship that had generated from our surfbathing association, when one of my greatest friends, Mr. G. Banks was drowned. . . That was the foundation of the Surf and Life Saving Association - and at the cost of his life untold numbers of lives would be saved in the future.\i
Lyster Ormsby, foundation captain of Sydney's Bondi Club, was most instrumental in working out the earliest methods of rescue. The club's first report could proudly state that "though started rather late in the year . . . it is now recognized by surf bathers as a body that cannot be dispensed with. Several rescues have been effected by members of the club since their advent to the beach and there have been no accidents from drowning."
Due to this movement, whose motto was "vigilance and service," surfing in \JAustralia\j grew to its present dimensions and the highest standards of surfing and lifesaving were developed.
These are demonstrated in the annual surf \Jcarnival\j (inaugurated in Manly, Sydney, in 1908), with competitions and exhibitions in swimming, surfing, and, not least, life-saving skill.
To the young and strong, of top physical fitness, continually practicing, and giving many hours of duty, life-saving became a highly prized and voluntary service. It has been said of the Surf Life Saving Association of \JAustralia\j that "no one man made it, but it has made thousands of men." A story all its own is the development of its methods of rescue and resuscitation and \JAustralia\j's example has set the standard for the whole world.
The first life line was a human chain, with men interlocked by their hands, the best swimmer forming the seaward end and the sturdiest the \Janchorage\j in the sands. Then a pole was set up at the center of the beach to which was attached a rope with a life-buoy, used to bring back the swimmer in distress. Feats of endurance and dramatic rescues were performed by life-savers, battling their way through towering waters to people in difficulty.
Cork jackets were tried out - and discarded. Life lines of sisal \Jhemp\j were replaced in 1914 by cotton. But something more than a line was needed, and the greatest advance was the introduction of the reel, displayed first on Bondi Beach in 1906.
The claim that Lyster Ormsby and Percy Flynn, of the Bondi Club, were its inventors, making the initial miniature scale model out of two bent hairpins and an empty cotton reel, was challenged by G. H. Olding, a coach-maker and the manufacturer of the first life-line reels who asserted that he was the real inventor of this mobile and revolving life-saving "machine." To add to the confusion, George B. Philip made an identical claim.
An early method of resuscitation was that advised by the English physician and physiologist Dr Marshall Hall. He suggested the promotion of breathing by exciting the nostrils with snuff, hartshorn or volatile salts, or by tickling the throat with a feather. This was soon rejected as ineffective and for more than 40 years Australian life-savers adopted Edinburgh Professor Schafer's pressure method, in which the patient was placed face downwards in a prone position with the head lower than the body. By the application of systematic pressure, the water was drained from the lungs and \Jstomach\j. Eventually, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was introduced.
This procedure actually was not as novel as most people imagine. The \JBible\j gives an account of the identical treatment in a desperate and successful effort to restore life, when the \Jprophet\j Elisha stretched himself over the body of a dead boy and "put his mouth upon his mouth . . . and the flesh of the child waxed warm."
In the papers of James Boswell dealing with the period of his life when he practiced law (1769-1774), there is an interesting reference to the same method of restoring life. When all his advocacy had failed to have the sentence of hanging commuted for his client, John Reid (a sheep stealer), Boswell determined to rescue the unfortunate man's body from the gallows: and revive him by mouth-to-mouth breathing. (Death in those days was brought about by strangulation.)
Ignoring his friends' urging to let the law take its course, he hired a room near the gallows and went ahead with all necessary preparations for his clandestine plan. However, in the end he had to abandon the idea.
The Australian lifesavers' solicitude for victims of the surf is epitomized by the story of a candidate for the club who in reply to the examiner's question of how long he would continue his attempts at resuscitation of an apparently hopeless case answered: "Until a doctor pronounced the man dead - and for two hours afterwards!"
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"Australia's only Female Mine Owner and Worker",117,0,0,0
\B"Tess" Alfonzi\b
"Tess" is buried in the new section of the Broken Hill Cemetery. The inscription on her gravestone tells that Teresa Vera Alfonzi passed away at the age of 77 on 24 April 1986. The additional remark, that she is "remembered by Domenic, her husband and her relatives" is an understatement; Tess is a legend all over and beyond Broken Hill.
Italian by birth, she came to \JAustralia\j with her parents as a child of six, and grew into one of the most robust of women. Though short in stature (148 cm), she was larger than life.
She was the only member of her sex in \JAustralia\j to own and, for many years, to operate a mine, called "Triple Chance." Working it herself, she did a man's job and was not afraid of taking chances.
Typical was her instruction that whenever a problem occurred, such as the failure of an explosive charge to detonate, she was to be the first to enter the mine to investigate the "hitch."
On one such occasion the \Jgelignite\j ignited whilst Tess was inside the mine, causing huge rocks to fall all around her. No one expected her to escape alive. But she not only survived, but was happy to relate to the men anxiously waiting outside that "not a pebble touched me."
Tess had not had an easy life. At 19 she married a miner, but soon realized that he had a drinking problem. To get him away from the pubs, especially on weekends, she took him into the bush to fossick for minerals. Camping in the open, she would prepare their meals in a pit. If there was no water nearby, she would fetch it, at times having to carry it in two big drums on a yoke over a distance of six kilometers.
One day whilst camping in the Thackaringa Hills, some 35 kilometers southwest of Broken Hill, she was preparing a meal, when a shiny substance at the bottom of her cooking pit caught her attention. Her curiosity was roused and not knowing what she had discovered, she asked friends to identify the mysterious silvery flakes. They were mica.
Tess lost no time in starting operations. With a pick she was able to unearth more precious minerals, feldspar, and beryl; it was the beginning of her mine! (It is interesting to note that the Americans used some of her beryl for the rockets that took the astronauts to the moon.)
Tess certainly proved the maxim that hard work never killed anyone. At the age of 66 she was still actively working her mine. A fighter all her life and, no matter what the circumstances, always determined to make a success, she endured incredible hardships.
On one occasion, men tried to oust her from her mine. They gave up the attempt when they found themselves staring into the wrong end of a shotgun Tess was aiming at them.
Tess died in the Wilcannia \JHospital\j. She was unique in Australian mining history, and truly deserved the Australian Order of Merit awarded to her in 1980.
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"Australia's Original Name",118,0,0,0
The original full name of \JAustralia\j was \ITerra Australis del Espirito Santo:\i "the Southland of the \JHoly Spirit\j." The present national name derives from the least significant part of it - that which indicated the continent's "southern" position on the globe. With God left out, only the "down under" remained.
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"Australia's War Artist and Sculptor",119,0,0,0
\BGeorge Washington Lambert\b
George Lambert, one of \JAustralia\j's most renowned and well-remembered artists, was both a painter and a sculptor. He is buried in the South Head Cemetery. His memorial is distinguished by its simplicity and the modest brevity of its inscription. A single line on the epitaph sums up his character as an artist and a human being:
\IGEORGE W. LAMBERT
1873 - 1930
Painter and Sculptor
Single in Purpose\i
Lambert was 56 years old when he passed away, after having suffered from heart trouble for some time. His condition had been aggravated by his work on sculptures. In fact, it was shortly after he had completed a statue of Henry Lawson, for Mrs Macquarie's Chair in the Sydney Domain, that he collapsed and died - on 29 May 1930.
Lambert's had been a full and eventful life from its very beginning. He was born in St Petersburg (later \JLeningrad\j) on 13 September 1873, just after the death of his father, an American engineer who at the time was employed on railway construction in \JRussia\j. Although George never knew his father, Washington, his own middle name, was a constant reminder of his American origins.
The family, bereft of their breadwinner, spent six years in \JGermany\j, where Mrs Lambert's father lived, and then returned to England, her native country. But the Lamberts did not stay in Britain either. They then migrated to \JAustralia\j, where they joined an uncle who owned a sheep station near Warren, \JNew South Wales\j. In his early teens then and very unsettled, George moved to Sydney to work as a junior clerk. At 18 he had had enough of the city and went back to live in the country.
Meanwhile he had found his real niche. As a young boy in England, where he had received his schooling, he had discovered his love of drawing and been awarded a prize in an "Under Twelve" competition, the first of the many prizes to come.
In \JAustralia\j, whilst earning his living in commerce, he used every spare moment to make sketches, to paint and to study art. Inspired by the Australian bush, he put down on canvas what his eyes and mind saw.
His talent did not go unnoticed. In 1894, the Royal Art Society exhibited his first picture, of a horse and cart. The \IBulletin,\i recognizing his gift, began to publish his black and white sketches. His painting "Across the Blacksoil Plains" caught the public's attention and admiration. It was so large that, unable to complete it in a studio, he used instead an outhouse in his mother's garden. The National Gallery purchased the painting in 1899 for 100 guineas, and he was awarded for it the coveted Wynne Prize.
In the same year, the Society of Artists gave George the first ever Traveling Art Scholarship. Lambert was then ready to give up everything else to devote his entire life to art. In London and Paris he made his name as a portrait painter.
During World War I he was appointed official war artist for the AIF, to create as such two of his most famous and popular paintings, the "JBeersheba Charge" and the "Sergeant of the Light Horse." The \JCanberra\j War Museum treasures some 250 of his pictures from the \JMiddle East\j war zone.
Returning to \JAustralia\j in 1921, Lambert took up sculpture, and soon many significant commissions came his way. These included a War Memorial for Geelong \JGrammar School\j, the "Unknown Soldier" for St Mary's Cathedral, and - his very last sculpture - the statue of Henry Lawson.
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"Australia: a Cultural Melting Pot",120,0,0,0
Apart from the \JAborigines\j, all Australians are immigrants, of multiple ancestral roots. Even of the convicts the British transported to the Antipodes, more than 3,000 were "foreign-born" and not of \JAnglo-Saxon\j stock!
The Australian population is thus a mixture of the most diverse groups. People came to the country as convicts, settlers, forced laborers, or seekers after freedom and a new start in life.
\JAustralia\j, like America, has been likened to a melting pot. Perhaps the simile of a mosaic would be more appropriate, with each of its numerous parts adding some specific value and color. A lasting testimony to Australian multiculturalism, since the very beginnings of European settlement, are its graveyards.
#
"Australian Flag",121,0,0,0
When the first navigators reached the Southern Hemisphere, they felt greatly bewildered. A completely different world seemed to encompass them. There were strange beasts and birds. Instead of the familiar stars, totally unknown constellations looked down on them. But among them they recognized a cross, with great rejoicing.
They were now convinced they were still sailing under the guidance of their faith, whose very symbol was watching over them. They had nothing to fear. A sign from Heaven had shown them that, however far they proceeded, they could never leave the realm of divine care. That is how the Southern Cross assumed a significance far beyond that of a new \Jconstellation\j. It stood for promise and assurance.
We often see what we are looking for. Perhaps it was not an accident either that those early pioneers, scanning the alien skies, came to recognize in them the sign of the cross.
From earliest times \JAustralia\j was thus linked with a group of stars apparently proclaiming the Christian faith, and it was a foregone conclusion that if Australians were to choose a national emblem, the Southern Cross would be part of it.
Moreover, was not \JAustralia\j's very name coupled with the religion symbolized by the cross? When in 1606, in search of "another Indies," de Quiros thought he had sighted the country, he called it Tierra \JAustralia\j del Espiritu Santo, the Southern (\JAustralia\j) Land of the \JHoly Spirit\j. To select a cross for the flag of such territory, from this point of view also, was appropriate.
On several occasions, long before the need of a national flag, Australians made use of the Southern Cross to symbolize ideals for which they were fighting. It was included in the flag of the Anti-transportation League, which proudly displayed it for the first time in Hobart in July, 1851. Again, the cross was conspicuous in the crudely designed banner flown at the \JEureka Stockade\j at the time of the miners' rising on the Ballarat goldfields in December, 1854.
When Cook landed at \JBotany Bay\j in 1770, he naturally raised the British flag. The original penal settlement grew under its colors into a nation. But with the establishment of the Commonwealth of \JAustralia\j, the need of a new, national flag was felt. A number of private firms, supported by the Federal Government, invited suggestions for its design.
Thirty thousand entries were received. They were displayed at a special exhibition in Melbourne in September, 1901. Five of them were considered of equal merit and, therefore, the first prize was shared by five people, among them three youths, living in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, and - Auckland, \JNew Zealand\j. A huge flag, incorporating all the features suggested by the five winners, was hoisted over the Melbourne Exhibition Building on the day the awards were announced.
This was the birth of the Australian flag which, with slight adjustments, has remained the same ever since. As a symbol of a British settlement, it made use of the Union Jack, in the form of the British Blue Ensign. But most conspicuously it displayed the five stars of the Southern Cross! An additional large, white star was placed in the hoist. This corresponds to nothing in the sky. It is purely symbolic of the Australian Commonwealth, its seven points representing the six States and the Territories.
It is wrong, therefore, to say that \JAustralia\j owes her flag to one individual. Like so much in her life, it is the result of a joint effort, of co-operative competition and, in no small measure, the work of young people who, in the years to come, were to play an ever greater part in the building up of the nation.
#
"Australian Helen Keller",122,0,0,0
\B"Tilly" Aston\b
Matilda Ann Aston was the Australian Helen Keller. Tilly, by which name she was best known, is buried in St Kilda Cemetery. It is difficult to locate her last resting place, on which her headstone simply states:
\ITILLY ASTON
Blind Poetess and Philanthropist
Died 1st November 1947, Aged 74
Resurgam\i
Tilly was not born blind, but lost her eyesight at the age of seven. She was never to forget all the beauty of nature she had seen as a young child, and was to recall it vividly in her later writings.
A Victorian bootmaker's daughter, she was the eighth and youngest child in the family. Taught at a school for the blind, she chose teaching the blind as her career, determined to help those who shared her fate. For many years she worked for the State Education Department, till a fall and a slight stroke forced her to give up the profession she loved so much.
A woman of courage and inner strength, she then concentrated on writing, to become the author of nine books, of both poetry and prose. "I am defiant of difficulties," she wrote. Tilly was convinced that "most of us have more than one current in the stream of our daily existence, sometimes with several flowing at the same time." One of those multiple "currents" within her, no doubt, was her determination to triumph over adversity and to improve the lives of those without sight.
In 1895, she founded the Association for the Advancement of the Blind, of which she was the president at the time of her death. She also established a correspondence circle for the blind, anticipating the \JBraille\j Library. To foster \JEsperanto\j as an international language, was yet another of her interests and she actually corresponded in that tongue with people all over the world.
Tilly's is now an almost forgotten grave. But her vision lives on. Out of the darkness of her \Jblindness\j, she wrote in her \ISongs of Light\i what could be considered her epitaph:
\IIf life on Earth were all, Love,
And death the end of man,
If God were not on high, Love,
And Heaven an empty span;
Had duty never made a claim,
And had I never heard love's name,
Since you have not a thought to give,
'Twere better far to die than live.
But life is not our all, Love,
This little life on Earth;
And death is but a throw, Love,
Of higher, nobler birth!
And God has set a task for me,
A schooling for eternity;
So I must answer duty's claim,
And serve all men for love's dear name.\i
#
"Australian Industrial Disputes",123,0,0,0
\JAustralia\j has seen many industrial disputes, with workers and employers in fierce confrontation. The growth of Australian unionism, at times stronger than anywhere else in the world, is a significant part of Australian history.
It produced militant agitators and dedicated idealists. They all played their part in the building of "the road for the bannered march of Crowned Humanity." Headstones in cemeteries and in front of specified homes-mark the milestones in the evolution of trade unionism.
#
"Australian Shout",124,0,0,0
Australians love to "shout" a drink. Their practice of thus treating friends or even total strangers may have had a very practical origin in the days of the goldrush. Lucky diggers had every reason to celebrate their good fortune and did so by sharing beers with their mates. Usually the crowd surrounding the bar was boisterous and noisy. For the order of drinks to be heard, whoever wanted to treat his friends had to shout. Eventually, their "shout" became identified with its object.
Actually, the expression is not indigenously Australian. It was well known in the "old country," where Englishmen, to treat their guests in an inn, "shouted" for a waiter to serve them drinks.
Etymologically, this shout may be derived from an original "shot," used in the sense of a (monetary) "charge." To "stand shot" was "to pay the bill," for all.
#
"Automatic Totalizator",125,0,0,0
The automatic totalizator which revolutionized racing throughout the world was invented in \JAustralia\j by Sir George Alfred Julius, the son of an \JArchbishop\j and Primate of \JNew Zealand\j. He himself never became a racing fan. The only times he went to the races, were to see his betting machine in action, and to test its efficiency. That the "tote" was an aid to the making and winning (or losing) of bets on the relative value of horse indeed, was never a matter of great interest to the inventor.
George was born in Norwich, England, in 1873. His father, a devout Anglican clergyman, loved gadgetry and was most adept in making tools. He constructed all types of mechanical devices. No wonder that he instilled in his son, from earliest childhood, a special love of tinkering. Julius himself liked to relate how, at the age of five, he worked the \Jlathe\j treadle for his father in the hobby shed of their Norwich home.
In 1889, the Rev Julius accepted the post of \Jarchdeacon\j to Ballarat, Victoria, and with his family - and his tools - emigrated there. Soon afterwards he was pointed \JArchbishop\j of \JChristchurch\j and Primate of Zealand. Conscientious about his ministerial duties, he nevertheless continued his hobby, often making gadgets out of knitting needles and hairpins. Most of all, however, he enjoyed repairing clocks, and he became a real expert in clock mechanics. When people saw him going to church, they could not always tell whether he did so to conduct a service or to repair the clock high up in the tower. Similarly, on his calls to the vicars of his diocese, he not merely discussed their work but improved the working of their watches as well. Many a clergyman anxiously waited for his bishop to put his timepiece right, free of charge.
George inherited his father's delight in gadgetry. After graduation in science at Canterbury College, \JChristchurch\j, he accepted an appointment as assistant engineer in the \Jlocomotive\j department of the Western Australian Government Railways. It did not take people long to recognize his brilliant mind. He was promoted to the position of chief draughtsman and then became the engineer in charge of the department's tests. Racing, however, was still the furthest thing from his mind.
Any mechanical problem attracted Julius and, in a peculiar way, it was a dispute on the votes cast at a Western Australian election which became the basis of his future horse-racing fame. He considered that any acrimony and controversy could be avoided by mechanizing both the counting of votes and of preferences. For this purpose he designed a machine which, being far too expensive to construct, has never gone beyond the blueprint stage. After all, elections are not held frequently and no government was prepared to spend the enormous sum it would cost to build the machine.
It was disappointing to the young engineer that apparently all his work and ingenuity (as well as precious time) had been wasted. That is why Julius looked around to find some other application for his invention. It was while discussing his problem with friends that they suggested the "tote" to him. "What is a tote?" Julius is to have innocently asked.
Eventually, he resigned from the Western Australian Railways and, moving to Sydney, established himself there as a consultant engineer. Not forgetting his friends' proposition, he now seriously considered the construction of an electrically operated, fully automatic machine that would record bets and compute dividends.
In his research, he took note of previous attempts, such as had been made in \JFrance\j and \JNew Zealand\j but had proved of no great merit. The machines had been hand-operated, too cumbersome, and too long in obtaining results, which were not always correct.
For five long years he struggled with all the difficulties that presented themselves, till in 1912 he gave the world the first totalizator. This was still a huge contraption, with a tangle of \Jpiano\j wires and heavy, leaden weights. Within a year, he sold it to the Auckland Racing Club which installed it, with phenomenal success, at Ellerslie course.
Some people never believed that the invention was really his. They were convinced that his father, the \JArchbishop\j, had thought it up but, for obvious reasons, had given the credit to his son who was not encumbered by ecclesiastical proprieties. In fact, the story was told how one day, when the new machine had broken down, race-goers observed their beloved \JArchbishop\j rush into the building. They even imagined that he had turned up his coat collar - to hide his clerical garb. Soon afterwards the wheels were turning again. Some pious onlookers suggested that their Primate had blessed the machine. But those of a more prosaic nature bluntly stated that the "Arch" had repaired his brainchild.
Once the success of the new invention was apparent, Julius established the firm which, though under a different name, continues to supply the world market with the totalizator. Its basic principles, first worked out by Sir George, have remained virtually unchanged. \JAustralia\j exported the machine to 29 countries which, in addition to the United Kingdom and the United Sates, included \JNigeria\j, \JMalaysia\j, Eire, India, and \JBrazil\j. The automatic totalizator, it is well to remember, was not merely a betting machine. It exerted altogether a lasting effect on the sport of racing.
In recognition of his many outstanding services to the cause of science, Julius was knighted in 1929. Of all his many achievements, none has won him greater fame than his totalizator, one of \JAustralia\j's great contributions to the world of sport.
#
"Aversion to Red Hair",126,0,0,0
In some parts of the world there is still a \Jprejudice\j against red-haired people. It may be that one of its causes is the psychological law of the dislike by the like, for the unlike. Certainly, red-haired men and women almost everywhere are in a minority. But the unjustified, irrational attitude has other significant foundations as well.
It has its historic roots. \JAnglo-Saxons\j dreaded their red-haired, Danish foes. In the \Jsubconscious\j memories of many English people, the otherwise long-forgotten association of hostile invaders with red hair lingered on.
Even nature itself has played a part in rendering red an ominous color. Red-yellowish sand was found in the desert which spelled \Jdrought\j, thirst and disaster to many. That is how Egyptians first came to depict one of their evil gods in a red-yellowish sandy color.
A medical fallacy has equally been quoted as the virus which poisoned people against red-haired neighbors. Doctors used to diagnose illness by the patient's color and, at some time, a red complexion was considered a symptom of a "gross humor" and ill blood. Possibly scared of infection and because illness as regarded as the result of sin, people shunned and despised those with red hair.
It has been suggested that neither fear of sickness nor horror of sin created the \Jprejudice\j, but pure envy. Red hair, this much more pleasant fallacy claimed, was an indication of the purest blood, a most clarified spirit and, consequently, the finest of intellects. Red hair showed the best balanced constitution, poised exactly halfway between the blond (phlegmatic) and the black (melancholic), the fickle and the authoritarian.
It was for this reason that other people, lacking such a gift, jealously derided and abused those who by the very color of their hair, could not disguise their superiority. An Italian proverb asserted that "face without color, either a liar or a traitor."
There are biblical sources as well. Scarlet was the color of sin, and artists therefore painted evil men with yellowish-red hair. The best examples are those of murderous Cain and treacherous \JJudas Iscariot\j. And it may have been their portrayal most of all that was responsible for the antipathy toward red-haired people.
#
"Awful",127,0,0,0
There are some words which, unique in one language, have no equivalent in any other vocabulary. This confronts translators with a problem. All they can do is to find some approximation or, failing this, to create a totally new term.
Translators of the \JBible\j from the original \JHebrew\j encountered this difficulty in the description of God's grandeur and majesty. In \JHebrew\j this is expressed as \Inora\i (Dt. 10.17). There just was no word in any other tongue adequate to describe this divine attribute. To make up for this lack, translators coined a new word: \Iawe-ful,\i full of that which inspires awe, reverence and respect.
Like so many other biblical terms, aweful found its way into our everyday speech. However, in the process it depreciated in meaning: it came to carry the connotation, "terrible, dreadful" and was applied to that which elicited terror and repugnance.
As if to compensate for this degradation, a further development of the word's meaning occurred. People, and particularly Englishmen, started using "awful" colloquially, often affectedly so, as a simple intensifier: they were "awfully glad," something was "awfully nice," and they were "awfully keen to come." In reality, their affirmations were a contradiction in terms.
#
"Azazel",128,0,0,0
Who was Azazel, to whom the \Jgoat\j was actually sent or was meant to escape? The name Azazel occurs only in this one passage in the entire \JBible\j (Lev. 16:8,10,26) and in no other literature of the world. This has given ample room for speculation and controversy.
Those who were anxious to maintain the belief in an originally strict \Jmonotheism\j even in the very early stages of the \JHebrew\j religion, have tried laboriously to see in Azazel no extraordinary or \Jsupernatural\j being. They presumed that Azazel was merely a geographical site, the name of some inaccessible, mountainous rocky region in the desert to which the \Jgoat\j was sent.
For the same reason, others have suggested that Azazel was not even a proper name but the odd combination of two innocuous words. These portrayed the "rugged" \I(azaz)\i and "hard" \I(el)\i nature of the mountain in the wilderness from which the \Jgoat\j was to be cast down.
The Greek and Latin translations of the \JBible\j with the same intention and belief explained the name of Azazel as the fusion of a \JHebrew\j and an \JAramaic\j word, describing the animal as "the \Jgoat\j \I(ayz)\i which goes \I(azal)"\i - into the desert. This differentiated it from the \Jgoat\j that stayed on to be sacrificed on the altar.
However, none of these various attempts to explain the true nature of Azazel seems satisfactory. Each in its turn was motivated by the wish to exclude any suggestion of the existence of any other power worshiped besides God. But that is where, once again, even in the \JBible\j the world of the occult is represented.
No doubt, Azazel was the name of a powerful desert demon, a being of the \Jsatyr\j family, possibly a \Jgoat\j deity, and to those who worshiped him he was a being as real as God himself. As the source of evil and its personification, Azazel was therefore the most appropriate figure to which to dispatch and banish all the evil that had become attached to the people during the year. Indeed, by this ritual, all the sins were returned to their original and rightful owner with whom they would be at home and therefore "get stuck."
Representing the dark side of life, the forces of evil and night, Azazel was the original counterpart to God, the ruler of light and of all that was good. And it is well to note that this reflected the once powerful Zoroastrian view of the innate \Jdualism\j in life. This Persian faith taught that two contending forces of good and evil, light and darkness, were coexistent in the universe, each fighting for supremacy.
That is how, in later traditions and significantly in the apocryphal book of Enoch, Azazel was described as the leader of the fallen angels and the author of all sin. He had taught man the art of warfare and with it the making of every type of weapon. Women, on the other hand, had learned from him the art of seduction: how to entice the male by painting their faces, dyeing their hair, artificially shaping their eyebrows, and how to drive him to distraction with perfume.
Azazel was in reality Satan, the great adversary of goodness. He was the first to corrupt man's style and quality of life by revealing the secrets of witchcraft. The \Jgoat\j was offered to Azazel by way of a bribe. It was hoped that, in accepting it, he might be prompted to act as a friend and in silent connivance to refrain from accusing men before God of the sins they had committed.
Finally, there might well be a connection between the \JHebrew\j Azazel and Aziz, a god worshiped by the ancient Canaanites in the very territory the Israelites came to occupy.
#
"Back to Square One",129,0,0,0
Having unsuccessfully pursued a course of action, it is often necessary to start all over again. Such reversion is remindful of some \Jboard games\j, like Snakes and Ladders, in which by an unlucky cast of the dice, a player is forced to return to the beginning. The player has to move the piece "back to square [numbered] one." The simile well-fitted the description of a like situation in life.
The phrase has also been linked with the children's game hopscotch, in which the unlucky participant has to go back to the starter square.
It has been claimed as well that the expression, if not actually created, was popularized in the early days of British radio. To help football fans follow the broadcast commentaries on matches, the BBC journal used to publish a ground plan of the field, divided into numbered "squares." All that was needed for the ardent listener to keep up with the game, was to look at the specific number referred to at that moment by the commentator.
The English, fond of the sport and glued to their wireless sets, soon acquired this terminology, and applied it to many other occasions, and in the case of "back to square no. 1," retained it long after the diagram had ceased to appear.
#
"Backgammon Origins",130,0,0,0
One of the significant (and frustrating) features of \Jbackgammon\j has been responsible for the present name of this dice game, one of the oldest of its kind. Because in certain circumstances a player must return a piece to its starting place to begin moving it forward all over again, the pastime (originally and until the 17th century known in England as "Tables") came to be called the "back-game," \Jbackgammon\j. \IGamen\i is the Old English for "game."
#
"Background on Medicine",131,0,0,0
Man has always been deeply concerned with the well-being of his body. Medicine, therefore, has played an eminent part in even the earliest-known civilizations. When \JHammurabi\j of \JBabylon\j (1792-50 B.C.) published his famous \ICode,\i he included a special section dealing with doctors and their patients.
The fees charged were legally fixed and varied according to the social status of the sick. If, by the negligence of a surgeon, a man died or even merely lost one of his eyes, the doctor's hands were amputated. (It makes one wonder who, with such risks, would have ever taken up the profession.)
In biblical times, the priests acted as doctors and much of scriptural legislation deals with keeping man well. Of the 613 commandments in the \JPentateuch\j, 213 are of a medical nature. The only operation mentioned is that of \Jcircumcision\j. The \JBible\j already stresses the importance of social hygiene and preventative medicine. It knows of midwives and pharmacists.
With such background, it is not surprising that man's body, its health and its sickness, has contributed many telling figures of speech to daily life. Their range extends from "a festering wound" to "a cancer in society," from a "rickety" chair to a "fever of expectation."
#
"Bad Luck on Ships",132,0,0,0
\BClergymen are bad (to) sailors\b
Sailors used to regard it as most unlucky for a priest or any man of the cloth to join their ship. They were convinced that he could bring them only misfortune.
The unhappy tradition goes back to the \JBible\j, which tells how Jonah, one of the twelve minor prophets, trying to shirk his duty to visit \JNineveh\j (in the East), joined a boat that was just then sailing from Joppa (the modern Jaffa) towards the West. In fact, its destination was Tarshish in the south-west of \JSpain\j at the extreme other end of the Mediterranean. Certainly, it was as far in the opposite direction from his supposed destination as Jonah could possibly voyage in the then known world.
To catch up with the fugitive, to punish him and to force his hand, so the \JBible\j tells us, God raised a storm. This greatly endangered the ship which would have been wrecked with all hands lost, had not the sailors thrown Jonah overboard (which they did at his own request). The moment they had done so, the storm abated and they could continue their voyage safely.
This biblical example gave sailors every reason (and excuse) to shun clergymen and to prefer not to see any man of the cloth among those boarding their ship. He would only add extra hazard to their already perilous livelihood.
A later tradition intensified this dislike and apprehension. It was a foregone conclusion that the devil hated clergymen. For after all, a servant of God was by nature his arch-enemy. To get hold of a parson and possibly to drown him would be the devil's chief joy. So he would be prepared to join a ship where, surrounded by the sea, the man of God was as good as caught and unable to escape from his clutches!
Sailors had enough trouble without asking for more by inviting the presence of the devil by permitting a clergyman to be on board. Once the "evil one" had disposed of the parson, his original prey, he might well embark on other mischievous schemes. Therefore to avoid adding to the many dangers they already had to face on a voyage, it was best for all parties concerned for a clergyman to be conspicuous by his absence.
There is also a suggestion that a parson was kept away out of deference to and fear of the ancient (pagan) sea-gods. After all, who really knew whether they, who (in the minds of people) once had ruled the waves had actually been swept off the ocean? But if they were still present, they would resent a clergyman as their natural foe. This fear of sea-gods would be as truly submerged in the unconscious mind of the sailor just as the gods were in the depth of the ocean.
\BWomen not welcomed\b
A sailor is said to have a wife in every port. Once on firm ground, he soon finds his way to her dwelling and, surely, would not miss her loving embrace. But "at sea" he views a woman as "\Jtaboo\j."
Those experienced with the havoc one female can cause among an all-male company would recognize good common sense in the \Jsuperstition\j. A ship's crew could raise a hurricane of jealousy in competing for her favors and the morale (and morals) onboard ship would be wrecked.
The real origin of the \Jsuperstition\j is however, once again, much more deeply rooted and belongs to the world of the occult. Sailors feared that the apparently female passenger might in reality be a witch, and to have such a creature on board might prove disastrous. This apprehension caused their \Jphobia\j and the rejection of an otherwise welcome female in their midst.
#
"Badminton Beginnings",133,0,0,0
Uniquely among all sports, \Jbadminton\j is named after a country seat of nobility. \JBadminton\j was the residence and estate of the Duke of Beaufort, situated in the southern part of the county of \JGloucestershire\j, England. Because the Duke and his friends (all sports lovers) played the game in its precincts during a weekend house party around 1870, it has ever since been called after the Duke's domicile. This also gave the name to a famous collection of sporting books, the \IBadminton Library.\i
Its association with the game and sport generally made the village and the manor world-renowned and beloved in the hearts of many.
The Duke of Beaufort did not invent the game; he merely put it on the map, as it were, by introducing it into society. The game itself was an adaptation of an earlier pastime which, in turn, has its roots in an ancient \Jdivination\j ritual: to hit an object into the air as often as possible with the hand or some sort of bat, the number of throws achieved without a miss indicated the length of one's life. A maximum score of "catches" was viewed as a happy omen of longevity. No wonder that people tried to attain record performances. Magical formulas were sung to accompany the rite, and eventually the "ball game" (to which it amounted), and the chant, were believed not simply to reveal the future but, by sympathetic magic, to influence it.
The secularization of this magical rite created the game of battledore and shuttlecock. Its principle, if played individually, was to hit a shuttle with some sort of racket into the air as many times as possible, without letting it drop to the ground. Played by two persons, the shuttle was hit backwards and forwards between them, a point being scored for each miss on the part of the opponent.
In one version or another, the pastime became popular in many parts of the world, in Europe and Asia, from England to China. It was played by the noble as much as by the common man, by adults as enthusiastically as by boys and girls. No doubt people at first used the outstretched palm as a racket. (Of course, to close the hand around the missile when catching it was counted a miss.) The palm was replaced by a small bat, initially made of wood, then of skin, and finally of catgut strings, stretched over a frame. The name battledore is derived from the bat used in washing laundry.
The shuttlecock was originally a rounded piece of cork, with feathers stuck around its flattened top. Probably the early use of cocks' feathers, responsible for its name, was a survival of the bird's employment for purposes of \Jdivination\j. To begin with, shuttles were not uniform but varied greatly in size, weight, and characteristics of flight.
The game was first mentioned in England in the fourteenth century. It had become a most fashionable pastime during the reign of James I, so much so that in 1609, a writer could say, "to play Shuttlecok methinkes is the game now." A story tells of an unfortunate mishap when the king's son, Prince Henry, playing the game "with one farr taller than himself," accidentally hit him with the shuttlecock upon the forehead. A pastime suitable for confined spaces, it must have brought some solace to the Earl of \JNorthumberland\j while held prisoner in the \JTower of London\j for his alleged complicity in the \Jgunpowder plot\j. Among moneys paid on his behalf was one amount for the purchase of shuttlecocks.
Children especially enjoyed the "toy," particularly so on Shrove Tuesday. Playing became so popular that in Leicester, the day came to be known as "shuttlecock day." The streets were crowded with people of all ages batting their feathered corks into the air and toward each other.
Typical of the rhymes chanted as an accompaniment to the game was the verse:
\IShuttlecock, shuttlecock, tell me true
How many years have I to go through?
One, two, three . . .\i
Counting ended, of course, when the player missed a catch - an obvious indication of the toy's roots in the ancient practice of \Jdivination\j.
Divinatory rhymes (identical with those that were sung during similar games with cherry stones, balls made of daisy petals or cowslip) dealt with the year of one's marriage, the social position of one's future spouse, or the site of one's family-to-be:
\IGrandmother, grandmother
Tell me no lie,
How many children
Before I die?
One, two, three . . .\i
An adaptation of this simple amusement gave birth to a new game that - with progressive elaboration - came to differ in essential features from its predecessor. In the older pastime, two persons playing together were stationary and protected a target area within reach of the outstretched arm in which they held the battledore. In the new and improved version, however, the playing field was extended to the size of a court, divided by a cord or some sort of net to enforce a fair return of the shuttle.
English army officers, serving in India in the 1860s, were very much taken by a game which was similar, and yet far superior, to battledore and shuttlecock, known as Poona. (It has been suggested that possibly the sport reached the subcontinent by earlier English expeditionary forces.) They enjoyed it so much that they took it home, together with some of the Indian equipment, chiefly shuttlecocks.
Some of the officers on leave were friends of the Duke of Beaufort, who invited them to play the game at \JBadminton\j. (One tradition says that the guests played in the manor's picture gallery, very much to the hurt of the paintings.) Thus \Jbadminton\j got its name.
Yet another version of the origin of the sport exists, linking it to an even greater degree with the Duke of Beaufort and his weekend party. According to this tradition, wet weather forced the guests indoors where, at a loss as to how to pass the time, someone fetched battledores and shuttlecocks from the nursery. Stretching a cord across the width of the drawing room, they improvised the new game, proposing there and then to call it by the estate's name, which was the obvious thing to do.
The army officers then took the sport to India (thus reversing direction), where they played it first in \JKarachi\j. One of the earliest games they organized was played in a hall the size of which was little more than that of a court. A peculiar feature of the hall was that its doors were centrally situated on the longer walls, and opened inward. People entering inevitably had to trespass on the playing area and thereby disturbed any game in progress. To remedy this situation, some unknown person put up a semi-circular barricade around the doors on either side. This resulted in creating the most unusual hourglass shape of the court.
It was from \JKarachi\j and the \Jbadminton\j played there on a court of the oddest shape because of fortuitous architectural circumstances, that Major Wingfield derived the initial, wasp-waisted shape of his tennis court. Another version, however, asserts that all this happened not in far-off India but in the Duke's own drawing room, in which the doors were built in that fashion.
Whichever the true facts, no longer ascertainable, the sport assumed wide popularity in India, where its first rules were printed in \JKarachi\j in 1877. Also, there is no doubt that English army personnel were largely responsible (whether first in India or England really does not matter) for the adoption of the sport and the formation of the earliest English clubs in seaside resorts such as Southsea and Bath, where they spent their leave and retirement.
To achieve uniformity in the game, particularly in the shape and size of the court, the \JBadminton\j Association of England was formed in 1893. Its 14 foundation members, meeting at Southsea, laid down the first rules which they based on those drawn up at \JKarachi\j. As late as 1901, the association decided that courts must be rectangular. From England, touring players and teams pioneered and fostered \Jbadminton\j throughout the \JBritish Commonwealth\j and carried enthusiasm for it to Denmark and the United States. The International \JBadminton\j Federation dates back to 1934.
The missile used in \Jbadminton\j was not at first exclusively the shuttlecock, but frequently a woollen ball. It was soon realized that the shuttle (which then completely superseded the ball) and, at first was a piece of cork into which an unspecified number of feathers were stuck, was most unpredictable in its flight. With good reason it was referred to by some as a wobbler. Around 1900 it was replaced by a barrel-shaped shuttle, still made of cork but with chicken feathers in their natural curve inserted around the flattened top which gave it its distinctive appearance.
The straight-feather shuttle was introduced in 1909. The number of suitable feathers which could be obtained from the wings of the goose ranged from 14 to 16. As a whole army of geese would be needed to supply the required raw material, this was not only impracticable but uneconomic, even if the remainder of the bird could be sold for mattresses and the dining table.
Inevitably, the need arose for a substitute, non-feather shuttle, and this led to numerous experiments and inventions: from fabric and papier mฮchฮ, to the modern plastic "bird" first made of \Jpolythene\j and then of nylon.
Of course, each material, because of its different properties of texture, smoothness, and weight, to mention merely a few, and the essential consideration of trajectory, length of flight, and wind resistance, demanded painstaking research to attain an ideal shape and construction of the shuttle. The many patents taken out in the course of the years in many countries reflect the \Jmetamorphosis\j of the shuttle in the short history of the sport.
The unique flight of the shuttle (often called a bird in the United States) has given the game perhaps its greatest appeal. Its range of possible speeds excels that of almost any other missile. Gently tapped, the shuttle merely floats. Hit hard, it can travel at a terrific pace, with an initial velocity exceeding 100 mph (160 km) though, because of its peculiar make-up, this speed is quickly spent.
#
"Badminton Library",134,0,0,0
\JBadminton\j also became the name of a famous series of sports books, the first of its kind in the world. Oddly enough, this does not include the very game that bears the identical name.
The story of the origin of the \JBadminton\j Library testifies to the Duke's fame as a sportsman of most diverse tastes. Early in the spring of 1882, Longmans, Green & Co., the old established publishing firm in London, was considering a new edition of Blaine's \IEncyclopedia of Sports,\i then out of print. However, while discussing the project, it became apparent that the text as it then existed, was largely out of date and required revision. New sports had arisen and others had changed considerably.
On further examination, Mr C. J. Longman suggested it was evident that to do justice to the subject it would be preferable to publish a number of separate volumes, each devoted to an individual sport and written by an expert.
This was decided on. The next question was who would be best qualified to edit the new works. A thorough knowledge of many sports was essential. It did not take long for it to be realized that "of all English sportsmen none fulfilled every essential condition so fully as the Duke of Beaufort." He was "the hereditary master of one of the most famous packs of hounds in England, a member of the Jockey Club, a keen lover of the turf, a coachman of unequaled skill, an admirable shot, and a most expert fisherman."
All agreed that, "if only his Grace could be induced to lend his invaluable aid, success was assured." Moreover, "a peculiarly attractive and appropriate title for the library, \IThe \JBadminton\j,\i naturally followed."
Wisely, a member of the firm who was also a friend of the Duke undertook to place the project before him. He agreed at once and, enthusiastic from the beginning, called at Longman's offices at Paternoster Row, London, to discuss the details. He himself promised to write the hunting volume, which was to appear first - in May 1885.
\IThe Library of Sports and Pastimes\i was dedicated to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and in a foreword the editor-in-chief explained its objective in these words:
\IThere is no modern encyclopedia to which the inexperienced man, who seeks guidance in the practice of the various . . sports and pastimes, can turn for information. The \JBadminton\j Library is offered to supply the want . . . written by men who are in every case adepts at the sport or pastime of which they write.\i
For some time \JBadminton\j was also the name of a pleasant, iced drink, a concoction of claret, soda, spices, and sugar. This used to be served at the Ducal parties on the Beaufort estate, no doubt at first to refresh players. Benjamin Disraeli wrote of those fragrant cups of \JBadminton\j which "soothed and stimulated." They are now of the past. But not so their namesake, the sport, the ultimate result of an ancient, magical rite of \Jdivination\j.
#
"Bag of Nails",135,0,0,0
To be called "The Bag of Nails" seems a peculiar choice of name for an inn. It has been linked with the early period, when nails were still handmade and hence costly. Nail makers who favored this specific "pub," it is said, used to pay for their drinks not in cash but in kind - with a bag of nails. Their method of settling accounts took people's fancy, who soon identified the inn with its special customers and their "bag of nails."
The story, however plausible, is far from the truth. The original (and real) name of the inn was "The Bacchanals," the English rendering of \JBacchanalia\j. This was a Roman feast celebrated in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine, with plenty of drink! When the Romans invaded Britain, they brought with them the practice. Its exuberant drinking bouts were remembered long after the Romans' departure and nostalgically led to the use of the Bacchanals as a favorite name for inns.
To the general public, enjoying their pints, Bacchanals, of course, meant nothing. So they misunderstood the word and, interpreting it their way, believed that it spoke of a "bag of nails." This became the accepted version, now even depicted on the inn-sign.
#
"Bagpipes' History",136,0,0,0
With their shrill music, \Jbagpipes\j make Scotsmen's hearts beat faster, and all the world associates the pipes with the land of thistle. As a military instrument, they inspired the Highlanders in their fight so much that after the battle of Culloden, they were banned altogether with the Highland dress.
Nevertheless, \Jbagpipes\j are not Scottish. They go back almost to the beginning of civilization and to far-off lands. \JBagpipes\j are mentioned in the book of Daniel in the \JBible\j, and shown on Hittite carvings dated 1000 B.C. They were known as well in \JPersia\j, India, and even China. A favorite instrument in classical \JGreece\j and \JRome\j, \Jbagpipes\j' rhythm paced the Roman foot soldiers' march. Nero himself is said to have played the pipes. According to tradition, it was the Romans who brought the first \Jbagpipes\j to Britain, where the English are said to have preceded the Scots in adopting them. Pipes appear on fourteenth and fifteenth century English illustrations of missals and on English church carvings.
At the time, people even made fun of the pipes. One of the carvings shows pigs playing them, no doubt to suggest that the animals' squeals sounded very much like the noise made by the pipes! To add insult to injury, Irishmen claimed that one of their people had sold the first bagpipe to the Scots.
#
"Baked Beans",137,0,0,0
Baked beans became popular not because of their taste or high protein content - not even as the result of business promotion - but for religious reasons.
Sunday used to be strictly observed as the Lord's day. As such it was exclusively reserved for prayer, \Jmeditation\j and spiritual pursuits. Did not one of the Ten Commandments specifically state that "you shall not labor on this day?" Just as God is said to have rested on the seventh day from his work of creation, so man too was meant to refrain, on this day, from any work, a practice which the Puritans took to its extremes.
To cook a meal, as many a housewife knows, can be an arduous task. It, too, constitutes work and would desecrate true Sabbath observance. Bostonian women, brought up in strict adherence to their faith, therefore prepared the Sabbath meal on the preceding day.
With beans as their staple food and available in great quantity, they "baked" them throughout Saturday, doing so on an open fire and possibly using an Indian recipe. Some of the beans they served hot for supper that same night. But the major part they kept for Sunday morning's breakfast, to be eaten cold, replacing the usual cooked meal.
That is how "baked beans" came on the market and why, having lost their original religious motivation, they are now part of our cuisine.
#
"Baker's Dozen",138,0,0,0
Present-day business methods subject us to all kinds of temptations to buy certain goods. Most common is the promise of a free gift for the purchaser of an article thus advertised.
It might be assumed that it was also a wish to foster trade that caused bakers to give any customer buying 12 loaves of bread a 13th loaf free of charge. However, the baker's dozen is not the result of ancient trade-promotion. It is a survival of an early type of price-control.
Bread was the staple diet of the people who purchased it in the form of either cut pieces or whole loaves. Anticipating modern strict regulations, loaves not only were counted but had to be of a certain weight. Heavy penalties threatened any baker selling short weight.
As bread loses weight after it has become dry and shrunk, the baker wisely started adding an extra loaf or piece of bread to every dozen sold. This was called the in-bread and what the baker thus lost on the swings, he got back on the round-about. The gift of some extra dough in the proportion of one to twelve saved him from the loss of more precious "dough."
There is a suspicion that self-interest of another kind might have accounted for the baker's dozen. People were afraid of evil forces, ever ready to spoil their luck unless they were given "protection money." To propitiate them, the baker, anxious to prosper in his trade, may have added the extra loaf. This gave rise to the saying "Twelve for the baker and one for the Devil."
#
"Bald Eagle as a National Emblem",139,0,0,0
Several reasons made Americans adopt the \Jbald eagle\j as their national emblem. A majestic bird, it symbolized strength. Early colonists took special note of a feature that distinguished it from the eagle they knew "back home." However, in identifying it, they committed an error, which they perpetuated in its name. The eagle is white-headed and not bald!
#
"Balderdash",140,0,0,0
"Balderdash," the gibberish talk, full of pretence but lacking any sense, has distinctive features. The story of its past gives meaning to its meaningless words. To begin with, "balderdash" was something real, though unsubstantial - mere froth. Its earliest use can be traced to the end of the sixteenth century. Thomas Nash, the famous English satirist, refers to it in his Lenten Stuffe (1599), the last work he wrote, a \Jburlesque\j on red herring! He spoke of people who did not want their heads washed with "this bubbly spume of barbers balderdash."
A century later the \Jfoam\j, as it were, had liquefied, and balderdash had become a term applied to odd mixtures of drinks. These were either adulterated or concocted of such bizarre cocktails as buttermilk with beer or beer with wine! From this liquid source balderdash emerged to become a term ultimately applied to a jumble of words, incongruous, silly talk - gobbledegook.
#
"Ball and the Ballet",141,0,0,0
Few people would imagine that both a ball (a formal social event involving dancing) and a ballet (the spectacle of graceful dancing as an art form) had their beginnings within the precincts of the Church and are named after an actual round ball.
The association of word and idea can be traced to \JItaly\j during the celebration of the Feast of Fools, once a mock-religious, not to say sacrilegious festival. It was widely observed during the \JMiddle Ages\j, just prior to Easter.
On the occasion, the Dean of the cathedral of Naples was directing a boys' choir, doing so in a completely novel manner. He asked the boys to dance solemnly around him as they sang. While they were thus circling him, simultaneously chanting at the top of their voices, they were to catch and return a ball thrown by him. This not only added to the exuberance of the celebration but, rhythmically done, greatly improved the artful rendition of the songs, with proper beats and timing.
That a ball should play such a conspicuous role in the singing of a choir, was so strange a circumstance that the ball was caught in the loom of language. Though the original ball and its purpose is now totally forgotten, its name survives on the dance floor at every ball and on the stage in every ballet.
#
"Ballyhoo",142,0,0,0
Ballyhoo is a lot of noise - signifying nothing. It refers to the extraordinary and often ludicrous ways used to attract people's attention, exploiting their gullibility, for example, to make them buy goods they did not need, or to come to a show.
The racket ballyhoo stands for has created its own problem. It concerns not its blatant method of promotion and salesmanship, but the very origin of the expression.
Some authorities claim that the word derives from Ballyhooly, a small Irish village in the County of Cork. Even for Irish ears, it was said, its people had been particularly boisterous, noisy and full of blarney.
Others have traced the term to the United States where, from the 1890s onward, it was used in show business: by circus people, in music halls, and by traveling theatrical groups. Many of them were run by Irish migrants, who still among themselves used \JGaelic\j and spoke with a strong brogue. To attract the attention of the public and make them come to the "show" was the specific task allotted to one member of the company. For obvious reasons, this person became known as "the barker." With a stentorian voice, they gave a colorful (and highly exaggerated) account of the entertainment offered, which no one could afford to miss. To be seen by all, they took their stand on a platform. This was known as a bally, soon to be identified with the barkers' blatant talk - all their hoo-ha. The association of the two created the ballyhoo.
The barkers had yet another job. During the interval, they had to "pass round the hat," a no less important function. Making their voice heard above the din of the crowd, they announced (in their native tongue), "Collection now!" To American ears, the Irish words sounded very much like "ballyhoo."
Ballyhoo has been given an international flavor as well. It has been seen as the corrupted version of an Arab formula, acknowledging God's omnipotence and submitting to His will - B'Allah hoo (through God it is). It is said to have been the cry of dervishes who appeared at the World Fair in \JChicago\j in 1893. Their call did not go unheeded. The public took it up and, as "ballyhoo," made it part of the English language, though in a totally different sense.
Going still further afield, out to sea in fact, one etymologist has linked the term with seamen's contempt for a certain type of two-masted sailing ship they encountered in the West Indies. Noting its inadequate, odd, and bad riggings, they decried it by using the Central American word for the wood from which the craft was made, bally. As ballyhoo it became a term of abuse others soon applied to any vessel they felt was not seaworthy, referring to it as "ballyhoo of blazes." Eventually, the word was used as much on land as at sea.
There is no doubt, however, that ballyhoo contains more than people want to admit. Bally once served as a swear word - among the most effective of all at the time. It was a euphemism for "bloody."
A favorite expression on the stage of late nineteenth-century music halls was the saying "the whole bloody truth." Anticipating Shaw's famous expletive in \JPygmalion\j, it would bring down the house. But to use the phrase explicitly was impossible. Actors therefore camouflaged the "offensive" words by changing them into the respectable "ballyhooly truth." Finally, cut down in size, it left us with the present-day ballyhoo which, like all make-believe, is far from true.
#
"Banished from Paradise",143,0,0,0
According to the \JBible\j, \JAdam and Eve\j were not expelled from the Garden of Eden, as is generally believed, in punishment for their having eaten of the forbidden fruit. The book of Genesis (3:17-24) clearly states that the reason was not of a punitive nature, but a precautionary measure. \JAdam and Eve\j had to leave Paradise to prevent them from eating the fruit of yet another tree "out of bounds" to them, the tree of life, as then they would live on forever, which did not fit in with the divine scheme of things.
#
"Banking",144,0,0,0
Though religion strongly disapproved of the love of money, describing it in the Gospels as the root of all evil, it was responsible for a number of monetary terms and institutions. The earliest banks, history tells, belonged to temples, where the gifts of the faithful were kept.
Babylonian priests, so facile with figures, were also the first bankers, as long ago as four millennia. They accepted valuables for safe keeping, storing them in the sanctuary's vaults. Their transactions included the granting of credit and the giving of mortgages, for which they charged a fee and interest. A special service given by those temple banks was their loan of seeds.
#
"Bankruptcy in the Early Days",145,0,0,0
In modern parlance, money merchants who had no cash left to repay creditors would have to close their bank. In the days when they transacted their business on a counter in the open, the original "bank," this "bench" was broken up. That is how they became "bank-rupt," which created the now merely figurative expression of "going bankrupt." At the time their broken bench indicated their insolvency. The practice also survives in people's colloquial description of those without money as "broke."
Seventeenth-century Britain required bankrupts to walk about in special clothing. It was easy thus to recognize a person who was not credit-worthy. This had a dual purpose: it made him pay off his debt as quickly as possible and saved tradesmen from suffering a loss.
Public outcry against the custom made authorities discontinue it generally in 1688. For some time however, it continued to be enforced on those convicted of fraudulent \Jbankruptcy\j.
#
"Banns of Marriage",146,0,0,0
It used to be the law, prior to a wedding, to have "the banns" read out in church. This was done to give anyone who had a valid reason to object to the forthcoming union the opportunity of registering his protest. If justified, the marriage did not take place. (Actually, when first introduced, the practice was meant to ensure that the couple were not too closely blood-related, thereby avoiding incest.)
The circumstances and similarity of sound led people to assume that the banns referred to the (possible) "banning" of the union. This is incorrect. In the early use of the term, the banns did not have a negative meaning. They solely stood for a "proclamation," in this case the public announcement of intention of marriage.
#
"Banquets",147,0,0,0
Communal eating was once the fashion. Dining privately was just not done! Long benches then served the diners both for their meals and the inevitable sleep afterwards. And that is how the bench, from the Italian \Ibanco,\i created the modern banquet. Odd indeed, to call such a sumptuous affair by such a wooden name.
#
"Banshee",148,0,0,0
Death has haunted man through the ages. Recognizing it as the all-powerful "final master and lord," people assumed that it would not arrive unannounced but would, as it were, cast its shadow before it.
Death could announce itself in various ways. Most common were premonitions, when men and women felt that the angel of death was hovering around, ready to claim them. Queer apparitions of one's ethereal double (called by the untranslatable German \IDoppelgฮฃnger)\i and mysterious knocks on window or door were significant forebodings. They were either imagined by a vivid fantasy or, it was claimed, clearly revealed to those endowed with the gift of \Jclairvoyance\j. In Irish and Scottish lore the harbinger of death took the form of the mystical and mysterious banshee.
During the last war, when Britain was preparing to withstand massive air-raid attacks, considerable thought was given to an efficient warning system. The final choice of the signals worried some of those in authority. They were afraid that the wailing sound of the air-raid siren that had been chosen to warn the population of an imminent air attack would remind superstitious people of the wailing of a banshee. And this, according to Irish tradition, foretold certain death! Therefore, it was debated and argued, it might be a mistake to choose the very sound that might prove inimical to the morale of a large section of the population.
Indeed, the banshee has been a herald of death to Irish people for countless centuries. In the paradox of Irish lore however, in spite of its foreboding mission, the banshee was not an old hag but the surviving spirit of a woman or a wraith-like woman of beautiful appearance. She was part of the rich \Jfolklore\j of their nation. As a word - from the \JGaelic\j of course - the banshee spoke of a "woman of the fairies," linking the two words \Ibean\i and \Isidhe.\i
The execution of her special task could take various forms. She might appear "in person" as it were, to convey by her presence the message of doom. Or, invisible, she could make her voice heard in a mournful tune - like the melancholy moaning of the wind. Again, she might disclose the bad news to the family of the person about to die. More specifically, she could actually sound her warning notes under the very window of the person whose death warrant had already been signed.
Among the Irish and Scottish people, the banshee was not a completely "unattached" female figure. According to the belief of many, she had a special tie with certain families with whose fate therefore she was deeply concerned. It was to them particularly (and according to some tradition, exclusively) that she appeared when death was about to strike one of their members. Actually, only the truly noble, of ancient and pure descent, were said to "own" such a fairy. Once again, in the paradox way of the Irish, this very belief led to acrimonious social distinction even when it related to the coming of death. In spite of the ominous message she carried, to be visited by the banshee was regarded an honor!
Any bereavement without her prior warning was a sure indication of that family's lack of distinction. A banshee's association with the clan would last as long as the family lived and certainly never depended on the state of its wealth. Even if a member had fallen on bad times, the banshee would stay on as a loyal "friend" to the very end!
An Irish elegy records with glee how once "upstart" merchants were misled at the Irish port of Dingle which at the time belonged to the noble Knights of Kerry. When one of their order was about to die, the banshee gave due warning in her mournful song which could be heard all over the seaport. The merchants mistakenly believed that the message was addressed to one of them and consequently were thrown into panic. But, sarcastically, a good friend comforted them - putting their minds at ease and them into their place. They had no need to worry, he explained, as certainly the voice of the banshee could never be meant for them!
Thus, the banshee was a close friend; it was suggested that her wailing was really meant not to distress but to help. Her song was like a tender call, almost an encouragement to the dying, by telling him that his ancestral group was anxiously awaiting him on the other side to join it in happy reunion. The call was equally intended to comfort those left behind.
On the other hand, it was also believed that a banshee who for some reason had become hostile to a family, announced the forthcoming death in a totally different tune. A shrill and howling sound then, it almost voiced joyous anticipation and delight about the loss and grief to come.
The banshee, whether heard in dread of doom or in comforting reconciliation, linked the occult with the aristocratic world. This fairy - and a woman at that - cherished true values and not cheap money.
#
"Barak and his Meandering Gravestone",149,0,0,0
Barak was the last chief of the Aboriginal Yarra Yarra tribe. His life was as eventful as the story of the monument marking his final resting place in the small cemetery at Coranderrk, a former Aboriginal mission station just outside Healesville.
Coranderrk - the name is the Aboriginal word for the Christmas bush - had been established in 1860, to serve as a refuge for the remnants of scattered tribes in the area. After leaving the Bons' estate, Barak went to live there. Soon his many qualities were recognized and, as a most reliable member of the mission station, he was entrusted with the most responsible tasks. For instance, he was asked to go to Melbourne to cash cheques. He went on foot all the way, a distance of 120 kilometers, and returned with the money "intact."
A veritable storehouse of native lore, Barak became a much sought-after source of valuable information. A welcome guest to many homes, he was invited to Government House where, for many years, one of his paintings of a \Jcorroboree\j was highly treasured.
Barak's personal life was far from happy, however. His first wife died childless. Very lonely, he remarried, a bride who was 22 years his junior. (Theirs was the first Christian wedding ceremony held at Coranderrk.)
Conditions on the station deteriorated. With food and clothing scarce, Barak called on Mrs Bon, whom he knew to be a compassionate woman. Deeply concerned with the \JAborigines\j' fate, she did not let him down.
Then tragedy struck again. Barak lost his second wife, who died of tuberculosis. Not long after, David, their son, took ill. Afraid that he would lose him as well, Barak took him to the Melbourne \JHospital\j, which refused to admit the boy as a patient as - so they informed the despondent father - he had not been "booked in."
A determined man, Barak stood his ground and, overcoming bureaucratic obstructionism, saw his son hospitalized. However, to his own distress and the child's trauma, he was not permitted to stay with the boy.
Despondent once again, Barak went to see Mrs Bon, his old friend, who let him stay overnight at her Kew home. When, next morning, both rushed to the \Jhospital\j, they were told that David had passed away during the night!
Barak remarried, but it was not "third time lucky." An unhappy union, it was cut short when, after a mere four years, this third wife, too, died.
Seventy-two years old then, Barak looked after the few remaining \JAborigines\j at Coranderrk until one day he seriously injured his hand. Instead of following the doctor's advice, he preferred his own race's traditional cure, applying to the wound the red gum of the \JEucalyptus\j tree. Maybe because of this treatment, or just through old age, Barak died soon after the accident.
The occasion of his death recalled claims he had previously made of possessing psychic power. His father had passed away just when the wattles were blooming. And not long before his own death, Barak had told friends that he felt that he was not to live much longer and would die - like his father - "when the wattles bloom again." This is exactly what happened. Shirley Wiencke, when writing his life story, entitled it with those very words.
Barak was laid to rest in the little bush graveyard of the mission, joining his fellow tribesmen. A plaque put up in the cemetery lists all the burials recorded since 1863, giving special mention to the various tribes of the deceased. It also quotes Kath Walker's words: "We belong here, we are of the old ways."
A large and impressive stone on his grave, located just beyond the entrance gate, carries a voluminous inscription, telling that it was put up:
\ITo the Glory of God
And the Memory of
BARAK
Last Chief of the Yarra Yarra Tribe
of \JAborigines\j and his race\i
After giving the details of his death - at Coranderrk on 15 August 1903, aged 85 - and recalling him as "A sincere Christian," the text makes special mention of the various circumstances linked with the monument. The stone itself was the gift of both Mrs Anne Fraser Bon, late of Wappan Estate Bonnie Doon, and the Shire of Healesville.
First erected in Healesville by public subscription in 1934, 21 years later it was "re-erected here over his grave, surrounded by 300 of his race." The information given raises several questions relating to the change of site and the donors.
The Bons used to own a \Jcattle\j station at Wappan and Barak worked for them. Greatly liked, he was treated and paid in the same way as all the other, European employees.
Unfortunately, Mr Bon died. As was the custom at the time, he was buried on the property. His wife put up on his grave an impressive monument of Italian marble, as she hoped - permanently. But this was not to be. When the building of the Eildon Weir threatened to submerge the grave, Mrs Bon decided to have her late husband's body reinterred in the Eildon Cemetery, marking his grave there with a new headstone.
Meanwhile, to her regret, Barak who had proved such a loyal worker also had passed away. Mrs Bon, who had grown very fond of him, felt that he should not be forgotten and deserved a special memorial. Her husband's former headstone gave her the opportunity.
Anonymously, and merely indicating that it was the gift of "one who knew and admired the old King," she donated it, stipulating that it should be put up to commemorate and pay tribute to Barak. The site chosen was most conspicuous - at the end of the main street of the small township of Healesville. A newspaper appeal raised the necessary funds ($120) "to defray the cost of transporting, erecting, and [re]lettering the stone."
It was not to be the memorial's final move. Some of the local citizens strongly objected to its location. So conspicuously placed, they said, it was a morbid sight for those living in its vicinity. The local council removed the stone once again and, instead of replacing it, stored it in the municipal yard.
It would have stayed there for ever, had not news spread that the wooden marker on Barak's grave at Coranderrk had rotted away. Thus, Mr Bon's original memorial, after its temporary storage, was moved for the third time, to be re-erected on its present site.
#
"Barbecue Origins",150,0,0,0
There is an odd but innocuous link between voodoo worship and the modern barbecue. Both came from \JHaiti\j in the West Indies!
Natives there lived on \Jcattle\j and pigs that roamed the island. As salt was scarce and costly, they devised their own method of preserving the meat. They smoked it over an open fire on a wooden framework or grid called a \Iboucan\i or \Iberbekot.\i
When Spaniards first arrived they were very much taken by this simple method of cooking meat and pronounced the name of the platform \Ibarbacoa.\i Both the word and the grid were taken to the North American continent. There, the word barbecue was oddly applied both to a wooden bedstead and a gridiron on which Americans roasted an entire ox.
With the passing of time the barbecue-bed was lost but the barbecue roaster became so popular that it was universally adopted. Instead of describing merely a primitive grill, it is now applied to outdoor parties as well as the meats cooked there.
#
"Barber's Pole",151,0,0,0
The barber's pole with its red and white stripes originated in England, and is a relic from the early days when barbers not only cut hair and trimmed beards, but were also surgeons. Actually, until 1745, they were members of the Barbers' and Surgeons' Company. They practised blood-letting, tooth-pulling, and many other kinds of rough and ready surgery.
During the process of blood-letting, which was considered most beneficial, it was customary for the patient to hold a pole tightly in his hand, so that the veins would swell and the blood flow freely. It was inevitable that the pole became blood-stained, which did not encourage squeamish patients. Therefore barbers soon painted it bright red.
When not in use, the pole was hung outside the shop and the barber wound around it one of the bandages used for tying up the arm. Eventually, one brainy member of the fraternity hit on the idea of replacing the real pole and bandage with a dummy one, painted red with white stripes. This then became a fixture and the barber's trade mark.
The gilt knob at the end of the pole represents the brass basin used for the dual purpose of catching the blood and the lather.
#
"Barber-Surgeons",152,0,0,0
The first "modern" surgeons were barbers, who also specialized in blood-letting. Both their existence and their name are due to a religious ban. Barbers (from the Latin \Ibarba,\i "beard") were "beard-cutters." They began to practice their art as the result of a decree issued in 1092 by which the ecclesiastical authorities forbade monks to grow beards.
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"Barge in",153,0,0,0
Special types of barges - flat-bottomed boats - have been used in England to ply the shallow waters of rivers and canals to transport freight. Lacking power of their own, the vessels were either propelled by poles or pulled by men or horses, walking alongside on a narrow tow-path.
The navigation of such a vessel had its hazards. Once in motion, its own impetus and lack of maneuverability carried it straight ahead, making it exceedingly hard to avoid obstacles in its way. By "barging in," it caused collisions and not a few accidents. People soon adopted the phrase for other situations. They applied it to those who in conversations gave their own advice or opinion uninvited or, physically, bumped into a person or an object.
At times, the barge poles used, of necessity, were extremely long. This gave rise to yet another contribution to phraseology. It was said of people (or objects), regarded as obnoxious and repugnant, that one would not touch them with a barge pole.
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"Barracking",154,0,0,0
To the sports-minded Australian, barracking certainly is not a strange word. Nowadays it is mostly a vivid description of the vociferous demonstration of one's partisanship, particularly so in football.
To start with, however, spectators "barracked" not so much to cheer the team they supported as to jeer at, and hurl abuse at the opposing side. People have wondered whether this was not a cunning manoeuvre to unsettle and ruffle its players, to make them lose control of themselves and thereby the match. Such interpretation has been strongly denied as not being in the English tradition of "playing the game."
The \Jetymology\j of the term itself is uncertain. Some authorities believe that it was a cockney word migrants brought from England. It described "a jumble of sounds" and "inarticulate chatter." Others traced barracking, at least partially, to a French source in which \Ibaragouin\i meant 'gibberish'. A third team (of scholars) credits the Irish with the introduction of barracking. In fact, "barking" had been the original word used for the loud bragging of men about their strength and verve. But pronounced in the Irish brogue, the barking sounded very much like barracking. Truly indigenous is the further suggestion that the term came from the Aboriginal-derived Australian slang phrase in which the making of fun of anyone was expressed as "poking \Iborak\i at him."
Least complicated and far-fetched is yet another explanation which links the Australians' barracking with the early history of white settlement. In Melbourne (some believe in Sydney as well) football games were then played on a field that was adjacent to the military barracks. It was only natural for the soldiers stationed there to enjoy taking part in this type of battle. If they did not actually join in the match as part of a team, they participated in it vocally by raucously voicing their approval or displeasure.
Soon they and their shouts became identified with the barracks from which - like from a grandstand - they watched the game. These quarters were demolished long ago. Nevertheless, they survive in the peculiar and expressive term of barracking.
Such is the multitude of views on the origin of the simple term. It is up to the reader finally to decide for which of them to barrack.
#
"Barrister's Gown Pocket",155,0,0,0
A close look at the small pocket at the back of a \Jbarrister\j's gown will reveal that it is sewn up.
At one time barristers were not permitted to charge a fee. It was regarded below their professional dignity. But to be able to exist, they needed money. To enable clients to pay them surreptitiously, the little back-pocket was provided into which the money was put when no one was watching. However, to make sure that the \Jbarrister\j was aware of the secretive transfer of the "honorarium," the client pulled the streamers hanging down from the gown.
Professional standards and practices changed. Barristers were now entitled to proper fees. The back pocket thus became redundant. But instead of removing it, it was stitched up! Its retention like that of the wig was typical of the traditionalism in the British legal system.
#
"Bars and Barristers",156,0,0,0
That people go to the bar for a drink is really self explanatory. It refers to the "barrier" or counter across which drink is being served. It shares its origin with that of a \Jbarrister\j's title who is so named because he is called to the bar of a court. The drinking bar is first mentioned in 1592, and Shakespeare was well acquainted with it.
#
"Baseball Origins",157,0,0,0
\JBaseball\j, America's national game (at first spelled base ball), is second to none in the fame it enjoys, the millions of its loyal fans, and the confusion that surrounded claims about its origin.
A commission appointed to trace its beginnings gave a report that was proved to be completely erroneous. Nevertheless, as the result of its "findings" Americans erected - at the wrong place - a shrine to commemorate in perpetuity the birth of the game, and honored the wrong man as its inventor, at a date which was equally unauthentic.
It all started when American \Jbaseball\j lovers conjectured how, where and when it all began, and, in patriotic zeal, some enthusiasts claimed that \Jbaseball\j was undoubtedly an indigenous American game which owed nothing to foreign lands. This assertion was made as early as 1889 at a public dinner at Delmonico's, New York City, arranged to welcome back from a world-tour America's star players and attended by some 300 guests, including Mark Twain. The claim, made by Abraham G. Mills (President of the National League), one of the speakers, was greatly applauded.
On the other hand, Henry Chadwick, a former cricketer and America's first English-born \Jbaseball\j reporter, and a veritable walking encyclopedia on the sport, contributed an article to \IBaseball Guide\i in 1903 in which he expressed the view that the game was derived from the English "rounders," which he himself had played "back home" as a schoolboy. "After school time we boys would proceed (with balls and sticks) to the nearest field, select a smooth portion of it, and lay out the ground for a contest. This was easily done by placing four stones or posts in position as base stations, and by digging a hole in the ground where the batsman had to stand."
A heated controversy was the inevitable result of the contradictory claims supported with ardour (and often emotion) by the two schools of thought. To settle the question for all time, Mr Albert G. Spalding, one of the famous nineteenth-century players and co-founder of the sporting goods manufacturing company bearing his name, suggested the appointment of a committee "to search anywhere that is possible and thus learn the real facts concerning the origin and development of the game."
The members of the commission chosen were seven men of "high repute and undoubted knowledge of \Jbaseball\j, including two US senators." Abraham G. Mills was the chairman. Their report, published in 1907, certainly bore the signatures of the whole committee (excepting one member who had meanwhile died), but actually it was the sole work of Mills. It clearly stated that \Jbaseball\j was an indigenous American game and had no connection with foreign sports, particularly not the English rounders, and that it was devised by Abner Doubleday, the renowned soldier, as a youth in Cooperstown, NY, in 1839.
Mills wrote: "In the days when Abner Doubleday attended school in Cooperstown, it was a common thing for two dozen or more of schoolboys to join in a game of ball." Doubtless collisions between players trying to catch the batted ball were a frequent occurrence, and together with the practice of putting out the runner by hitting him with the ball, injured the players. He could therefore well understand "how the orderly mind of the embryo West Pointer would devise a scheme for limiting the contestants on each side and allotting them to field positions each with a certain amount of territory; also substituting the existing method of putting out the base runner for the old one of plugging him with the ball."
Mills said that Abner had played the first game of this type in Cooperstown on a summer's day in 1839. Arranging it, he had invented the diamond, indicating the positions for the players. However, Mills' only proof was "a circumstantial statement by a reputable gentleman" - Abner Graves, a one-time resident of Cooperstown - who claimed that he could recollect the fact, 68 years after the event!
Perhaps it is of more than casual interest that Doubleday had been a close friend of Mills. As a Major General, he had been in command of the Union Army at the close of the first day's fight in the battle of Gettysburg, and his remains were interred at Arlington. A famous soldier thus had been made by Mills an idol of sport as well.
Even Spalding himself, as the initiator of the search, was far from satisfied. Nowhere could he trace data that substantiated Mill's story. (And yet, when in 1910 he published a book called \IThe National Game,\i out of loyalty to the commission, he still refrained from reopening the case and thereby rousing new controversy.) Nothing further happened in the sifting of the evidence, which was considered factual and final.
No one could have been happier with the report than the people of Cooperstown. Sincere in their belief that its version of events was correct, they grasped its implications for their own village and acted upon them. Those discovered "facts" could change their bucolic hamlet into a very focus of American pride - a sanctuary of their country's national game.
Obviously, the first thing to do was to seek out the original field (then a mere cow pasture) and give it proper status. They leased it in 1919 and, in the following year, established it as a permanent national monument, naming it "The Doubleday Field." (A New York Supreme Court Order in 1923 made the field the property of the village.) As time passed, the project was ever further advanced until eventually the former grazing paddock had become an exhibition field for Major League matches, with flawless turf, and a steel and concrete stadium.
An accidental discovery in 1935 led to a significant development in the \Jbaseball\j saga. In a garret of a home at Fly Creek, a ball was found in a trunk. It was believed this ball had belonged to Abner Graves and no doubt had therefore been handled by Doubleday himself. As soon as the news reached Cooperstown, one of its people rushed to Fly Creek to acquire this relic (for $5).
By now, Cooperstown people were most anxious to promote in any way possible their town's \Jbaseball\j attraction. They were not unmindful, of course, that this would improve business. Could there be anything better than the "original" ball, a relic linked with the very beginning of the national game, to lure thousands of visitors? The "find" prompted Cooperstonians to start a \Jbaseball\j museum "for the purpose of collecting and preserving pictures and relics reflecting the development of the National Game from the time of its inception, through the ingenuity of Major General Abner Doubleday, in 1839, to the present."
The idea caught on at once, and prized possessions were gathered from all over the country to be displayed at the new shrine. Babe Ruth sent his bat, uniform, and home run balls. Earliest newspaper articles on the sport, pictures of the first games, and cups won by the most famous players were among hundreds of treasured exhibits in the museum. The wide publicity given to the venture really put Cooperstown on the map and made an unknown site, "way up there in the woods," one of America's most beloved landmarks.
Certainly, no one interested in \Jbaseball\j and its promotion could ignore the opportunity which now offered itself: the approaching centenary of the game - at least according to Mills' chronology due in 1939. Its nationwide celebration, if properly organized on a grand scale, would make history. All efforts of Cooperstown (and of other interested parties) now centered on this event.
To the national \JBaseball\j Museum was added The Hall of Fame, solemnly dedicated on 12 June 1939. Bronze plaques on its walls paid homage to the immortals of the game, while above a fireplace an \Joil painting\j of Doubleday was hung. The climax of the anniversary celebrations was a pageant portraying the historical highlights of the game, and an all-star contest between teams composed of the greatest players, on the original Doubleday Field.
Everything went according to plan. President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself gave official sanction to the celebration, and thereby recognition to the myth. In a message, he clearly stated that "we should all be grateful to Abner Doubleday. Little did he or the group that was with him in Cooperstown, NY, in 1839, realize the boon they were giving the nation in devising \Jbaseball\j." The State of New York placed an official marker at the entrance to the original field to indicate for all time "the birthplace of \Jbaseball\j." The US government issued a \Jbaseball\j centenary postage stamp, but wisely omitted Doubleday's picture.
#
"Batiste",158,0,0,0
After a child had been christened, it often happened that some of the baptismal water clung to its head. To wipe it off with an ordinary cloth seemed inappropriate in the circumstances. Much more fitting would be a fabric specially woven for the occasion and of finest texture. To indicate its particular (and then sole) function, it was called after the sacramental rite it served, \Ibaptiste.\i
When people realized the usefulness of the material for other, mundane purposes, such as for making a baby's garment, the cloth retained its original name, though its reference to \Jbaptism\j had become meaningless. Losing one of its (telling) letters, it survives as \Ibatiste,\i its religious source now unrecognizable in its present form.
The fine French fabric, another explanation claims, was first produced by a Cambrai weaver by the name of Jean Baptiste. As was only fair, it was called after him, however, in the process, it was carelessly misspelled.
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"Baton",159,0,0,0
Several traditions together account for the officer's baton. Today, it is a symbol of authority, but practical considerations were responsible for its use first of all.
The baton was an aid to the good manners expected in army leaders. Carrying the stick prevented the officer from putting his hands into his pockets. To point with the finger is impolite, especially for an officer. To do so with a stick was deemed more refined. In addition, grasping the baton prevented him from fidgeting with his hands - a habit common to most of us. Just as in some countries modern policemen may carry truncheons for use at close range, so the baton served also as a weapon of defense.
All these explanations are of comparatively recent date. The baton actually recalls much earlier times, when it was an ever-present means of enforcing discipline. A General Order of 1702 prescribed "swagger sticks" for the British officer. Equipped with the baton, he could administer on-the-spot punishment to any recalcitrant soldier. Up to 12 strokes were inflicted for minor offenses, which included such violations of regulations as "giving officers a cross look," "sneezing in the ranks" or "scratching one's head."
Authorities agree that the baton itself developed from an ordinary bludgeon, carried by Teutonic races and that, going back even further, it is a survival of the sacrificial axe of prehistoric man.
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"Batting an Eye(lid)",160,0,0,0
Those showing no surprise and remaining calm in the most trying circumstances are said to "not bat an eyelid." They are so unconcerned and steady that not even their eyelids flicker.
The phrase comes from \Jfalconry\j, one of the oldest sports in the world. Hawks, employed to hunt wild quarry, prior to being let loose for their chase, were secured by a leash and made to sit on a perch, often the falconer's wrist. Struggling wildly to escape, they were said to "bate." Their vigorous struggle is recalled in the "batting of an eyelid."
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"Baubles and Apples",161,0,0,0
The use of apples in some parts of the world to decorate Christmas trees stems from the apple's early associations with the Tree of Life in Paradise. According to popular belief, though the \JBible\j never actually says so, this was an apple tree.
Baubles might be replicas of the fruit. Mainly, however, they are just colorful ornaments which contribute to the festive spirit in a home. They also reflect light, thus multiplying the effect of candles and lights.
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"Bawdy",162,0,0,0
Prostitutes have been described as members of the oldest profession. It is no wonder therefore that terms linked with their trade are numerous. Though the occupation has remained the same, the names under which they work have been updated many times.
The madam running a brothel was known in Elizabethan times as a bawdy and, accordingly, her establishment became a bawdy house. The background of the term is uncertain. Both the \JOld High German\j for "bold" and the French for "merry" have been quoted as its source. Some even believed that "bawd" is all that is left of the original "ribald," from the Old French ribauld. Persons were so called because of their delight in the crude and licentious.
With time, the term has mellowed and, less concerned with the sale of sex, it merely continues to be employed for references and remarks that are obscene, erotic or lewd.
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"Be a Brick",163,0,0,0
In his \INicomachean Ethics,\i Aristotle defined a happy man as "a faultless cube." In similar vein, a reliable person who proves himself a true friend has been described as "being a brick." The comparison conjures up some of the characteristic qualities of the brick. Of one piece, it is solid. However, its use as a \Jmetaphor\j can be traced to antiquity and words first spoken by Lycurgus, the famous 9th-century B.C. Spartan law-giver. There are two versions.
According to \JPlutarch\j, Lycurgus had been asked whether it would not be a wise precaution against possible enemy attacks to encircle Sparta with a wall. He strongly refuted the idea. There was no need for it, he said, because that city was well fortified "which has a wall of men instead of bricks."
The other tradition tells the incident slightly differently. An ambassador from another state had expressed his surprise that Sparta lacked a defensive wall. "But we have walls," Lycurgus had replied, inviting his visitor to view them. Lycurgus then took him to an army camp where Spartan soldiers were being trained. Pointing to them, Lycurgus said, "These are the walls of Sparta, and every man is a brick."
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"Be Flat Out",164,0,0,0
Harassed modern man, sparing no effort to go places, is "flat out." The description stems from car racing. To achieve maximum speed, the accelerator pedal has to be pushed all the way down, so that it is "flat out" on the floor.
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"Bear Hug",165,0,0,0
A tight embrace is called a bear hug. Wrestlers apply the term to a hold in which a fighter's arms are tightly locked around his opponents chest and arms. The \Jmetaphor\j does injustice to the animal which has never been known thus to hug friend or foe and certainly does not squeeze anyone to death. A bear kills by striking the victim with its front paws. At times, it might use its teeth in support, though possibly only to prevent the prey from escaping.
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"Bear Market: Origin of the Name",166,0,0,0
In a \Jbear market\j people expect a slump. To make a profit they sell shares, hoping later on to repurchase them at the lowest possible price. The origin of this name is almost as uncertain as the result of the speculation. It might well have been suggested by a once well-known English proverb (first documented in 1580) that spoke of "selling the bearskin before the bear has been caught."
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"Beauty Culture",167,0,0,0
Among the many treasures exhibited by the British Museum in London is the mummified body of an Egyptian woman, at least 5,000 years old. Conspicuously it displays an astonishing feature. It shows that her finger and toe nails had been painted dark red.
Women have used make-up as long as it can be remembered. None of our so-called modern cosmetics is new. They were applied in like manner in ancient \JEgypt\j, \JBabylonia\j, and China.
Actually, women today are still lagging behind and have either forgotten or not yet taken up other old-established beauty aids. Apart from shaving off unwanted hairs using rouge, beautifying their eyes and coloring the lips, women of antiquity stained the soles of the feet with henna and touched up the nipples of the breasts with a purple dye.
Make-up has been used on all kinds of occasions. Queen Jezebel of Israel painted her face before looking out of the window to confront Jehu. Pepys proudly wrote in his diary of the black patches worn on her face by his wife.
Throughout history men have tried repeatedly, but with little success, to stop women using cosmetics. Apart from moral or religious reasons, they have done so in self-defense. Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century A.D. thus encouraged the proclamation of a law to prevent women from tricking husbands into marriage by means of cosmetics. Some 200 years later, John Chrysostomos wrote: "If anyone were painting the ideal body to house the soul of an ideal woman, he would not dream of showing a face that had bloody lips like the mouth of a bear, or sooty eyebrows that look as though they came from a dirty kitchen pot."
In 1770 a Bill was introduced into the British Parliament (but subsequently defeated) which demanded:
\I"That all women of whatever age, rank, degree or profession, whether virgins, maids or widows, who shall from and after such an act impose upon, seduce or betray into matrimony any of His Majesty's subjects, by the scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high-heeled shoes, bolstered hips, shall incur the penalty of the law in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanors, and that the marriage, upon conviction, shall stand null and void."\i
A century later a disappointed husband sued his father-in-law for the depreciation in his wife's looks after her make-up had been removed. He claimed "compensation suitable to her real, and not her assumed, countenance." He pointed out that he had never realized, until the morning after the wedding, what a hag he had chosen to be his spouse.
Millions of pounds are being spent annually on cosmetics. Fortunately, their ingredients no longer include such obnoxious elements as dog's urine, once used by Italian nobility as a tincture against thinning of hair.
Next to the beautifying benefit of cosmetics is their psychological effect. Dry skin, dull eyes and pale lips have depressed many a woman and given her feelings of inferiority. To remedy them, and also any suggestion of ageing, make-up proved a wonderful medicine. Its application led to a cheerful mind, a happy disposition and a sense of well-being. In hospitals the use of the lipstick has proved itself a tonic.
Cosmetics have had a place even in the fostering of democracy and the removal of class distinctions. They gave every girl a fair chance to shine and be equal.
Make-up thus covers an enormous field. Its range extends to economics, \Jpsychology\j, and social living. Women have always found it useful to hide blemishes and to improve natural beauty. They applied it for the attraction of the masculine sex and the envy of their own.
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"Bedlam",168,0,0,0
Hard to imagine it may be, but \Ibedlam\i is a disfigured version of "\JBethlehem\j'. It came about by a peculiar chain of events which started in 1247 in London, when in the East End of the city a priory was established. Its main function was to offer hospitality to visiting dignatories from abroad. A religious establishment, it was called in honor of the sacred virgin, 'St Mary of \JBethlehem\j."
As guests were few and far between, those in charge felt that the priory could serve other purposes as well and opened its doors to the care of the sick. At least from 1400 onward, the priory also looked after those who were mentally ill, or, as they were then called, "the distracted," so that it was one of the first institutions of its kind in Europe.
When in 1536 \JHenry VIII\j broke with the Papacy and dissolved all monasteries, the \Jhospice\j of St Mary of \JBethlehem\j was equally affected. Closed down as a priory and secularized, it was taken over by the Corporation of London, henceforth to serve exclusively as an asylum for the insane.
It is a sad comment on human perversity that it did not take long for it to become a tourist attraction, a favorite site for people's amusement. Paying an entrance fee of twopence each, sightseers thronged the place. Unbelievable now, the visitors were not only highly amused by the poor people's antics, but teased and baited them into "\Jfuries\j of rage."
To speak of the "\JHospital\j of St Mary of \JBethlehem\j" was rather cumbersome. Londoners thus shortened it to "Bethl'em." No longer recognized as a contraction of \IBethlehem,\i it was further corrupted to become \IBedlam.\i That is how the name of \IBethlehem,\i the holy city, distorted beyond recognition as bedlam, became synonymous with a situation of noise, confusion, if not lunacy.,\i it was further corrupted to become \IBedlam.\i That is how the name of \IBethlehem,\i the holy city, distorted beyond recognition as bedlam, became synonymous with a situation of noise, confusion, if not lunacy.
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"Beefeater: Origin of the Name",169,0,0,0
Visitors to the \JTower of London\j admire the Beefeaters, once the king's bodyguards. They were selected for their valor and stamina; their name certainly paid tribute to the strength-giving qualities of eating beef!
Yet some have claimed wrongly that the name beefeaters is a mistake. Originally, one of their duties was to help serve food at banquets. For this purpose, they stood near the loaded sideboard that was generally called by the French term \Ibuffet.\i Hence they were referred to as "buffetiers." The cockney accent soon changed this into the more plausible \Jbeefeater\j!
In fact, their name can be taken literally. An "eater" in medieval England was a servant. If he belonged to the lowest class he had to look after his superior colleagues and as a servants' servant, his main ration was bread and some \Joffal\j. Therefore he was known as a loafeater.
The fighting man, on the other hand, belonged to the upper class of servants. He was responsible for the defense of the country and, in the case of the \Jyeomen of the guard\j, the king's safety. To acknowledge his status and keep him fighting-fit, he was fed on the finest of meats. This distinction was duly recognized by calling him, appropriately, a \Jbeefeater\j.
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"Beelzebub as the Devil",170,0,0,0
Confusion certainly reigns, it seems, wherever the devil appears. This applies to \JBeelzebub\j, one of his disguises. At first glance, the meaning of his name is apparently clear to any student of \JHebrew\j. As \Ibaal zebub,\i literally, he is "the lord of flies." And as such he made his first debut in the Books of Kings (II Kings 1,3) as a god whom the \JPhilistines\j worshiped in Ekron, the most northerly of their five principal cities at the time of King Ahaziah.
The king had suffered grave injuries from a fall. Anxious to know his fate, he had sent messengers to the shrine of \Jbaal\j zebub to inquire whether he would recover from the accident. Elijah strongly reprimanded him for doing so, as it was blasphemous for a \JHebrew\j to acknowledge pagan wisdom.
To have a special deity ascribed to flies might not be far-fetched. Even in ancient times, flies had been recognized as the cause of fatal epidemics. It is also likely, however, that in this case the "fly" is mere fiction and has been put in its (divine) place on purpose. The Israelites wanted to make fun of the pagan god and compared him with the dirty insect to show their contempt, to stress his insignificance and to say that he really counted for nothing.
Authorities, of course, have wondered what the real and original name of the god was. Using as their basis newly discovered inscriptions as well as the Greek translation of the \JBible\j, they suggested \JBaal\j Zebul. Indeed, another ancient tradition claims that the Hebrews expressed their disdain and ridicule in a play on words by referring to the pagan deity of that name as \Jbaal\j zebel - the god of filth and of dung.
The true meaning of zebul is still uncertain. According to some it spoke of the heavenly "mansion." This was reason enough for the Israelites to feel greatly affronted as, in their minds, only their God was worthy to occupy that exalted position. No matter what its literal meaning, \JBeelzebub\j became an obscenity for the Jews.
What really happened was that the Hebrews, by the change of name, had tried to emphasize the insignificant smallness (like a fly) of the pagan lord, as compared with the majesty of the true God who was the Lord of all. And the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j's slanted view was then accepted by Jesus and, fully developed, became a completely new concept in the Gospels. They now identified the "fly god" with the evil force. They made him the "prince of devils," if not Satan himself (Mark, 3, 23). Indeed, at the time both Jews and Christians shared the view that all pagan gods were really demons.
That is how, ever since, \JBeelzebub\j (or Beelzebul in a different spelling) has appeared as Satan himself or, at least, as in Milton's \IParadise Lost\i (I, 79) nearest to him in crime and rank.
#
"Before You Can Say 'Jack Robinson'",171,0,0,0
Jack Robinson was a most erratic sort of person. He always changed his mind. He was so capricious that no one could ever be certain or even guess what he was going to do next. Jack might set out on one mission and, without any apparent reason, suddenly abandon it to do something completely different. Typical of his behavior was the occurrence at an official, formal function at which all guests were announced by name. At the very moment when his name was about to be called out, before the butler could even say "Jack Robinson," Jack turned around and left.
Another French, derivation of the phrase links it not with a person at all but an object: an umbrella. This was known at the time as "the Robinson Crusoe" and, as a fad carried by those who wanted to be "with it." Trying to show off, they used every opportunity and the slightest pretext to call to their servant (usually known by the popular name of Jack, in French, Jacques), "Jack! Robinson!" It was the rather abbreviated request, "Jack! Let me have the umbrella!" This became so frequent a practice that "to say Jack Robinson" was expressive of swiftness.
These are amusing anecdotes to explain the odd phrase. Possibly it started much more simply. Jack Robinson used to be so common a name that it seemed to roll off the tongue, and doing anything "even before you could say Jack Robinson" implied the acme of speed.
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"Beggars",172,0,0,0
It was frequently the case that the wives and children of Crusaders who had been killed were left destitute. Lambert le Bฮฆgue, a twelfth-century Flemish priest, was deeply perturbed by the ensuing social problem, and made it his special mission to assist such homeless widows and orphans. To house them, he established \Jcloisters\j all over the area.
The inmates of these establishments lived communally, pooling all money and using the common fund to support other poor and disadvantaged people. They themselves led an existence of deprivation. Dressed austerely, they even restricted the amount of food they ate. Learning to do with what they had, however little it was, they never went out to beg.
It did not take long for them to be called after the priest who had inspired them to take up their new way of life, and to be referred to as a \IBฮฆghard\i which became an almost honorific title. That a similarly sounding Flemish word meant "prayer," no doubt, contributed to the choice of name.
That is how \Ibeggar\i came into the world, as a word for someone impoverished. We use it in this sense still in the phrase "beggars can't be choosers."
Throughout the years, the word deteriorated in meaning to assume its present-day sense of "mendicant." Nevertheless, its pious ancestry is undeniable.
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"Beginnings of Writing",173,0,0,0
People have always wondered how writing first came into existence. From earliest times, myth and legend have tried to give an answer.
Egyptians believed that only a god could have revealed the art of writing, and they called their script \Ihieroglyphics,\i meaning "sacred carvings." They worshiped Toth as the giver of script and, for this reason, always presented this bird-headed deity as holding a reed brush and ink \Jpalette\j in his hands.
The Chinese attributed the invention of the alphabet to the four-eyed, dragon-faced god T'sang Chien and said he took the pattern of his symbols from nature - the footprints of birds, the marks on the back of a turtle, and so on.
According to Hindu myth, the god \JBrahma\j created the letters. He wished to write down his teachings on leaves of gold. But as there was no alphabet in existence, he had to invent it. He did so mostly by copying some of the peculiar tracings formed by the seams in the human skull.
The known facts about writing are, of course, less exciting, though still fascinating.
Clearly, a \Imanuscript\i literally means "written by hand," though nowadays it is mostly typed. However, many other terms and implements of writing do not disclose their background and story so easily. To understand their past, enlightens their present.
A \Ipen,\i in any shape, recalls the original quill. The word is derived from a Latin root, meaning "feather." Any \Itext\i is words "woven" together to display some pattern of thought.
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"Behind the Eight Ball",174,0,0,0
Whoever is said to be "behind the 8 ball" is in a fix. The expression comes from a certain type of pool game which is played with 15 numbered vari-colored balls. These have to be pocketed in the sequence of their number - except the (black) 8 ball, which must come last. A player is in real trouble, when the ball next to be "dropped" is "behind the 8 ball." From pool the phrase found its way as a telling \Jmetaphor\j for an awkward situation into the game of life.
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"Being Catty",175,0,0,0
To call anyone who speaks spitefully of another person "catty" defames a creature that is anything but "catty." It is a regrettable example of character assassination in the "beastly" world. A cat is most "outspoken," even if only in its gestures and silent meows. It will never disguise its feelings. Openly, it will show indifference or even contempt to whoever - according to its judgment - merits such disapproval.
A cat can never be bribed nor its affection bought, no matter with how many saucers of cream. Inscrutable and incorruptible, the feline would despise anyone who is catty.
An occasional inexplicable practice on the cat's part may account for the derogatory use of its name. It sometimes happens that a cat which has contentedly been purring on its owner's lap, will suddenly strike out and scratch him or her, the very person to whom it showed so much affection an instant earlier.
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"Being Overlooked",176,0,0,0
We still do not like being "overlooked." But our present resentment, based possibly on false pride, is innocuous. The original technique of "overlooking," however, expressed the exact opposite of the meaning it now implies. Anyone "overlooked" had in fact become the focus of attention though, alas, by the evil eye.
There is a variety of reasons for suspecting a certain individual of having an evil eye. The cause may be a very natural one. It all might be simply the way he "looks." A fixed stare, for instance, particularly if accompanied by a frown or scowl, has always been interpreted as an aggressive act. On the other hand, if a person's presence coincided with some unfortunate event, people were led to believe that this happening was actually the result of his evil eye. Some of the most famous of personalities have thus been "renowned," and subsequently reviled.
Among those so maligned were Lord Byron, \JNapoleon III\j, Alfonso XIII, King of \JSpain\j, and (of all people) Pope \JPius IX\j of first Vatican Council fame. Napoleon, well aware of his occult power, used to wear an amulet attached to his watch for his own protection.
The many disasters that accompanied King Alfonso's public appearances prompted Italians to "welcome" him on a state visit in a manner no other monarch has ever experienced, before or since. They "greeted" him by wildly rattling their keys! This was not meant as applause but was their way of warding off misfortune and the devil (who was supposed to be allergic to both iron and noise).
Pope Pius was said to be one of the worst cases of \Ijettatura,\i the Italian version of a man possessed by the power of the evil eye. Anything he blessed was a "fiasco" and to receive his benediction was regarded fatal! (He was anti-modernist and this reputation was probably given him by his political adversaries.)
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"Bell-bottom Trousers",177,0,0,0
Bell-bottom trousers sailors wear were not introduced - like the flared trousers of modern times - as a mere fanciful fashion. They had a practical purpose. Sailors' duties included the scrubbing of the decks and the pulling of boats on to the shore which necessitated their wading in shallow waters. Almost inevitably then, their trouser bottoms would get wet to spoil the spick-and-span look of their uniform. To prevent this, they rolled them up which could be done so much more easily, if the trousers were bell-bottomed.
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"Bells",178,0,0,0
The jubilant ringing of church bells on Christmas morning celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.
Legend has it that bells were rung for the hour before midnight on that first Christmas eve, warning the forces of darkness of the Savior's imminent birth. At the stroke of midnight, their solemn knells changed into joyous pealing.
The sounding of bells served another purpose as well. Just as bells were tolled to announce the death of someone in the community, so they were rung to tell of the "death" of the Devil brought about by the coming of Jesus Christ. The church bell was, therefore, also known as "the Old Lad's Passing Bell," "Old Lad" being a euphemism for Satan. The pealing of bells has also been assumed to chase away evil spirits, which are repelled by noise of any kind - even the clinking of glasses.
Bells of many types are a feature of the Christmas season. They can be heard on Christmas morning, and they are also used to decorate Christmas cards and the \JChristmas tree\j. Wassailers used to announce their presence by ringing a bell; so did Father Christmas, with jingling bells accompanying his sleigh's progress.
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"Beloved Doctor",179,0,0,0
\BDr Harrie Cox\b
A beautifully carved headstone in the Warren Cemetery pays tribute to a doctor who must have been particularly popular with his female patients. Why otherwise would the inscription record that the "stone and railing was erected by the lady friends of Dr Harrie Cox who died at Warren 9th May 1908 . . . as a mark of affection and esteem. 'Gone but not forgotten.'" Dr Cox died at the young age of 30 of tetanus.
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"Bends Killed him",180,0,0,0
Long before Cook had sighted \JAustralia\j, Malays used to visit its northern waters to dive for pearls. For modern \JAustralia\j, commercial pearling has become an industry supplying a great part of the world with precious shell. By 1939, a fleet of 25 pearl luggers was operating off Darwin alone.
Mainly employed in gathering pearl-shell were Torres Strait Islanders, Indonesians from \JTimor\j, \JAborigines\j, and Malays. Theirs was an exciting and, at times, gainful pursuit. But it did not lack danger and tragedy. Many a diver struck misfortune, not least from "the bends."
A vivid reminder of such fate is a Muslim's grave in the Garden Cemetery of Darwin. Its headstone, unusual in design, is a slender, square pillar, crowned by a dome. Below the motif of the star and crescent is the victim's name in Arabic letters. The inscription on the pillar itself is in English. Spaced out in 20 - mostly one-worded-lines, it reads: "R.I.P. In Memory of Our Loving Friend YUSOFF BIN MOHAMED who Passed Away During Diving Paralysis 7th July 1938 - Aged 25 Years."
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"Benedictine",181,0,0,0
If for nothing else, the Benedictines are known worldwide by the drink bearing their name. It does so, because a member of their Order, Dom Bernardo Vincelli, first distilled it in about 1510 in the monastery at Fฮcamp on the Normandy coast. Surprisingly, at the time he never thought of creating a liqueur.
Vincelli was a fervent botanist who collected the plants and herbs which grew in profusion all over the district. Some of the specimens he used for medications, which he prepared for the infirmary that was part of Fฮcamp Abbey. And one of these concoctions, made from the juice of twenty-eight different plants, was to become \Ithe\i Benedictine. When Dom Bernardo first tasted it with his brethren, he immediately remarked on its "refreshing and recuperative" qualities.
His words were borne out by the many who soon clamoured for the drink. In 1534, King Francois I made a special trip to Fฮcamp to sample the Benedictine at its very source.
An \Jarchbishop\j of \JRouen\j praised Vincelli for his "inspiration" in the most laudatory terms any ecclesiastic could choose. His contribution, he said, made him as important to man as any saint!
When French revolutionaries destroyed the monastery, the monks succeeded in saving the formula of the drink. This enabled M. Alexandre le Grand, on opening a family distillery on the former site of the famous Abbey in 1863, to resume the making of the Benedictine. Apparently a monk had entrusted him with its secret formula. Significantly, he labelled each bottle with the capital letters \ID.O.M.\i Puzzling to the uninitiated, their message is one of faith and truly God-centered. Representing the initials of the Latin \IDeo Optimo Maximo,\i they dedicated what has been called the king of liqueurs "To God, the Best, the Greatest."
Paradoxes, so much part of life, also apply to the Benedictine. St Benedict, the founder of the Order and commemorated in its name, has as one of his symbols a bizarre combination: a broken cup containing poison, is carried away by a raven at his command. It recalled the poisoned wine once offered him in an attempt on his life.
The rules of the monastery St Benedict established in 529 at Monte Cassino became the prototype of Western monasticism. When defining the characteristics that should distinguish any Abbot as the superior of an Abbey of monks, he ruled that, apart from being wise, discreet, flexible, and learned in God, he should be a spiritual father to the community. He little realized then that, many centuries later, one member of his Rule would enrich humanity with quite a different kind of "spirit."
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"Bert Hinkler",182,0,0,0
Buried in Florence, \JItaly\j, is one of \JAustralia\j's great pioneer aviators - "Bert" Hinkler. He rests in the city's Protestant cemetery of Degli Allori. His grave, a grass plot outlined in cement, is marked by a simple cross, with its base thus inscribed:
\IIn
Loving Memory of
Squadron Leader
HERBERT JOHN LOUIS HINKLER
Who died at the age of 40
on the 7th of January 1933
Whilst on a flight
From England to Australia\i
It took 100 days before his body and the wreck of his plane were located, on 28 April 1933, after the snows of winter had thawed, but the circumstances of his death are now well-known.
On 7 January Hinkler had taken off in a Puss Moth from Harmondsworth Airport, UK, bound for \JAustralia\j. It is thought that he intended to regain an England-\JAustralia\j record he had established in 1928, but had lost four years later.
After flying non-stop for almost 16 hours and, according to his diary, having passed over Paris Mont Cenis, Spezia, and Florence, his plane crashed in the Pratomagno Alps. Several theories have been advanced as to the cause. Most likely, he had lost a propeller blade and was attempting an emergency landing. It is assumed that Bert dragged himself from the wreck, as his body was found about 40 meters away from it. A serious head wound no doubt had resulted in his death.
He was taken to the nearest village, where women covered his body with a Union Jack. The local band quickly learning the British National Anthem then shared by \JAustralia\j, played it when the vehicle carrying Hinkler's remains set out for Florence. On their arrival, these were placed in the headquarters of the Aero Club, with guards of honor standing to attention all through the night.
At the time controversy raged - with messages going to and from London - as to where Hinkler should finally be laid to rest. It was the specific wish of his widow that it be in \JAustralia\j, if possible in the family grave in Bundaberg, \JQueensland\j, the city of his birth.
Others suggested that, in tribute to his achievements, Brisbane or even \JCanberra\j should become his burial site. J. A. Lyons, the then Australian Prime Minister, informed the press that, should it be decided to take Hinklers' body home, the commonwealth was prepared to defray all expenses.
However, none of the mooted plans eventuated. Hinkler was buried in Florence. The inspiring story of his exploits and tragic death had caught the imagination of the Italian nation and, by order of Mussolini, he was given a state funeral with full military honors.
On 1 May 1933, the solemn procession, led by a band and a detachment of carabineers, proceeded in slow step from the Aero Club along the ancient streets of the city to the cemetery. Eight huge floral wreaths, each carried by two men, were tributes from the British Ambassador in \JRome\j, the Italian Minister of Air, the British Colony in Florence, and other authorities.
Italian air officers flanked the tall-canopied hearse pulled by two plumed black horses. A traditional ceremony took place on the final stretch. At the Porta Romana the cortege halted, and Hinkler's name was called out aloud. Everyone in the large crowd joined in answering, on his behalf, that he was "Present."
Later attempts to have Hinkler's body moved were unsuccessful. This was to be his final grave, at times adorned by visitors with a bunch of roses. In its obituary note of 29 April 1933, the London \ITimes\i spoke of Hinkler as a man who:
\Iwas proud of his ideas and of his ability to carry things through, but he got all the pleasure he wanted out of satisfying himself and of winning the approval of those friends and relations who were closest to him. He hardly ever posed for public approbation...\i
Hinkler was born in 1892 and, early on in life become an \Javiation\j enthusiast. Admiring the ibises in the air, he tried to emulate them. As did \JLeonardo da Vinci\j, he carefully studied the bodily structure of the birds, then built and experimented with his own models. There was no holding him back.
He joined the \JQueensland\j Aero Club, built two gliders and finally went to England, where he worked in an \Jaircraft\j factory. In World War I he served in the Royal Air Service, first as an observer gunner and then as a pilot, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
At the end of hostilities, he continued his career and achieved many an unprecedented feat. In 1920, in an Avro Baby, he flew non-stop from Croydon in England across the Alps to Turin, in nine and a half hours, celebrated at the time as the "most meritorious performance of \Javiation\j."
Returning to \JAustralia\j, Hinkler soon established further records. One day, in 1921, he flew his Avro Baby non-stop 1,000 kilometers from Sydney to Bundaberg, where he landed on the Recreation Reserve, then to taxi to his family's home. They were delighted for their illustrious son thus to "drop in." He arrived even before the telegram to his mother, in which he had announced his forthcoming visit. The flight established a world record for a light plane and an Australian record for any plane.
In 1928 Hinkler made the first solo flight in a light plane from England to \JAustralia\j. He covered the 18,320 kilometers in 129 flying hours over 16 days. This beat the previous record of 28 days!
Made an honorary squadron leader of the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve, he once again returned to Britain. In no time he was recognized as the country's most outstanding aviator. It was in the Puss Moth he then acquired to win new trophies that tragedy struck.
In 1933, the Arezzo Aero Club put up in Hinkler's honor an additional monument, far from the Florence Cemetery, on the mountain spur overlooking the site where he had crashed. The dedication on its plaque simply says:
\ITo the Long-distance aviator
HERBERT JOHN HINKLER
Who died on Pratomagno\i
Thirty-five years later, in 1968, a new memorial was to take its place, this time unveiled by the Ambassador of \JAustralia\j.
It was not for the last time that Hinkler's life and death were remembered. In 1987, he received further recognition. A wing-piece from \IChallenger,\i the ill-fated United States \Jspace shuttle\j raised from the floor of the \JAtlantic Ocean\j, was presented to "Hinkler House" in Bundaberg by Dr June Scobee, the widow of the commander. It was to serve as a lasting tribute to the role Hinkler had played in the evolution of \Javiation\j.
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"Beside Oneself",183,0,0,0
We speak of someone who is overwrought by some emotion or worry as being "beside himself" or "beside herself." The peculiar phrase is based on the belief that every individual possesses a body and a spirit (or soul).
Experiencing a traumatic upheaval, it was imagined, resulted in the spirit leaving the body. Having done so, it would not vanish, but remain standing next to the person - beside them - hopeful that they would regain their composure and, with it, create the right condition for the spirit to return to the body and make it " whole again."
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"Beside the Mark",184,0,0,0
Anything irrelevant and not to the point is judged to be "beside the mark." The phrase originated in \Jarchery\j.
Now merely a sport, it once played an important part in English life, in the defense of the country. Citizens then practised \Jarchery\j not as a pastime, but as an obligatory pursuit of military importance. No village was without its highly-trained bowmen ready for any national emergency.
In their practice, bowmen competed with each other to score a maximum number of hits. A piece of cloth or leather attached to a tree served as their improvized target. Obviously, those who missed it hit the tree "beside the mark." Their failure left its imprint on everyday language. Anything that was irrelevant and therefore did not count - like those misses in \Jarchery\j - became known as "beside the mark."
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"Best Man",185,0,0,0
The Best Man has always been the bridegroom's best friend, but for different reasons. Originally, his duties were neither pleasant nor particularly safe.
At the beginning of history, a bridegroom's Best Man had to excel in many qualities which are now completely unnecessary and even forgotten. Then he was chosen for being strong, brave and a good fighter. He accompanied his friend as an armed escort to help him in capturing a bride! No wonder, therefore, that he was called the \Ibest\i man. For such a purpose only the best was good enough.
In some parts of the world warriors considered it undignified to woo a woman themselves. They let others do the job for them. When all was ready for the marriage, they set out with their companions - to wrest the bride from her original groom. That is why the actual wooer surrounded himself with an armed guard, his "best men." They were there to repel any attacks and defend the goods, so richly deserved and already paid for.
Times changed. Men no longer captured their brides, either from their homes or their rightful "owners." And yet, on the day of the actual wedding, they needed extra protection and support. There still was the danger of a rival who, at the last moment, might carry off the bride. To avoid this, the Best Man was in attendance, armed and on the alert.
It was for this reason, too, that Scandinavians used to hold their weddings under the cover of night. Behind the High Altar of one of the Swedish churches, so it was said, were kept lances with sockets for torches. These served the Best Men in their hazardous task as weapons and sources of illumination, to detect and repel possible abductors.
At first, as is only logical, the Best Man accompanied not the groom, but the bride, whom obviously he was there to guard and retain. Only when rough times increased vulgarity on the part of the men, and brides seemed even less safe under their protection, a separation of sexes proved advisable. From then onward the Best Man was always near the groom, whilst bridesmaids closed their ranks around the bride.
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"Better Mousetrap",186,0,0,0
The observation, "If a man makes a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door," is popularly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. However, none of his works contains the quotation.
It has been suggested that the minister of a New York church had been the first to use the "better mousetrap" as an illustration in one of his sermons. He had done so, not least, to please a prominent member of his congregation, a Mr Jay Gould, who had actually invented a new and "better" mousetrap!
That Emerson was given the credit might have a possible explanation. For his many lectures, he made use of thoughts he had jotted down in his \IJournals.\i These contain a somewhat lengthy reflection on the circumstances of fame. This expressed the view that "If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard beaten road to his house though it be in the woods." The words obviously express the same idea as the much more concise reference to the better mousetrap. The New York preacher might have paraphrased the passage, adapting it to his purpose.
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"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea",187,0,0,0
The devil might well sail under false colors. On occasions, however, his presence may be suspected at places where he is not. This applies to the mention of his name in the phrase "between the devil and the deep blue sea."
A sailor's duty was not only to man the ship, but to keep it seaworthy. This necessitated constant overhauling and repairs, at times in very awkward, hard-to-reach places. The garboard which was the first plank on the outer hull of a wooden vessel was one such spot. To caulk this seam, the boat had to be careened, i.e. keeled over to one side. But even then it was difficult to keep the seam above water. It was such a devil of a job for the caulker that he "christened" the garboard seam "the devil." Positioned so hazardously when undertaking this task, he found himself "between the devil and the deep blue sea." His precarious situation became a popular \Jmetaphor\j to describe anyone's experience when awkwardly placed between two equally undesirable alternatives.
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"Beyond the Black Stump",188,0,0,0
Anything beyond the last outpost of civilization is considered to be "on the other side of (or beyond) the black stump." The location of the authentic black stump has been a subject of controversy. Strange to relate, the town of Coolah can substantiate its claim by two death certificates, issued for two children whose graves are still in existence.
Their headstones confirm what the documents say. In fact, the very graveyard in which they were laid to rest was known as "the Black Stump Cemetery." Now on private property, it is almost impossible to find without the help of local residents.
Fenced off by iron railings, it holds the two graves. Almost illegible now is the inscription on the stone of little Samuel Edward Bolger. According to the death certificate, he died at the Black Stump Inn on 22 October 1873. The cause of his death is given as "teething and cold." He was only one year and nine months old at the time and was attended by a Dr Morris. The child's father, John Bolger, was a publican, and owned and lived in the inn.
The second Black Stump grave is that of George Richard Buckley. The son of a sheep overseer, he died of \Jcroup\j at the age of four years and four months and was buried on 20 September 1874.
The site of the original black stump is well preserved and has become a popular landmark. On the Gunnedah road, just ten kilometres outside of Coolah, it is marked by a replica. Though no longer indicating where man's conquest of the bush ended, it is an historical monument to the Australian past - and speech.
\JAborigines\j used to call the area \Iweetalabahie\i - "the place where the fire went out." Obviously, this referred to a particularly memorable bushfire. The early settlers did not remove the remaining black stumps, and so they became characteristic of the site.
It was no wonder therefore that the first selector who established his property there, named it "The Black Stump Run," which explains why the inn, subsequently built on that plot, inevitably became known as the Black Stump Wine Saloon. Soon it became a popular meeting place for the locals, the ringbarkers, and squatters.
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"Big Apple",189,0,0,0
Apples have always been a favored fruit, and not least so in the United States. A traditional gift of pupils to their teacher, it became part of most diverse expressions. People spoke of "upsetting the applecart," things being in "apple-pie order" or as "sure as God made little apples." Sycophants were nicknamed "apple polishers" and wiseacres "small apples."
Taking up a conspicuous place in the cornucopia, the horn of plenty, the apple symbolized the exquisite, tasty and enjoyable. Was it any wonder then that New York, so rich, full of promise and opportunity, became known not just as an apple, but as the "Big Apple" - as it were, putting all other cities in the shade?
There was much more to it. In fact, this apple is not even a home-grown fruit. So typically American now, it is rooted in the Spanish tongue and can be traced not to an apple at all, but a dance!
New Orleans is the home of jazz. A vibrant and vital center of the city is known as Manzana, the Spanish word for an apple, no doubt because it once was the site of an apple orchard. And right in its midst is the very block where jazz was born, enthusiastically played there and enjoyed. Proudly the jazz players referred to it as Manzana Principal, the "main apple."
From Louisiana the novel style of \Jragtime\j was then taken to New York, where a Harlem nightclub became the center for jazz musicians. No doubt recalling the district in their home-town, they named it the "Big Apple." They were largely responsible for the spread of the name which, in mid-1953, was also adopted for the jitterbug dance. In no time, this caught on like wildfire among the people to become a veritable New York craze, soon to be identified with the city. Not slow in realizing the promotional value of being described as the "Big Apple," New York adopted it as its slogan. One of the jazz players has been credited with being the actual source of the description. He is quoted to have remarked one day that there were many apples on a tree, but to be able to perform in New York City, indeed, was the "Big Apple."
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"Bigot",190,0,0,0
Hypocrites are wont to create the impression of being "religious" and like to publicize their spuriously claimed faith in God. Self-opinionated and dogmatic, they imagine that only they are right and that all their views and actions are motivated "by God." Such people once gave expression to their pretended reliance on God by frequently interspersing their conversation with an appeal to him, saying - again and again - "By God!"
It did not take long for people to see through them and to use their avowal and refrain as a suitably contemptuous nickname for them. They scornfully called them the "by Gods." Ultimately, the name contracted to \Ibigot,\i still part of our life and language. Though unrecognizable, God is therefore even inside every bigot, if only linguistically.
This interpretation, however plausible, is generally regarded as spurious. The bigot is said to come from the French but to be of "unknown origin."
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"Bill of Divorce",191,0,0,0
Divorce among primitive and pagan people was free and easy, lacking any kind of documentation. It was devoid of all formalities and purely a private matter, with which tribal and "state" authorities were unconcerned.
In \JTonga\j, for instance, a man divorced his wife by just telling her to go. \JArabs\j did not leave the actual choice of words for her dismissal to private initiative. But the formula they prescribed was so simple that no husband could err. It consisted of only one word, to be repeated three times: \Iittalak.\i Its meaning amounted to the wish that she should "go to the devil." Eskimos merely moved into another igloo. Altogether, there was at first no necessity of explaining or giving reasons.
\JAnglo-Saxons\j, on the other hand, demanded grounds for divorce. But it was not too difficult for a husband to find an excuse. He had the right to dismiss his wife for good and all if she was barren, passionate, luxurious, rude, habitually drunk, quarrelsome, or abusive.
Early Romans considered a spouse's dislike of his partner reason enough to terminate their union. Later \JRoman law\j continued to view divorce, just like marriage, as a private affair between two parties. All that had to be done was for the one spouse to send a letter to the other, through a messenger or in the presence of seven witnesses. This private "writ" had both to express the intention to terminate the marriage and to state that in future the other may keep his or her own property. A judicial inquiry took place only when the parties disagreed regarding the future of their children or the division of their assets.
Not so with the Hebrews. Certainly, they permitted divorce. But a merely private or oral declaration, however formal, was insufficient. A written official statement was essential for them.
The \JBible\j itself mentions the writing of a Bill of Divorcement, which is all the more surprising as it does not do so regarding a marriage certificate. A husband who wished to dismiss his wife had to place the document into her hands. We are not told its actual text. Since those early biblical days, a divorce certificate has become an established condition. Still, no public trial was then necessary. The sole formality consisted of the presentation of the "bill" to the wife, who had to accept it.
Post-biblical Jewish ecclesiastical authorities soon felt the need to make divorce proceedings more difficult and to lay down the precise wording of the writ. They issued minute instructions on procedure and the writing of the bill.
Divorce could take place only before a Court of three judges and in the presence of two witnesses. The document had to be written by an expert-scribe during the Court session. The names of the parties as well as the place where the Court met had to be identified beyond any possibility of mistake. The bill had to be written legibly and could not be corrected. Any mistake made necessitated the destruction of the copy and the writing of a new one.
Once the document had been drawn up, the two witnesses had to examine and then to sign it. No signature of either divorcee was demanded.
With the bill thus having been duly read and attested, the chairman of the Court presented it to the husband who, in the presence of a witness, had to place it into the hands of his wife. Simultaneously, he had to repeat the traditional divorce formula: "Here is your Bill of Divorcement. Take it. From now onward be divorced from me and free to marry any man."
However, the wife did not keep the document. She had to return it to the judge in charge of the case who retained it but, first of all, tore it partly across, lest it be used again for fraudulent purposes.
This earliest divorce decree - still used among Orthodox Jewish people - thus read:
\I"On the.... day of the week, the.... day of the month.... in the year.... in the city of.... situated on the river.... I.... the son of.... with the surname of.... who today am resident at.... do hereby consent of my \Jfree will\j and without any restraint, to release, set free and put away my wife.... who at present resides at.....
"Up to this moment you have been my wife. But now you are released, set free and put away, so that you may be your own mistress, and may marry any man you may desire. No one may hinder you from doing this, as from this day forth you are free to marry any man.
"Thus you received from me this Bill of Divorcement, a document of release, a Bill of freedom according to the Law of Moses and Israel."\i
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"Billy Tea",192,0,0,0
Inglis' Billy Tea certainly made use of a typical Australian word. Its "billy" is not a derivative from the French \Ibouilli\i ("cooked"), as some have wrongly suggested. It does not come from the Scottish \Ibally\i (a milkpail), either. Much more likely, it perpetuates \Ibilla,\i the Aboriginal word for "creek" or "river," also found in \Ibillabong,\i but best known through the Australianism for making a cup of tea - "boiling the billy."
Billy tea became so closely linked with its originator, hard-working and never-resting James Inglis, that people believed that Jimmy's real given name was Billy. The inscription on the unassuming grey granite \Jobelisk\j on his grave in the Rookwood Cemetery confirms and perpetuates James as his Christian name, however.
A Scotsman by birth, like so many of his countrymen he traveled far and worked hard wherever he went. After two years in \JNew Zealand\j, he accepted an invitation from his brother Alexander to join him in \JCalcutta\j, India, where the family had established themselves as tea merchants.
But, suffering from bad \Jrheumatism\j and experiencing generally poor health, Jimmy decided to leave the subcontinent, to move east, to \JAustralia\j. A shrewd Scotsman, he did so with a special assignment; at his instigation the Alahabad \IPioneer Mail\i commissioned him to investigate and report on the Australian colonies as "A [potential] field for Anglo-Indian capital."
Enterprising and ambitious, Inglis arrived in \JAustralia\j with a second string to his bow. He was to be the Australian representative of the \JCalcutta\j Tea Syndicate and make their product known at the 1880 Sydney International Exhibition. The secondary task became his primary occupation, to be crowned with spectacular success and result in his imprint being left on Australian life.
Choosing the "billy" as his trademark, Inglis made Billy Tea a byword throughout the country. With a penchant for publicity, he could be regarded as another pioneer of the modern advertising jingle. He had \JBanjo\j Paterson's poem \IWaltzing Matilda\i set to music by Marie Cowan, his accountant's wife.
In 1903 he distributed as a gift a copy of the new song wrapped around every packet of Billy Tea. There is a suggestion that, in fact, "Waltzing Matilda" was popularized by the Scotsman's business acumen and his tea!
A pictorial advertisement further promoted the product. It shows a man leaning against a \Jgum tree\j and a tall \Jkangaroo\j, which has a swag slung around its right shoulder and is holding a billy in its left paw. A caption under the picture has the "Aussie" saying to the \Jmarsupial\j: "Hallo Mate! I always thought you were only a Billy Tea advertisement."
Multi-talented James Inglis was busy in many other fields. He became known as an author, a newspaper editor, business executive and entrepreneur. Entering politics in 1887, he served in Henry Parkes' cabinet as Minister of Instruction. But there is no doubt that it was his "Billy Tea" that gave him lasting fame.
Twice married, Inglis had no children. When, on 15 December 1908 - at the age of 63 - he died from kidney disease, he could look back on a life crowded with achievements and exciting adventures.
#
"Bingo Origins",193,0,0,0
A priest of unknown identity has been given the credit for the universal popularity of Bingo, by which name the game is now known.
It happened almost by chance - very appropriate in the circumstances. On a visit to \JAtlanta\j in Georgia, USA, in 1929, Edwin S. Lowe, a Polish-born New York toy manufacturer, was watching a game of Beano at a \Jcarnival\j. He was intrigued by its simplicity and its appeal to man's gambling instinct. All that the players had to do was to place beans (accounting for the name of the game) on sheets, each of which carried a different selection of hand-printed numbers. The man in charge of the game called out the numbers, which he picked out of a box. Whoever completed his card first was the winner and could collect the kitty.
At the end of the game, Lowe purchased some of the cards and a box of numbers and took them home, where he introduced the game to his friends. They came to enjoy it hugely. On one occasion, a young lady who had joined their circle, became so excited on hearing the last number on her card being called out, that, as she placed the final bean on it, to announce her "full house" she shouted at the top of her voice, "Bingo!," mispronouncing the usual "Beano."
Lowe, being an astute businessman, immediately grasped the promotional value of a game called by the erroneously uttered \IBingo.\i Not deliberately or consciously devised, but arising from a mere slip of the tongue, it was a winning proposition. The name was short, crisp in sound, easily pronounced and remembered. It had all the qualifications needed for a best seller. In no time Lowe marketed, at $2.00 each, games of Bingo comprising complete sets of twenty-four cards.
Many church functions nowadays run Bingo nights, and so it is not surprising that it was a priest who first realized how the new game could help him in raising badly-needed funds. But he also soon learned that Lowe's set of twenty-four cards was impracticable. There were too many winners to each game. He called to explain the problem to Mr Lowe, who, seeing the point at once, set about producing an improved version of Bingo which, by reducing the number of winners, increased the profit.
Leaving nothing to chance in this game of chance, he engaged a professor of \Jmathematics\j to provide him with 6,000 different combinations. Alas, the professor's success was also his undoing as, in finding the right number of figures, he is said to have lost his mind. But, whatever this expert's contribution, the fact remains that it was a minister of religion whose concern led to the final refinement of the game and, with it, its universal appeal.
#
"Bird Droppings",194,0,0,0
Superstitions are irrational. It is not surprising therefore that frequently they are the result of confusion. This applies to the widespread belief that bird droppings on a person or on some of his belongings, even his car, meant good luck.
It all started on Easter Day which - in the Northern Hemisphere - is springtime. Recalling the \JResurrection\j of Christ, it was an occasion of festive rejoicing appropriately expressed by wearing new clothes to church on Easter morning. By sympathetic magic, the clothes were hoped to rejuvenate the wearer.
Those too mean to acquire new garments were despised. It was said that even the birds, regarded as God's messengers, looked down on them. To show their displeasure, they dropped excreta on the clothes of those parsimonious worshipers when they were going home from the service.
With the passing of time, people no longer remembered the exact details. All they knew was that the bird droppings had "some" meaning. Perplexed and possibly influenced by wishful thinking, they interpreted such untoward incidents the opposite way: to be thus "decorated" meant good luck!
Early conservationists rationalized the \Jsuperstition\j. It was specially invented, they claimed, to protect a bird that had forgotten itself on someone's head. With the promise of good luck, not even an angered victim would think of killing the offender.
#
"Bird Sleeping Habits",195,0,0,0
Many misconceptions relating to bird life and behavior are due to negligence in bird-watching. This applies even to a bird's sleeping habits and the belief that a bird goes to rest in its nest. Principally, the nest serves it for the laying and hatching of eggs. Occasionally, the bird might doze off for a mere "forty winks." For the night, however, the bird likes to settle down outside its nest on a tree branch.
Whilst asleep, a bird does not - as is also often thought - tuck its head under its wing to keep warm. What it actually does is to turn its head to rest it, like on a pillow, on its back, sticking its beak under its feathery coat.
#
"Bird-brained",196,0,0,0
To call anyone "bird-brained" is not as insulting as it is intended. In reality, it reveals ignorance on the part of the slanderer. Relatively speaking, the description is tantamount to a compliment. Whilst the human brain constitutes 2.5 per cent of the body weight, a bird's brain makes up almost twice that proportion, 4.2 per cent.
#
"Birdie",197,0,0,0
The first "birdie" was a mere fluke, in a manner of speaking. It appeared, as it were, out of the air; metaphorically, quite unexpectedly.
It all happened on a beautiful day in 1903 in \JAtlantic City\j, USA. A. B. ("Ab") Smith enjoyed a good game of golf, but he also knew that there was room for improvement. Therefore, when on that morning he made a shot that enabled him to sink his ball into the hole with a score of "one under par," he was rightly overjoyed.
Giving expression to his feelings, spontaneously he called out at the top of his voice, "That's a \Ibird\i of a shot!" And the bird caught on. In the course of time, players learned fondly to refer to it as a "birdie."
The eagle and the \Jalbatross\j were an almost logical sequence. To attain "two under par," of course, is much less frequent, just as to see an eagle is not so common. To encounter an \Jalbatross\j on land was as rare an event as scoring "three under par."
#
"Birds and Bees",198,0,0,0
To speak of "birds and bees" once was a euphemism for discussing the sex act. If used at all nowadays, it is done in a light-hearted, jocular way. But the very phrase presents a problem. Why, of all creatures, should birds and bees be singled out to describe the process of procreation?
Some authorities have suggested that it goes back to the days when sex instruction was a \Jtaboo\j subject. To teach children "the facts of life," nature study took its place. Children were told how birds hatched eggs and bees pollinated flowers. The rest was (hopefully) left to the children's imagination.
It is a rather unconvincing explanation. After all, there were so many better examples near at hand. Children, always observant, were well aware of the sex play and copulation of pets and other domestic animals, which could have served as a much more suitable "lesson." There was no reason therefore to seek out "the birds and the bees."
The strange combination might well be the result of a misheard word from a once popular hymn for evensong. This had been written by Sabine Baring-Gould, clergyman-author of the well-known hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers," and was particularly loved by children. It portrayed the arrival of night:
\INow the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky
\IBirds and beasts\i and flowers
Soon will be asleep.\i
Somehow - perhaps through slovenly enunciation - the beasts came to sound like bees, and thus misheard (and contracted) contributed to the creation of the proverbial "birds and bees."
That the phrase may be traced to the Rev. Baring-Gould is especially fascinating, if it is realized that he was not only the prolific author of 159 books, but also father of fourteen children.
#
"Birds Flying Into Window",199,0,0,0
Birds have always mystified man. Their annual flight to warmer climates without losing the way and their subsequent safe return could only be the result of some \Jsupernatural\j gift. Their soaring skywards made them early on a link between the divine realm and man. Augurs tried to interpret their message from above. As heaven was believed to be the abode of all spirits, not least those of the departed, the bird ultimately was regarded as the embodiment of a soul.
No wonder, therefore, that the \Jalbatross\j which so persistently follows a boat, even far from land, was thought to be the \Jreincarnation\j of a drowned sailor anxious to keep "in touch." A bird, in the form of a dove, came to symbolize the "\Jholy spirit\j" in \JChristianity\j.
A bird flying against the window or actually into a home was not thought to have lost its way. It was seen as the harbinger of death! Spirit was calling spirit. The bird, in fact, had come from the world above with a message from a departed relative's spirit calling on the soul of someone dear and near to join him in death.
Daniel Defoe recorded a belief once current in Sussex, England, that when a bishop was about to die, a heron perched on the cathedral.
#
"Birth and its Customs",200,0,0,0
Birthday celebrations are rather a paradox. Who but a child would be happy because a calendar date reminds him that another year of his life has gone?
Originally, birthdays looked into the future and their celebration was regarded as ensuring continuation of life. It was held that life was renewed on that day, which was thought magically to repeat one's actual birth. If properly observed, the birthday ritual meant life, health, and prosperity for the next 12 months. This is why the birthday wish is for "many happy returns of the day."
#
"Birth of Christ",201,0,0,0
Most scholars agree that the dating of Christ's birth on which our present-day chronology is based, is out by several years. Paradoxically, Jesus was born at least four years "Before Christ" (B.C.)! The general adoption of the erroneous date is attributed to sixth century Roman Abbot Dionysius Exiguus who was among the first to "fix" Jesus' birth on 25 December A.D. 1.
There is no indication in the Gospels as to the exact date of Christ's birth. Actually, St Luke's account of shepherds at the time "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" makes it most unlikely that it was 25 December. During this wet and cold season in the Holy Land, the shepherds would have sought shelter for their sheep. It is therefore not surprising that Clement of Alexandria, the third century theologian, suggested 20 May as the correct date for the celebration of Jesus' birth.
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"Birth of New York",202,0,0,0
Peter Minuit, who in 1626 purchased Manhattan Island (which was to become the core of present-day New York) from the Indians for trinkets valued at sixty guilders, was a Dean in the Dutch Reformed Church.
#
"Birthday Cake and Candles",203,0,0,0
The purpose of birthday candles is to honor the birthday child and to bring him good fortune for the ensuing year.
The custom goes back to the ancient Greeks. According to the writings of Philochorus, worshipers of \JArtemis\j, goddess of the moon and hunting, used to put honey-cakes on the altars of her temple on the sixth day of every month, which was her birthday. The cakes were round like the full moon and lighted with tapers.
No further record of this custom exists between the days of those Greek moon-worshipers and its re-appearance among German peasants in the \JMiddle Ages\j, who again used to light candles on birthday cakes. This was done at the moment the child wakened. The candles were kept burning until the cake was eaten at the family meal. If necessary, they were replaced by new ones. The number of candles indicated the age of the child. An extra taper representing the light of life was always added.
Like sacrificial fires, burning tapers were endowed from earliest days with a mystical significance and it was believed that the birthday \Jcandle\j had the power to grant a wish and ensure a happy year for the child. However, the wish, which had to remain secret, would only come true if all the candles were blown out with one puff. The \Jcandle\j lost its magical power if the wish was uttered aloud.
The old belief that the \Jcandle\j symbolized life is retained in many sayings. Thus we warn people of not "burning the \Jcandle\j at both ends" and Macbeth spoke of life as a "brief \Jcandle\j."
#
"Birthday Cards",204,0,0,0
Birthday cards are of comparatively recent origin. They were introduced in the latter half of the nineteenth century, soon after the first Christmas cards.
Their text was simple and to the point; it briefly wished the recipient a "Happy Birthday" or merely conveyed "Birthday Greetings." In every sense of the word, they were prosaic. Though they were illustrated, the pictures they showed were unrelated to birthdays and were frequently the same as the pictures shown on Christmas cards.
To make them more attractive, some cards were embossed and ornamented with silk fringes around the edges. For some reason, however, the novel cards did not catch on and, indeed, were in so little demand that stationers did not feel it worth their while to display them. They stored them in boxes and customers had to ask for them.
In spite of these unpromising beginnings, birthday cards experienced a rebirth in the twentieth century. Specially designed now, and illustrated for the purpose, they carry voluminous wordings, both in verse and in prose. They range in tone from the sentimental and thoughtful to the frivolous and humorous and are decorated with appropriate pictures and good luck symbols.
Of the early cards only the name remained. The modern "card" is really a folder, often personalized and specialized and catering for all ages.
#
"Birthday Celebrations",205,0,0,0
Birthday celebrations date back to antiquity, when they often took elaborate forms. The \JBible\j tells how Pharaoh celebrated his birthday by giving a feast for all his servants, reviewing appointments and releasing prisoners.
There was a time when birthdays, far from being times of celebration, were considered occasions of crucial significance fraught with peril. They were thought likely to attract the attention of mischievous spirits, particularly prone to interfere at moments of transition or change. A birthday, then, was a time when one needed the support of all one's family and friends. And this was one of the major reasons for the development of the tradition of the birthday party.
To protect the "birthday child," people came and conveyed their good wishes. These were not mere stereotyped and conventional words. They were a magic formula and were intended to guard the celebrant from untoward attacks.
A birthday, too, was a new beginning, an opportunity to start afresh, and to eliminate all that had stained the past. Games played on the day were not meant primarily to amuse and entertain the visitors, but to make them participate in a magic ritual designed to ward off the evil spirits. Enjoyment, however, did have some importance. The more the guests enjoyed themselves, the more they would be prepared to support their host.
The modern party, characterized by the joyful sharing of special food, harks back to communal meals of earlier times, which were arranged to strengthen the bond between the individual and the community.
#
"Bistro",206,0,0,0
The present-day bistro is a leftover from the Napoleonic era and its wars. It goes back to the occupation of Paris by the allied forces after the emperor's defeat in 1814 and owes its existence - as a name - to a misunderstanding.
Russian \JCossacks\j, who were among these troops, particularly enjoyed Parisian life. They proved good customers of its many cheap cafฮs whose enterprising owners, like modern touts, to solicit business, took up position in front of their establishments. Whenever a Russian passed by, they stopped him and, unable to speak his tongue, made use of the language of gestures. Mimicking the act of eating, they invited him in for a good feed.
As the men always seemed in a hurry, they wanted to assure them that they would not have to wait long to be served. To do so they had specially learned the Russian word for "quick" which, in their French accent, sounded like veestra.
Nevertheless, the restaurateurs did not succeed in making themselves properly understood and in this respect their effort misfired. Failing to recognize the mispronounced word as one of their own, the \JCossacks\j imagined that the often repeated veestra was the French name of a fast-food restaurant and adopted it as such. Thus, with yet another slight variation, the bistro came into existence. It not only survived Napoleon, but achieved what he could never do. It conquered the world to become a meeting place offering relaxation and congenial company.
A varied version of the circumstances depicts the Russians less pleasantly. Displaying their status as victors, they are said to have rushed into the small restaurants, arrogantly demanding to be served a cheap meal - instantly. With a strident voice, they commanded the owner to move "quickly" - which in their tongue was veestra.
Not worrying about, or even aware of, the actual meaning of the Russian word, the cafฮ owners adopted it as their name. It was to become the (thus mispronounced) "bistro."
Both derivations have been questioned. The bistro, yet a further explanation claims, had nothing to do with the occupation of Paris by foreign troops or the Russian language, however distorted. It merely recalled a cheap drink, known as bistouille, served in those bars.
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"Bite the Bullet",207,0,0,0
A person who bites the bullet, without any sign of fear, acts with great courage in the face of adversity.
The phrase recollects a dangerous army practice in the 1850s. Soldiers were then equipped with the British Enfield rifle. Prior to using it, they had to bite off the head of the cartridge to expose the explosive to the spark which would ignite it. The procedure was fraught with peril, particularly so in the heat of battle. It needed firmness and courage, as even the slightest deviation or hesitancy would endanger the soldier. Most likely, Kipling's use of the phrase in \IThe Light That Failed\i popularized it: "Bite the bullet, old man, and don't let them think you're afraid."
The very practice is said to have been responsible for the Indian mutiny in 1857. The British had enlisted the Sepoys in their forces. These belonged to the Hindu and \JMoslem\j faiths and were renowned for their courage and fortitude. Given the then still novel Enfield rifle, each time when using it they had to bite the bullet. However, they refused to do so - and for a deeply religious reason.
The cartridges were greased, and rumor soon spread that the substances used were tallow and lard, both shunned by devout Hindus and Moslems. Nobody could force them to put those ritually defiled cartridges near their lips! Hindus worship the cow, the source of tallow, and no \JMoslem\j would touch lard, obtained from the pig.
Out of loyalty to their religion, the Sepoys therefore disobeyed orders, for which reason they were imprisoned by the British. The action caused not only upheaval but, ultimately, resulted in rebellion. Liberated by their fellow religionists, the Sepoys joined forces with them to throw off the foreign yoke. They massacred Europeans and marched to Delhi, to proclaim there the \JMogul\j emperor. The rest is history.
Military in origin as well, but totally different in association, is another derivation of the phrase. This links the "biting of the bullet" with the attempt to save the lives of seriously wounded soldiers. Realizing the necessity to amputate one of their limbs, and with anaesthetics unavailable on the battlefield, the surgeon made the injured man bite on a bullet. It helped him to give vent to his anguish and to withstand pain almost beyond endurance.
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"Biting Remarks",208,0,0,0
A "biting remark" might hurt, though no one would take it literally. An actual incident in classical times has been quoted as the source of the expression. It links it with Zeno, a Greek philosopher of the fifth century BC, who also was a political activist.
Having failed in a conspiracy to depose the local tyrant, he was arrested and condemned to a torturous end. He was to be pounded to death in a mortar.
The execution was carried out in the very presence of the man whom, for the good of the community, he had sought to destroy. While suffering the protracted agony of his death, as it were with his dying breath, Zeno told the tyrant that he was now willing, and anxious indeed, to reveal to him some secret, significant piece of information.
The dictator could not resist. To make sure he was able to hear what Zeno had to say, he bent over to listen to what now had become a mere whisper, and put his ear close to the philosopher's mouth. This was exactly what Zeno had expected. With his last strength, he bit off the tyrant's ear!
Zeno's "biting remark" not only left its mark on this enemy of the people, but has survived the millennia, even if only as a \Jmetaphor\j used for sarcasm.
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"Bitter End",209,0,0,0
Everyone agrees that to stick to something "to the bitter end" shows character. However, not so unanimous is the opinion as to the beginning of the phrase. It may well be a combination of strands.
Undoubtedly, it brings to mind \JSocrates\j" end. Determined to abide by the laws of his country, though strongly disagreeing with them, he emptied the cup of hemlock to its bitter end.
Those acquainted with the \JBible\j will recall the passage in the book of Proverbs (5,4) which cites a father's warning to his son, "Beware of the honeyed words of a seductive woman," whose own end was "as bitter as wormwood." Knowing the scriptural influence on western tongues, the simile must have greatly contributed to the popularization of the phrase which, however, like much of life itself, goes back to the sea.
Bitt is the nautical name of a post (one of a pair) on the deck of a ship to which a cable is attached. When the cable is played out completely, it certainly is at the \Ibit\iter('s) end. It has reached the point beyond which it cannot go. Except in language. Sailors brought the bitter end home from the sea, where it became the telling phrase of finality it is now.
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"Black Art",210,0,0,0
A mistranslation gave us "'black art" which, to make it even more absurd, came from the dead. It all started in the ancient belief that the future could be revealed to man by his communicating with those who had passed away. From beyond the grave, they could see - and tell - what lay ahead. Among the Greeks this occult pursuit became known as necromancy, joining their words for "dead" \I(nekros)\i and "prophecy" \I(manteia).\i
In later years and foreign climes, the term was much too learned and complex to be understood by the ordinary people, still anxious to know what was going to happen to them. So they confused the Greek for "dead" - \Inekros\i - with the Latin for "black" - \Iniger\i - as to their untutored minds the two sounded almost alike. This made them mistranslate necromancy as "black art."
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"Black Book Or Blacklisted",211,0,0,0
Black has always been a forbidding color, darkening people's character and life. Negative in its connotation, it is inseparably linked with the \JBlack Death\j, the blackguard, the black sheep, and \Jblackbirding\j. Melancholy was once thought to be the result of black \Jbile\j, and English judges used to don a black cap when passing a death sentence. It is no wonder therefore that people under suspicion, known to have a criminal record, or having failed to pay their debts were "blacklisted."
Black books then superseded the black list and, in keeping with their name (or being responsible for it, according to some authorities), were bound in black leather covers.
Among the earliest black lists were those compiled by order of King \JHenry VIII\j (in the 1530s). In his fight against the church, he issued instructions to have a record made of all religious institutions, described as centers of "manifest sin, vicious, carnal, and abominable living." When the compilation was completed, it was bound in black covers, for which reason it became known as the "black book." The king cleverly used it to have a bill passed in parliament (in March 1536) which decreed the closure of all monasteries and the confiscation of their property, for "His Majesty [to] have and enjoy" all their possessions.
Thus the "black book," most likely, became part of the English vocabulary, as it were by royal decree. It did not die with the dissolution of the monasteries, but was found useful in many ways.
Another historic black list goes back to Charles II who, on his ascendance to the throne (in 1661), recorded the names of the men held most responsible for his late father's execution, to have them apprehended and duly punished.
Other well-known examples of black lists belong to illustrious institutions of learning, such as the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Students who had disgraced their college by some misdemeanor had their names entered in them, with the result that they were barred from taking a degree. Soldiers who had disobeyed orders equally had their names so listed.
The records are now merely a matter of history or exhibits in \Jarchives\j and museums. But we still speak of a person to be shunned or even to be kept out of a society or company as being "blacklisted." Not so long ago, prior to the introduction of computers, \Jimmigration\j officers at ports of entry of many a country would look up a large book bound in black covers to check whether the traveler's name was in it. If so, they were refused admission.
From its literal application in varied circumstances, the black book left its mark in idiomatic language. Anyone in one's black book, figuratively speaking, is out of favor, in disgrace.
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"Black Cat",212,0,0,0
It is not accidental that of all cats the one that is totally black is most popularly associated with witches.
Black was the color of the powers of darkness. Without making a sound, a black cat could move invisibly through a moonless night, which made its unknown mission all the more awesome, weird, and puzzling.
In \JEgypt\j, where some millennia ago cats were deified, they were mostly of a sandy color. An all-black cat was a rarity which immediately rendered it all the more uncanny and sinister. Although merely fiction, a further assumption that black cats could see best in the dark, added to their notoriety.
Once again, legends did their part to increase the occult stature of the black cat. The Greek goddess \JHecate\j and the Scandinavian deity Hel (who were both linked with death) had black cats as their feline aids. No wonder that by this association black cats appeared to people as omens of misfortune and death.
With this background, it was not surprising that suspected witches indicted the black cat in their torture-induced confessions. They "admitted" that it was not only their most loyal servant in all the nefarious work they had pursued, but that the black cat actually carried within it an evil spirit.
Finally, was it not almost a foregone conclusion to use black cats for black magic?
#
"Black Days",213,0,0,0
A "black day" owes its description to its lack of anything to brighten it up. It is a day that has been spoiled by bad luck or by some disastrous event. History records many such days, some of them commemorating financial disasters such as the devastating stock market crash that preceded the \JGreat Depression\j.
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"Black for Mourning",214,0,0,0
To wear black for mourning in Western countries is a custom that dates back to pagan days. Its origin had nothing to do with piety or a wish to show grief. On the contrary, it expressed fear. It arose not out of respect for but dread of the dead.
People put on black as a disguise, so that the ghost of the deceased might not recognize and then start haunting them. The same purpose, it is thought, applied to the mark of Cain, which was put on him after his brother's death, lest he be recognized by his victim's spirit.
The wearing of black, and sometimes even the veiling of one's face, was also believed to act as a protection against one's own death, since it was designed to confuse any demon still hovering around and bent on snatching more lives. Among some races, the painting of the face white or black was supposed to trick the dead into the belief that the mourners themselves were \Jghosts\j and not living creatures to be envied.
Indeed, there is no real difference in intention between the wearing of black and the even more primitive custom of gashing the flesh and tearing the clothes.
The modern explanation of the use of black for mourning is a superb example of man's way to spiritualize and rationalize ancient superstitions. Black is symbolic of the night, and the absence of color seemed best suited to express a person's abandonment to grief. The color of mourning also served as a constant reminder of the loss one had suffered. To the people one met, it indicated one's state of mind, making them in turn considerate, and reminding them to refrain from saying anything that might hurt or offend. The dark color itself not only reflected the sorrow of the bereaved but created inward tranquility and serenity.
Black has never been the universal color of mourning. \JHenry VIII\j wore white when "mourning" \JAnne Boleyn\j, just as many Chinese do. Burmese chose yellow and Turks violet. Ethiopians preferred a greyish-brown and the South Sea Islanders a combination of white and black stripes perhaps to symbolize how joy and grief, darkness and light, are always intermingled in life.
In some parts of China, however, the traditional mourning color was purple. This influenced American trade in a most unexpected way. When one U.S. manufacturer of chewing gum changed its wrappers from green to purple, its export sales to China dropped alarmingly. It was subsequently discovered that the Chinese believed that the gum was meant to be chewed at funerals only!
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"Black Sea: Origins of the Name",215,0,0,0
In classical Greek times, Iranians populated the area surrounding the large body of water now known as the \JBlack Sea\j. They could not fail but notice that its color was considerably darker than that of the inland rivers. This made them refer to the sea as "dark" - \Iaxsaena.\i Other people, unaware of the reason for the description, further "blackened" the sea and that is how, in many tongues, it became wrongly known as the \JBlack Sea\j.
This was not the only misnomer. It seemed as if that vast expanse of water attracted mistakes. To Greek ears, the Iranian \Iaxsaena\i sounded very much like their own \Iaxeinos\i - "inhospitable."
This is understandable, as the entire region was renowned and feared for its violent storms, impenetrable fogs and thick cloud cover that obscured the sun. The prevailing atmosphere was one of oppressive darkness - dismal, foreboding, and forbidding.
The similarity of sound made the Greeks shun the name altogether. To them is spelled evil - and if voiced, might even evoke it. Instead, they used a euphemism, called the "inhospitable sea" - \IPontos Aximos,\i the "friendly sea" - \IPontos Euximos.\i In doing so, they hoped to placate and flatter the evil forces and buy their good will.
The "friendly sea" has long been forgotten. The equally erroneous "\Jblack sea\j," however, survives, misguiding those who take its name literally.
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"Blackball",216,0,0,0
Anyone "blackballed" is excluded from a club, a society or a Masonic Lodge. The description can be taken very literally. It originated in a simple democratic way of voting.
Those entitled to participate in the decision indicated their approval or rejection by means of a ball they placed into a box. A white ball signified their affirmation, and a black one their disapproval. It was an unmistakable way of saying yes or no.
Generally, the color of the maximum number of balls cast, determined the preferred candidate or agreed upon policy. Anyone not wanted by the majority and thus rejected was therefore "blackballed." In some societies and lodges, the presence of even a single black ball was sufficient to deny admittance.
The use of black balls can be traced to ancient \JRome\j. The first-century BC poet, \JOvid\j, in his Metamorphoses (XV,41), recalls the custom as it was then applied in the judicial system. An accused person was condemned by black balls, but acquitted by white ones.
Though modern methods of casting votes no longer make use of an actual ball, it is still retained - literally - in the ballot, in spite of the ball now taking the form of a sheet of paper.
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"Blackmail Origins",217,0,0,0
Blackmail has a very sad history indeed. It has come down from most respectable circles, eventually to become mixed up with illegal extortion. It started in Scotland hundreds of years ago and involved hard-working but poverty-stricken farmers.
Most of the land there was then owned by the English. They charged high rents to the Scots who farmed the soil. This "tribute" paid to the absentee landlord was known as \Imail,\i at one time a Scottish term for rent and taxes.
One of the conditions stipulated was that all payment should be made in silver. This was referred to as \Iwhite\i mail.
But life was hard and the farmers often could not raise the money for the mail. The English landlords then agreed to take produce in lieu of silver. The goods became known as \Iblack\i mail but they were quite legal and no opprobrium was at first attached to the term.
However, dishonest creditors began to take advantage of the farmers' distress. They demanded goods far in excess in value of the money owed and they backed their demands with threats. The term black mail deteriorated into meaning payments extorted from persons by intimidation.
Another explanation also associates the origin of the present-day use of the term with the Scots, however, dating it back to the boundary warfare between England and Scotland. According to this interpretation, "\Jblackmail\j" was the protection money paid, in the form of produce, by the border farmers to freebooters. These promised, in return, to guard them against plunder by rapacious chiefs on either side of the frontier.
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"Blarney Legend",218,0,0,0
Meaningless, flattering talk is "blarney." It is one of the few words royalty has added to ordinary people's vocabulary. Its birthplace is the famous Irish castle of that name.
Situated 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Cork, it was built in 1446 by Cormac MacCarthy, the Earl of Blarney. A bastion, its walls extend to a height of 26 meters (28 yards) and are almost four meters thick at their base.
Legend tells that when in 1602 the English had encircled the castle after a prolonged siege its lord agreed to hand it over "presently." In a personal letter to Queen Elizabeth I, in the most flowery language, he vowed his future allegiance to the English crown, reiterating the promise of his immediate evacuation of the stronghold. However, when the date agreed upon arrived, he found an excuse to delay it. This happened not merely once but many a time. When the queen heard of yet another such postponement, worded as before in a long rambling letter, she remarked, "This is Blarney. What he says he never means." It was the birth of the word.
Traditionally, the earl had acquired his eloquence and the ability to say sweet nothing in ever so many words - supernaturally. Kissing one specific stone which has been incorporated in the parapet of the castle miraculously had bestowed on him the gift and - still identified - has been known worldwide ever since as the "Blarney Stone."
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"Blaze a Trail",219,0,0,0
A trailblazer derives this laudatory name from those who preceded as pioneers in the field of exploration. Now a mere \Jmetaphor\j, initially it referred to an actual practice of earlier pathfinders. To enable those following them to find their way in the still uncharted wooded territory, they marked the trees along their trail. They did so by chipping off some of the bark. The lighter patches this created served as signposts and were known as "blazes."
The word "blaze" is derived from the German Blesse, used for a "white marking." Originally, it was applied to a white spot on an animal's forehead and in its \Jetymology\j goes back to a root that meant "to shine."
A wealth of tradition is thus contained in an explorer's "blazing of a trail."
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"Blazer",220,0,0,0
Those wearing a blazer mostly do so to identify themselves as members of a specific school or sporting club. However "with it" their lifestyle and opinions may be, they are old-fashioned, in fact out of date, in the name of their garment.
A fire blazes away, and a blazer - literally - goes back to a "torch."
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Englishmen's clothes - very typical of the then prevailing British social climate - were somber and subdued. The only exception were university students who proudly displayed their college "colors." Even these, to begin with, in gentlemanly fashion, were rather inconspicuous. It was not surprising therefore that people were stunned, when one day they saw the crew rowing for the Lady Margaret, St John's College, Cambridge Boating Club, wear scarlet flannel jackets. The sight was so unusual, the story goes, that it made even horses shy. Seen from afar, the men seemed "ablaze," and it is no wonder that their jackets were dubbed "blazers." The name stuck and is now applied to all similar jackets no matter of which color.
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"Blessing Hands on a Headstone",221,0,0,0
The sculpted gesture of blessing hands on a headstone refers to the priestly descent of the deceased. His ancestors belonged to the Aaronites who once, until its destruction in 70 A.D., ministered at the Temple in \JJerusalem\j. Theirs had been a hereditary appointment.
One of their significant functions was the bestowal of the divine benediction on the people; the gesture of blessing hands became a symbol of their priesthood, and of anyone who could trace his ancestry back to them. The \JHebrew\j title of a "priest" was \ICohen,\i still retained as a family name by many a descendant of Aaron, the first High Priest.
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"Blind as a Bat",222,0,0,0
Anyone not seeing the obvious is called "as blind as a bat." A bat is not blind. A nocturnal animal that hunts at night, its eyes are so adjusted that it sees better in the dusk and the dark than in the full light of day.
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"Bloody Mary: the Drink",223,0,0,0
It is only occasionally that we reflect on the hidden significance of what we are saying or even enjoying. Sometimes, in the most trivial practice may be found the echoes of a gruesome event. However, as we no longer know of it, we give it no thought.
A typical example is the mixed drink served as "Bloody Mary." It was so called for two reasons. The addition of \Jtomato\j juice to the vodka-based seasoned mixture gave it a reddish, blood-like color. Over and above that, the blood-red concoction originally was meant to remind people of Queen Mary I of England, \JHenry VIII\j's daughter. She was nicknamed Bloody Mary because of her ruthless attempt to re-establish \JRoman Catholicism\j in the country in 1555. In this pursuit, she pitilessly persecuted those of the Protestant faith, of whom at least 300 died as martyrs. Rather strange to think that such tragic interregnum in British history should be perpetuated in a drink.
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"Bloomers",224,0,0,0
Bloomers were not created by Mrs Amelia Bloomer (d. 1894), the American pioneer in social reform and fighter for women's rights. All she did was to advocate dress reform and, while doing so, particularly to recommend the new "rational" costume which was actually designed by Mrs Elizabeth Miller, daughter of a New York congressman. At the time, it consisted of a jacket, a skirt, and Turkish-style trousers.
Mrs Bloomer gave the dress widest publicity in the women's magazine she published (the first of its kind in America), and started wearing the costume herself. It caught on and other women, following her example, donned the "manly" trousers. This created heated controversy. Women thus clothed were barred from churches and threatened with excommunication, which gave Mrs Bloomer yet another opportunity to resume her fight for the novel fashion. Did not the \JBible\j tell that \JAdam and Eve\j wore "unisex attire," the same type of leaf?
All these factors combined to make people wrongly believe that Mrs Bloomer had invented the dress which they therefore called after her. All denials on her part went unheeded. Elizabeth Miller was forgotten and the name of (Mrs) Bloomer stuck, to become eventually identified with women's loose baggy knickers.
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"Blotting Paper",225,0,0,0
Blotting paper was discovered by accident. It was the result of a workman's forgetfulness. He was in charge of the mixing vats at a paper mill in Berkshire, England. One day he forgot to put in sizing, one of the essential ingredients in the making of paper, and the finished product was useless.
There was a large quantity of it and the factory proprietor, a thrifty man, was reluctant to throw it away. If it was not saleable as paper, he thought, at least he would make use of it himself for rough notes. However, he found that was not possible either. The ink spread all over the sheets and was completely absorbed.
Suddenly he got the idea that this peculiar fault might be the beginning of a novel line with a considerable market.
For hundreds of years people had used sand to dry ink. This was a long and cumbersome process. Now the factory owner advertised the spoilt goods as "blotting paper." In no time he disposed of the complete stock. A thriving new industry had been born.
Originally, most blotting paper was produced in a pink or red color because of a wish to utilize matter which otherwise would have been of hardly any value. Red was a fast color and difficult to bleach. In paper-making red rags certainly were not a paying proposition. But for blotting paper, any color would do and red was as satisfactory as the purest white. Thus the law of economics determined the original color of blotting paper as well.
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"Blow a Raspberry",226,0,0,0
To "give (or blow) a raspberry" leaves no doubt that the person so treated is held in contempt and not wanted. As it were, they are hissed off the stage or, in American terminology, given the Bronx cheer. A rude sound, it is easily produced by putting the tongue between closed lips and then forcibly expelling air through the mouth. No one could mistake it, and nothing could be more effective in showing disapproval.
Obviously, the sound imitates the breaking of wind. Its description as a raspberry has nothing to do with the fruit but rather comes from \Jrhyming slang\j. \JRhyming slang\j, according to some authorities, did not originate, as sometimes suggested, merely as a light-hearted entertainment among the lower classes. English cockneys are said to have invented it to mystify and annoy Irish migrants who, working alongside them, were employed in the building of English railways and canals.
In typical \Jrhyming slang\j a word or name is replaced by another one or a phrase with which it rhymes. By such method, the speaker avoids mentioning what or whom they really have in mind. To make it still more difficult, if not impossible for those ignorant of the code, even to guess it, they use merely the first part of the phrase chosen as a substitute.
"Apples and pears" thus stands for "stairs;" "four by twos" referred to "Jews;" and "elephant's trunk" spoke of someone as being "drunk."
The alert Irish were not slow in catching on and created their own type of \Jrhyming slang\j. Criminals, too, soon realized the usefulness of such code and created a jargon all of their own.
This ingenious method was responsible for the raspberry as well. The common and unmentionable "fart" was substituted with "raspberry tart." Dropping eventually the second rhyming giveaway word, all that was left was the fruity part. Consequently, the raspberry, on its own, most respectably took the place of the objectionable and vulgar allusion to people's loss of control at one end of their anatomy.
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"Blow Hot and Cold",227,0,0,0
People who vacillate in their opinions and quickly change from being enthusiastic to showing disinterest are said to "blow hot and cold."
The saying can be traced to one of Aesop's Fables. This tells of an encounter between a wayfarer and a \Jsatyr\j, the Greek woodland deity portrayed as a human with animal features.
It was a cold winter's day, and the freezing traveler was blowing on his stiff fingers. Mystified, the \Jsatyr\j wanted to know what he was doing. The man explained to him that with his breath he was warming his chilled fingers.
Taking pity on him, the \Jsatyr\j invited the man to his home for a hot meal. This time, he watched him blowing on the food, which intrigued him all the more. Inquiring why he did so, his guest explained that he was blowing on the stew to cool it down.
The \Jsatyr\j told the traveler to leave at once. He was not prepared to entertain or ever mix with anyone who could "blow hot and cold from the same mouth."
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"Blow One's Top",228,0,0,0
Anyone "blowing their top" does much more than just letting off steam. They almost explode in their frustration and anger, releasing pent-up feelings. A most apposite phrase, it comes straight from nature and the frightening experience of a \Jvolcano\j, which erupts through pressure built up inside by gases and steam, literally blowing its top - sometimes with devastating effect.
A phrase borrowed from vulcanology, it has been applied to many other and varied situations of life and death. It has been linked with a raging storm at sea causing the loss - the "blowing out" - of a topsail. Jazz music, and modern drug culture, too, have made use of the idiom.
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"Bludger",229,0,0,0
Those who would rather live on the dole than work, in Australian English are contemptuously called "bludgers." The term was first applied to pimps who, shirking work, lived from prostitute's earnings, documented as early as 1882.
The name is not original but comes from the bludgeoners who, to get their own way and obtain all they wanted, knocked down people with a bludgeon, a short stout club. In modern usage, the bludger has changed into a much more gentle sort of person, suffering from an \Jallergy\j to work.
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"Blue Chip Stock",230,0,0,0
Those wishing to invest safely choose "blue chip stock." Its colorful description has been associated with a blue rim that at one time bordered stock certificates of great value. The reason for the color may well go back to gambling! The value of chips used in poker was indicated by their color. Those worth least were red, whilst the blue were the most expensive.
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"Blue Danube is not Blue",231,0,0,0
Johann Strauss' waltz, the "Blue Danube," has never lost its charm. It has outlived many other, once-popular tunes. Unfortunately, however, it has also been responsible for a misconception which, when discovered, is very disappointing. There is no beautiful "blue" Danube. Far from being blue, the river is muddy!
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"Blue for Boys and Pink for Girls",232,0,0,0
An explanation of the custom of dressing boys and girls in different colors is linked with their sex. Babies all look alike, and what better means of identifying them readily than by colors - blue for boys and pink for girls? This color scheme has been adopted all over the world. But who would ever suspect that in the blue ribbon is tied up a terror-crazed past and a haunting fear of anxious parents, deeply concerned with their baby's future?
From the days of antiquity it was believed that evil spirits hovered menacingly over the nursery. It was thought further that the evil ones were allergic to certain colors, of which the most potent was blue. It was considered that the association of blue with the heavenly sky rendered satanic forces powerless and drove them away. Even in our own time \JArabs\j in the \JMiddle East\j continue to paint the doors of their homes blue to frighten away demons. Thus, the display of blue on a young child was not merely an adornment but a necessary precaution. Girl babies were regarded as vastly inferior to boy babies and it was assumed that evil spirits would not be interested in them. That is why blue was reserved for boys. Any distinctive color for girls was deemed unnecessary.
Possibly later generations, unaware of the original cause of "blue for boys" but very much conscious of the neglect of girls, introduced for them the new pink-look.
European legendary tradition suggests another beautiful explanation of the color scheme for babies. This tells that baby boys are found under cabbages whose color - on the Continent of Europe - was mostly blue. Baby girls, on the other hand, were born inside a pink rose.
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"Blue for the First Prize",233,0,0,0
The blue ribbon is the most ancient distinguishing mark of merit. The sky was the highest man could see and it was blue; therefore its color was chosen as a symbol of distinction.
Ribbons are the traditional badge of an Order of Knighthood. That is why those honored by the Order of the Garter, the most noble and famous decoration awarded by the British Crown and established by King Edward III in 1348, wear the broad dark blue ribbon.
Eventually, the blue ribbon was used to express outstanding achievements in many other spheres of life as well. The expression "blue ribbon of the turf" to describe the famous English race, the Derby, is said to have been coined by Benjamin Disraeli.
One of his friends, Lord George Bentinck, was complaining to him that a horse he had sold had subsequently won the Derby. Since Disraeli seemed unsympathetic, Bentinck accused him of not even knowing what the Derby was. Prime Minister Disraeli promptly replied: "Indeed I do. It is 'the blue ribbon of the turf'."
The same tradition is responsible for the award of a blue ribbon to the liner fastest in crossing the \JAtlantic Ocean\j, and the first prize in shows.
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"Blue Joke and Movie",234,0,0,0
"The Blue Boar" was the name of a popular 18th century London tavern, the haunt of prostitutes. Many a man picked up from there a bout of venereal disease. No wonder that this soon became identified with the inn's name. In fact, anything risque and "off color" came to be described as blue. That is how, according to one tradition, people still speak of the blue joke and the blue movie.
A different theory derived the application of this color to anything sexually "off-side" from the stage, from an earlier period of permissiveness. Whenever an indecent scene was enacted, the spotlight was dimmed which was mostly done by adding to it a blue filter. In no time, in the minds of people, blue thus became associated with the sexually tainted.
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"Blue Laws",235,0,0,0
Blue laws are those that restrict man's pleasure. They go back to the determination of some religious sects to make people take life seriously to the extreme and for this purpose to exclude from it all tawdry enjoyments. Especially, they wished to see Sunday observed as a holy day, not to be desecrated by mundane thoughts or occupations. All activities which were not specifically religious were therefore banned on this day. Church attendance was obligatory. Reading matter had to be confined to texts of Holy Scripture. For a child to play with toys or use a swing on the Lord's day was condemned as sacrilegious.
When, in the seventeenth century, English Puritans migrated to America, they introduced these laws in their new home of New England as well. And, since the regulations enforcing this lifestyle were printed on blue paper or, at least, kept in a blue folder, they became known, it is said, as \Iblue laws.\i
Another tradition traces the color identified with the killjoy legislation to the early Puritans' preference for blue clothing. By association, the color came to be applied to the grim laws they enforced so strictly.
A third explanation derives the "colorful" name for such laws to the color of the bruises caused by the severe punishment meted out to those failing to observe them.
The earliest record of the term "blue law" can be traced to the publication (in 1781) of \IA General History of Connecticut\i by Samuel Peters, a Loyalist clergyman. He wrote it after fleeing the colonies, and it drew a vivid, if somewhat exaggerated picture of the joylessness and rigidity of those extreme Sunday laws.
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"Blue Monday",236,0,0,0
A busy weekend, with all the enjoyment that goes with it, is frequently followed by its anticlimax, the "blue Monday."
The choice of blue was not accidental. It is based on the old misconception that those who overindulged in drink saw, apart from the proverbial "pink elephants," blue devils as well. They imagined everything to be "discolored" by a bluish tint. Even after they had sobered up, the blue devils seemed to stay on, coloring the person's mood and giving rise to the expression "the blues."
Historically, the blue Monday may go back to one particular day of the year - the Monday preceding the abstemious season of Lent. Aware that a prolonged period of deprivation lay ahead, people, as it were, had a last fling. The \Jclergy\j approved of this and, to mark the day, had the churches decorated with blue drapes. Very appropriately, then, the day was designated as "blue Monday."
As worshipers were exempted from certain tasks on that day, its color became identified as well with a general reluctance to work. When, however, people became too unruly, as a result of excessive drinking and fasting, the church authorities abolished the holiday. But memories of its celebration preserved "blue Monday" in our vocabulary.
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"Blue Peter",237,0,0,0
The Blue Peter is a blue flag with a white central square. It is hoisted as a signal that a ship is about to sail.
Of the many and diverse explanations given as to its origin, only one - the most unlikely of all - assumes that Peter actually represents the name of a person.
This recalls that between 1793 and 1799 Admiral Sir \IPeter\i Parker was Chief of Command of the British Navy. Convoys used to sail from St. Helens. But they were not given the order to leave until the wind was fair. It was only then that, from Portsmouth, the Admiralty gave the signal. And as it was known that Sir Peter himself issued the command for the hoisting of the blue flag, his name was coupled with it and the sailors referred to it as the Blue Peter. And ever since his name has stuck to the flag.
Others, however, detect in the Blue Peter a corrupted French word and a telling example of how the British always assimilate foreign words to their own way of speaking. According to this tradition, Peter is not a name but the Anglicized form of the French \Ipartir,\i "to leave."
A further interpretation discovered in the flag a relic of the old English word for a cloak bag, portmanteau. The signal was hoisted to inform all naval personnel that, as the sailing of their ship was imminent, they should get aboard at once with all their baggage - their \Iportmanteaus.\i
Slovenly speech among sailors is yet another reason cited for the creation (perhaps it should be said in this connection, malformation) of the Blue Peter. It did not refer to Admirals, ancient obsolete English words or mispronounced French expressions, but was a commonly used good English phrase. The signal of departure, once it had been given by the Admiral, had to be repeated by all the ships under sailing orders. Actually, this was a procedure which applied to every kind of naval signal. By swallowing just a small syllable, the Blue Repeater soon came to sound like Blue Peter.
The most likely explanation, however, belongs to the 1750s. On taking command, Admirals used to issue instructions for their captains, detailing the various signals and flags to be employed. A flag book published by Sir Edward Hawke in 1756 listed a blue flag with six white balls.
Practical experience soon showed that this was a very unsatisfactory arrangement. It was impossible to distinguish the six balls from a distance and Hawke had the flag replaced by one which he described as "blue \Ipierced\i with white."
Once again, lack of clear enunciation on the part of the naval men, it was said, led to the corruption of the Blue Pierced into Blue Peter.
Some authorities assume there was an intermediate stage, when the Blue Pierced was briefly referred to as the Blue P. Some sailors, ignorant of the real identity of the letter P, imagined it stood for Peter, which they spelled out.
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"Blue-blooded",238,0,0,0
To describe members of the aristocracy as blue-blooded is not a mere colorful figure of speech, but based on historical circumstances and an optical illusion. It goes back to medieval times, when Spanish noblemen looked down on the moorish invaders and their descendants. The two races differed in the pigmentation of their skin. This made the blue veins on the hands and forehead of the indigenous, fair-skinned stand out conspicuously, whilst the blood vessels of identical color hardly showed up on the swarthy North African Moors.
Prompted by racial \Jprejudice\j, the haughty Spanish noblemen actually believed that the color of their blood differed and that God, in selecting them, had indicated their superior status by filling their veins with blue blood! The optical illusion was never corrected and, as a linguistic monument of early discrimination, created a peculiarly tainted nobility.
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"Blunt Knife",239,0,0,0
Table knives used to be pointed. That they became rounded at the tip was not the result of an early fight between guests using their cutlery as daggers! It all started at a banquet given by the famous French statesman Cardinal Richelieu.
When he observed one of his noble guests using the point of his knife to clean his teeth, he was so disgusted that at the end of the dinner he instructed his staff to blunt the points of all knives. From this ecclesiastical and aristocratic table, the refinement spread all over the world, even into the most humble cottages. The blunt-pointed table knife has never been abandoned.
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"Boar Hunting",240,0,0,0
Hunting the wild boar was an early pursuit of man. In Greek days, the boar was feared almost as much as the wild bull. \JHeracles\j' third labor was the capture of the Erymanthian boar which he had been ordered to take on his own. According to one tradition, he caught it in a net and then carried it on his shoulders to Eurystheus. It caused such fright that from then onward he was commanded to announce the successful completion of his tasks from outside the city walls.
Some authorities believe that the phrase "to beat about the bush," which undoubtedly is of hunting origin, was born specifically in relation to the chase of the boar. This ferocious animal often hid in the undergrowth and beaters employed were ordered to go straight in to chase it out. But very much aware - and afraid - of the animal's sharp tusks, they much preferred merely "to beat about the bush," a practice strongly disapproved of by their masters. Boars no longer threaten us and today are chased only in a few parts of the world, but they survive, if this derivation of the phrase is correct, in every English-speaking country, in the description or reprimand of those who do not come straight to the point.
Many are the phrases and idioms used in present-day conversation that, although now completely divorced from hunting, originated in the employment of animals to track, catch, or retrieve prey. This applies not least to the canines. That is why, up to this day, we speak of "barking up the wrong tree." Dogs used in the chase of racoons, chiefly undertaken at night, were trained to indicate the tree in which the animal, running for its life, had taken refuge, by barking at it. But, of course, even dogs can err and at times barked up the wrong tree.
A riot now refers to a crowd's lawlessness and the disturbance of the peace. Those who run riot have thrown off all restraint. In its root meaning, a riot described "a quarrel," and the word was used first by hunters in reference to a pack of hounds which had become unruly and insubordinate to its leader, or which instead of following the prey on which it had been set, raced off madly - like Lord Ronald's horse, according to Leacock - in all directions.
The modern sleuth in his detective work owes his name to man's love of hunting. Without derogatory implications, he has been honored with the shortened description of a canine forebear. \ISleuth,\i an Old Norse word, originally referred to the track or trail of an animal. The English, as keen hunters, adopted it from the Normans. Animals which they bred (mostly bloodhounds), and trained to follow the quarry by scent, they appropriately called sleuth hounds. And was not the detective, in ferreting out evasive criminals, equal to the animal that had perfected the art of tracking? Thus, in admiration, people came to speak of him as a sleuth, wisely and kindly dropping the hound.
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"Bob's Your Uncle",241,0,0,0
"Bob's your uncle" is an assurance that all will be well and that there is no need to worry. Someone of influence or authority will look after you.
Several figures have been suggested as the original Bob. Pride of place, no doubt, belongs to Sir Robert Peel's "bobbies." Parents assured their children that there was no cause for them ever to be scared when alone in the street. They could always go up to a policeman, known in England as a bobby. He was like one of the family. In fact, "Bob's your uncle!"
Less flattering is another derivation. It links the phrase with the appointment in 1887 of Arthur Balfour as chief secretary for Ireland. Balfour was chosen for the position by the prime minister at the time, Robert Gascoyne, the Marquis of Salisbury. This "Bob" was Balfour's uncle! The appointment was a case of nepotism, and was apparently a profitable relationship.
It may also be possible that no person was involved at all in the creation of the phrase, but that it developed from an old slang expression in which "all is bob" was used for "all is safe."
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"Bobby-calf",242,0,0,0
To call a calf which is a few days old a bobby-calf is not in the way of endearment, using the diminutive of the name Robert. The custom goes back to Britain and money. A few days after its birth, English dairy farmers would sell a bull calf, generally being paid for it one shilling, and it was the slang for one shilling - a "bob" - which created the term bobby-calf.
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"Bon Festival",243,0,0,0
\BWhen the Dead Visit the Living\b
The fifteenth of July is the Japanese "Memorial Day," known as the Bon Festival. Services in honor of ancestors, dead relatives and friends are held at temples and in private homes. The souls of the dead are believed to revisit their former abode on that day. Everything possible is done to extend to them a worthy welcome. To help them find their way more easily, ornate lanterns, made of white paper, are hung up.
Food prepared for the nourishment of the souls is placed on special trays which are kept for this purpose. The food is reserved for the dead alone. Even if, after the soul's departure, it appears undiminished, it is still believed that - invisibly and unnoticed - the dead have partaken of it. At the conclusion of the feast, the food, untouched by the living, will be tossed into the river or sea.
The origin of the festival and its custom are explained by a legend. A man, anxious to find out how his dead parents were faring in the world beyond, was granted a vision. He was horrified to see his mother suffering agonies of hunger. To stop her anguish, he immediately prepared a large bowl of food for her. But each time she was about to eat from it, the food turned into flames. Desperate, the son consulted a priest. He was told that his mother was being punished for sins she had committed while on earth.
Divine mercy alone could save her, and this could be obtained only by an intense effort of prayer, undertaken by a gathering of sacred men. The son lost no time in contacting numerous priests. Providing them with a large quantity of food, he implored them, for his mother's salvation, to hold a joint prayer meeting. They did so. His mother's trespasses were forgiven and she no longer had to suffer starvation.
The date of the worship and of the mother's release from hunger, was the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Ever since, it has been remembered by the Bon Festival with its welcome to the visiting spirits and the special food offered them.
\IBon\i is the Japanese word for a "tray" or "bowl" (as used in \Ibonsai\i which means "tray planting"). Obviously, the festival was so named because of the trays filled with food, which are its most conspicuous feature.
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"Bone to Pick",244,0,0,0
A bone of contention, no doubt, stems from the canine world, where dogs fight over a bone. From the same kennel, as it were, also comes anyone who has "a bone to pick."
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"Bonfires",245,0,0,0
For early man, winter time was the most frightening period. The sun sank ever lower and became so weak that it seemed just a matter of time for it to burn out altogether. It needed help to nourish its dying fire and to renew its strength. It was obvious that only other fires lit on earth could magically achieve this aim and cause the sun to rise again, reinvigorated and, as it were, reborn. And it was these considerations which instituted the first (fire) festivals all over the world. They were not joyous celebrations but thoughtful ceremonies to provide the sun with its essential fuel. And that, of course, explains as well the origin of the bonfire.
The bonfire was lit at first as a most serious and significant magical act not (as children and those young in heart were made to believe in later years) as a source of enjoyment and festivity. When the sun was at its lowest and weakest in the eyes of man, it needed some extra food to ensure its return to full glory: not only for its own sake but for the sake of man. Therefore, everywhere on earth and quite independently, around the winter \Jsolstice\j, people lit huge fires.
The term "bonfire," later applied to them, is derived from the bones that were burned. All the present-day cheerful associations vanish when it is realized that, originally, it referred to the pyres heaped and nourished with humans burned to death - whether as sacrifice, heretic, or criminal is not really significant in this connection - their bones were the last to be consumed by the flames. No doubt, the choice of bones to begin with had an additional magical reason. But when King \JHenry VIII\j in his battle against the Roman Church burned its worshiped relics, including the bones of its saints, bonfires truly lived up to their name.
This grim and gruesome birth of the bonfire has now completely been forgotten. Out of its embers rose the cheerfully dancing flames of happy gatherings. Perhaps it is all for the "good" that the "e" of the bone was picked and that now speaking of a bonfire no one recalls the bone but merely thinks of the (French for) "good" - \Ibon.\i
Hard to believe but nevertheless true is the fact that the bonfires lit all over England on Guy Fawkes Day - with so much enthusiasm and childish glee - have very little to do with the celebration of the abortive \Jgunpowder plot\j in 1605 and the preservation of Parliament. The blazing fires of the night of 5 November had anticipated that historical date by many centuries and had been lit long before the existence of any English monarchy and Parliamentary system. These fires too belong to the ancient sun ritual. They stem from the \JCelts\j' celebration of Samhain which marked the end of summer (and, indeed, the very word describing the festival, as we have seen, means just that).
Lit every night for the first week of the new month which inaugurated the winter, they were meant to ward off evil spirits, to burn all the anxieties of the past and, above all, once again to serve the sun by their magic.
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"Bonkers",246,0,0,0
Originally, anyone "bonkers," in the language of slang, was slightly "drunk." No doubt, their strange demeanor eventually led people to think they were crazy. Eric Partridge, in fact, suggested that the word might be derived from a knock on a person's head. The "bonk" on the "bonce," colloquially speaking, had affected the brain.
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"Bookmaker and Horse Phrases",247,0,0,0
Early bets on horses caused no problem. Races were run among friends and each trusted the other to fulfill his promise. Later, when strangers joined in the gamble, they began to deposit the money wagered with some trustworthy person who eventually came to be known by the obvious description of a "stake-holder."
A multiplicity of races, and an ever greater number of competing steeds, made his task so onerous that he could no longer afford the time entailed without compensation. As by then his duties had become an indispensable part of racing, horsemen agreed to pay him five per cent of all takings, an amount he duly deducted when paying winning wagers.
When the public also took up betting, the keeping of accounts became even more complicated. Stakeholders now needed a book to note down the many wagers and the odds, as well as the final settlement. That is how the "bookmaker" was born as a professional betting man. Familiarity and perhaps his friendliness made people speak of him colloquially as "the bookie."
No animal in the world has served man as long and as much as the horse. With its own flesh it has nourished him. Its blood, and not only in the cases of \Jdiphtheria\j and tetanus, helped him to fight disease. In earliest days, its hide clothed him and through thousands of years the horse bore man's burden, fought his battles, chased his quarry, and delivered his messages between far-off places. But the thrills it provided him in the sport of kings surpass all else. Small wonder then that the horse has left numerous marks in man's thoughts and speech.
A "dark horse" has not revealed its qualities (or their lack) to the general public. Disraeli was the first to use the phrase in this sense in \IThe Young Duke.\i An American anecdote tells about a coal-black horse which looked a very ordinary sort of nag but won its \JTennessee\j owner countless races and bets. His usual procedure was to ride his "Dusky Pete" into a strange town and create the impression that it was a saddle horse. Local people, not guessing its true quality and past history, were glad to arrange a race to their later cost.
All horses share the celebration of their birthdays on one day of the year. This may differ between various countries, according to the breeding season. It is 1 January in America and 1 August in \JAustralia\j. A horse born a single day before the official birthday, within 24 hours will already be one year old!
To ascertain the true age of a horse, as almost everyone knows, an examination of its teeth is sufficient. Anyone wishing to gain authentic information, welcomes it, therefore, "straight from the horse's mouth." Hence it is not fair to look a gift horse in the mouth, a rule of etiquette suggested by the Romans as early as AD 400.
The exuberance of a horse caused men to describe boisterous behavior among his own kind as 'horse-play', while the animal's frisky neighing created the "horse-laugh."
Self-explanatory are other idioms and sayings shared by many nations and expressed in their various tongues. They ranged from the advice to 'hold your horses' to the lesson, dearly learned, how useless it is to "lock the stable door after the horse has bolted." That "you can take a horse to the water but you cannot make it drink" is as correct an observation as that it is pointless to "flog a dead horse."
Horse chestnuts, certainly, are peculiarly named and many people have conjectured on the origin of their equine association. On the loom of language the word "horse" at times has been used to imply inferior value. One theory thus suggests that horse chestnuts were the most common kind. However, there is also a 1597 veterinary claim that the \Jhorse chestnut\j received its name because of the curative properties of its fruit in treating a horse's cough.
The lauded "horse sense" possibly has its basis in the physiological fact that, except for the \Jostrich\j, no other animal has larger eyes. These are positioned so strategically that, with its head held up, the animal has an all-round view. In fact, the horse need not turn its head (as the jockey might do) to find out what is happening in the rear.
Horse-racing, no doubt, has produced the greatest complex of sporting activities. The world owes to it a maximum of adventure and excitement - whether as riders, spectators, or punters. It has developed industries of the most diverse kind. Enormous amounts of money have been and are gained or lost on the track. The horse itself, however temperamental, knows only good or bad, riders, solicitous, or neglectful owners. No respecter of person, as Ben Johnson said, "he will throw a Prince as soon as his groom." Throughout the millennia and in every clime, from \JStone Age\j man to twentieth-century affluent society, the horse indeed has proved itself both a servant and a friend of man. It has helped to make man what he is today and the "sport of kings," at least in the eyes of many, is the "king of sports."
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"Books on Tombstones",248,0,0,0
An open book on a headstone may decoratively provide the space to record the personal data of the deceased - from birth to death.
Frequently, however, the "volume" represents THE book - Holy Scripture. The \JBible\j, which was a constant guide to the departed, will stay with him even after death as a permanent companion.
Regarded as "the word of God," it also indicates the continued divine presence as a protector and guardian. On the other hand, it may be the Book of Judgment, opened up by the divine tribunal for the sentence to be read out, in reward or punishment for earthly deeds.
In some specific cases, however, the portrayal or replica of a book on a gravestone may refer to the book - learning of the departed, his knowledge or love of literature, or his having been an author himself.
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"Boomerang - Joe Timbery",249,0,0,0
Appropriate is the \Jboomerang\j flanking the right side of the inscription on the memorial tablet to Joe Timbery, in the lawn section of the Botany Cemetery. Joe, an Aborigine, was a world champion \Jboomerang\j thrower.
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"Bootlegger",250,0,0,0
The bootlegger's name goes back to the days of American Prohibition. With the sale of liquor being illegal, it was a profitable pursuit of racketeers. To transport their contraband unseen, they hid the flasks in the legs of their boots. This made them bootleggers!
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"Boots and Saddles",251,0,0,0
By its very nature - to avoid any delay or misunderstanding - a military command has to be short, to the point and, not least, clear. All the more puzzling and confusing then, is the old United States cavalry call, "Boots and Saddles," summoning soldiers to mount their charges. Its boots are completely out of place. Originally and correctly, it was an order expressed in French, bidding the riders to "put on the saddle" - \Iboute celle.\i Misunderstood, it became "boots and saddles."
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"Boozer",252,0,0,0
Efforts to discover where the boozer comes from have had conflicting results. Some have traced him to an actual person, an American. E. S. Booze, a distiller of whisky, he had marketed his product around the 1840s under his name. The location of his distillery is unknown and even his initials have been queried.
More definite is another derivation of the boozer. The name is an English adaptation of the Dutch \Ibusen,\i a simple reference to someone "drinking deeply."
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"Born with a Silver Spoon",253,0,0,0
A spoon was once commonly a godparent's gift to a child on the occasion of its christening. Customarily, the spoon was dedicated to a patron saint with his image embossed on it. The spoon therefore not only served a practical purpose but, by its sacred association, was believed to invoke the saint's protection for the child.
At a time when everything was still hand-carved and the spoons of ordinary people were made of wood or horn, to be given a silver spoon was especially appreciated. It was not only a useful gift, but a precious one.
Wealthy people really had no need for the present. Metaphorically speaking, their offspring was born "with a silver spoon in its mouth" already.
The silver spoon got stuck in everyday phraseology. It continues to serve us, though in a secular way, to point to those lucky enough to have been born of rich parents without a care in the world.
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"Bottle Corks",254,0,0,0
The French monk Dom Perignon, the father of Champagne, is credited with making an even more significant though less conspicuous contribution to the world of drink. He invented the bottle cork. Made of the outer bark of an oak tree, previously it had been used by Spaniards to seal their wine skins.
Until Dom Perignon's time, bottles had been closed - very imperfectly - by a wooden stopper, a piece of rag or merely by topping the liquid with olive oil. In fact, Champagne could not exist without the ingenious innovations of this monk who for half a century (from 1668 on) served as the wine master of the Abbey of Hautevillers.
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"Bottle Sizes",255,0,0,0
English legislation to control the proper measures of beer, wine and spirits dates back to the \JMagna Carta\j of 1215. Gradually, an extensive catalogue of a great variety of bottle sizes evolved, in which each was identified by a specific name. Oddly, in this nomenclature most of the outsized bottles perpetuated the names of \JHebrew\j and Babylonian kings mentioned in Scriptures.
A bottle holding four times the volume of the standard measure was called the Jeroboam, after the founder of the ancient kingdom of Israel. The Rehoboam, containing six times as much, bore the name of Jeroboam's rival, King Solomon's son. \JMethuselah\j had no royal connection. His fame was of a different kind. The \JBible\j tells that the lived up to the age of 969. This extraordinary number of years well qualified him to give his name to a wine bottle holding the equivalent of eight normal bottles.
The fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel recounts how, at the sumptuous banquet King Belshazzar of \JBabylon\j gave for a thousand of his nobles and concubines, the guests drank an enormous amount of wine, served them in the vessels of gold and silver that he had plundered from the Temple in \JJerusalem\j. There is no doubt that this scriptural account suggested the choice of Babylonian kings' names for the designation of truly enormous bottles.
The Salmanazar had the bulk of twelve ordinary bottles. The Belshazzar (also rendered \IBalthazar)\i was sixteen times larger than the standard bottle. It was topped by the Nebuchadnezzar, scoring a record volume. Its capacity equalled the amount of twenty normal bottles, a gigantic volume. Most probably, it was called after this king because he was the most powerful ruler in his time. It was he who, in 586 B.C., destroyed \JJerusalem\j and led the Jewish people into exile.
For those consuming alcoholic drinks in such magnitude, even to pronounce the names of the "king-sized" measures must have presented some difficulty.
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"Bottled Water",256,0,0,0
Tourists to certain foreign countries wisely avoid drinking water straight from the tap. They order bottled water instead. Neither is safe! In fact, bottled water can be more contaminated, depending on whether the bottles have been sterilized or been refilled time and again. Moreover, those bottling the water unhygienically might have added their own germs. There is the further possibility that the so-called "safe" water bought in a bottle, comes from the very tap so carefully shunned. It is wisest in such circumstances to keep away from water altogether, including ice cubes which, after all, are only frozen water.
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"Bottom Button on the Waistcoat",257,0,0,0
Custom decrees that a man should leave the bottom button of his waistcoat undone.
One explanation dates this strange fashion back to a member of the British Royal Family who appeared at a public function with his bottom button unfastened. Possibly he had dressed in too much of a hurry, or one of his aides had been neglectful in fulfilling his duty. No one could know (or would dare to guess) the reason. So that he should not be embarrassed, all the other men followed "suit" and the fad caught on. Royalty had set the fashion.
Another theory traces the undone button habit back to the stage where the dandies were wearing not one waistcoat but two, each of extremely precious and gaudy material, a scarlet one underneath, for instance, and a canary-yellow one on top. By leaving the bottom button of the top waistcoat undone, the wearer was able to show the fact that he had another beautiful and expensive garment on underneath.
Much less glamorous but more practical is a third explanation. Waistcoats were tight, especially so around the waist. Therefore some leader of fashion undid the last button in the interests of comfort and everyone followed his lead.
Waistcoats have lost their original close fitting. Tailors remedied the defect of tightness by inserting some extra cloth into the sides. But, as always in life, customs once introduced for definite reasons, are accepted to be right for all times and, therefore, they are thoughtlessly continued, even when they have become redundant.
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"Bourbon Origins",258,0,0,0
A strange combination of circumstances is linked with the story of Bourbon, this "distinctive produce of the United States," as an \JAct of Congress\j defines it. Only "Coke" could rival it as a typical American drink.
The first to distil Bourbon was a Baptist minister, the Rev. Elijah Craig. He did so in 1789, the very year George Washington became the first president of the United States.
Bourbon, the name of the drink, recalls the county in which the clergyman had his parish. It had been so called in honor of the French Royal house of that name, in acknowledgment of the part \JFrance\j had played in helping Americans gain their independence.
The early settlers in the region were Scottish-Irish immigrants, well acquainted from home with the making of whisky from rye. When one year the rye crop failed, luckily \Jmaize\j continued to grow plentifully. It seemed as if fate had pointed the way. The farmers ingeniously substituted \Jmaize\j for rye in the making of their whisky.
It so happened that the Rev. Craig's distillery was located next to a creek that had burrowed its way though \Jlimestone\j rocks. No doubt the creek served as his source of water and gave the drink its special taste and quality. At first, Craig offered his produce as "Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey." In his choice of name, he combined memories of French friendship, the beauty of the \Jblue grass\j country and Irish tradition (in the revealing \Ie).\i
The drink soon captured the American market, leading to a further distillation - this time of its name, which was shortened to \IBourbon.\i What a Baptist clergyman had started, ultimately was legislated upon by the nation. Almost two centuries later, in 1964, an \JAct of Congress\j decreed that the name \IBourbon\i could only be used for whiskey distilled in the United States and, to indicate that it was the genuine product, had to be spelled with a capital \IB.\i
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"Bowler and the Derby",259,0,0,0
Fashionable Englishmen at the Derby wore a stiff felt hat known as a bowler. Its origin has been - at least by some - associated also with riding.
It is told that around 1850 a Norfolk horseman had experienced great annoyance while wearing the then customary tall hat, as this was apt to be swept off the head by overhanging branches. Anxious to keep his hat on, he had contacted his personal hatter, a Mr Beaulieu (the most outstanding representative of the trade at the time), and asked him to design a more practical model. The result was a lower-crowned, hard felt hat, called after its manufacturer, in the Anglicized version of his name, a "bowler."
Another theory traces this hat to a more English-sounding William Bowler, a specialist in riding outfits. He first fashioned the hat for clients who were steeplechase riders and often suffered head injuries when, in making a jump, they not only lost their hat but fell to the ground. Obviously, the hard crown and stiff brim would afford them at least some protection.
Other authorities quote an item from the London \IDaily News\i (of 8 August 1868) which related that a "Mr Bowler, of 15 St Swithin's Lane, has, by a very simple contrivance, invented a hat that is completely ventilated whilst, at the same time, the head is relieved of the pressure experienced in wearing hats of the ordinary description."
A fourth claim associates the word not with the name of a hatter (whether French or English-sounding) but with a simple basin - a bowl. Being of round shape and stiff construction, it could easily be "bowled" along.
Going even further, in both space and time, others have seen in the bowler a resemblance to a Persian, melon-shaped hat, known as \Ikolah\i which, as early as the fifteenth century, was favored by sportsmen. Somehow, if this hypothesis be correct, English lips must have transformed the k into a b.
The bowler also proved a safe head cover, yet other writers assert, not merely for those riding horses but also for those riding in English stage coaches at a time when highway robberies were quite common. To frighten travelers, bandits often hit them on the head. To wear some stiff cover was therefore a wise precaution!
Certainly, a source of wonderment are the many genealogies attached to such a comparatively simple hat as the bowler. Whichever its true origin, the fact remains that riders adopted it and soon those who came to watch them did likewise. In the usual way of fashion, the novel style became the vogue, particularly among those who attended the English Derby, that annual red letter day of racing. And from there it spread to the United States.
Traditions again vary and no one really knows whether American horse-lovers attending the English Derby or newspaper reports appearing in the United States made the New World first take notice of the English bowler. No matter how, Americans adopted and adapted the hat for their own use and, in honor of the English, called it the Derby hat.
According to one report, James H. Knapp of South Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1850 manufactured the first consignment of three dozen Americanized bowlers that were sold in a New York store. There, this story also says, one of the clerks actually had first suggested their new name. By 1875 the Derby hat had become fashionable at the Kentucky Derby, modeled on the English event. Thus man owes to equestrian origin not only his pants but even two kinds of hat.
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"Box Office",260,0,0,0
It is a common practice now to buy tickets for a show at the box office. It is wrong to imagine that this is so named because the ticket seller is ensconced in an office as small as a box.
At one time, spectators did not share seats in rows, but had their individual boxes which nowadays are merely reserved for special visitors and the wealthy. It was only logical thus to call the office at which one obtained tickets for the performance a "box" office.
Another theory advanced for the peculiar choice of the name goes back to the early days, when admission tickets were still non-existent. Those wanting to see a show took their seats in the pit (or the orchestra stall, as Americans came to call it). A member of the company then came around to collect contributions and did so not on a plate, as is done in church, but in a box! When the theater had become more organized, the procedure was changed. The collection "box" was left outside the auditorium in an office and people paid prior to taking their seats. This avoided unnecessary disturbance and lent dignity to the show.
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"Boxing Day Origins",261,0,0,0
The day after Christmas is St Stephen's Day, named in honor of \JChristianity\j's first martyr. In Britain and the Commonwealth countries, however, it is known as \JBoxing Day\j. This name has nothing to do with prize fights or pugilism - it actually does refer to a box.
Traditionally, a box containing a gift, or cash, was handed to postmen and tradesmen on this day, in recognition of "services rendered" throughout the year. Like so many of our customs, this one started in ancient \JRome\j where people exchanged presents during the festival of Saturnalia. The Church was unable to eradicate this custom, so they gave it a new, religious, meaning, saying that any material gift received had to be used for the spiritual benefit of the donor: to pay for special prayers or Masses offered on their behalf.
For instance, before a ship left port a priest would put an empty box on board, which was dedicated to the saint under whose protection the ship sailed. As a penance for any misdemeanors, seamen were expected to place contributions in the box, which was opened on the ship's homecoming. In return for the money collected, the priest then said Mass for the men. It was a kind of early "Christ's Mass", and the box into which the offerings had been placed became known as the Christ's Mass Box. The money itself was distributed by the Church among the poor.
The box went on to become a symbol of charity and was given a permanent place in every church sanctuary. It was traditionally opened straight after the morning service on Christmas Day. The parish priest then distributed the money it contained among the needy on the following day. So, the day became known as \JBoxing Day\j. Most of these boxes were earthenware, in order to deter thieves. To open them, you had to break them.
This custom eventually became secularized. At one stage, apprentices were sent to call on their master's clients the day after Christmas, with boxes at the ready to collect tips! The boxes have been discarded, but the gifts are expected just as before - and not only by apprentices. Oddly enough, any such gratuity is still sometimes referred to as a "Christmas box."
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"Boxing Gloves - Tom Laming",262,0,0,0
The grave of Tom Laming, who used to be an ardent boxer, now "In God's Care," shows a pair of boxing gloves engraved on his stone - a reminder of his love of the sport.
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"Brand New",263,0,0,0
If an object is described as brand new, people might wrongly assume that it is so called because it is entirely new on the market, something not produced before. On the other hand, they might imagine that it is meant to indicate that the article has never been used and consequently still clearly displays the brand name of the maker.
Though feasible, these suggestions do not explain the origin of the term. In Old English, a brand was a torch or a flame responsible for the "fire brand." Anything brand new therefore referred to an object, mostly of metal, that had just come out of the fiery furnace. In this sense Shakespeare spoke of "fire-new fortune," "a man of fire-new words" and fire-new from the mint."
The brand, as it were, plucked out of the fire, has long been extinguished. Nonetheless, it is still being used for anything that is absolutely new, which is praised and promoted as "brand new."
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"Brave Officer",264,0,0,0
A monument in the shape of an \Jobelisk\j flanks the main road of Collector. It was erected:
\IIn Memory of
A Brave Officer\i
His name and the circumstances of his death are recorded on the section facing the street:
\IConstable Samuel Nelson
Who was shot Dead on the Spot
Whilst in the Execution of his Duty
By the Outlaw John Dunn
On 26th January 1865\i
Nelson is buried in the local cemetery, not far from the \Jobelisk\j. A concrete slab covers his grave. The small cross marking it carries the briefest possible inscription, with his first name misspelled:
\IConstable
Samual Nelson
1865\i
The \JNew South Wales\j Branch of the Wild Colonial Days Society and the Goulburn and District Historical Society decided to supplement this scanty information with a plaque erected adjacent to the grave on the centenary of the constable's brutal killing. It relates how:
\ION 26th JAN. 1865, THE \JBUSHRANGERS\j
BEN HALL, JOHN GILBERT & JOHN DUNN
BAILED UP KIMBERLEY'S INN AT COLLECTOR.
CONSTABLE SAMUEL NELSON
THE LOCK-UP KEEPER, COURAGEOUSLY
CHALLENGED THE \JBUSHRANGERS\j
AND WAS SHOT DEAD BY DUNN.\i
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"Bread's Origins",265,0,0,0
Our bread, prepared with sour dough or yeast, was unknown till about 2600 B.C. Like so many vital things, it was the result of an accident. Originally, bread was unleavened and therefore flat. An Egyptian slave entrusted with the task of baking bread, as usual, had mixed water and flour into a dough which he had put into the oven. Perhaps it was a very hot day or he had worked too hard, but he fell asleep. . . On waking, to his consternation, he found that not only had the fire gone out, but the wafers had "risen" to double their usual size.
Whilst he had been asleep, the warmth of the oven had fermented the mixture! Terrified of what his master would do to him, he tried to salvage the dough. He relit the fire, hoping that the heat would return the now large loaves to their former flat shape. Instead, they further increased in size and baked to a crusty golden brown.
Having no alternative, he served the "spoiled" bread to his master who - against all expectation and fear - relished it! In fact, he praised the slave for his culinary art and ordered him henceforth to serve him the same type of bread daily.
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"Break a Leg",266,0,0,0
To wish an actor prior to his going on stage to "break a leg" is a well-known practice. Germans enlarge on the malediction, wishing him to break his neck as well! Rather a strange wish, actually it is meant magically to bring him luck and make sure that his performance will be a success.
Jealous forces, always present, are only too anxious to spoil any venture. A good luck wish would alert and provoke them to do their nefarious work. However, a curse will make them turn their attention elsewhere. The underlying principle is the belief that if you wish evil, then good will come.
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"Breakfast",267,0,0,0
Breakfast has become so much part of our daily life that we give no second thought to why this first meal of the day should be so called. Few people would guess its religious roots. Prior to taking communion, Christians were expected to abstain from food. They had to fast from midnight. Only after the service were they permitted to eat and thereby to "break [their] fast."
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"Breakfast Foods",268,0,0,0
If the breakfast has a religious origin, it is a strange coincidence that some of its popular foods share this distinction. Some - in their name at least - go back to pagan worship. Others have their religious roots in modern times.
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"Breaking of a Mirror",269,0,0,0
The \Jsuperstition\j that the breaking of a mirror means bad luck is so old that it leads back to times when mirrors could not be broken because they were made of metal or - even earlier still - were of water.
The first mirrors were the still water of lakes and pools. When people looked into them they did so, not out of vanity, but to view their fate. The way their image appeared on the surface was interpreted as an indication of what the future held for them. If the face seemed distorted, broken into many pieces, as it were, it was taken as a definite portent of evil, of the forthcoming disintegration of the viewer's life. Unfortunately foes could easily disturb a calm and pleasant reflection by throwing pebbles maliciously into the pond.
Other beliefs were soon added that made the breaking of a mirror even more ominous. Mirrors were used for \Jdivination\j just as today people gaze into crystal balls. Primitive man imagined that the picture he saw was not the reflection of his personal image but of the soul which, he was convinced, had an independent existence, could detach itself from the body and thus actually be in the mirror. If this were broken, the soul, too, was shattered, and thus the very substance of existence destroyed. By losing his soul through the shattered glass, the man or woman was bound to die.
Belief in magic further increased the unfortunate associations with the breaking of mirrors. It was assumed that any injury done to the reflection would affect the person whose likeness it bore, just as people believed that by piercing the eyes of a foe in his picture, they would cause him to go blind.
There was yet another fear that the breaking of the mirror would anger the spirit dwelling in it so much (because it had been hurt), that it would seek vengeance on the offender, or one of his family.
Also, as mirrors were used to foretell a man's future, their being broken was interpreted as intentional, and not just an accident. It was an act deliberately committed by the gods themselves, who wished to prevent a man from being informed (and forewarned) of coming disaster.
Chinese people used to fix mirrors over idols they kept in their homes. The mirrors, so they firmly believed, were a potent power against evil spirits which, seeing themselves in the mirror, were scared away. Thus, if a mirror was broken, the only defense against malevolent powers was lost, and the home was wide open for them to take possession.
Though nowadays we decorate the home with numerous kinds of mirrors both to beautify it and to see ourselves, when broken, they still reflect our ancient superstitious past and out of the shattered pieces the spirit of old rises again. As Bernard Shaw has said, one of the laws still ruling even our modern age is the conservation of credulity.
It may be that beyond those many irrational fears and phobias, a very mundane consideration has made people afraid of breaking a mirror - it is costly to replace and the risk is great of injury by the glass splinters.
#
"Breast Cancer Fallacy",270,0,0,0
Many women are worried that a hard blow on their breast can cause cancer at that spot. This, too, is an old wives' tale.
Most likely the notion was brought about by the prudishness of Victorian women who were loath to have a doctor routinely examine their breast. If by knocking their bosom accidentally, they felt the bruised spot and chanced upon a lump, they would assume that the blow had caused the cancer, which had in fact already been festering.
#
"Bribery",271,0,0,0
Originally, a bribe had nothing to do with an offer, particularly of money, in expectation of a special favor. It referred simply to a lump of bread given to a beggar, with no strings attached. But the practice, and the word, degenerated, and we now understand bribe to mean "corrupt inducement."
During the \JMiddle Ages\j, wandering friars depended on alms for their sustenance. They would call on homes to ask for food. Acknowledging the gift, the mendicants (by which name they became known) promised, in return, to say a special prayer for the provider.
Many times, no doubt, the donor acceded to the request not out of compassion and charity but for selfish reasons. He hoped to gain God's blessings through the \Jfriar\j's supplication. After all, he had paid for it. This is how the modern bribe came into being.
#
"Bridal Bouquet",272,0,0,0
The original bridal bouquet was not decorative but protective. It was made up not of flowers, but of a potent combination of plants which included \Jgarlic\j, bay leaves and other strong-smelling herbs. Their function was to repel any malevolent forces, which were allergic to them and their odor, eager to spoil the occasion.
When flowers came to replace the "devil-repellent" plants, they, too, were not chosen further to embellish an already beautiful bride. They were regarded as a magic source of fertility to carry which a bride about to consummate her marriage would treasure.
#
"Bride Crying at Wedding",273,0,0,0
It is not unusual for a bride to shed tears at her wedding. Generally, it is thought to be due to her excitement and supreme happiness. Overcome by deep emotion, she cries, thereby relieving the tension of the moment.
However plausible this assumption might seem, it is fictitious. The tears can be traced to ancient superstitious fear. In her bliss, the bride was afraid of malevolent \Jsupernatural\j powers which, out of jealousy, would do anything to spoil her happiness. To delude them she shammed sorrow! Her artificial tears as it were, served as an artificial sacrifice to the forces of evil, to avoid the shedding of real tears later on.
#
"Bride on Left Side of Groom",274,0,0,0
Procedure at a wedding follows definite rules. Its processions and paraphernalia are therefore carefully studied and rehearsed by all parties concerned.
The bride and groom stand and walk together in a way that is traditional. At the altar, the bride takes her place at the left hand of the groom. After the ceremony, her husband places her hand within his left arm to follow the clergyman into the vestry to sign the register. Finally, on the way out, the bride passes down the aisle, once again on the \Ileft\i arm of the bridegroom.
That on each of these three occasions the groom offers his left arm and hand to the bride is not just a matter of meaningless etiquette. It is the result of ancient and most anxious considerations. Once, be did so purposely and not merely because it was "the right thing" to do. He placed her on his left not to honor but to secure her. It enabled him to keep his right (and sword) hand free: to be ready to defend her (and himself) from attack and capture by jealous rivals.
#
"Bride's Veil",275,0,0,0
A complexity of old traditions, fears, and obsolete social conditions are interwoven in the bridal veil.
The bridal veil is also a relic of the early custom of capturing a wife. Naturally the newly acquired "goods" were safely wrapped up before being taken away. What now consists of a thin lace or net covering was once a large sheet big enough to envelop the body.
As the times grew more polite, the veil began to assume more subtle and psychological meanings. It indicated a woman's original complete submission to her husband. She should not even be seen. Hidden goods tend to appear more precious and attractive than those openly on display. That is why in ancient times (and still today in some primitive groups) the bridegroom was not permitted to set eyes on his bride until the very moment when they were about to consummate their marriage.
The veil used to express also humility on the part of the bride. It certainly retains the ancient biblical tradition of Rebecca who, when she first met Isaac, her future husband, shyly "took a veil and covered herself with it."
Man is most superstitious at moments when great happiness is about to be his. Fear of jealous demons who might carry off a lovely bride led to the custom of disguising her identity and hiding her face behind a "curtain." This was also thought to be effective against the "evil eye," once considered to be an ubiquitous and potent malevolent force.
It is for that reason, too, that Moroccan brides are expected to shut their eyes throughout the wedding ceremony and that in Korea they used to cover their faces with the wide sleeves of their garments. This same fear made couples in primitive societies wear specially dirty clothes just before their nuptials - a disguise to foil evil spirits.
Yet another interpretation points to due use of a veil not only at weddings but on all occasions when a person assumed a new identity. Thus initiates into religious communities are veiled, and even the dead as they, too, enter a totally new group of associates.
The bride, likewise, by the fact of man and woman becoming "one flesh," was considered to change completely her personality. The veil "shut out" magically her old former being. She was now to be a new person altogether - "for better or worse."
Finally, the veil might be the last relic of the "care-cloth," as it was called among \JAnglo-Saxons\j. This enveloped both bride and groom. Aware and afraid of higher powers, the couple thus acknowledged their presence and, even more so, tried to protect themselves from them.
#
"Bridle",276,0,0,0
The word bridle is derived from an Old English root, meaning "to pull," and the most primitive contrivance to pull or direct the horse the right way goes back to earliest times and to the East. Man then used a raw hide strap or a thong which he pulled through the animal's mouth and tied up under its jaw. Its loose ends served as reins to restrain and guide the horse. Archaeological finds have proved the existence of the method in 2000 BC. Bones, horn, wood, and eventually metal replaced the thong. To start with, a single bar was used to which was fixed at either end a ring to hold the reins.
Medieval knights attached sharp spikes to the bit. They did so not to hurt their steed and perhaps thereby spur it to obey commands, but to prevent the foe in man to man combat from grasping his opponent's mount by means of the bridle.
#
"Bring Down the House",277,0,0,0
Tumultuous applause is described as "bringing down the house." This present-day \Jmetaphor\j, in its original setting, applied very literally. It goes back to the time when traveling theater companies staged their shows in ramshackle buildings, barns or makeshift tents. The boisterous acclamation of an overenthusiastic audience could result in the collapse of the wonky structure.
#
"Bring Home the Bacon",278,0,0,0
The state of matrimony has always had its ups and downs. To encourage couples to care for each other and not to quarrel, a strange custom developed in Great Dunmow, one of the many attractive towns in East Anglia, England.
Every four years this became the scene of a mock trial, at which a flitch of bacon was presented to any couple "who have not had a brawl in their home nor wished to be unmarried for the last twelve months and a day." Whoever received the award, was privileged to "bring home the bacon." This is the origin of the phrase. Fourteenth-century Chaucer refers to the tradition as firmly established. Over a period of more than five centuries (between 1244 and 1772), the flitch was won, it is said, only eight times.
In later years, the phrase was applied as well to the winner in a contest at country fairs. The competitors vied with each other to catch a greased pig then to take it home as the prize.
#
"Broads",279,0,0,0
The broad's existence may solely be due to people's ignorance and carelessness in their talk. A broad was a bawd improperly enunciated and possibly derived from the Old French \Ibaude,\i for "merry." (The Madam in charge of a "bawdy house" was the first bawd.) When the word had become obsolete, people confused it with the well-known broad, on which they transferred the bawd's meaning.
Some etymologists have suggested however, that the broad is all that remains of the Elizabethans' use of the "road" which to them described not only a public thoroughfare but also the prostitute who was (a)broad.
It was merely a play on words to imply that the broad was so called because compared with a man, this woman was broad-lipped, broad-hipped and broad-minded.
#
"Broken Chain",280,0,0,0
Nothing exceeds the happiness of sharing. Precious therefore is the link that binds together man and wife, parents and children. Death severs this tie, and a broken chain on a tombstone strikingly portrays this tragic separation.
#
"Broken Column",281,0,0,0
In classical \Jarchitecture\j, columns fulfilled an essential function: they held up the roof. Even if only one of them was damaged, the entire structure was threatened with collapse. A broken column on a grave symbolizes a shattered existence, often a life cut short. But it also speaks of the mourners' irreplaceable loss of someone who was their support and, like a pillar, helped them carry life's burden.
#
"Broken Mirror and Seven Years Bad Luck",282,0,0,0
The \Jsuperstition\j that the breaking of a mirror would result in seven years of bad luck is related to a myth.
It was believed that a mirror magically absorbed a person's very essence. Therefore whoever broke a mirror destroyed part of themselves. It was further assumed that it would take seven years to repair the damage done and to restore the individual's shattered wholeness.
This specific period of time was not haphazardly chosen. Seven was a sacred number, ever since Babylonian and Assyrian days. As there were seven planets in the heavens, worshiped as divine, so everything in the cosmos moved in cycles of seven. Roman anatomists thus imagined that it took the human body seven years to renew itself, which they accepted as an anatomical fact. Once the damage had been done, with its subsequent bad luck, this could not be eliminated until seven years had elapsed, the period necessary for the human body to regain complete good health, vigor, and good fortune.
#
"Broomstick",283,0,0,0
The broomstick is such a simple object, used for hundreds of years in every home to sweep it clean. But the moment it was attached to a witch, a strange \Jmetamorphosis\j happened to it and the household item changed into a complex and puzzling article.
Did witches really ride it? And why, of all things, did they choose it and not some other, more suitable carrier? How did the entire idea of a witch's broomstick arise first? The answer to these questions certainly belongs to the lore of witchcraft but also relates to such diverse topics as camouflage, \Jdefamation\j, walking aids and, last but not least, the ubiquitous sex.
Anything done by a woman (or for that matter, a man) who was assumed to be a witch, immediately was subject to suspicion and the strangest interpretations.
In times gone by, broomsticks served not only to sweep the house and yard; when going out, people (and especially so older women) would take their broom to help them cross streams or vault over hedges and ditches and other obstacles which would have otherwise considerably slowed them down. Thus broomsticks also performed the part of a vaulting pole.
Naturally, their progress was much faster with the aid of the stick. Therefore in a manner of speaking, they seemed (almost), to fly on the stick. And it was only a short step to see the hag not grasping the stick in her hands but actually straddling and riding on it.
Sticks have always played an important part in the practice of magic. Modern magicians would be incomplete without their wand. Like the "pointing finger" from which it evolved, the wand was thought to be endowed with \Jsupernatural\j power which could work wonders or play havoc. The stick was very much like the mysterious snake (yet another prototype of the wand) that, instead of remaining coiled up could suddenly become as stiff as a poker and, striking out, inflict a fatal bite.
Witches certainly would need the stick for their type of work. But they lived dangerously and any object in their home that could give them away, was carefully hidden. To discover an actual wand there, would have led to their inevitable arrest, prosecution, torture, and death. Hence a broomstick was the ideal substitute and an obvious and clever choice. It belonged to everyone's household and would never arouse suspicion. Most of all, it was always ready for instant use. Without a moment's notice a witch could get hold of it, not to sweep the floor this time but to sweep through the air.
It goes without saying that everyone realized that the broomstick in itself had no inherent propelling power. This was supplied, it was thought, by the ointment which the witch rubbed on herself and on to the stick prior to take-off. And it was the mixture (kept secret) which served as the fuel.
No doubt, all that was told and believed about witches riding a stick was reinforced by the recollection of ancient myths. These told of demigods or other \Jsupernatural\j beings that used to travel through the air miraculously on the back of beasts. And thus carried aloft, they pursued their divine or diabolic mission.
The flight itself had its hazards just as modern planes have. Both witch and broom could easily be brought down by the ringing of church bells which took the place of the modern ground-to-air missile. In the imagination of people, witches worked out special routes to avoid passing over churches. Nevertheless, they were always alert to take immediate evasive action during flight should they inadvertently pass over an uncharted church. They knew that otherwise they would crash.
People at times obsessed with witch \Jhysteria\j, were afraid of "witchy" air attack, and rang church bells all night long! It was a noise that lulled them to sleep, sure that this earliest anti-missile cover would serve to protect their bodies and souls.
#
"Browbeat",284,0,0,0
Some people are easily intimidated. They can be discouraged even without a single word being spoken. A mere gesture can make them conform or stop them from doing something. Using \Jbody language\j, the dominant party merely has to frown - to wrinkle the brow, to "browbeat" the victim into submission.
#
"Browned Off",285,0,0,0
To be browned off uses a somewhat colorful phrase in a somber \Jhue\j to express one's being totally fed up and disheartened.
London cockneys are said to have been responsible for it. They used to call a penny (the later "copper") a "brown." They were "browned off" when people gave them a penny to go away and stop bothering them.
A popular slang expression in the British army during the Second World War, it is sometimes said to have originated among the soldiers themselves. Bored by their endless routine marches, it seemed to them that their mind had become rusty, the rust figuratively staining them with its brown color. Truly, they were "browned off."
An apocryphal story traces the origin of the idiom to a member of the Suffolk Regiment when stationed in \JSingapore\j in 1927. During a route march, the commanding officer, dissatisfied with the soldier's performance, strongly reprimanded them. One of the men, with typical British humor, though under his breath still very audibly, remarked to his comrades, "He is blacked-off, but we are all browned-off."
His colorful aside had been suggested by the tan of their faces acquired during their ceaseless marches in the hot tropical sun. With their home in England, they were not used to being exposed to it.
The private's comment did not no unheard or unheeded. In fact, it has never been forgotten, as it has become part of the English language.
#
"Brumby",286,0,0,0
There are two explanations as to how the brumby, the Australian wild horse, received its name.
One explanation is that it is from an Aboriginal root, being derived from booramby, meaning "wild."
Others assert that the horse is named after Major James Brumby, a member of the \JNew South Wales\j Corps in the 1790s. He arrived in the colony as a private soldier and became a wealthy pastoralist. Even while still serving in the army, he took up breeding horses on a grant of land which extended over an area of 100 acres (40 ha). Unable to dispose of the animals when transferred to \JTasmania\j (then \JVan Diemen's Land\j), he turned them loose to fend for themselves. Running wild, they were soon referred to by the people as Brumby's horses, eventually to be dubbed briefly as brumbies.
Their name was popularized, indeed perpetuated, by one of \JBanjo\j Paterson's poems. An incident which occurred at a trial at the Supreme Court of \JNew South Wales\j prompted him to write it. During the proceedings, reference was made to a "brumby horse," a description which baffled the presiding judge. He was anxious to know "Who is Brumby, and where is his run?"
His inspiration fired, Paterson - poetically - gave his explanation in "Brumby's Run." He portrayed Brumby as the owner of a "station" in the vast area of the still unsettled outback "beyond the Western Pines" with wild horses - his only stock - roaming about free.
#
"Buckley's Chance",287,0,0,0
It must surprise many to learn that some Australian idioms are closely associated with graveyards. Typical examples are the name of a cemetery and the last resting place of the man who gave birth to a popular Australianism.
Having "Buckley's chance" means having little or no chance at all. Obviously, the Buckley referred to must have been quite an individual.
One tradition identifies him with William Buckley, an escaped convict who, in 1803, made his way to freedom from the Port Phillip camp. No one gave him a chance of survival. Nevertheless, for 32 years he could not be apprehended. He lived safely with \JAborigines\j as "a wild white man."
Much more likely, however, is another explanation, supported by the first popular usage of the phrase. This traces the idiom to Mars Buckley, who in 1851, together with Crumpton Nunn, established the Melbourne firm (and later department store) Buckley & Nunn. Australians came to express the hopelessness of a case by saying that there were just two chances, "Buckley's and none."
Buckley is buried in the Kew Cemetery. His epitaph does not indicate his (possible) place in Australians' everyday speech. All it says is:
\ISacred
to
the Memory of
MARS BUCKLEY
Died 9th October 1905
In his 79th Year.\i
#
"Buddhist New Year",288,0,0,0
The celebration of the Buddhist New Year is an occasion of great joy. As Hindus do during \JHoli\j, people in their exuberance squirt water on whomever they meet in the streets, regardless of whether it is a friend or a stranger. Homage is paid to the various statues of the \JBuddha\j, which are ceremoniously bathed.
#
"Budget: Origin of the Name",289,0,0,0
Etymologically, a budget has nothing to do with money. All it means is a "pocket" or a "bag," from the French \Ibougette.\i Its present-day use perpetuates an old British parliamentary custom, no longer practised. When annually, the Chancellor of the Exchequer put before the members of Parliament the estimates of revenue and expenditure for the ensuing financial year, the documents containing the figures were "brought down" to the House (of Commons) in a leather bag, the "budget." Ceremoniously, this was put "on the table" for the Chancellor to take out the papers from which he read the relevant data.
The leather bag is a matter of the past. Nevertheless, in parliamentary terminology, every year the Chancellor continues to "bring down the budget," to make his "budget speech." The (French) bag, in fact, has become the property of everyone's financial planning. In the general way of speaking, even a housewife budgets, not realizing that the bag is missing.
#
"Bugs and Bugging",290,0,0,0
Hidden microphones used in modern spying colloquially are referred to as "bugs" as, in their early stage, the models of this electronic device, with their protruding aerials, looked very much like insects.
Possibly, the bug may even go back to the world of the occult. \JGhosts\j haunting and harming people were known as bugs, a name derived from the Welsh \Ibwg\i for an evil and mischievous spirit. Invisible to the ordinary eye, it watched and followed its victims, waiting for its moment to prey upon them.
The "bug" interfering with modern computers is said to have received its description from this ghostly being as well. However, a natural derivation claims that it recalls the early days of computers when insects crawling into them created havoc.
#
"Bull Market: Origin of the Name",291,0,0,0
A "bull" market is one in which people purchase stocks and shares in anticipation that they will rise in price. Optimistically such speculators recall the bull's practice to toss things up into the air. They ought to remember that what goes up must come down.
#
"Bulli",292,0,0,0
The graveyard of St Augustine's Church in Bulli bears witness to one of the worst mining disasters in Australian history. It occurred on 23 March 1887 in the Bulli mine and was caused by a gas explosion. Eighty-one men and boys were killed, everyone present in the mine at the time, except one boy. His life was saved by a fluke. The violence of the explosion had blown him out of the mine - to safety!
The tragedy robbed 180 children (of whom 30 were still unborn babies) of their fathers, 50 women of their husbands, and many parents of their young sons. The victims' burial was a haunting sight. The minister of the church, about to go on an overseas trip, had already departed and had to be rushed back from Parramatta. He conducted the funeral services for most of the victims, one after the other, almost non-stop, all day long.
Though 80 men joined in digging the graves, they could not keep up with the stream of bodies; at times ten coffins were waiting to be interred. Fathers were buried with their sons, brothers with brothers, and those whose bodies had been so mutilated that they could no longer be identified were laid to rest, side by side, in one common plot.
The old cemetery is no longer in use, and most of its headstones are uprooted or broken, their text having become illegible. Yet some of those preserved vividly recall the disaster. One of the epitaphs tries to offer some comfort to a victim's mourning family:
\IJOSEPH CROMPTON
The beloved Husband of
Martha Louisa Crompton
Who was killed by a gas explosion
In the Bulli-Mine
March 23rd 1887
Aged 29 Years
Grieve not dear wife for I'm at rest,
Grieve not dear children for I'm blest,
Grieve not dear friends I've left a world of care,
To meet my God - to follow me prepare.\i
The circumstances that led to the disaster made it all the more horrendous. For six months the miners had been on strike and only very recently had returned to work. The confrontation between labor and management had been particularly bitter, and on the reopening of the mine many of the miners were not re-employed.
"Blacklegs" were given preference - a privilege that cost them their lives. When the explosion occurred, all differences and grudges were forgotten and even those left unemployed joined the rescuers without hesitation, trying to save unionists and blacklegs alike.
In 1888 the Government of \JNew South Wales\j erected a granite \Jobelisk\j just outside St Augustine's Church. Listing their names, it was to serve as a monument to all those who had perished. Originally, its site was to be elsewhere. However, the surviving workmates insisted that it be close to the graves of the victims.
#
"Bully Beef",293,0,0,0
Whatever the taste of bully beef, its name is rather spoiled. The canned meat, indeed, is beef, but its "bully" part has nothing to do with \Jcattle\j. It merely tells that the meat is boiled. The bully is all that remains of the French \Ibouilli\i for "boiled."
#
"Bunkum",294,0,0,0
All bunkum, in the way it is now understood, started in the U.S. Congress. Felix Walker was the Representative of Buncombe County, \JNorth Carolina\j. As the spokesman of his \Jconstituency\j, he wanted to make his voice heard. He did not really care what he was saying, so long as people "back home" realized that he spoke for them. So he kept on speaking uncontrolled. He just rambled on. Whatever he said made no sense. The other representatives became very weary. They started coughing and getting up. Not unaware of the commotion and unrest, he nevertheless carried on. But wishing his colleagues to know that he did not resent their behavior he said, "Gentlemen, don't think I'm annoyed. After all I'm not talking to you, but I'm talking for the folks back home." And as it was all about Buncombe, bunkum became proverbial for all senseless and stupid talk.
#
"Buried at Crossroads",295,0,0,0
Even in quite recent times, suicides and excuted criminals were refused burial in consecrated ground. Their actions were regarded as so heinous and contrary to the will of God, who alone had the right to give and take life, that he would not welcome them in territory set aside in his name. To entomb a man who had defied the divine prerogative in the very soil dedicated to God was tantamount to sacrilege.
This consideration led to the custom of burying such people far away from a cemetery - at crossroads. The choice of that spot was motivated and reinforced by a much more significant tradition. From ancient times crossroads had been regarded as belonging to the devil (which made them an appropriate meeting place for witches)! Consequently, to Christians it became the most debased and abandoned site, a very focus of pagan abomination and hence the best place for the disposal of those who had denied God his right and assumed his monopoly.
The fact that crossroads were the traditional venue for witches goes back thousands of years to the ancient Greeks and Romans. In their \Jmythology\j, crossroads were dedicated to the moon goddess, \JArtemis\j - Diana, identified (and often confused) with \JHecate\j. As the divinity of witchcraft, \JArtemis\j was invoked in magic rites and linked with the uncanny and the world of \Jghosts\j. Statues to both \JArtemis\j and Diana, in fact, were put up by the Greeks and Romans wherever three or more roads met. Frequently the figure had three faces and occasionally three bodies. Such a site was almost preselected for the witches to gather and was seen as an area reserved for the dead.
Long afterwards and far away in the Pacific region, natives of Bali also regarded crossroads as the location of evil spirits and hence placed there offerings to the demons. In certain parts of Scandinavia, bonfires were lit on St John's eve at crossroads to counteract and drive away the dark forces of trolls and other demons that were thought not only to be abroad on that night, but to be especially active at a junction!
Thus it hangs all together very logically. Crossroads, specially sacred in pagan nature worship, became the obvious meeting place of those engaged in the black arts. In turn, this made them an abominable place to Christians who consequently chose them as the "resting" place for those who by their very life and death had become disqualified from any claim to Christian burial.
Later on, when people no longer realized the original reason for the choice of crossroads for this purpose, another explanation was advanced. This suggested that the spot was selected to confuse the earthbound soul of the dead buried there and to make it difficult for it to find its way back "home" where, in its desperate loneliness and abandonment, it would start haunting the living. This fear led to a further gruesome custom practised for a long period. Suicides and those executed were not only buried at crossroads, but a stake was driven through their hearts to "fix" them permanently to the spot.
Crossroads have thus played an important part in man's thought, belief, and practice for thousands of years. How strange then that they have also given us all that is "trivial." This commonplace word literally recalls (from the original Latin \Itri\i for "three" and \Ivia\i for "way") the meeting of "three ways."
Maybe it was all started by women who on their return home from markets and fairs met there and gossiped - exchanging the latest "trivial" information.
#
"Buried by his Rescuer",296,0,0,0
Mystery surrounds the nameless remains of a native youth buried in the Manly Cemetery. All the plaque put up on his grave reveals is the district from which he came, his age and the year of his death. One is left to wonder how it was possible to know exactly how old he was and yet to be ignorant of his name. The plaque thus reads:
\ITRINITY BAY
ABORIGINAL
AGED 17
1891.\i
A local man is said to have found him lying on Manly Beach, badly injured. Taking him to his own home, he cared for him, but was not able to save his life, as his wounds proved too severe. The young man then was buried by his rescuer.
#
"Buried in a Bed of Cement",297,0,0,0
Memorable and enigmatic is the voluminous inscription in prose and verse on the tall headstone "erected by public subscription" on the grave of Emily Lydia Mather, in the Melbourne General Cemetery. It tells that she was the "Beloved Daughter of John and Dove Mather of Rainhill, England" and was "Murdered [on] 24 December 1891 at Windsor, Melbourne, Aged 26 Years."
In the form of two verses, the epitaph eulogizes the deceased and admonishes the living. It speaks of Emily as a woman:
\IWho all her days while yet alive
To live in honor she did strive.
Till he she trusted as her guide
Without cause or warning her life denied.\i
The obituary is followed by the:
\IADVICE
To those hereafter come reflecting
Upon this text of her sad ending;
To warn her sex of their intending
For marrying in haste, is depending
On such a fate, too tate for amending.\i
The author does not forget to mention that the poetic tribute and warning were composed "by her friend E. THUNDERBOLT." One is left to wonder whether the friend was a man or a woman.
Much more mysterious however, are the circumstances of Emily's death, merely hinted at in the epitaph.
Frederick Bayley Deeming, her husband, had been known by many other assumed names, including Albert Williams, "Mr Ward" and "Baron Swanson," to mention a few. Emily was the last of his many victims. He had committed his brutal crimes in many parts of the world, mercilessly and without qualms of conscience.
However, when this heartless man himself had to face death on the scaffold, he was so terrified that, as newspaper reports of the time recorded, his eyes bulged with fear, and he was shaking so violently that he had to be helped to the place of execution and be fortified by a large brandy.
Other bizarre and ghoulish features distinguished his final day. When asked whether he had a last request, he expressed the wish to see the woman to whom he had proposed marriage after the murder of his wife. He had given her the very rings he had removed from Emily's fingers prior to entombing her body in a bed of cement.
As a boy, Fred had shown the traits of cruelty and a love of high living. Born in Liverpool, England, in 1853, he became a gas fitter. At the age of 28, he joined his brothers in business and married for the first time.
Shortly afterwards, restive and looking for greener pastures, he migrated to \JAustralia\j. Caught stealing, he served a prison sentence in Sydney's Darlinghurst Prison. On his release, after a short stay in Melbourne, he accepted a job in \JQueensland\j.
But not for long. Dismissed as a liar and cheat, he returned to Sydney, where he opened up his own business, which - conveniently - went up in flames. After yet another spell in prison, he proceeded to Adelaide, to be joined there by his wife and their two children. However, he was soon to depart again.
Under the name of Ward, he introduced himself as a speculator and prospector to two brothers whom he conned into accompanying him to South Africa, where, he assured them, they would make a fortune in the diamond fields.
Though changing his domicile, he did not alter his way of life, except to add two gruesome murders to his chain of crimes. The two unidentified bodies of his victims were probably those of his trusting partners. One he had buried under his own name, which enabled him to make his way back to England with a new identity. His family by then had grown to three children, and eight years had passed since he first left Britain.
Posing as Albert Oliver Williams, a wealthy sheep farmer, he rented a villa from Emily Mather. Pretending to be passionately in love with her, he married her and, towards the end of September 1891, left for \JAustralia\j. Prior to their departure, to sever all previous ties as it were, he murdered his first wife and their children, burying their bodies in cement in their home! It could be cynically said that at least he could no longer be accused of \Jbigamy\j!
Early in March 1892, the tenant of a villa at Windsor in Victoria, was nauseated by a stench coming from the hearth. Investigating its source, he discovered under the hearthstone - in a bed of cement - the disintegrating body of a woman. She had been brutally murdered and was identified as Emily Mather. As was soon realized, she had become yet another of Deeming's victims.
Arrested in far away Perth, under the alias "Baron Swanson," Deeming was taken to Melbourne, to be tried and convicted of Emily's murder. He was hanged on 22 May 1892. It proved a lucky escape for the third woman he had ensnared, whose wedding day could have proved her doomsday.
By a strange coincidence, she arrived in Melbourne - with her white dress, veil and trousseau all ready for the wedding - on the very day the police were informed of her fiancฮ's apprehension in Perth. Instead of walking down the aisle as a happy bride, she was to take the witness stand in court to bring a multiple murderer and con-man to justice.
#
"Bury the Hatchet",298,0,0,0
To bury the hatchet means peace. With hostilities at an end, the hatchet is no longer needed and, therefore, can be disposed of.
Now a mere figurative expression, the phrase is based on an actual practice of North \JAmerican Indians\j. When negotiating peace, they buried all weapons, their tomahawks, scalping knives and clubs. It showed their good faith, at the same time making it impossible to go on fighting.
#
"Busby",299,0,0,0
A high fur cap of cylindrical shape, with a bag of colored cloth hanging from the top and often coming down to the right shoulder, made up the original busby which is now reserved purely for military wear. Its early beginnings lead back to much less martial associations.
No one really knows the derivation of its name, which has been linked with various people and places.
A village in Yorkshire, England, is called Busby and people were led to assume that the famous hat was bore there. On the other hand, a Dr Richard Busby, Master at Westminster School from 1638-95, has been credited with the invention of the hat. Also, there was a family named Busby, renowned as hatters about the time the conspicuous headdress was first introduced.
Actually, the busby is Hungarian by birth. In \JHungary\j it was originally a peasant's cap made almost exclusively of red cloth. Then, its only furry part was a band around the edge. In time, the furry rim became wider and bigger, until it reached the height of the modern busby. Simultaneously, the cloth was forced to retreat, until there was no room left for it except as a covering of the top, a last reminder of the original busby.
The Hungarian army adopted the peasant's cap, but reserved it for its most illustrious forces. It became the badge of \JHungary\j's cavalry regiments, known as the \JHussars\j. From them the British took over the busby.
The little flap which hangs from it is not, as might appear, merely decorative. Formerly it was attached to the Hussar's right shoulder and padded with cotton. It was meant to act as an effective buffer against sword cuts.
#
"Bushranger's Signposted Grave",300,0,0,0
\JBushrangers\j' graves have become a special attraction. That of Johnny Gilbert, located in a former police paddock just outside the township of Binalong in \JNew South Wales\j, is well signposted, and steps from the road lead up to it.
The grave is now surrounded by typical Australian bush, covered with large stones and protected by a white painted picket fence. At its foot end a roughly hewn and rather weather-worn rock serves as his memorial.
\IIn
Memory
JOHN
GILBERT
Died
1864\i
To all appearances, the headstone has been restored. It is whitewashed and the lettering - originally chiseled into the stone - has been painted black. Oddly, the "R.I.P." of the bottom line has been left untouched and hence is hardly visible.
A more recent plaque near Gilbert's grave gives a brief account of the bushranger's character and death:
\I John Gilbert - Bushranger was shot dead by Constable John Bright in a battle with police near Binalong on Saturday, 13th May 1865. Only 25 years old at the time of his death he had followed a life of crime for twelve years and was the most reckless villain of the Gardiner - Hall gangs of \Jbushrangers\j. On the credit side it can be said that he was a splendid horseman, a deadly shot, game with fists and gun, always polite to women and of irrepressible good humor and witty speech. On Tuesday, 16th May, 1865, the body of "Flash" Johnny Gilbert was buried in the police paddock near Binalong township.\i
According to the plaque, Gilbert died a year later than is recorded on his "footstone."
Canadian-born Johnny came to \JAustralia\j with his family in 1852, just 12 years old. For a short while he worked as a stableboy; then he made his way to the goldfields, where thieves and gamblers became his companions and mentors.
In 1864, he teamed up with \Jbushrangers\j, soon to play a prominent part in some of their notorious holdups and in "no less than 68 (gazetted) robberies under arms." During a clash with the police, he killed one Sergeant Parry. He was declared an outlaw and a substantial sum of money was promised as a reward for his capture - dead or alive. Ultimately cornered with John Dunn, he was shot dead whilst trying to help his companion to escape.
A report on Gilbert's funeral in the \IYass Courier\i of 17 May 1865, contains references to some people's odd tastes. After relating that "an excellent cast of his face was taken by an inhabitant of Binalong" it quotes rumors that a number of persons secured a lock of his deceased bushranger's hair, "for what reason we cannot imagine." It goes on to say that tastes differ, "and whether these mementoes were secured out of respect and admiration of Gilbert's conduct while in life, or because of his notoriety, the parties are best able to state."
Roy Mendham, in his \IDictionary of Australian \JBushrangers\j,\i suggests that Gilbert was really Joseph Roberts. He had only taken on Gilbert's name after having narrowly escaped from being - wrongly - sentenced for the "cold-blooded murder" of John Davis, the owner of the "Waverley Arms," a bush shanty in Bondi Junction. Davis had been found dead on 14 January 1854 in grim circumstances. The left side of his head carried "a terrible gash extending from eye to the ear" and his bed and bedding were saturated with blood, whilst a blood-stained axe was found under the bed.
An immediate suspect was Roberts, "a mild looking youth" of 17 years. He had worked for Davis but had disappeared. However, when caught at Collector, on his way to the goldfields, no evidence could be produced as to his having been involved in the murder.
On the contrary, people who knew him well testified to his good character. Even the murdered publican's wife, though describing her late husband as "an unworthy and habitual drunkard," could say nothing against Roberts.
Consequently he was acquitted. When shortly afterwards he was arrested again, it was not for killing, but merely for stealing a horse. His experiences might well have prompted him to abandon his former identity, to assume the name of Johnny Gilbert. The mystery is buried with whoever is in the Binalong police paddock, under the roughly hewn monument.
#
"Busman's Holiday",301,0,0,0
Anyone is taking a "busman's holiday" when, though off work, he cannot get away from it.
The phrase originated in London in the days of the horse-drawn bus. A bus driver then became very fond of the animals pulling his vehicle. He would do everything to protect them. He therefore was worried on his day off that whoever took his place might not treat his horses well and upset them. That is why, in many a case, a bus driver on his restday would not stay at home but turn up at the stables, at least to see the horses off and pet them reassuringly. Most of all, he would make sure that his replacement would look after the animals.
If in any way he was not satisfied and had the slightest doubt in entrusting his charges to the relief driver, he would, as a passenger, ride on the bus to see to it that the horses were not maltreated. This concern for an animal at the expense of his much needed rest, created the busman's holiday.
#
"Butcher on Jury",302,0,0,0
There is no doubt that a man's daily occupation must have some effect on his outlook, if not character. At times however, professions and trades create their own myths. A widespread fallacy applies to the butcher. His constant contact with killing and blood, it was said, made him hard feeling and insensitive to suffering. For this reason, he was disqualified from serving on a jury. This was never the case, not even when, prior to the advent of abattoirs, butchers had to do the slaughtering themselves. No documentary evidence exists of such legal restriction having been imposed at any time.
#
"Butcher Selling Beef",303,0,0,0
That butchers sell beef is rather surprising and a complete paradox. If they were to take their occupational title literally, they should really offer only \Jgoat\j's meat. Etymologically speaking, a butcher is a slaughterer and dealer of "goats," from the French \Iboc.\i
#
"Butcher's Apron",304,0,0,0
Sometimes original practical reasons are forgotten. This applies to the choice of color for the butcher's apron, once the uniform of his guild, with the white stripes indicating his standing in the trade.
Once, the butcher used to do the killing himself. It was unavoidable that in the process the animal's blood would stain his clothing. That is why he came to wear a blue apron, as its color did not show up blood.
The fact that blood stains do not show on blue created the once popular saying that "true blue will never stain." The noble and "blue-blooded" would never do anything that would disgrace or dishonor him.
#
"Butter Would Not Melt in his Mouth",305,0,0,0
Nothing is easier than for butter to dissolve in the warmth of the mouth. Therefore, to say of anyone that "even butter would not melt in his mouth" suggests a person who is cold, haughty and offish. But traditionally it is taken to speak of someone who seems so prim and proper that he could never do anything wrong.
Significantly, the phrase is exclusively used in a negative sense. It is applied to someone suspiciously mild and meek. His appearance of being so innocent is misleading. The original context of the words justifies this interpretation.
The phrase, as now used, is incomplete and almost reverses the meaning it carried in its early, fuller wording. This referred to a man who, though he looked as even butter would not melt in his mouth, was so tough that "not even cheese would choke him." Not soft at all, he was as hard as nails. His apparent harmlessness was a fake, a mere front.
#
"Butter's Origins",306,0,0,0
It has been suggested that the first butter in the world was a chance - product man owes to the camel.
Camel riders covering vast distances, used to carry their milk supply with them. This they kept in leather containers which they loaded on the animals. The camels' rolling gait along the desert stretches churned the milk which had become sour, transforming it into butter.
#
"Buttonhole",307,0,0,0
To "buttonhole" someone means to detain them, in most cases as an involuntary listener. The term makes little sense. It has no connection with a buttonhole - whether the actual hole in a coat lapel or the flower pinned to it. It is all a mistake and the result of one wrong letter, the buttonhole's final "e." Whoever corners the unlucky person gets hold of one of their buttons. Not to let them go, they button hol\Id\i them.
#
"Buttonhole Worn at a Wedding",308,0,0,0
Grooms and groomsmen traditionally wear a "buttonhole," also known by the French boutonniฮฆre. It contributes to their festive appearance. What they do not usually realize is that the flower pinned to their lapels is a relic of the early days of men's dress and used to have a magic purpose.
In \JAnglo-Saxon\j times buttons were unknown. Instead of "buttoning up" their coats, men fastened them by means of a ribbon which they pulled through holes in the lapel introduced for this very purpose.
At weddings, the knot they tied was believed to play an additional magical role. Apart from securing the garment around the neck, much more significantly it was thought to act as a love charm. Supernaturally, it tied the knot of the marriage bond, for husband and wife to stay together for the rest of their lives.
Jackets have buttons now and therefore no longer need ribbons. Though redundant, the "buttonhole" and its ribbon have been retained, transformed into a flower. Taking the place of the original love knot, unbeknown to the wedding party, the "buttonhole" casts its own spell with all the other magic paraphernalia of the nuptials.
#
"Buttons on Sleeve",309,0,0,0
The obvious purpose of a button is to secure a dress for reasons of fit, or warmth and decency. None of these motives, however, seems to explain the small buttons on the cuffs of man's present-day jackets.
These buttons are really useless now. But when they were first sewn on sleeves, they served a definite purpose. Their origin was linked with the early long sleeves. The buttons were a simple and ingenious means of preventing them from hanging down and impeding movement.
In the 17th century, much money was spent on men's coats and naturally people tried to avoid anything that would ruin them. Most vulnerable, of course, were the cuffs. To keep them out of harm's way, they were turned back. And lest they slip down again, they were fastened with buttons.
Also the buttons could help a man to adjust his dress to suit the climate. If it was cold and windy, the wide sleeve could be tightened and closed around the wrist.
In centuries past, man was not as drab in his dress as in later years. Like his female partner he, too, liked to adorn himself and if possible to display his wealth by means of his costume. Buttons could serve just that purpose. They were hand-made in beautiful shapes and colors. They were both costly and decorative.
Buttons no longer were used to fasten sleeves to keep them out of the wind or dirt, but to boost the ego and attract attention. John Brandon, for example, who died in 1384, was shown with 40 buttons on the sleeve of his undervest alone.
The distinctive buttons on military uniforms are said to have found their way there for totally different reasons. At least that is the story usually told. They started as the result of a king's displeasure when he saw some of his men wiping their noses on their sleeves. To make such behavior impossible, he decreed the fixing of cuff-buttons. Any soldier who forgot to use his sneeze-rag and tried to wipe his nose on his sleeves, soon desisted in pain.
#
"By and Large",310,0,0,0
Public speakers and, not least so, politicians, when explaining a theory or a policy, frequently use the expression "by and large" instead of the much more intelligible "on the whole" or "generally speaking." They are unaware that their choice of words, admitting that their statement is imprecise, originally was a naval term. Appropriately, those using "by and large" should thus be described as being "at sea."
In the days of sailing, the man at the helm had to pay careful attention whether to sail the vessel on or close to (off) the wind. The order "full and by" directed him to sail as close to the wind as was possible, keeping the sails full of wind. On the other hand, asked to do so merely "by and large" meant that he was to sail near to (in fact, slightly off) the wind, but not fully on it. It was a much easier maneuver.
Now totally divorced from the sea, "by and large" continues to suggest a lack of exactitude. It is a mere approximation.
#
"By Hook or By Crook",311,0,0,0
There may be a variety of reasons why the achievement of a goal with determination, by fair means or foul, is described as getting things done "by hook or by crook."
Messrs Hook and Crook were said to have been two renowned lawyers. To be represented in court by either of them would ensure winning one's case.
By hook or by crook did not refer to names of people at all, another explanation says, but to the primitive instruments used by petty thieves. Burglars employed hook, pushed through the window, to lift jewelry from a bedside table, and pilferers removed washing from a line by means of a crook. They thus obtained the object of their thievery "by hook or by crook."
The most likely origin of the phrase, however, is linked with an early British practice, at a time when forests were still royally owned. For any unauthorized commoner then to gather firewood in them was a crime, with one exception; poor people were exempted. Though they were not permitted to cut or saw off branches, they could remove withered timber from the ground or even a tree by means of either a hook or a crook.
#
"By Rule of Thumb",312,0,0,0
When we use the phrase "by rule of thumb," we mean to say that we apply a very rough and ready method and certainly not an accurate and scientifically dependable procedure. There are several conjectures on the origin of the expression.
In the early days, the thumb, like the foot, was an always-available instrument of measure. The last joint of the thumb was taken as approximately equal to an inch. (It became a widely established custom, reminiscent of the baker's dozen, to allow "a thumb" as an extra to every yard when measuring cloth.) And precisely because this was a very rough calculation, the rule of thumb came to signify that.
Another possible explanation leads back to Southern \JFrance\j, to \JBordeaux\j, and 1814. French contractors were then paid in Spanish dollars. To calculate their worth in francs, their own money, they often made notes on the thumb nail. The military gentlemen were highly amused by this method. They were convinced that it was all pretence, and that it was impossible by such "rule of thumb" accurately to assess the correct exchange of francs for dollars.
A third interpretation relates to the brewing of beer and has its birthplace in Yorkshire, England. To ascertain whether the infusion of malt had reached the right degree of fermentation, it was necessary to check the temperature of the mixture. As no scientific instruments were available for the purpose, the thumb was dipped in the liquid. Thus by rule of the thumb, it was known more or less, whether or not the brew was ready.
#
"By the Skin of his Teeth",313,0,0,0
It was as recent as the last century that a Scottish scientist proved the existence of a skin on man's teeth. Visible only under the \Jmicroscope\j, it easily wears off. All the more surprising is the fact that, thousands of years earlier, the book of Job assumed its existence, using it as one of its forceful expressions.
When Job tried to convey to his friends how only the smallest margin had separated him from death, he said to them (Job 19:20), "I escaped with the skin of my teeth." Universally now, the passage is rendered as saying, "l escaped by the skin of my teeth."
#
"By the Sweat of his Brow",314,0,0,0
"By the sweat of his brow" is a phrase the majority of people wrongly believe to be a literal quotation from the \JBible\j. The relevant passage (Gen. 3:19) however, reads, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread." No one has been able to trace who first misquoted the \JBible\j, as it were lifting (the sweat from) the "face" to the "brow."
#
"By-laws",315,0,0,0
By-laws are laws issued by local authorities. The word literally says so, as "by" (or "bye") perpetuates the Old Norse word for "dwelling place" or a "town." By-laws therefore, as distinct from the general laws which applied to the entire country or realm, concerned the smaller communities. They were regulations issued and enacted by the city council, the corporation, or the borough.
Many an English town originally established by the Danes retains its founder's language in the final ending of its name. Rugby, Whitby, and Derby are typical examples. They all preserve the original Norse "town." Derby, for instance, means the "town on the (river) Derwent."
Later generations, unaware of the significance of the "by," misinterpreted it. They believed it not to be a noun but a mere adverb, stating that something was just "by" the way. It was like a by-pass, in its origin a subsidiary, secondary road.
#
"Cab",316,0,0,0
The cab is a shortened "\Jgoat\j" - as a word at least.
First built in \JItaly\j, in the late eighteenth century, originally it was a horse-drawn two-wheeled vehicle, light in weight and well sprung. With roads still uneven and rough, it enabled passengers to have a comparatively smooth ride, no longer being jolted about by so many bumps. Imaginatively, the inventors therefore compared their novel vehicle's run with the capering of a young \Jgoat\j. In fact, they called their carriage after it - capri-ola. (Caper in Latin is a \Jgoat\j.)
It did not take long for the French to adopt the new carriage. Adapting its name to their tongue, it became known as a cabriole, a word replaced by its diminutive, cabriolet.
Realizing the great advantage of the coach, the British took it over from the French. They officially introduced the cabriolet as a public vehicle on 23 April 1823. The date was specially chosen. It was the king's birthday and the launching of the new service provided a unique opportunity of celebrating the occasion. Cleverly, fares charged were one-third less than those by the hackney coaches. Indeed, it was like a royal birthday present to the people.
Always practical, the English soon cut down the name of the cabriolet, changing it into the modern "cab."
Cynics have been less kind in explaining the description. They suggested the passengers chose it because the new contraption bounced and knocked them about so much that they could well imagine being carried along not in a coach, but on the back of a wild, frisky \Jgoat\j!
#
"Cabal or Kabbalah",317,0,0,0
It is very odd indeed that the Jewish Kabbalah should have gone over into the English language as "cabal." Cabal has become part of politics, and was linked with people least interested in matters of the spirit and the mind, nor at all concerned with ethical conduct. Those secretly plotting to undermine authority are now said to form or join a \Icabal.\i
An explanation given at times sees in the cabal an historical \Jacrostic\j and associates it with events that occurred during the reign of King Charles II. Five members of the ministry then connived in political schemes which they pursued without parliamentary knowledge of approval, among them a secret treaty of alliance with \JFrance\j in 1672 which resulted in war with Holland.
The intriguing group became known, it was said, as \Icabal\i by a combination of the initials of their five names: Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale. Their underhanded and clandestine perfidy justified making cabal a totally despised word which led Thomas Macauley, the renowned British author of \IThe History of England,\i to say rightly that "these ministers . . . soon made the appellation so infamous that it has never since their time been used except as a term of reproach."
However, though the story of the five men is correct, the \Jacrostic\j interpretation of their cabal is apocryphal. Actually, the word reached England from \JFrance\j long before the five ministers had joined together in their scheming. The French had derived the "cabal" straight from the \JHebrew\j Kabbalah. Because of the secret nature of Kabbalah and its effective use of occult practice, they applied the new word first to groups in their country that were known to be engaged in intrigues and conspiracies. Nevertheless, it was through the British junta of the 1670s that the cabal was "popularized" and became a word included in all dictionaries as the strangest scion of the Kabbalah.
To make things stranger still, a hypothesis has it that the modern political "Cabinet" evolved out of this cabal or "committee for foreign affairs" of 1672.
#
"Calculator Origins",318,0,0,0
The calculating machine was invented and patented by Blaise Pascal, the profound seventeenth-century French philosopher, theologian and mathematician. Worked by clocks and wheels, his calculator could add and subtract. Curiously, it was the wish to make it easier to assess taxes that prompted him to construct the gadget.
Pascal's contributions to religion and life were thought-provoking and diverse: well-known is his observation that "had Cleopatra's nose been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered." To vindicate the truth of religious faith he wrote his famous \IThoughts.\i He was convinced that the "heart has its reasons of which reason knows not."
The founder of \Jhydrodynamics\j, he discovered (in conjunction with Fermat) the theory of mathematical probability and, in 1662, established in Paris the world's first bus company, stipulating that all its profits had to go to charity.
#
"Calendar Origins",319,0,0,0
At first the term calendar did not relate to anything written down (there were originally no lists of dates), but to a herald's announcement!
Actually, the \Icalendar\i is derived from the Latin, meaning "to call out." The beginning of each month was proclaimed by the head-priest or another appointed official.
No one knew beforehand when exactly the new month would start. It had to coincide with the appearance of the new moon and only when this had been duly observed could the official declaration be made. That is how at first the \Icalend\i merely referred to the first day of each month.
The development of commerce and financial transactions led to the writing down of these significant dates which by then, through the ever-growing knowledge of the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars, could be determined far in advance.
Merchants and money-lenders thus began to keep their own calendar-tables listing the initial dates of each month which enabled them to know when accounts had to be settled and interests became due. Out of these early account-books of the Romans grew the now indispensable tabulation of the passing of time, whether fixed on the wall, put on the desk, or carried, in the form of a diary, in our pockets.
#
"Call from Beyond",320,0,0,0
\BPat McGann\b
A lush \Jrainforest\j surrounds the "Boulders," a favorite beauty spot near Babinda in the Mulgrave Shire in Northern \JQueensland\j. The Boulders are huge rocks over which a mountain stream of clear water cascades in great torrents.
Along the path leading to the Boulders, a plaque set in concrete catches the visitor's attention. It asks him to
\IPRAY FOR THE SOUL OF
PAT McGANN
He came for a visit
22.6.1979
And stayed forever.\i
Whoever reads the words - whether acting upon them or ignoring their plea - will wonder who Pat McGann was and why this plaque was put up for him.
On reaching the Boulders, another poster cautions people not to swim in the dangerous waters, a warning ignored by many. In fact, swimmers seem to have been attracted by the swiftly flowing current and the adventure of shooting the rapids. Many drownings have been the result, all the victims being young bachelors. One survivor was a middle-aged married man, who, when he became wedged between two boulders, managed to free himself before being sucked under.
Soon fact mingled with \Jfolklore\j and created a legend explaining the tragedies.
Once upon a time, the Babinda Valley was the home of the Yidinji tribe. Two of its most revered members were Oolana, a beautiful young girl, and Waroonoo, a tribal elder of great wisdom. The tribe decreed that they should be joined in marriage, thereby combining their qualities of exquisite loveliness and supreme knowledge.
All went well for a while and the couple were exceedingly happy. But disaster struck, when the Yidinjis invited a roaming tribe to stay with them. One of its members, Dyga, a handsome young man, and Oolana instantly fell in love with each other.
Realizing that their mutual feelings would never be approved by their elders, they decided to run away. When their tribes became aware of their elopement, they immediately pursued the young lovers, catching up with them close to the then still gently flowing river. They berated them and spoke of the great shame they had brought on their people and the tribes' determination to separate them once and for all.
The Yidinjis then took hold of Oolana, trying to drag her away. Struggling hard, she managed to break free. She jumped into the water, calling on her lover to follow her. At that very moment, the earth began to shake violently. Great cracks opened up, with enormous boulders forming at the site at which Oolana had thrown herself in, to vanish forever. She had changed into one of the boulders, but her cries could still be heard at times, as her spirit keeps on yearning and looking for her lost lover. Young men, therefore, should beware, lest they, too, were lured into the depths by her passionate calls.
Pat McGann is believed to have been an American visitor who met his death at the Boulders.
#
"Call Girl",321,0,0,0
The call girl now is generally taken to be a prostitute of a higher class who, well connected, can be reached by phone, then in a dignified manner make her way to wherever she is "called." However, this was not the original meaning of her description which has become obsolete. To start with, a call girl was so called because, as a member of the world's oldest profession, she was constantly "on call" at her communal "residence," the brothel, then very appositely dubbed the "call house."
#
"Cambridge: Origin of the Name",322,0,0,0
Cambridge, so famous a university city, shows by its very name how even a center of learning can become a victim of mistakes.
Obviously, Cambridge refers to a settlement established at a site where a bridge spanned the river Cam. However, it is not the Cam on which the Cambridge is situated but the Gronte (the Celtic for "bog")! A stream recorded as early as A.D. 745, its name was corrupted into Granta. A bridge built across it, almost inevitably became known as Gantebricde. It was a name the Normans found difficult to pronounce.
Accommodating it to their tongue, they changed it into Cantebridge. Eventually, further "streamlined," this became Cambridge, resulting in the mistaken assumption that the city was on the Cam and not the Gronte which, to add insult to injury, is now one of the Cam's tributaries.
#
"Camel's Hoofs",323,0,0,0
Even the \JBible\j contains not only a striking example of wrong observation, but legislated accordingly. To protect the feet of the camel from the hot desert sand, nature provided them with pads. They cover up the animal's cloven hoofs, which thus cannot be seen at a glance. This led the ancient Hebrews to imagine that the camel, though chewing the cud, did not fulfill the second essential qualification for being counted among the "clean" animals which would make its flesh "fit" \I(\Jkosher\j)\i for consumption - having split hoofs.
Consequently, the \JBible\j (erroneously) included camel meat in the list of forbidden foods. It is a case in which not seeing things properly proved (for the camel) a lifesaver!
#
"Camel's Hump",324,0,0,0
The camel's hump has intrigued man. The animal's power of endurance enables it to exist without a drink of water for extended periods of time. This has led to the wrong notion that the hump serves as a built-in reservoir, replenished each time the animal drinks.
The hump does not hoard water, but fat, held in reserve as an essential source of energy for a rainy day. It can be compared to the extra fat stored by some breeds of sheep in their tails.
That this "ship of the desert" can go without drinking for as long as ten days, is due to an ingenious control system with which nature has provided the animal. As it were, a thermostat automatically changes its body temperature to keep \Jperspiration\j to a minimum. This checks the camel's loss of fluid to a degree unequaled in any other creature, which considerably reduces its need to drink.
#
"Camel: Origin of the Name",325,0,0,0
It is well-known that a camel can travel many kilometers without any need of food or drink. Not so well publicized, however, is the origin of its name, which goes back a vast distance in time - to the \JHebrew\j of the \JBible\j. In the holy tongue the camel was called \Igamal.\i It has never changed its name, which (pronounced slightly differently) still survives almost universally in the Western world. It is the English \Icamel,\i the Greek \Ikamelos\i and the German \IKamel!\i
A useful animal altogether, the initial letter of its \JHebrew\j name is the source of the letter "g" of the alphabet. Indeed, at first this was a stylized drawing of a camel; "g" is merely its scriptural remnant, as it were.
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"Camelhair Brush",326,0,0,0
The soft camelhair brush painters use is made from the long hair of a \Jsquirrel\j.
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"Camellia: Origin of the Name",327,0,0,0
George Joseph Kamel (b. 1661) was a Moravian Jesuit who, on joining the Order, changed his name to the Latin \ICamellus.\i Sent to the \JPhilippines\j as a missionary, he served the islanders with devotion and compassion. To help the sick, he opened up a pharmacy in which he supplied a great variety of curative herbs. These he grew in a garden he had specially planted for that purpose.
In the pursuit of his religious duties, he thus became more generally interested in the country's indigenous plants, and developed into a most erudite amateur botanist. Conscientiously talking notes of his observations, he wrote up his findings and sent detailed descriptions of shrubs, plants, and herbs, until then unknown in the west, to the Royal Society in London. On many occasions, his dispatches were supplemented by actual specimens, the first of their kind ever to reach Britain from the \JPhilippines\j. Whether he included, as has been suggested, the beautiful flower now known as \Icamellia,\i has never been definitely established.
However, when Linnaeus classified all plants, naming those so far unknown, he regarded it only right to acknowledge Kamel's achievements by calling one flower in honor of this Jesuit missionary.
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"Camouflage",328,0,0,0
Camouflage is both a natural phenomenon and a military expedient.
Nature has endowed certain species with colors or features that make them blend in with their environment. It prevents predators from spotting them. Some creatures - like the \Jchameleon\j - for the purpose of self-protection, are even able to change color.
Man, as in so many ways, has imitated nature and applied its wisdom to situations he has to confront, not least so, in warfare. To conceal his presence from the enemy, he learned to disguise his encampments, engines of war, and himself, by adopting the coloration and conspicuous features of the territory he occupied or had to traverse in the circumstances.
Referred to as camouflage, the term is derived from the French camouflet, "a puff of smoke." Obviously, and no matter what form it takes nowadays, it recalls the use of a smoke screen to be invisible from hostile forces.
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"Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It Too",329,0,0,0
That "you can't have your cake and eat it too," at first seems a plausible reflection on life. You either spend your money or save it. You can't have it both ways.
The sequence of the phrase is illogical and reverses the order. Of necessity, you must first have your cake in order to be able to eat it. Hence, properly put, it should say, "you cannot eat your cake and (still) have it."
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"Can't See the Wood for the Trees",330,0,0,0
The well-known phrase that "you can't see the wood for the trees" has been traced to an English proverb first recorded in 1546. Obviously, it applied to a person who, by paying too much attention to a mass of details, fails to appreciate the true value and meaning of an object or situation. They lose sight of the real issue by concentrating too much on non-essential minutiae.
Another interpretation suggests that you can't see the wood (i.e. the forest - the total view) because you are preoccupied with a single tree close at hand.
The observation was popularized by Christoph Martin Wieland, an eighteenth-century German writer. He used it in one of his works in 1768, more than a century after it had been quoted in Britain. He based the simile on a French story of 1682, which had appeared in several German versions. It related the experience of a young gentleman on his first visit to Paris. He had been told that he would see a large and beautiful city. However, to his great disappointment he saw nothing of it. The many houses had obscured his view!
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"Canada's National Sport: Lacrosse",331,0,0,0
\JLacrosse\j, the national sport of Canada, is the fastest game on foot. In a peculiar way it links \JAmerican Indians\j with Jesuit missionaries, and an ancient war game with a bishop's insignia.
The game's name - obviously French - was chosen by an early cleric who went from \JFrance\j to Canada to convert the natives to \JChristianity\j. Some authorities say it all happened in 1705 when Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix arrived in Quebec and saw Algonquin Indians playing the game.
He named it after the hooked stick with which the Indians tried to catch and propel a ball toward a goal. Because, to his clerically trained mind, the stick looked very much like a bishop's crosier, he called the sport \I"la crosse."\i Quite correctly, the name was spelled at first in two words. Later, these were joined.
It was a rather strange choice of name, as the game called by the symbol of a faith which preached peace and goodwill toward man was practiced originally as an exercise for war and training in close combat.
It has been suggested that the game was adopted from early Norse settlers who brought it to Canada from their home in \JIceland\j. There it was a popular pastime in the ninth century and called \IKnattleikr.\i The few features known of it through writings certainly show a striking resemblance to the Indian's game.
Among the North \JAmerican Indians\j \Jlacrosse\j was known as \Ibaggataway.\i It was a roving battle between up to 500 warriors on either side. Indeed, whoever wished to join in the fray was welcome, though the chiefs tried to keep the rival groups at a roughly equal number. Frequently, whole villages pitted their strength against each other. On some occasions it was a bloody encounter between hostile tribes. The men were almost naked. To get them into a frenzy, squaws followed them up and down the lines, hitting them with stout switches.
At times, the men appeared in full regalia, with feathers adorning the head, and paint, the face and body. Goals are said to have been 20 feet (6 m) high and the contest extended over many miles. Though each goal counted only one point, the total of goals scored in one game might exceed one hundred!
The occasion was a solemn religious feature of Indian life, with medicine men taking an active part. They lined up as a living goal and when the spirit moved them, wandered around the field. The goal could thus shift in one game by as much as ten miles.
Each side tried to obtain possession of the ball with a stick, and then to hold the ball and carry it across the goal line. The stick had a loop on one end and, to retain the ball, had also a carved hollow or (at a later date) a rawhide bag or sack.
In the beginning, baggataway was a savage chase, men being seriously injured or even killed. Tripping and fouling were quite common. Men jumped over each other's heads and dashed among the opponents with loud war cries. In fact, anything was permitted to score a goal.
The stick was used not only to catch and propel the ball, which then was made of deerskin stuffed with hair, grass, or plant fibres, but as a weapon with which the players belabored each other, trying to knock out as many opponents as they could.
On the eve of a match, the men gathered and, throughout the night, engaged in a wild, ceremonial dance. This was a ritual invocation to the Great Spirit - for victory. Meanwhile, four medicine men, chosen to act as umpires, sat apart. They prayed, asking for the gift of impartiality but also tried to foretell the outcome of the contest.
Play usually began at 9 o'clock the next day, when young girls covered the men with tokens of affection, such as beads.
Thousands of spectators crowded along the sidelines, well aware that even they were far from safe. When, in the heat of battle, the ball fell among them, the players, without any qualms, carried the combat among the onlookers, not caring what happened to them. Once the game was over, no one bore a grudge.
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"Canadian Influence on Ice Hockey",332,0,0,0
It is natural enough for the origin of a game that has its roots in the ancient past to be a subject of heated controversy. However, it is more than surprising that a modern, late nineteenth-century sport should fare similarly. But that is precisely what happened in the case of ice \Jhockey\j. Obviously, the game is a combination of field \Jhockey\j and skating, played according to rules adapted from football. No one knows who first joined the three together.
Official commissions were appointed and investigations were conducted, but the assertions they made and the findings at which they arrived differed greatly. Maybe their deductions were influenced (even unconsciously) by what they were looking for, and local pride might have led them in the selection of data, thereby rendering the result of their research almost a foregone conclusion.
Certainly, ice \Jhockey\j originated in Canada. However, when was it first played, where, and by whom? These are the questions. Whoever was its true father must have known shinny, originally a children's game in which youngsters with broomsticks pushed stones along an icy surface.
According to some, English soldiers serving with the Royal Canadian Rifles at Kingston, \JOntario\j, were the first to put \Jhockey\j on ice. They improvised the game at the rear of their barracks at Tฮฉte du Pont, on the iced-up harbor, at Christmas 1855. It seems to have been a veritable potpourri of sports. After sweeping the snow from the ice, the soldiers tied "runners" to their boots and, with borrowed \Jhockey\j sticks, played a match with an old \Jlacrosse\j ball.
Supporters of "the Kingston claim" brought forward a further argument. The city had once been the site of shinny games, undoubtedly a close relative of ice \Jhockey\j which indeed was only its modern and adult form. Was it not perfectly clear therefore, that only at Kingston could ice \Jhockey\j have been evolved - out of shinty?
Another tradition maintains that G. F. Robertson, of McGill University, Montreal, first thought of ice \Jhockey\j. On a visit to Britain in 1879 he had watched a (field) \Jhockey\j match and had been greatly intrigued by it. Himself a skilled ice skater, he had wondered if it was possible somehow to combine the two different sports and thereby to create one that was completely new and exciting. On his return home, the story continues, he discussed the idea with a friend. Together, they worked out a synthesis of \Jhockey\j and skating, adding, for good measure, some football rules. Enjoyment of the game proved so great that, from an initial experimental venture, it soon graduated at their college into an invigorating sport of tremendous speed, leading eventually (in 1880) to the foundation of the McGill University \JHockey\j Club.
However convincing McGill's claim may have sounded, an ex-McGill man is said to have destroyed it. In one of the investigations he was quoted as having said many years earlier that the original idea of the game at McGill had been proposed by J. G. A. Creighton, a student from \JHalifax\j! He had also obtained the necessary sticks for the occasion - on loan - from his home town. Therefore, it was contended, \JHalifax\j must have preceded Montreal in the sport.
Thus no one knows for certain the originator of the game - whether it was Kingston, Montreal, or \JHalifax\j. Maybe it just happened to be played "first" at various places almost simultaneously, a phenomenon not uncommon in other spheres of life where novel ideas were conceived independently when their time was ripe.
The earliest recorded use of the term ice \Jhockey\j for a match is linked with a game that took place at the Victoria Skating Rink, Montreal, in 1875.
Canadians' love of \Jice skating\j and a knowledge of shinny provided the proper conditions for ice \Jhockey\j to evolve. Experience of the thrills of field \Jhockey\j must have been the final spark that fired some sportsman's imagination to think of transferring \Jhockey\j from turf to ice. Quite conceivably, too, English troops stationed in Canada, anxious to find some pastime to amuse themselves during the long winter months, adapted for this purpose sports they knew from home (namely, \Jhockey\j, \Jice skating\j, and shinny) to the climate and special conditions of Canada. So they became the pioneers of ice \Jhockey\j.
In the first games - played on frozen ponds, lakes or rivers, in fact on any icy surface that offered itself - the traditional \Jhockey\j sticks and a hard rubber ball were used. There was no fixed number of players, as long as each team was of approximately equal size. The goal was a simple line.
It did not take long for keen players to realize how much room there was for improvement. Use of the rubber ball on the slippery ice proved impractical. Propelled with vigor, it was much too erratic and traveled too far, thereby holding up the game. Teams were too unwieldy. The kind of goal used was also unsatisfactory. Most of all, enthusiasts who were anxious to arrange matches with other teams could not do so, because uniform rules were lacking, and each group and center played ice \Jhockey\j differently.
Solution of each of these problems led to the final establishment of ice \Jhockey\j as a sport. McGill University deserves most of the credit for standardizing the game. It fostered the game in its early days and has properly been called "the cradle of ice \Jhockey\j." To promote competition, it produced the first code of rules in 1879.
Gradually, the number of players on each side was reduced, eventually to be fixed at six. The goal line was replaced by a net and the evasive rubber ball scrapped. It was superseded by the "puck," a flat rubber disk which is said to have been first cut out by McGill players from the original ball.
Once the "McGill Rules" had been adopted, matches between the various centers were held and ice \Jhockey\j quickly gained an ever wider appeal. One of its enthusiastic sponsors was Lord Stanley of Preston, then the Governor General. To encourage further growth of the game, he donated in 1893 a trophy which was called after him. A sterling silver bowl, it was to be awarded annually to the most outstanding team.
Unfortunately, even this prize, like the claims for fatherhood of the game, became a topic of heated controversy. To attract bigger crowds, clubs felt the need to offer spectators the best of ice \Jhockey\j and for this purpose began to hire players. Immediately opposition arose, debarring a winning team employing "professionals" from the \JStanley Cup\j. In the ensuing dispute, supporters of the professionals pointed out that the Vice-Regal donor had promised the trophy for award to those best in the game, without discrimination and certainly without regard to their status. Professionals were as such entitled to it as amateurs.
They were right of course in their argument - as far as it went. However, they did not wish to remember that when Lord Stanley created the prize, there were only amateurs and therefore there was no need on his part (or thought in his mind) to qualify the type of player who could compete for the trophy. Eventually, the \JStanley Cup\j became the symbol of world professional supremacy and in compensation as it were, a corresponding trophy presented by Sir Montagu Allen in 1909 was reserved for amateur teams.
Not without initial protest from Montreal and \JHalifax\j, the \JHockey\j Hall of Fame at Kingston became the shrine of the sport and paid homage to the "immortals" of ice \Jhockey\j, the world's fastest team game, as much a child of Canada as \Jlacrosse\j (the latter is Canada's national sport). As in the case of \Jice skating\j, technical invention greatly advanced ice \Jhockey\j, and the introduction of artificial ice rinks made this young sport independent of the seasons and weather conditions.
Ice \Jhockey\j reached the United States in the early 1890s, and became so popular that North Americans came to speak of it simply as \Jhockey\j.
The International Ice \JHockey\j Federation was organized in 1908 and, \JGreat Britain\j, where the sport was also first popularized by Canadian teams, formed its national Ice \JHockey\j Association in 1914.
Ice \Jhockey\j became so popular that North Americans came to speak of it simply as \Jhockey\j. Consequently, the original \Jhockey\j needed some distinguishing term, and so it was called field \Jhockey\j. Players of both versions are participants in a most ancient game that has been brought to a peak of perfection and that is still played with the hooked stick bearing the very name of both sports.
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"Canals on Mars",333,0,0,0
Modern space research has destroyed the long-held view of the existence of artificially created canals on Mars. The pictures taken by \IMariner IV\i in 1964, and subsequent probes, proved and confirmed the fallacy of the sensational claim. The canals "seen," did not exist.
When (in 1877) the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli first observed fissures and rifts on the red planet, he was greatly intrigued and his imagination fired. Their regular pattern and straightness suggested to him that only intelligent (Martians) beings could have designed and constructed them. He named them \Icanali\i "channels." A rather ambiguous term, it was subject to various interpretations. Translated into English, it was rendered "canals." This led to the assumption that they were "waterways." It has been conjectured that the optical illusion, not least, was the result of a defect in the human eye.
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"Cancer - the Crab",334,0,0,0
The names by which the various constellations were called link them not only with ancient myths, but show the migration of ideas from one country to another and from one period to the next. They also bear witness to man's early powers of imagination and observation. This applies particularly to the "cancer" and the story of how its name, now chiefly associated with malignancy, reached its celestial heights.
Cancer is the Latin rendering of the Greek word for "crab" - \Igrapsias.\i The Greeks, in turn, had adopted this \Jcrustacean\j description of the \Jconstellation\j from the Chaldean star-gazers. It is interesting to note that in German one word is used for the animal, the disease, and the \Jconstellation\j. They all are known as \IKrebs.\i
The choice of the crab to represent this group of stars goes back to earliest maps of the sky. This \Jconstellation\j formed the background for the sun when this luminary reached the summer \Jsolstice\j. This was the moment when the sun, having attained its most northerly position, reversed its direction to begin its journey southward. And it was its (apparent) going "backward" that suggested the movement of "the crab." In the case of the "cancer," therefore it was not an imagined likeness with the figure, but a movement that gave birth to the \Jconstellation\j's name.
But the ancient Greeks, always anxious to link the heavenly lights with their myths, supplied an additional "relevant" story to explain why the crab had climbed up all the way to the skies.
One of Hercules' twelve labors was to kill a monstrous dragon, the many-headed Hydra. The task was formidable, as the moment one of the creature's nine heads had been severed, two new ones immediately took its place.
But as Hercules had proved himself master of the most impossible situations, the goddess Hera was much concerned for the dragon. Therefore she sent a huge crab to its aid which nipped Hercules' foot while he was fighting the monster. The hero, undaunted and hardly taking note, just crushed the crab to death. In reward for the crab's valiant and suicidal deed, Hera raised it to eternal life and gave it an appropriate place - among the stars of heaven.
It is an interesting observation how - quite coincidentally - cancer has thus been linked from antiquity onward and in completely different spheres, with death.
The Egyptians represented this stellar sign with the figure of a scarab. According to their myth, this beetle possessed the power of perpetual renewal of life. Therefore it became their symbol of eternity and of \Jresurrection\j. Anticipating the modern custom of bestowing a decoration on people of distinction, the ancient Egyptians presented a special scarab medal to those they wished to honor. No doubt, the purpose of the badge went far beyond a mere decoration and was meant as a magical means to give the person "a long life." (And this is the real and \Jsupernatural\j - but long forgotten - origin of any medal or "decoration.") Likewise, to ensure their \Jresurrection\j, Egyptian dead were entombed with a valuable scarab ornament, often enclosed in the mummy wrappings.
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"Candles and Death",335,0,0,0
Ingeniously, and in every possible way, man has tried to defeat his last and greatest enemy - death. With that aim, Egyptians first built their majestic pyramids, learned to mummify bodies, and composed the "\JBook of the Dead\j," which has been called "Everyman's Guide to Immortality."
Jews and Christians alike believe that burial in consecrated ground helps to ensure \Jresurrection\j. The washing of the corpses was not entirely a reflection of cleanliness: hygiene even after death. It was based on the \Jsuperstition\j that demons and witches had an aversion to water. Therefore, by its application to the bodies of the deceased, they were kept at bay.
The vocabulary associated with death has its own story to tell. A \Isarcophagus\i originally consisted of a type of stone which, the Greeks believed, consumed the flesh and bones of the dead, with the exception of the teeth, within 40 days. Thus they called the coffins made of stone by the Greek word meaning "flesh-eaters."
A \Icenotaph\i now is a monument, erected to honor the dead fallen in battle. Its name, too, is derived from the Greek and signifies an "empty tomb." However, originally, a cenotaph was any monument that did not contain actual human remains or marked their final resting-place. It was built in memory of any person whose bones had been lost, or had been buried elsewhere, or who had drowned at sea.
Different people and faiths have chosen their own terminology to describe the special site where they buried the dead. The original Greek \Icemetery\i described man's "dormitory" or "sleeping place." Germans call it \IFriedhof\i - a "courtyard of peace." Among Hebrews, the cemetery is known as "the house of eternity."
The undertaker is of recent date. He owes his existence to modern man's dislike of the unpleasant. It was in search of an innocuous title that those concerned with the removal of bodies assumed the name. As it was their task to \Iundertake\i funerals, they chose "undertaker" as their so dignified-sounding description, ignoring the fact that many other and much more pleasant things may be "undertaken." However, today even undertaker has lost its original value as a term of dignity and is being replaced by funeral director and, among Americans, grief therapist.
The burning of candles or lights has been linked with death and the dead from primitive times. They still used to light a bier and give special expression to grief.
Catholics light votive candles on \JAll Souls' Day\j in memory of the faithful departed. Jews burn a lamp for 24 hours every year on the actual anniversary of the death of a loved one. Japanese celebrate the Feast of Lanterns.
A perpetual light burns on Christ's tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at \JJerusalem\j. When, in the 16th century, the tomb of Tullia, Cicero's daughter, was discovered in the Via Appia outside \JRome\j, it was said that a light had been burning inside it for nearly 1,500 years. This was not necessarily an incredible, miraculous tale, but could have been accounted for by a supply of \Jnatural gas\j or oil.
The word \Ifuneral\i itself has been derived from the Latin \Ifunus,\i meaning "torch." It was believed that torches and lights at a funeral could guide the departed soul to its eternal abode. Lamps, it was considered, aided the dead to find their way through the darkness.
Later times rationalized the flickering light of a \Jcandle\j as a simile of human life and saw in its steady glow a symbol of the soul, itself a spark from the never-dying flame of the divine.
Originally, however, candles, torches and lights near a corpse or grave served a completely different purpose.
Above all, they were a relic from the days when fires were lit around the dead to frighten away \Jsupernatural\j evil beings anxious to reanimate the corpse and take possession of it. Their domain was darkness and they were afraid of light.
The same considerations accounted for the rite of demon-repulsion, practised at the birth of a child. The ancient Romans lit tapers to keep evil spirits away from a woman in labor. For the same reason, Parsees and Hindus burned fires in the room where a child was born.
As with a newborn child, so too with the departing spirit, the powers of evil were ready to take their toll. But as they could operate only under cover of darkness, a simple light rendered them harmless.
The ghost of the departed itself was believed to be afraid of light and thus, by the burning of candles, was prevented from returning to haunt the survivors.
Another early source of illumination at funerals was the wish of primitive man to provide the dead with the very comforts they had enjoyed in life. Among these was light.
Fear of the dead themselves also was responsible for the use of tapers. The burning flame was to show the deceased that he was well remembered by members of his family and therefore he had no reason to attack them for any forgetfulness. On the contrary, the light, kindled in his honor, should remind him to guard them in reward for their loyalty.
Also it was thought that the dead loved to re-visit their old haunts, especially on certain days, not least the anniversary of their passing. To guide them home and light their way, candles were lit.
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"Candles at Christmas",336,0,0,0
The custom of lighting candles at Christmas originates far back in time. Lighting candles was part of early sun worship: like bonfires, candles were lit in the depths of winter in an attempt to magically strengthen the weakened sun.
When the Church could not stamp out this ancient custom, it invested the lighting of candles with a new, and Christian, meaning. The candles were lit, so the Church taught, to symbolize the divine light that was believed to illuminate the world. According to another Christian tradition, candles were meant to recall the lights people lit in their windows at the time of Jesus Christ's birth, to let Joseph and Mary know that they would be welcome in their homes.
The lighting of candles has also been associated with that period in Irish history when the Catholic religion was banned. A Catholic family would signal when it was safe for a priest to come into their home to celebrate a clandestine Mass by placing a lighted \Jcandle\j in one window. In this way Christmas candles also pay silent tribute to people of all faiths who, in the face of persecution, remain loyal to their beliefs.
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"Candy",337,0,0,0
Strange to say, it was bitter religious conflict that introduced \Icandy\i - both word and food - to the Western world. Crusaders returning from the Holy Land, brought the first samples to Europe, yet another unsolicited gift of religion - alas, in this case, of its wars.
In the \JMiddle Ages\j, Moslems living in the Holy Land used to grow sugar cane which they then milled and boiled in large open vats. Leaving the pulp to cool and to harden, the ultimate products were flat cakes. Breaking off bits, they described them, literally, as "sugar pieces" - in their Arab tongue \Isukkar qandi.\i They used them either to sweeten their meals and drinks or to chew them for enjoyment like lollies.
When the Crusaders took both the sweet and its Arab name back home (where, until then, honey had served as the major sweetener), the "pieces" further fragmented, as it were, by dropping the \Isukkar.\i The left over \Iqandi\i assumed the English spelling that we use today. Strangely, this \Icandy\i did not find a permanent home in Britain. It was taken even further west, to the United States, where to this day sweets are marketed and enjoyed under this name.
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"Cannibals",338,0,0,0
Understandably, cannibals are regarded with horror, as they eat human flesh. However, they are condemned for the wrong reason. Their practice is not the result of a murderous trait, innate cruelty, or a perverse appetite. They do not follow the habit either to show contempt for their enemy. On the contrary, their cannibalism is based on the primitive religious conviction believing that in eating, man did not merely strengthen his body but partook of the "spirit" of whatever he consumed. Eating the flesh of a foe, the cannibal was convinced, he would absorb his qualities of prowess and heroism, adding them to his own. The practice almost amounted to paying tribute to the victim!
The cannibals' name is an error as well. It is a corruption of the name of the Caribes, meaning "brave and daring," a native tribe of \JCentral America\j, still recalled in the \JCaribbean Sea\j. When the Spaniards first encountered them, probably unable to pronounce the names they changed the Caribes into Cannibals. The new name sounded very much like that of a dog - Icano\i in Spanish - and, naturally, the people's dreadful custom of eating human flesh was so loathsome that contemptuously the Spaniards compared them to dogs and, as it were, changed a "brave and daring" name into a canine one. All this is part of the cannibals.
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"Cannon",339,0,0,0
Rather puzzling, if not intriguing, is the term used in \Jbilliards\j, when the cue ball hits two balls in succession. Called a cannon, people have wondered why.
The most obvious explanations coming first to mind, are incorrect. This cannon has nothing to do with shooting straight or otherwise. Another wrong suggestion made was that a member of the church, a Canon, was the first to accomplish this feat. In reality, the term derives from the French for the "red ball," \Icarram bule.\i This contracted into \Icarombole,\i finally to be distorted into the present-day cannon.
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"Cant",340,0,0,0
A variety of circumstances has been suggested in which cant first joined our vocabulary to dub the insincere speech and pious platitudes of hypocrites.
It might have been mere resentment towards the Puritans, those sixteenth-century seceders from the Reformed Church who went to no end to "purify" faith, recognizing as their sole authority the "pure Word of God." Allegedly, they spoke with a whining, nasal sing-song tone of voice. Their detractors referred derisively to this style of speech as the Puritans' \Icant.\i The term was derived from \Icantare,\i the Latin for "singing" (also the source of \Ichant).\i
One tradition traces the origin of the word to the names of the brothers Alexander and Andrew Cant. Both ministers of the Presbyterian Church and Covenanters, they were said to have been real bigots. Whilst ferociously persecuting those who did not share their religious views, they piously prayed for anyone suffering on account of his faith - behavior that certainly qualified them to be the fathers of \Icant.\i
On the other hand, the word might well have been the result of the sincerity and undaunted courage of yet another Rev. Cant.
The Rev. Andrew Cant (b. 1590) was the minister of the Presbyterian church in \JAberdeen\j, Scotland. As a man of strong conviction and outspokenness, he was bound to ruffle feathers and make enemies. These opponents, contemptuously using his name, denigrated it so much that eventually it became the byword it has remained ever since.
A specific incident is said to have started the abuse of his name. Rev. Cant also served as a chaplain in the Scottish army. A service he conducted in 1640 was attended by a large contingent of English officers. Possibly because of their presence, he gave voice to his strong royalist sentiments.
Supporters of Oliver Cromwell, also at the service, deeply resented this and surrounded the pulpit, where with their swords drawn, they threatened the minister. Undaunted, Cant stood his ground. In fact, he is supposed to have dramatically bared his breast inviting anyone who dared to kill him on the spot. None did. However those too cowardly to attack him bodily, began to besmirch his name. They succeeded to such an extent that their vilification survives in the present-day disreputable meaning of \Icant.\i
In 1711, more than fifty years after his death, \IThe Spectator\i published a special feature, highlighting his achievements, his courage and fate. Rather intriguingly, it also related that the Rev. Cant delivered his sermons "in such a \Jdialect\j that it's said he was understood by none but his own Congregation, and not by all of them."
Indeed, there are plenty of versions of the origin of cant. Nevertheless, a comparison of dates shows that the use of the word preceded by many years the life-span of all those clergymen associated with it. It is quite possible, however, that, even if their names were not the basis for the original coining of the term, their stories gave the old word a new lease of life which has not yet expired.
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"Cantaloupe",341,0,0,0
Popes have left their mark in unexpected ways - and not merely on members of their faith. They were responsible for the naming of the musk-melon!
Originally cultivated in \JPersia\j, its seeds were imported to Europe from Armenia in the sixteenth century. They were planted, and the fruit successfully grown for the first time in the Western world in the gardens of Cantalupo, the papal summer residence, near \JRome\j. Recalling this fact, they have been known ever since - worldwide - by the name of the pontifical retreat.
#
"Capella Origin",342,0,0,0
Obviously of church origin is the Italian-derived term \Ia cappella\i "according to [the style of] the chapel." It recalls the days when priests and church choirs used to chant the prayers and hymns without being accompanied by an organ or other musical instrument. Embodying this old religious reference, \Ia capella\i now generally refers to voices singing unaccompanied, no matter where and what.
#
"Capital",343,0,0,0
When man first accumulated wealth, he reckoned his fortune by the head of \Jcattle\j he owned, which was his initial "capital," from the Latin description of "head," \Icaput.\i In fact, all pecuniary matters go back to the land. Primitive societies, not knowing hard cash, paid their debt with head of \Jcattle\j as well. The modern world continues to do so, at least in the way of speaking, as "pecuniary" is derived from the Latin, \Ipecus,\i also meaning "\Jcattle\j."
#
"Cappuccino",344,0,0,0
The special type of espresso \Jcoffee\j known as \Icappuccino\i is called after the Capuchin monks, though the reason for this has been disputed. Some claim that the monks were the first to brew it. Others imaginatively discovered in the way the \Jcoffee\j was served some resemblance with the habit worn by the friars. Capuchin monks are identified by their pointed hood. Did not the frothed-up milk, topping the \Jcoffee\j, form such a "hood?"
#
"Capricorn - the Goat",345,0,0,0
To "get one's \Jgoat\j" - in a manner of speaking - is most annoying; though why is rather mysterious. The presence of the \Jgoat\j in the sky, in the Latin guise of Capricorn - "the horned \Jgoat\j" - is no less puzzling. Why should it be chosen next to the ram, the bull, the lion, and the crab to constitute part of the Zodiac and why was it selected as early as by Chaldean star-gazers?
The obvious explanation lies in its "position:" not in the animal world but up in the sky. Its "house" is situated in that part of the Zodiac which was the place occupied by the sun at the winter \Jsolstice\j. Having traveled farthest south from the equator, the solar body then began its climb up. And was not the \Jgoat\j renowned as a climber? It therefore served so well to symbolize the very \Jconstellation\j through which the sun passed at the moment it reached its lowest point on its downward course and, turning around, had to start its laborious ascent.
And, once again, when the Greeks got hold of the climbing \Jgoat\j from the so much older and alien tradition, they lost no time in making it their own, tethering it, as it were, to the story of their past.
The "apparent" \Jgoat\j, they suggested in their myth, was not really an animal but Pan, the god. Only he had taken on the animal's shape to save his life. And as such Zeus had placed him into the sky. Astrologers and astronomers well remembered its presence and continue to do so in their nomenclature of the Zodiac.
Pan was the god of the countryside, the patron of shepherds and goatherds. His influence spread so far and became so powerful that people saw in him the very personification of nature and the entire universe. That is why his name came to mean - in Greek - "all" and "everything." On countless occasions we recall Pan in his comprehensive connotation. We do so when we speak of \Jpantheism\j, panacea, and panorama to describe a god who is in everything, a remedy that is all-healing and an all-embracing, unbroken view.
In spite of Pan's grandeur and all his love of nymphs and music (the reed pipe was his invention, it is claimed, and therefore called after him - the panpipe), there came a moment when even he panicked and feared for his life.
While enjoying himself in the company of other gods on the banks of a river, Typhon attacked them. This hundred-headed monster was not afraid to fight those of highest rank. To save their lives the entire group of divine revellers jumped into the water and, to make sure their escape, took on other shapes.
Pan disguised himself as a dual being: in his lower part he became a fish and for the rest of his body he was a \Jgoat\j. And that is how Pan was the first ever to "act the \Jgoat\j," though his actions in doing so were completely different from what we mean by the phrase.
Another myth claims that Pan actually had his goatish features from the very beginning. He was born with horns, a beard, a tail, and \Jgoat\j's legs.
#
"Captain",346,0,0,0
A captain would greatly resent anyone mistaking him for a corporal. Certainly, the two differ considerably in rank. But, surprisingly, both mean the same.
Their common source is \Icaput,\i the Latin for "head" which also was responsible for the capital of every country, of every column and every financier. To serve as the "head," the "chief" of a company - sized army unit was the office of the captain. As if to add insult to injury, one theory even claims that the captain's title is the (English) linguistic corruption of the corporal who alone grew straight out of the Latin "head."
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"Captain and Pilot",347,0,0,0
It is incorrect to believe that the moment a pilot comes on board ship, he assumes the captain's responsibility. The captain is in charge of his ship at all times. There is only one exception. This applies to a ship passing through the \JPanama Canal\j. Even then, technically, the captain has the final "say."
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"Captain James Banks' Grave",348,0,0,0
Appropriate indeed, is the ornamentation on the grave of a sea captain buried in the Waverley Cemetery; it is a ship's steering wheel, beautifully rendered in white marble. The words inscribed around its rim are equally apt and moving: "He sees his pilot face to face. Now he has crossed the bar."
Captain James Banks, whose tomb it is, was born in the Orkney Islands on 16 May 1838 and "fell asleep [on] 27th November 1905."
#
"Capuchin Monkey",349,0,0,0
Capuchin friars are identified by the pointed hood (the French \Icapuche)\i they wear. When, in 1529, Matteo di Bassi established the Order, he wanted its members to adopt a habit similar to that of St Francis, and the conspicuous headcovering was part of it.
The outstanding cowl of thick hair on top of a little agile monkey's head reminded people of the monastic cowl of Capuchin friars. Thus, almost inevitably, and without irreverence, they called the animal after them. Attractive, playful and fascinating, with their prehensile tails, Capuchin monkeys became the favorite companions of organ grinders, once a popular sight in the streets of European cities.
#
"Car Bonnet and Boot",350,0,0,0
The bonnet of a car is so called because - like a hat - it protects the engine. In order to stand out and attract attention, car manufacturers used to decorate their bonnet by some distinctive feature. The boot, belonging to the other end of both the body and the car, can be traced to two different sources.
To begin with, it was a simple box containing luggage and other items, which was placed at the back of the car. A box is boฮตte in French. The English appropriated the custom and the word, Anglicizing the latter into "boot."
In the days of horse-drawn vehicles, members of the English upper class employed footmen known as "boots," so called because their many domestic duties included the polishing of their master's boots. They accompanied their masters on trips. It was their job then to assist them to get in and out of the coach which, with the passenger's cabin high above the ground, necessitated some stepping up and down.
During the journey, the footmen took their place at the rear of the carriage, standing on a platform provided for them. It did not take long for this to be called by their "title" - "boot."
Though this former place of the "boot" (of either kind) is now covered and occupied by luggage and other paraphernalia, it retains its original, though now no longer applicable, name. Once created in English class society, it persists as a moving memorial of the now obsolete footmen.
Americans, always to the point, have updated the terms by calling the bonnet a hood and the boot a trunk.
#
"Cardinal Red",351,0,0,0
Cardinals, of so elevated a rank in the hierarchy of the Church, have the responsibility of acting as chief papal counsellors and, should the need arise, of electing a new Pope.
Because so much "hinged" on their decisions, both in the affairs of the Church, and in the world beyond, they were named cardinal from the Latin \Icardo,\i "a hinge." Their high position was reflected by their dress, the red hat, the scarlet biretta and mantle they wore. So conspicuously vested, it is no wonder that their name entered the spectrum of hues, and \Icardinal,\i apart from being the title of their ecclesiastical office, was also used as the name of a deep, rich color, cardinal red.
#
"Carnage",352,0,0,0
\ICarnage\i - now meaning the cruel slaughter of human beings - has its origins, like \Ivictim,\i in the practice of animal sacrifice. Sacrifice was a central feature of early worship, belonging to the period when people sincerely believed that they owed their god, as his rightful due, the life of a valued animal. The root of \Icarnage,\i the same as that for \Icarnal\i (Latin \Icaro, carnis),\i means "flesh" - in this case that of animals slaughtered in the religious act.
#
"Carol Singing",353,0,0,0
The idea of singing at Christmas time stems from the thought that the angels sang when they appeared to the shepherds at \JBethlehem\j to announce Jesus Christ's birth.
The present-day meaning of a carol, however, is far removed from its original one. A carol was once a secular dance which was performed at any time of the year. People held hands and formed a ring and, as they circled around, they joined in song. The configuration of the participants in this "ring-dance" reminded onlookers of a coronet - \Icorolla\i in Latin - so they called it a "carol." The name was later transferred from the dance to the song itself. By the 16th century, carols were sung only at Christmas time. The subject of the songs also came to relate exclusively to Christmas.
Another development followed. For some time Christmas carols were sung only in church, and only by the bishop and the \Jclergy\j. But carols rapidly became popular amongst the general public and were soon sung in the streets and other public places. They dealt with the theme of Christmas, not just with the subject of Jesus Christ's birth, in the most varied of ways.
#
"Carrying the Bride Over the Threshold",354,0,0,0
The custom of carrying the bride across the threshold has been found among the ancient Romans, the Redskins of Canada, the Chinese, and the Abyssinians.
Several reasons could account for it. All of them date back to a superstitious past or do not reflect favorably on the beginnings of matrimony. This custom, too, might be a recollection of the days when wives were captured. They did not come willingly but had to be taken by force into the man's house.
Psychologists may even think that it is a wise and not-so-romantic way to make the woman realize who runs the house and who determines where to go. On the other hand, it is a common experience that even a sham opposition creates greater desire, and perhaps the bride loved to appear as if she entered the new home under compulsion.
A \Jsuperstition\j, dating back to almost prehistoric times, makes people afraid of stumbling. It was thought to be a sign of ill luck, especially if you fell over your own doorstep. To avoid any possibility of such an ominous accident, that might doom the marriage from its very beginning, the cautious bridegroom carried his bride across.
In ancient \JRome\j the threshold was sacred to Vesta, the virgin goddess. Therefore, it was considered not merely bad taste, but sacrilegious, for a woman, who was about to leave her maiden status, to touch the threshold.
Indeed an ancient belief in the sanctity and evil properties of the threshold may account most of all for the custom. People assumed that demons dwelt there and to avoid touching it they jumped over it. To propitiate those evil forces, they buried stillborn babies under the door or smeared blood on its lintels. To save his wife from any possible contact with the demons lurking under the doorstep, the young husband carried her across.
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"Cartomancy",355,0,0,0
To play cards in any of its many forms - such as bridge, \Jcanasta\j, or poker - may be an innocuous pastime. Yet if used for gambling, it can make or break a person, gain or lose him a fortune. But from the days of their invention many centuries ago, \Jplaying cards\j have fulfilled a much more ominous role, in the literal sense of the word "omen." It was claimed that as the universal language of \Jsymbolism\j was used in a pack of cards, this "book without words," if rightly interpreted, could tell volumes about man's fate and future. However, only those highly skilled and endowed with psychic power were able to discern the message.
"It's in the cards" is a remark made occasionally. Used generally to express a belief in fate, fundamentally the phrase reflects one of the most favorite forms of \Jdivination\j - cartomancy. People have rightly asked why cards came to play such a significant role in such diverse spheres as gambling and fortune telling. The answer is really simple. Both contain the element of chance, appeal to man's love of risk, and cater for his fascination for the mysterious.
Views differ as to which came first: amusement or \Jdivination\j. There is no doubt that man has always been anxious to pierce the veil of illusion and to penetrate the mystery of the future. "\JPlaying cards\j" thus must have served the purpose of fortune telling almost from the very beginning. In Europe, cards were used for fortune telling, nevertheless they were called "\Jplaying cards\j," not ignorantly but deliberately. It was by way of camouflage: to keep away the uninitiated, the unenlightened and, most of all, those dangerous to anyone engaged in the pursuit of the occult.
Of all decks used for \Jdivination\j, none excels the \Jtarot\j cards in significance and complexity. To "read" them has produced countless elaborate treatises and altogether raised numerous questions on life and its psychic exploration.
The discovery of the message contained in the cards, to begin with, could be compared with the deciphering of a cuneiform inscription. Each of its individual picture graphs may have several meanings. They may differ on each occasion and depend on the context in which the figure appears. Only those steeped in ancient Babylonic-Assyrian culture and lore and gifted with special skill could ever attempt to read even a simple cuneiform text.
Thus the adept in tarotology must first of all be fully cognisant of what each card might represent, and then how its meaning is changed by the sequence in which it is picked and in the way it is laid out on the table. This task calls for a tremendous amount of study and is easily subject to error and misinterpretation.
But cartomancy goes far beyond a decoding of symbols, since it concerns the psychic world. Man has often been led to wonder whether there is such a thing as chance. No one can deny that those who know how to "grasp" it can change it into providence. May it not also be that an occurrence we call chance, actually is the result of a causal chain of factors still unknown to us? We are so used to taking things at their face value. Many of us are as ignorant of and insensitive to the subliminal world, as tone-deaf and color-blind persons are to a great part of reality which, though it exists, they miss.
Churchill once gave the telling example of a man leaving his home and then turning to the right. In so doing, he met on his way the very woman who was to change his entire life. The man then gratefully thought how lucky he had been. He could have just as well turned to the left and thereby would have missed the fortunate "chance encounter."
In discussing the case, Churchill pointed out the fallacy of the argument. It only had relevance with "all other things being equal." But how did the man know? Could it not have happened that if actually he had turned the other way - to the left - the young woman would have come from that side?
There are no chance coincidences according to occult belief. Those who "pick" specific cards by what is termed "mere chance," may not do so "accidentally" after all, as the average person might assume. There may well be some (still unknown) factor that determines the selection of a particular card as distinct from all others. The apparent random choice might not be random at all.
It is a known fact, for instance, that people trying to get hold of an object in the dark without really knowing its position, may nevertheless direct their hand straight towards it. They do so by some mysterious, instinctive sense of direction. Likewise, there are cases in which people "accidentally" opened a book which they had never consulted before, at the very spot that contained the information they needed.
Events are never independent. There is always a connection between past, present and future. Interaction is a universal and cosmic law. Pascal's reflection that if Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, "the whole aspect of the world would have been altered," was not an entirely fanciful observation.
Invariably we react to one another and are susceptible to our surroundings. In different company we become a different person. Almost like a \Jchameleon\j we take on the color of our environment.
Just as the letters of the alphabet, when arranged in different sequence spell out diverse and no doubt at times contradictory words, so do cards vary in the message they convey, if anything still more so. On each separate occasion this depends on the particular card that is picked, how and when it is selected, and the pattern into which it eventually falls. Of course, not everyone would be able to decipher what each card tries to say, not individually, but in the sequence in which it is "chosen."
To complicate matters yet further, methods of \Jdivination\j vary according to the several schools of the occult that are being followed. The most common way is to ask the "consulter" to shuffle the pack and then to pick a card, and to repeat this procedure several times. The tarotologist then arranges the selected cards in a definite pattern. But the pattern he applies is due to the tradition he has adopted, making things even more complex. It may take the shape of the \JHebrew\j tree of life, of a pyramid, or of King \JSolomon's seal\j. The practitioner then reads out of the cards (or into them) the answers to the questions put by his "client."
Other problems arise. Did some mysterious power emanate from the inquirer that determined the choice of cards? Are those claiming the gift of "reading" cards influenced by some spiritual contact which goes far beyond telepathic communication?
Furthermore, the actual pictures and even the way in which they follow each other in their "chance" sequence may have little significance as such. Their paramount purpose could well be to serve as a stimulus, to rouse a latent psychic gift and open up in the tarotologist, as it were, a sixth sense of viewing a world that is hidden to the ordinary mortal.
By concentrating on the various pictures on the cards and their combination, his power of recognition may be activated. As in crystal gazing, they may create a hypersensitive state in his mind, receptive to ideas which would normally escape others. It is exactly like the case of sounds and colors which, though existing, are inaudible and invisible to the ordinary human senses, because their decibels and wavelengths are beyond reach. Looking at the \Jtarot\j symbols may unlock memories long forgotten (perhaps even of previous lives) and fire a chain of thought buried in the \Jsubconscious\j.
Reading the past, the future, and fortune from \Jtarot\j cards thus is not the mere decoding of a message by mechanically following certain rules and traditions. The revelation received depends on a psychic rapport going far beyond man's ordinary senses.
Considering the countless and diverse factors that relate to the practice of \Jdivination\j and the possibilities contained in a pack of \Jtarot\j cards, a famous retort seems so applicable. A viewer at an exhibition of \Jmodern art\j could not make out what a picture represented. The artist, when asked what it meant, replied: "It means whatever you find in it."
#
"Carving",356,0,0,0
A great variety of meat cuts are named very descriptively. In many instances their original location can be pictured. Thus we speak of the rump, the rib, and the (shoulder) blade.
Carving, on the other hand, was once a very expert and complex duty; so much so, that eventually it was not left to the master of the house but was delegated to a professional. Each species of animal required its own treatment. The official carver not only mastered the art but, being very erudite, knew how to apply the most specialized vocabulary. He "unlaced" a \Jrabbit\j, "spoiled" a hen, and "disfigured" a peacock.
#
"Casino's Meaning",357,0,0,0
Universally, a public place for gambling is known as a casino. And yet, its designation makes no mention of its function. From the Italian, casino solely means "a little house," the diminutive of casa.
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"Cast Iron Lamp Posts - First Made by Henry Langlands",358,0,0,0
The inscription on a \Jsandstone\j \Jobelisk\j in the Melbourne General Cemetery reflects the gratitude of the workmen of the Port Phillip Foundry towards their employer, "Henry Langlands Esq." When he passed away on 21 June 1863 at the age of 69, they paid for the monument for their London-born boss, and on it summed up his life and death with the Psalmist's words (37,37), "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace."
Langlands had not only looked after them well, but had been responsible for a diversity of "firsts," all linked with his foundry. His was the first boiler to be cast for the first train to run in \JAustralia\j. He launched the first cast iron vessel - 32.7 meters long - and made the first cast iron bell and lamp post. Much of the cast iron lacework on homes all over \JAustralia\j came from his foundry.
#
"Cat and Fiddle",359,0,0,0
Some public houses are known as "The Cat and Fiddle" and, accordingly, display on their signpost, a cat playing the violin. The strange combination is due to a misunderstanding, going back to an historic encounter.
Caton is said to have been a Knight of renown who had distinguished himself at \JCalais\j. In recognition of his bravery, he was dubbed \ICaton le Fidฮฆle\i - "Caton, the Faithful." To honor him, the British called an inn in his (French) name. Fame is fickle and French to most of the English, a foreign tongue. \ICaton le Fidฮฆle\i thus sounded to them like a "Cat and Fiddle."
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"Cat Bringing Home Prey",360,0,0,0
When a cat brings to its owners a dead bird or mouse, it does so not as a gift, to express its affection, or gratitude. The more likely reason is its wish to teach the human what it has learned to do so well, to hunt successfully.
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"Cat Hunting Instinct",361,0,0,0
Feeding a cat well does not stop it from hunting. A well-nourished cat will continue to chase birds, mice and rats, though, once having caught and killed its prey, will refrain from devouring it. A fat cat thus has not lost its hunting instinct. However, its \Jobesity\j may well be of advantage to any potential quarry, as the cat might feel too lethargic to bother or, even if taking up the chase, prove much too slow.
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"Cat Myths",362,0,0,0
From \JEgypt\j the cat spread everywhere. And the myths and legends of many countries added to its fame and involved it more and more in the world of the occult.
The Greeks were among the first in one of their myths to make the cat a creature that had a special bond with the netherworld and with death. However, it started not in the subterranean region but among the gods and was the ultimate result of yet another of Zeus' escapades, this time with Alcmene. She had become pregnant by him and was bearing in her womb the future \JHeracles\j. In her fury and envy, his wife Hera was determined (if unable to prevent the birth) at least to delay it and thereby to prolong Alcmene's labor pains.
For this purpose Hera stationed Eileithya and the Moirai outside the adulteress' home. Holding their knees together and clasping their hands, they were able by sympathetic magic to keep the child back in the womb for nine days after the delivery had actually been due.
But Alcmene had a faithful servant, Galinthias, who made use of a lie to end her mistress' suffering. Rejoicingly she announced to the divine magicians holding their watch that there was no need for them to go on doing so. Their magic had been unsuccessful, as Alcmene had just given birth to a lusty child. Apparently frustrated in their effort and deeply disappointed, the goddesses jumped up in surprise. Of course, this immediately broke the spell. Alcmene's womb opened and she gave birth to \JHeracles\j.
All Hera could do was to give vent to her anger. As her plans had been cunningly sabotaged by Galinthias, Hera was resolved to punish her. To do so she transformed her into a cat which she banished into the underworld. There Galinthias became the priestess of \JHecate\j, the queen of the witches and the goddess of death. And that is how ever since cats, wherever they are, remain loyal to witches. They keep in close touch with them and with all that is ghostly and uncanny.
Another Greek tradition tells of how \JHecate\j herself - at least temporarily - had become a cat to save her own life. The incident related to the monster Typhon's bid to take over the world and rule both heaven and earth. To escape him, \JHecate\j had taken on feline features. But once Zeus had put down the rebellion and slain Typhon, \JHecate\j had resumed her original, "natural" shape.
However, she never forgot that she had been able to survive by taking on the disguise of a cat. She never lost her deep feeling of affection towards the feline which was passed on to the cat's countless descendants. They became \JHecate\j's favorite creatures to whom she extended special treatment. They could count on her at all times and in all circumstances. But they could do so particularly in matters which concerned her special sphere of influence: witchcraft and all that is related to the realm of the \Jsupernatural\j. And \JHecate\j feasted on dog's flesh once a year, which would endear her to the pussies!
Norse \Jmythology\j contributed its share to the tying of a cat to the witch. It pictured Freya, the goddess of marriage, fruitfulness, and fertility, as sitting in a chariot that was drawn by cats! No doubt, they had been specially chosen for the task because of their own prolific faculties.
When in its conquest of paganism, \JChristianity\j in order to eradicate deeply rooted heathen beliefs decried them as the works of the devil, it branded Freya as a witch. And, as once cats had pulled her along, she in turn now pulled the cat with her into darkness. . . And Christians, remembering the Norse myth, saw in the feline creature an ominous companion of all witches.
This presents yet another of the paradoxes so frequent in life. Without qualms, Christian nations continue to honor the goddess Freya weekly, on every Friday, the day named to pay homage to her. But they decried the cat as an evil being which served the powers of darkness and therefore was a harbinger of bad luck because it had once faithfully worked for that goddess.
It was however not those myths alone to which the cat owes its uncanny reputation. Personal experiences of people confirmed and reinforced the traditional attitude and the cat's occult stature. The cat, in its own right and for its strange ways, truly deserved to occupy a prominent status. Everything known of a cat places it in this choice position.
A cat has always seemed to be "psychic" and endowed with gifts no ordinary being possessed. It seems to "sense" the invisible presence of \Jsupernatural\j forces. Some people believe that its unexplained purring at times was due to it seeing a ghost. Individuals who are allergic to cats, or suffer from ailurophobia, also "sense" a cat's presence even if they have not seen it yet. They do so most probably, it has been said, because a cat transmits (by radiation or its aura) some psychic message which precedes its physical arrival.
Night has traditionally been the time of the devil, under whichever guise he might choose to appear. And the cat is a nocturnal creature. It can see in the dark, its eyes are so moonlike. They shine like mysterious green luminaries. And its caterwauling is so eerie. It goes on its hunting expeditions when the shades of night have enveloped the earth. Its arched back, its fur that can bristle, and emits sparks if stroked, are all features which add to its mystery and its (assumed) occult propensities.
Hardly any other creature is so enigmatic, inscrutable, and independent. A cat will do what suits it best and no power on earth can persuade it to change its mind. It has its own apparently "irrational" likes and antipathies.
The cat excels in fecundity. And if witches really continued the ancient fertility rites, a cat certainly would serve them as the finest aid and symbol, not least by sympathetic and imitative magic.
Cats love to curl up in front of a fire. And the hearth used to be the sacred center of all homes. Once again thus, the feline had chosen the company of a god! While lying there, it assumed the form of the magic circle and all that it implied.
Only a cat is able to speak - silently - with its tail, which has a vocabulary all of its own, so much so that in Greek a cat was literally called "the tail waver." But this same tail also reminded the ancients of the wriggling serpent that was so closely linked with the underworld and its dark pursuits.
The cat's proverbial "nine lives" (three times the sacred figure three) are based on its fantastic power of resilience and recuperation. Does not a cat always fall on its feet? However, here too, the cat had an association with the moon, and was worshiped as a lunar being. The moon was also symbolic of constant renewal: though it wanes, inevitably it will wax again.
The cat's habit and gift to lie motionlessly in wait for hours on end is fearsome. Watching its victim, apparently unconcerned, suddenly it will pounce on it and not let it go! And there is its devilish and death-dealing play with a mouse or a bird.
Thus no other animal was better suited, almost "preselected," to be attached to a witch, the priestess of black magic. And as witches were alleged to possess the gift of shape-changing, cats were thought to serve as the most appropriate form for a witch to assume.
There was yet another significant reason which made a witch choose the cat of all animals. Cats were pets in almost every home. And no one could really ever know for certain whether a specific cat was just the ordinary feline creature kept to catch mice, whether it engaged in the dark craft of the occult or was - much more sinister still - a transformed witch!
This explains as well that, in the traditional picture of a witch, she retains the cat's claws in her long nails and the cat's green eyes.
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"Cat Rubbing Against Owner",363,0,0,0
Cat owners feel highly flattered, when their cat rubs itself against them. They are under an illusion if they imagine that it is meant to show affection. The cat does so selfishly, as the friction gives it a sensuous feeling of gratification.
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"Cat's Attachment to Home",364,0,0,0
Though cats have been known to return great distances to their former home, they do so only if their love for their human "friends" who have moved away was not strong enough. Most cats are much attached to their owners and will happily settle down with them wherever they go.
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"Cat's Falling on Feet",365,0,0,0
A cat does not automatically fall on its feet. As a tree climber, it is endowed with a highly developed \Jcerebellum\j, the organ in the inner ear responsible for maintaining bodily equilibrium. At times however, this is congenitally defective. A drop from any considerable height might endanger the cat, as it is unlikely then for "puss" to land on its four padded paws.
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"Cat's Lick",366,0,0,0
Cat lovers like to think that when their cat licks their hand or any other bare part of their body, it does so to show affection. However, to see in a cat's lick a kind of feline kiss misinterprets its reason which is far removed from any expression of love. Like humans, at times cats need salt and having discovered its presence on their owner's skin, try to lick it off. Their own well-being, and not love, is the motive.
#
"Cat's Night-sight",367,0,0,0
The commonly-held belief that cats can see in complete darkness is not correct. However, nature has added to the black of feline eyes an extra, reflective layer of cells, known as \Itapedum.\i This facilitates the animal's night hunting and enables it to see when visibility has become too dim for ordinary human eyes.
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"Cat's Nine Lives",368,0,0,0
The first reference to a domestic cat stems from the year 2100 B.C. and, naturally, from Egyptian lands, where also, soon afterwards, the mother of a Pharaoh's courtier was nicknamed "Pussy."
The tradition that a cat has nine lives goes back equally far into the distant past and to the river Nile. It is linked with both mystical thoughts and very realistic observations.
A cat is strong, hardy and a good fighter. No wonder, therefore, that the legend arose about Kilkenny cats which - very Irish - fought until nothing was left of them except their tails.
A cat always seems to fall on its feet, whose paws are well-padded and shock-absorbing, a feature which protects the body from injury.
The cat is one of the most tenacious of creatures, taking good care to guard itself. Suspicious in nature and taught to be cautious, the cat watches its steps and looks out before leaping. It takes no risks and approaches unidentified objects and persons gingerly and with great deliberation. Whilst an expert in catching mice and rats, it certainly knows how to look after itself and to avoid being caught by others.
All these many and varied facts, physiological and psychological in nature, have combined to preserve and lengthen the cat's life. But to express its longevity and tenacity by assuming that a cat lived not just once, but nine times, has its source in ancient religious belief.
Nine is a mystical number. It is composed of three threes, a trinity of trinities. Thought to possess \Jsupernatural\j power and to work as a charm, this figure has featured prominently in the myths and traditions of many parts of the world.
Egyptian astronomers taught the existence of nine spheres. The Greek lunar year counted not 12 but 9 months, and the river \JStyx\j was thought to encircle (the Greek) hell nine-fold. Odin, the Teutonic god, gave power to Freya, the goddess of love, over nine worlds. Even \JChristianity\j followed this numerical tradition; according to the Gospels, Christ died in the ninth hour.
It is not surprising, therefore, that to express the cat's mystical power of life, use was made of that very figure as well. Bast, the cat-headed goddess of \JEgypt\j, where our feline friends were divine, was said to possess nine lives, and this no doubt is an important factor in the legend of cats' longevity.
As it were, to add further protection to our cats, lest the full span of nine lives be diminished, humans have been warned (no one knows by whom first) that they should never attempt to take even one of its lives. If they did so - from the beyond - the cat would haunt them and devise a particularly nasty revenge. It is one of the most useful cat superstitions - to the cat.
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"Cat-o'-nine-tails",369,0,0,0
The cat-o'-nine-tails was the whip used for the punishment of offenders in the army and navy and (as recently as 1948) in British justice in cases of crimes of violence.
The number of its "tails" (which were actually knotted cords attached to the handle of the whip) was not accidental. The original purpose was magic. The number 9 was thought to ensure that the flogging would be effective and "reform" the guilty party for the rest of his life. (The choice of the cat's name for this cruel instrument was due to the fact that injuries suffered by the flogging looked very much like scratches a cat would inflict.)
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"Catch-22 was Catch-18",370,0,0,0
Modern times and literature have given us "Catch-22" as a most concise description of the paradoxical situation in which whoever is caught in it, has no way out.
The American author Joseph Heller vividly described such a dilemma and gave it its name, using it as the title of a satirical novel, first published in 1961. A best-seller, its title and very problem soon caught the attention of the public and "Catch-22," a predicament well understood, became part of our language.
After having participated in numerous bombing missions, an American airman in the Second World War felt the need to be relieved from further duties. However, when asking not to be rostered for more flights, he was informed that, according to regulations, permission to stop flying could only be granted if he could prove insanity. The mere fact that he asked to be excused from going on any more dangerous flights proved that, far from being crazy, he was very sane indeed! He had reached a deadlock.
Actually, to call the excruciating predicament "Catch-22" was merely a second choice. Originally, Heller had referred to it as "Catch-18." However, as Leon Uri's book \IMila 18\i had just come on to the market, the publishers felt it wise to change Heller's title at the last moment. To use the identical number would have led to confusion and served neither author. Luckily, to solve this problem presented no extra hitch!
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"Catching a Cold",371,0,0,0
A cold is so common that people have created numerous myths as to how they can catch it. Wrongly thus, wet feet have been blamed. No matter how wet the feet are, they will not infect the respiratory tract. What might happen is that by chilling the body, a person's resistance is lowered, thereby making him more susceptible to picking up the (still unidentified) cold virus. Standing in a draft in itself does not result in a cold either. Catching it under such circumstances could only be due to the unfortunate coincidence that the air blown into one's face carried a cold germ.
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"Caterwauling",372,0,0,0
Caterwauling - a term of onomatopoeic origin, i.e. imitating the sound made - is usually linked with a cat in heat or on a sexual pursuit. This is not exclusively the case. The raucous yowling noise may be made by two tom cats when confronting each other, to intimidate the opponent.
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"Catgut: the Misnomer",373,0,0,0
Cat lovers will be happy with this misnomer. There is nothing from inside the feline on string instruments. The so-called catgut comes from the intestines of sheep.
How the cat crept into this error has been variously explained.
"Kit" used to be the name for a small fiddle, especially favored by dancing masters. It was easy to confuse that (little-known) "kit" with the ubiquitous "kitten" and to imagine that violin strings were its posthumous contribution.
Another derivation suggests that the error was due to fast speaking. Slurring the words "\Jcattle\j gut" was contracted, resulting in a linguistic shape-change from \Jcattle\j to cat.
People who listened to a learner practising the violin, not very kindly compared the sound to caterwauling. This made them think that only a cat's gut could produce such noise.
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"Catherine Wheel",374,0,0,0
Catherine of Alexandria, a beautiful girl of noble birth, was a devout third-century Christian. Unafraid, she raised her voice against the Romans' persecution of her fellow believers. Many were the stories (some of them apocryphal and of a much later date) that told of her courage and missionary zeal.
Her final confrontation with the authorities led to her arrest. Condemned to die (in A.D. 307), her execution was to be of the most horrendous kind. She was to be broken publicly, on a spiked wheel.
Miraculously, however, legend tells, the wheel disintegrated at the moment her body touched it, its flying splinters killing bystanders instead. Catherine, nevertheless, did not escape her fate. After this first abortive attempt at carrying out the sentence, she was axed to death. Legend also tells that angels then carried her body to the top of \JMount Sinai\j. There a monastery was erected in her honor and named after her. She had, meanwhile, been canonized.
It was not St Catherine's only monument. One of the highlights of public celebrations is the "Catherine wheel," which sends out sparks of colored fire and flames. A pyrotechnical spectacle, it is not only called after the martyr, but shaped like the torturous instrument intended for her execution. Strange to think that man's early cruelty has contributed an idea for a device that augments our fun. Once a symbol of religious martyrdom, the Catherine wheel has become a conspicuous feature of festive fireworks.
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"Caught Red-handed",375,0,0,0
Though now applied to any breach of law or conduct, to begin with the phrase to be "caught red-handed" referred exclusively to the instant apprehension of someone who had seriously injured or killed a person. The criminal was caught so quickly that he had not even had time to wash the victim's blood from his hands.
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"Caught with One's Pants Down",376,0,0,0
A person who is caught with their pants down is taken completely by surprise. The result depends on the circumstances. Whichever way, they expose themselves and are placed in an awkward and unenviable position - risking life or, at the very least, reputation.
The saying is of doubtful parentage. According to one suggestion, it stems from the American wild west and frontier days. It so happened that an American Indian caught sight of a white man just when he was relieving himself. With his trousers down, he did not have his firearm at the ready and, therefore, totally unprepared for the encounter, became an easy target.
More general and up-to-date is another explanation. It relates the phrase to the compromising situation - when a wife catches her husband with his pants off - enjoying the company of another woman!
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"Cause of Birthmarks",377,0,0,0
Mystified by birthmarks, people have rightly wondered what caused them. Some genuinely believed that they were the result of a fright experienced by the mother whilst pregnant. They even imagined to recognize in the mark the very object that had been responsible for the emotional upset.
The notion created the custom for pregnant women to gaze at beautiful paintings and listen to good music. They were convinced that in so doing, they would be spared the excitement and their child would be endowed with artistic gifts.
Shocks do not cause birthmarks nor do they leave any physical traces on the fetus. It has rightly been pointed out that, if it were so, many a baby would look like a speckled hen. Generally, a \Jbirthmark\j is a malformation of a blood vessel.
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"Celebration",378,0,0,0
To a happily married couple, no date is more joyous than the anniversary of their wedding day, no matter how many years have passed since they were handed that certificate which pronounced them husband and wife. The wedding anniversary date should always be kept free for celebrating and it should be the first date to be entered into one's diary at the beginning of each year.
Apart from a gift, which may be linked with the designation of the day, the wedding anniversary may be celebrated in a variety of other ways. Some couples may send each other greeting cards, their text and ornamentation thoughtfully chosen to suit the partner's taste. Others might actually make or draw their own very personal cards to express their special feelings in simple and genuine language - though perhaps words may prove inadequate.
To confine the celebration to a card or a note, however, would be the very least to be expected! An anniversary is a special occasion and should be marked by something additional. Some couples prefer to celebrate their anniversary on their own, while others may enjoy doing so in the midst of family and friends. A festive dinner at home or at a favorite restaurant could become an annual tradition. For the music lover, how about a visit to a concert? Or, for those who appreciate theater, perhaps a show could highlight the day. Revisiting some place from their courting days will give a couple precious time for happy remembrances and may also serve as an opportunity for jointly planning the year ahead. And, to the religiously motivated, a joint prayer of thanksgiving or attending worship may be most appropriate.
Life has its ups and downs. When a couple reminisce on their anniversary, they recall both trivial and difficult times. This might include moments when harsh words were spoken or when a disagreement spoilt a day. However, recalling even the unhappy times need not interfere with the enjoyment of the celebration: on the contrary, it will make the couple realize that such upsets, in retrospect, were really insignificant. Now that they are relegated to the past, those incidents can be seen to have deepened their relationship, making it firmer and more mature.
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"Centipedes",379,0,0,0
Exaggeration is not the sole property of advertising. Thus the literal meaning of the \Jcentipede\j is that it has 100 legs, which is a vast miscount. In spite of what it "says," the ordinary \Jcentipede\j possesses a maximum of a mere twenty pairs of legs!
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"Cereals and Ceres",380,0,0,0
All \Jcereals\j pay tribute to Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. Literally, she was "the sower," as her name derives from the Latin \Iserere.\i
One special occasion, not only linked but identified the deity, for all time, with food made from grain. A severe \Jdrought\j in 496 B.C. caused Roman farmers' fields to stay barren. In their plight, they prayed to Ceres, asking her to send rain. As she controlled the growing of their produce, they believed that she would also be able to come to their aid in this matter.
Their petition was answered. In gratitude, they dedicated the grain to Ceres. The association was never lost, though the circumstances were forgotten. That is how, eventually, all cereal crops were called after the goddess.
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"Chairperson Origins",381,0,0,0
With women's liberation, the chairperson has replaced the now obsolete chairman. Paradoxically, the title - even in its gender neutralized version - has been outdated for many years.
Totally meaningless nowadays, if taken literally, the term made good sense centuries ago when it was first applied. Chairs then were still uncommon. Being rare, they were expensive. Those attending meetings were seated on rough benches. Only the person presiding, out of respect to the office and position, occupied a chair. Possibly, it was the only one available. That made that person (and very conspicuously so) the "chairman," and anyone who spoke of or to them could not be misunderstood when addressing (or referring to) "the chair," by calling them "Mr Chairman." When women eventually came to hold the office as well, they were addressed as "Madam Chairman," a contradictory combination.
Everyone now sits on a chair and so, logically, all those attending a meeting should be called chairpersons. But this would defeat the purpose of the choice of title. Habits of the past, even when they have become obsolete and meaningless, are not discarded, nor do terms and practices they created. Retained as a relic of the past, the chairperson, as it were, has become a fixture.
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"Chamber",382,0,0,0
A 14th century chapel, which was destroyed by fire in 1834, was the earliest Chamber. It still is the prototype of British Houses of Parliament throughout the world. They continue its original rectangular shape, but the altar has been replaced by the canopied Speaker's Chair. The ancient pews survive in the members' benches. This explains why, up to this day, those sitting in Parliament do not occupy individual seats.
The comparative smallness of the Chamber gives all debates dignity and intimacy. It also creates an atmosphere of friendship even among opponents who, though far removed in political views, sit close together. Furthermore, as was pointed out at the rebuilding of the \JHouse of Commons\j in London in 1941, after its destruction by enemy action, a crowded small Chamber is so much more advantageous than a large one, depressing by its being mostly half empty.
The arrangement of benches along two sides, following the example of the ancient church, fostered the two-party system. British tradition taught members to respect their opponents' opinion. Thus the Opposition is officially known as "Her Majesty's Opposition," with its implied suggestion that the "Opposition" is as much a part of "Her Majesty" as is the Government. In remuneration its leader is not far behind the Prime Minister. To pay someone to oppose you is a telling example of British democracy.
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"Chamois Leather",383,0,0,0
There is nothing of the \Jchamois\j, that \Jgoat\j - like \Jalpine\j animal, in \Jchamois\j leather. It is made from the underside of the sheepskin.
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"Champagne Glass",384,0,0,0
It is said that the saucer-shape of a champagne glass, commonly used nowadays, is the result of a love affair. It was modeled on a woman's breast - that of Madame Pompadour, mistress of King \JLouis XV\j of \JFrance\j.
The shape, in spite of its alleged romantic association, is the least suitable for the full enjoyment of the drink, in no small measure due to its bubbles. The extended width of the glass contributes to their rapid dissipation and thereby greatly reduces the pleasure. No wonder that the original champagne glass was narrow-brimmed, which gave the bubbles a much longer time to rise!
Another of its conspicuous early features was its hollow stem. It, too, had a practical reason, though now obsolete. When wine was not as refined as it is today, it allowed the dregs to settle in the hollow stem and for people to enjoy a pure drink.
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"Champagne to Christen a Ship",385,0,0,0
In the early ritual of christening a ship, red wine was used. It took the place of the blood of the human sacrifice once offered at the launching, a gruesome custom deemed necessary then to pay off in advance the gods of the sea for protecting the boat and ensuring its safe passage.
The substitution of the wine by champagne was not due to any wish to wipe out memories of that murderous practice. Champagne, being so much more expensive, was regarded more appropriate for such an auspicious occasion.
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"Champion of Many Causes",386,0,0,0
\BDame Mary Gilmore\b
When Professor Colin Roderick gave the oration at the funeral service of Dame Mary Gilmore at St Stephen's Church, Sydney, he was not exaggerating when he described her as the most outstanding figure in the country's literary, social, and political life. "Compassionate and charitable, of motive pure, indomitable in will, in moral fibre strong, Dame Mary Gilmore set a noble example," he said her work assured her a life beyond death. Generations to come undoubtedly would turn to the epic of her life for enrichment and inspiration.
Dame Mary died in Sydney at 97 years of age, on 3 December 1962. The tributes paid to her on the occasion demonstrated the high regard in which she was held by everyone. Both federal (Liberal) and state (NSW Labor) governments joined in giving her a state funeral. This was attended by parliamentarians, trade unionists, churchmen, and prominent figures not only of literature, but of every walk of life.
After the service, hundreds of people stood in silence to watch the cortege, with a police escort, pass along Macquarie Street on its way to the Northern Suburbs Crematorium.
Dame Mary's ashes then were taken to the Cloncurry Cemetery (located near the property her family owned), to be interred next to the remains of her husband and son. They had predeceased her within a few months of each other. At the time, Mary had been so deeply distressed that in a letter to a friend she confessed that she did not know what life still held for her. In spite of this, she felt that she must try to get on with the work. It would be the monument "to all of us."
The inscription on the headstone she shares with her husband and son is brief, though its very words say much.
\IIn family record of
WILLIAM ALEXANDER GILMORE
Born Victoria 20.3.1866.
His Wife MARY (O.B.E.)
Born NSW 16.8.1865.
And their Son
WILLIAM DYSART CAMERON GILMORE
Born \JParaguay\j 21.8.1898.\i
Notably, though the epitaph gives the exact dates of birth, it omits the dates of death. In Dame Mary's case it was symbolic; she really never died, but lives on in the pattern of Australian life she so much helped to shape.
Dame Mary's achievements are so diverse and numerous that only a few examples can be given. All through her life she stood up for the neglected, deprived, or exploited. For some time she lived with an Aboriginal tribe, to show her respect for these most ancient Australians.
Mary qualified as a teacher and was appointed to a school in Silverton. There she learned of the injustices suffered by the miners, a lesson she never forgot, which made her the ardent socialist she was to remain for the rest of her life. In pursuit of her ideals, she even went to \JParaguay\j to help in the abortive attempt to establish an Australian utopia, a perfect socialist state. Her presence there explains the birthplace of her son.
Dame Mary was among the first and most vehement to campaign for institutions and attitudes which are now taken for granted: women's rights, old age, and invalid pensions, baby health centres and the general social acceptance of illegitimate children. She wanted Australians to learn of their past (which inspired many of her poems) and to be proud of it. She strongly advocated the establishment of a chair of Australian literature at universities, and she wanted every community to become interested in its local history.
On the other hand, she foresaw and looked forward to the time when floods of immigrants would enrich Australian life with their own cultures. No issue was too small or too great for her, if she felt the need to support and to fight for it. In whatever she said, wrote or did, she observed her own code of integrity and honesty. Passionately she believed in truth. "Truth to me," she said, "is more than powers and principalities and the applause of rogues and fools."
In one of her poems Dame Mary tells how she herself wishes to be remembered:
\IWHEN IN THE DUST I LIE
When in the dust my light is hid,
Tell if you must the things I did,
But let no word betray
Truth from its narrow way.
I shall not ask to be as one
Whom death must mask when all is done;
Mine be the light, although
Ragged and patched I go
Pity I take not of any-
Few to forsake me, or many;
Only I ask that you
Tell that my heart was true.\i
#
"Champs Elysฮes",387,0,0,0
The Champs Elysฮes, the monumental Paris avenue leading to the Arc de Triomphe, was called after the Elysium, the Greeks' mystical land of perfect happiness.
Classical traditions differ as to who was qualified to enter this ancient paradise. Homer believed that only favorite heroes were admitted who, once inside, would gain immortality. For \JHesiod\j it was an abode set aside solely for those dead who had proved their value in life.
All agree that to enter Elysium was an honor reserved for the truly good. When the French chose its name for the Paris thoroughfare they were well aware of the traditions. The avenue, like Elysium, was to be the center of the world, a site "where life is easiest to man," offering unequaled bliss.
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"Chanukah: Feast of Lights",388,0,0,0
\BThe Feast of Lights\b
Chanukah, the Feast of Lights, usually falls some time in December. It lasts eight days. Though regarded a "minor" festival, on which Jews are permitted to carry out their normal daily work, its message is major and universal. It speaks of the supremacy of spiritual values over material forces and commemorates the survival of \Jmonotheism\j when a despotic pagan empire tried to destroy it.
\IChanukah\i means "consecration." The feast celebrates the rededication (in 165 B.C.) by the \JMaccabees\j of the Temple in \JJerusalem\j after it had been desecrated by three years of pagan worship. Its story is told in the Book of the \JMaccabees\j in the Apocrypha.
Though greatly outnumbered, the small band of \JMaccabees\j were able, by the strength of their faith, to oust the invader who had tried to force his pagan philosophy and way of life on all the countries he conquered.
Nightly during this festival, Jews light the \IMenorah,\i an eight-branched candelabrum. They do so in their synagogues and in their homes. On the first evening a single \Jcandle\j is lit and the number is increased by one on each evening until, on the last night, all lights shine forth.
The candelabrum is named and fashioned after the original \JMenorah\j, a seven-branched candlestick that once stood in the Temple and has become the symbol of the Jewish faith.
A legend explains the practice of lighting it on eight consecutive nights. When at long last, the \JMaccabees\j had expelled the invader and cleansed the Temple, they were about to rekindle its perpetual lamp, which was the symbol of God's continuous care and which had been extinguished by the foe. But all they could find was a single jar of undefiled oil, sufficient to last only one day. Miraculously, it burnt for a full eight days, the time it took to prepare new oil for the sacred lamp.
Each of the eight nights offers its own excitement. Children receive gifts. \JPotato\j pancakes, known as "Latkes," specially prepared for the occasion, are shared by the family, who also join in an innocent gamble with "Dreidels." These are small spinning tops, marked on each of their four sides with a \JHebrew\j letter which indicates how much the player has won or lost.
But the big event is the kindling of the \JMenorah\j and the joint chanting of the Chanukah hymn, which praises God as the "Rock of Ages." The candelabrum is then placed near a window to "publicize the miracle" and as a symbol of the light of freedom that must shine for all races and peoples of the world.
Chanukah, indeed, is a happy festival, looked forward to each year by young and old.
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"Chaperon",389,0,0,0
The redundancy of groups of workers is not only a modern phenomenon, the result of the introduction of advanced technology to the workplace. It occurred in the past as well, when social changes made once established institutions and occupations superfluous. The case of the chaperon is a typical example.
Only a few generations ago, a young girl or a courting couple were not permitted to venture out alone. They had to be accompanied by a female guardian. It was her duty to watch over them, making sure that nothing unseemly happened, according to the strict mores of the time. That the lady employed for the purpose came to be called "a chaperon," links her with ecclesiastics, though it does so in a roundabout way.
\IChaperon\i was the French name for a hooded mantle, originally worn by priests, later adopted by French knights. When the Normans crossed the English Channel, they introduced it into Britain, where it became the fashion, particularly among noblemen. Members of the Order of the Garter then appropriated the chaperon as a conspicuous part of their Knightly full-dress costume. And as one of their duties was to act as royal guards at Court, the once priestly hood became closely associated with the serving as an escort.
So far restricted to men, women came to wear the chaperon as well, making it a unisex garment. Like all fashions, eventually the chaperon became outmoded. However, elderly ladies continued to dress in it.
At the time, a male-dominated society offered little opportunity for a respectable woman to earn a living, or at least to supplement her income by some worthy occupation. Those matronly ladies therefore quite often took a position in families, who engaged them to protect the young girls in the home. It did not take long for them to be identified with, and then even to be called after their conspicuous, but by then generally discarded dress - the chaperon.
Finally, even these guardians of propriety shed the chaperon. Yet its name stuck to them, to become the description of anyone entrusted with the task of looking after the proper demeanour of young people.
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"Charisma",390,0,0,0
Believers in the occult are convinced that people have an aura. Invisible to all but the psychic, it surrounds and emanates from everyone and can have a most potent effect. But extraordinary people are endowed with an even more powerful radiation. Like a magic spell, this can exert a supreme influence on large crowds, if not entire nations. And a term, long forgotten, has been dug up in modern days to describe that very condition and to explain recent events in the world of politics and its most evil manifestation, demagogy.
Charisma spoke literally of a (divine) "favor", a free "gift" or grace, granted by a \Jsupernatural\j power to a specially selected individual. The present-day popularity of the term, so some authorities think, may be due to Max Weber, the well-known German sociologist. In his writings he was the first to apply the word again in modern days; he used it to describe the phenomenon of "charismatic leaders." This phrase caught on and was soon applied to national figures throughout the world whose appeal - for the best or the worst - hypnotized the masses.
Both as a word and a concept, charisma goes back to ancient \JGreece\j, where it referred to the showing of favor and grace. Personified as the Charites (mythologically the three daughters of Zeus), these "Graces" (in their Latinized form, \Igratiae)\i were believed to vouchsafe their free gift to certain favored people who with this inspiration, became distinguished by extraordinary personality which could be expressed by physical beauty, intellectual, artistic and moral stature, or the ability to divine the future.
St Paul, who was deeply influenced by Greek thought, took over its charismatic tradition. Adapting it to the new faith, he taught (Romans 12,6; I Cor. 12,4-11) that the gift-granted by God - was not meant to enrich the person so favored but to enable him to bestow good on others. However, to be thus honored was not the result of personal sanctity. Nor was it a reward for good deeds. It was undeserved and unmerited, in the later theological phraseology, "Graces gratuitously given."
St Paul enumerates nine different such gifts which included the art of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, and the talent of "speaking with tongues." Modern religious groups of various churches have gone back to St Paul's description and definition of the divine Graces. Their members claim to have acquired the ancient gift in a charismatic renewal and strongly experienced awakening "to the life of the \Jholy spirit\j within us."
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"Charity Begins at Home",391,0,0,0
That "charity begins at home" is a specific type of misquotation. The words are exact and correct. Nothing has been added or left out. But there has been a significant change of meaning in the concept of charity.
As understood now, charity refers to material help. The phrase thus would confirm as man's right, first and foremost to look after "number one" - himself. The quotation, indeed, has frequently served as a welcome excuse not to contribute or subscribe to outside causes. Such interpretation, however, is far from the original meaning of the phrase. Chanty then expressed love in the highest and purest sense. It was the gift of unselfish qualities: compassion, empathy, and magnanimity joined with humility. The proper training ground for these traits - once regarded essential for a fulfilling life - was the home, and that was the original implication of "charity begins at home."
#
"Charlatan",392,0,0,0
Even the charlatan can be traced to religion. He originated in a practice that eventually was not only strongly condemned but, in no small measure, contributed to the Reformation.
Sinners, conscious of their guilt and feeling burdened by it, were anxious to obtain divine forgiveness. At one period, they were led to believe that they could do so by literally "paying for their sin," by buying what were known as "indulgences." It was a transaction easily made but, often a costly one, frequently exploited by the unscrupulous. Convincingly, they led transgressors to think that a substantial monetary contribution given to them (and through them to the church funds) would wipe out their sins.
Italians came to call this type of ecclesiastical pressure - salesman a "cerretano." They are said to have taken the name from Cerreto, a village situated north of \JRome\j and famous for its quacks and frauds, self-styled traveling doctors and dispensers of nostrums. Endowed with the gift of the gab, they easily succeeded in taking people in.
It so happened that in the Italian language, \Icerretano\i was very similar in sound to \Iciarlare,\i meaning "to chatter." It did not take long for both words to become confused and then fused, to create the \Iciarlatano,\i as a description of the "agent" for forgiveness of sins.
When the Italian term reached England, like so many other foreign words, it changed shape and sound to become \Icharlatan.\i Even its meaning shifted: it no longer referred to a salesman of divine pardons, but to one whose glib talk allowed him to dispose of very mundane, but equally suspect, goods. A charlatan is now simply any imposter professing knowledge he does not have and offering services he is not qualified to give.
#
"Charms",393,0,0,0
Everything in life is relative and depends on the circumstance of time and place. That one person's meat is another's poison is much more than just an adage. Monogamy and \Jpolygamy\j have both been declared moral and essential: but by different peoples and religions. Whether the black cat that crosses your path presages good or ill fortune, again depends on whether you find yourself in an \JAnglo-Saxon\j country or on the European continent.
To be called a charming person nowadays certainly is a compliment and flatters people. But in the fourteenth century no one would have welcomed being regarded as such; anyone who was found "charming" could well have been destined to be led to the torture chamber, if not to the gallows or the stake.
To begin with, charm was magic power which could "take in" and bewitch people. The very history of the word tells that charm consisted of neither looks nor demeanor. Derived from the Latin \Icarmen,\i "charm" was a "song" and specifically referred to the magical chant and incantation used to bewitch people or to render a solemn rite truly effective.
That also explains Bizet's choice of Carmen as the name of the central figure of his opera. She was the alluring gypsy girl who knew how to "fascinate" men so that, forgetting their duty, they would help her escape the forces of law and order.
The story of the \ILorelei,\i made famous by Heine's poem and the music to which it was set, tells of a siren who, from a rock on the right bank of the river Rhine, enchanted and lured boatmen to their death by her "song."
But even charms of that type did not last. And eventually the original song or recited formula would, as it were, solidify and take on the form of an object. The once verbal spell, transmitted orally, was made permanent by misappropriating the original magical "song" to designate objects which, worn or carried by people, would ensure their good luck or their protection against evil, disease, defeat, or disaster.
The tinkling sound made by the many charms hanging from a woman's bangle thus is a feeble echo of the early enchanting song. However, by its very noise it is also thought (even if not realized by the average person) to drive away devils.
#
"Chartreuse",394,0,0,0
Chartreuse is yet another monastic legacy to the world of drinks. Its name recalls La Grand Chartreuse, the Carthusian monastery, situated north of \JGrenoble\j in \JFrance\j, where the liqueur was originally made.
The formula of the drink is still a strictly-kept secret and the subject of much mystery and legend. It all started, so the story goes, in 1605. In that year, A. F. d'Estrฮes, Marshal of \JFrance\j, had presented a manuscript to Carthusian monks in Paris. Allegedly it contained the prescription for an elixir for a long life, once the treasured property of alchemists. Unfortunately, however, the document was indecipherable.
It took almost 150 years before - in 1762 - Brother Jฮrโ me Maubec, another Carthusian, succeeded in unravelling the text and with it the complicated instructions. Alas, he did so only at the very end of his life. On his death bed, and no longer able himself to apply these instructions, he dictated their contents to one of his brethren.
The monk lost no time in distilling the elixir which, during a local \Jcholera\j epidemic in 1832, proved its salutary value, at least as a tonic. It led people to refer to it as "the liquid of health."
The ingredients of the chartreuse and the method of its production continued to be a guarded secret. Tradition claims that the brandy-based liqueur was flavored with 130 different types of herbs and plants, all growing in profusion in the mountainous, wooded, sub-\Jalpine\j region in which the monastery was situated. No doubt, they gave the drink its pale yellow-greenish apple color, a \Jhue\j itself now called \Ichartreuse,\i after the drink and the monastery. It conforms with Oscar Wilde's recollection that, when visiting the monastery, he was told that the beatific expression on the monks' faces was the result of "one-third green and two-thirds yellow."
#
"Chateaubriand",395,0,0,0
Chateaubriand was a man of many parts. A French Viscount and an opponent of Napoleon, he served as a soldier and as Ambassador Extraordinary to Britain. He also became a famous author. To try to re-Christianize \JFrance\j and in defense of the Church of \JRome\j, he wrote his most notable work.
After its publication in 1802, so the story goes, he dined with a friend in a Paris restaurant. To honor his famous guest and in recognition of Chateaubriand's book, the owner served a most luscious steak, the like of which he had never previously cooked. He grilled a thick slice of beef between two other pieces of meat. When the latter were almost burned to charcoal, he discarded them to present Chateaubriand with the center piece, a truly succulent steak. The Viscount relished both the meat and the attention.
The arrangement of the three pieces was prompted by the writer's Christian fervor! The outer two burned pieces were meant to represent the two thieves crucified on either side of Christ who was symbolized by the rare center steak!
In spite of his preoccupation with religion, Chateaubriand was a vain man and loved to be the center of conversation. When, eventually, people lost interest in him and no longer talked about him, he refused to accept the fact. He explained it by imagining that he had gone deaf and could not hear people mentioning his name.
Chateaubriand would be happy to know that his name has become immortalized and linked with the pleasure experienced by the palate of discriminate diners of all religions.
A more prosaic tradition claims that it was not in Paris, but in London, that the steak had first been cooked, and that its creation was linked not with religious, but political, circumstances. Famous Montmirel, Chateaubriand's chef, had invented it to be served at ambassadorial dinners. To please his master he had called it Beefsteak Chateaubriand.
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"Chauffeur",396,0,0,0
To have a chauffeur driving a car is outdated, not only economically, but in his designation. From the French, his title speaks of a "stoker," recalling the early days when automobiles were steam-driven. It was his duty, as his name still indicates, to "heat up" \I(chauffer)\i the engine. Thoughtlessly, we continue to speak of a chauffeur, though he may drive an air-conditioned (internal combustion) car.
#
"Check/Cheque Origins",397,0,0,0
The earliest checks were bills of exchange. First used in \JItaly\j in the thirteenth century, they were then adopted by the Dutch, reaching England in the seventeenth century. The original check was payable to the nominated person alone and could not be transferred. The new practice greatly simplified trade, as it no longer necessitated the movement of bullion or other moneys, often over great distances. It enabled the seller even if living in a far-off district to collect the money owed from a local trader.
Typical is one of the earliest English checks still in existence. It is in the way of a letter dated August 16, 1675 and addressed to a Mr Thomas Fowles, a goldsmith in Fleet Street, London. It instructed him "to pay unto Mr Samuel Howard or order upon receipt hereof the sum of nine pounds thirteene shillings and sixpence."
The bill of exchange could take many other forms. It could simply be written on a scrap of paper, a piece of cloth, or other material or, as is said to have happened at least once, on the hide of a live cow.
Originally spelled "check," it was named after the counterfoil of a bill used to check the validity of the transaction and to serve as a safeguard against alterations or forgeries. It was only later that the name was transferred to the entire "document." The Americans retained its original spelling, whilst the British adopted the French version, cheque.
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"Checkered Black and White Flag",398,0,0,0
Motor racing presents its own thrills and dangers. To avoid fatal accidents and collisions, it necessitates careful supervision and meticulous organization. For this purpose, the Fฮdฮration Internationale de l'\JAutomobile\j, as the controlling body of the sport, has introduced a worldwide system of (altogether) eighteen signals. In the form of flags, these are designed in patterns that can easily be memorized and recognized by the drivers. Proceeding at record speeds, and hence catching only a glimpse of the signal when approaching it, they must be able to identify it in a split second and against any background. A mistake made in "reading" the message can cost them the race, if not their life!
Each flag relates to a specific circumstance or emergency. The variety of situations includes the need to stop instantly (obviously conveyed by a red flag), the approach of some dangerous stretch (yellow), information that oil covers the course further along the track (yellow with red stripes), or that an ambulance is ahead (a white flag). But nothing is more significant to those taking part than the end of the race, hopefully the "winning post." To make the flag indicating it truly outstanding and distinct from all the others, it is the only one which is checkered, with black-and-white squares. So different, no one could ever mistake it. Traditionally, it should only be waved for the winning car, while it is held steady for all the rest.
#
"Cheerful Farewell",399,0,0,0
\BLouis Fraser\b
Worldly is the inscription on the stone marking the grave of Louis Fraser who passed away at 83 years of age in 1987. The "Round Plain" Cemetery in which he is buried was dedicated in 1870. Situated half-way between Cooma and Kiandra, it can be reached by a side road only. Far from mournful, his epitaph reads like a cheery farewell, appreciating past mateship:
\IThere old friends I must leave you
I know you will understand
It was a wonderful thrill to meet you
And to feel the grip of your hand\i
#
"Cheerio",400,0,0,0
To bid each other "farewell" is not always easy, particularly so if there was a communion of spirit, a sharing of joys and of thoughts. People may say goodbye in several ways. Each has its own background and explanation.
"Au revoir," the German \IAuf Wiedersehen,\i says in French what friends really hope for: to see one another again. To some, the English "ta-ta" may sound rather childish, while many a person, who calls out "see you later" well knows (and hopes) that the two may never meet again. Cheerio, however, with its happy sound taking leave and yet looking into the future to a reunion, may have diverse explanations.
First of all, it recalls early days of transportation. One way to move about then was by being carried in a sedan chair. To start with, this was privately owned and reserved for the wealthy and noble. But with the passing of time, the sedan chair became a public vehicle, plying as a taxi for all and sundry.
Without personal transport at their disposal, people have become accustomed to stand at the curb and call out to a passing cab, "Taxi!" Earlier generations did the same. They stood on the road, outside a home or a tavern, waiting for a sedan chair to pass by. Seeing it approaching, to attract the carriers' attention, they called out, "Chair-oh!"
A polite host always waits till his guests have departed, making sure that they have transport. And as this was mostly the case after they had called out "chair-oh," this hailing of their cab doubled up as a farewell greeting, eventually slightly changed into "cheerio" which thus still carries inside, though hard to see, the original sedan chair.
Cheerio, however, may come from a completely different source. Parting is sorrow to many. The French proverb observed that "to part is to die a little," \Ipartir c'est mourir un peu.\i It was to encourage both the person who went away and the one who stayed behind, not to take the parting too sadly that they said to each other, cheerio. It was a reminder to "cheer up" and consider their separation only temporary.
This would conform with yet another derivation of all "cheer" which sees in it (the Latin root for) the "face," \Icara.\i Cheerio, as a parting greeting expressed concern even at a time of farewell to remain of "good cheer" showing a happy "face."
#
"Cheshire Cat",401,0,0,0
Cheshire, one of England's old counties, was noted for its cheese and its independence. Out of these sprang one of the versions of the origin of the grinning Cheshire cat.
For almost 500 years after the \JNorman conquest\j of England, Cheshire kept politically independent. It prided itself on its own Parliament, courts of law and taxes. Judges, appointed by the king of England, had no authority or \Jjurisdiction\j over that part of the land, whose ruling Count possessed royal privileges.
This distinction, so her people imagined, amused even their cats and made them so proud that they grinned from ear to ear. Even though the cat's grin was merely imaginary on the part of its owner, he soon found a way to materialise it: if not on the pet's own face but in the form of cheese!
Cheshire has always produced some of the finest of cheeses, that staple food of high nutritional value. It was enjoyed far beyond the county's borders. Cheshiremen thought: why not use this product to tell the world of our proud tradition of freedom, recognized and treasured alike by man and beast!
That is how, according to this tradition, the people of Cheshire came to sell their cheese in the shape of a cat - with the cat invariably grinning.
Another explanation sees in the smiling cat the remnant of a feared man - one Caterling of Chester. The fact that Cheshire was sparsely populated outside its few cities, and lacked England's power, attracted fugitives from justice. Soon the large Delamere Forest became a haunt for highwaymen and other criminals. The county itself just had neither means nor men to enforce the law.
Things thus got out of hand until, under the reign of King Richard III, Caterling became the Forest Warden of Cheshire, determined to stamp out the evil.
His zeal knew no bounds and within three years of taking the office he was responsible for the apprehension and hanging of at least 100 offenders.
Proud of this achievement, Caterling attended himself each of the executions, sadistically grinning from ear to ear. And it was his sneer at the hangings that people remembered. In no time it became proverbial all over England. And when people saw a smirk on a face they could not but help immediately to be reminded of the Caterling sneer and accused their friend of grinning "like the Cheshire Caterling."
As time went on, the identity of the man was forgotten and all the horrible circumstances that had given rise to the phrase. And as, after all, cats were so much more common than Caterlings, eventually Mr Caterling's grin was shortened into the much more pleasant (but non-existent) grin of a Cheshire cat.
All this certainly would not make Mr Caterling a very nice sort of person, in spite of his desire to see justice done. Therefore, and if for nothing else, another story is so much more acceptable. This relates that Caterling himself took up the sword against the many brigands who were roaming his territory. And it was his terrifying facial contortions during the duels that became famous and were misinterpreted as a grin.
There is a third view, given by Eric Partridge in his "Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English." This recalls that a cat, very fond of cheese, was called a "cheeser cat." Hence, when speaking of the grin of a Cheshire cat, people tried to say that they were as pleased as a cheeser cat that had just eaten cheese.
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"Chess Origins",402,0,0,0
Today chess is considered a game for the most peaceful of men. Actually, monastic orders introduced it to break the monotony of their life. However, it was invented in India in the 7th century A.D. as a game of war: to illustrate and rehearse army movements. It is thus not surprising that in modern times the playing of chess was a valuable part of the training of Russian soldiers.
Even the name of the game retains its martial beginnings. The word is derived from the Indian \IChaturanga,\i meaning "consisting of four divisions." These referred to the four kinds of troops that made up the traditional Indian army; infantry, cavalry, chariots and elephants. Added to them, as a matter of course, was the Supreme Commander in the person of the King and his Minister.
The names of the pieces, as they are known now, hardly remind us of the field of battle. This is not the result of intentional camouflage of the soldiers but due to the development of language and the moves of chess through many lands.
Persia adopted the game from India, and when the \JArabs\j conquered \JIran\j, they made chess part of their life and carried it wherever they went. That is how, with the spread of \JIslam\j, chess also extended as far West as \JSpain\j, as far North as Turkestan, as far East as the Malayan Islands, and as far South as Zanzibar. It did not take long to penetrate from the \JMoslem\j countries into those of Christian Europe.
Italians, Frenchmen and Englishmen adopted many of the original terms for the pieces. Whenever they knew what the words really meant, they simply translated them into their own tongue. But if the meaning was obscure to them, they retained the foreign words, which might still baffle the uninitiated.
The piece of smallest size and value, the pawn, without our realizing it perhaps, represents the infantry. It is the medieval French word for the foot-soldier, derived from the Hindu description of an attendant. Rooks, on the other hand, literally recall the ancient Persian armed chariots.
It was the Italian people who determined to change the battlefield into a model state. For that purpose they did not even desist from changing sex - at least on the chessboard. The Minister was made by them the Queen of today. Then, perhaps remembering how thick-skinned politicians must be, they converted the original Oriental elephant into an Elder of State, not inappropriately in ecclesiastical \JItaly\j, represented by a Bishop.
Of all terms of the chessboard, \Icheckmate\i - the declaration of final victory - is the most interesting. It has become part of our everyday speech, expressing the thwarting of effort and the foiling or outwitting of others.
Checkmate is the traditional exclamation by which a player announces he has put his opponent's King into such a position that it cannot escape capture. The word could not be more explicit, if it is realized that it retains (though in Anglicized form) the original Arab victory cry "The King Is Dead," check being the corrupted Arab title for a king - \IShah\i - and \Imate\i the Arab's description of all that is "dead" \I(mat).\i
There are other, and much earlier, claims about the invention of chess. Some give the credit to the ancient Egyptians, and base this on an interpretation of early wall paintings from the time of one of the Pharaohs called \JRamses\j.
Others believe that, as in so many other things, the Chinese first enriched the world with this game of skill, which they designed to help their soldiers pass the time in their winter quarters in the county of Shen, from the name of which the word chess, so it is said, is derived.
King Solomon, perhaps because of his proverbial wisdom, is asserted to have been the first chess player, just as Aristotle, Greek luminary in the field of philosophy, has been called the father of chess.
#
"Chestnut",403,0,0,0
The description of a stale joke as a "chestnut" came about quite by accident. It is the only word now remembered from William Dimond's \Jmelodrama\j "The Broken Sword," a stage hit at Covent Garden, London, in 1816. One of its characters was an old eccentric captain. A real bore, he told the same story innumerable times, only with minor variations.
When, once again, he had started relating it, this time he mentioned a cork tree instead of the usual chestnut. Immediately, Pablo, another character in the play, interrupted him to point out that it was not at all a cork tree but a chestnut. "I have heard you tell the joke twenty-seven times, and I am sure it was a chestnut!"
A \JBoston\j actor watching the performance was so fascinated by this particular incident that he adopted it himself. His own repetition of the joke's joke took the fancy of his audience. They loved the "chestnut" so much that it became the talk of the town, to spread nationwide. It has been the proverbial description of a story repeated too often ever since.
Rather fitting to this chestnut story, there are equally variations concerning its authorship and the circumstances of its first use. According to one version it was a painter, Edward Abbey, who liked to tell the same story to all and sundry. This spoke of a man who, for a living, cultivated chestnut trees, but being very generous he never sold any but gave them away, with the result that he earned nothing.
Knowing well that people would not listen to him again if they knew that they were going to hear the old, old story, he always started it differently. But it did not take them over-long to realize that it was yet another variation of his favorite (and only) tale. So they stopped him by calling out the one word, "Chestnut!"
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"Chi-Rho",404,0,0,0
"Buried under Christ," in a metaphorical sense, are those whose tombstones bear his monogram in which the Greek characters "X" \I(Chi)\i and "P" \I(Rho)\i are superimposed. They are the first two letters of \IChristos,\i the Greek for "Christ." Early Christians already used them as their emblem.
Traditionally, they were also the "sign" Emperor Constantine saw in the vision which led to his conversion. For this reason, he made it part of the Roman Imperial standard.
A previous use of the two letters, no doubt, contributed to their adoption by \JChristianity\j. To the ancient Greeks the \IChi-Rho\i was an abbreviation of \Ichrestos,\i their description of anything that was "favorable" and "propitious." Thus the \Janagram\j was also recognized as a symbol of good omen.
Others identified the two Greek letters with the Latin characters of "P" and "X," used as an abbreviation of \IPaX,\i the Latin for "peace." It was a most apt choice of a symbol on a headstone; the beloved whose grave it marked, was now resting in eternal sleep and was truly "at peace."
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"Chicken ฮฑ la King",405,0,0,0
Chicken may be served in many ways. Obviously, the pride of place should go to chicken ฮฑ la King.
However, any royal connection of this chicken is fictitious. No king - ruling or dethroned - was responsible for it. Some say that actually the chicken ฮฑ la King was conceived in republican America. At the beginning of this century, anxious to please his boss, a Mr E. Clarke King II, the chef of the Brighton Beach Hotel, Long Island, NY, had called the dish after him.
Much more likely is the suggestion that the "King" was the misheard name of a Mr Keene who patronized the famous Delmonico Restaurant in New York.
Englishmen claim that the chicken was first "cooked up" in their country. The chef of world-renowned Claridge's, London, was also a keen racing man. He had chosen the name to honor the owner of the prize-winning horse at the Grand Prix in 1881, a Mr J. R. Keene, a regular guest at the establishment.
People have short memories, and soon no one - whether in Britain or in the United States - recalled Mr Keene. Chicken ฮฑ la Keene made no sense. Thus the name was misunderstood and changed into the royal title, for once making ignorance (a culinary) bliss.
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"Chinese Book of Changes",406,0,0,0
Magic rods certainly have ruled the world in many spheres (see Power of the Rod.) Their role extends from space to time. Apart from discovering what was underground, they have been used to reveal what was still to come.
Metaphorically speaking, with the aid of a stick, man has tried to "dig up" not just the past, but the future as well. Like most methods of \Jdivination\j, this type also has been called by a Greek name which renders it all the more mysterious. The psychic application of rods in this context is known as rhabdomancy, from the Greek \Irhabdos\i for "stick."
As a well known method practised and popular in the East to this very day, it goes back to the far distant past and earliest Chinese civilization. Sticks (or in their place spills or coins) are tossed to the ground. And the anxiously sought information is gained from the pattern they form there. One way this might be done is very much like fortune telling from the random shape formed by tea leaves in a cup. In the clairvoyant's mind it conjures up a meaningful picture. This is almost an anticipation of the modern psychological ink-blot test.
It seems all so simple, so primitive and misleading, like food for the gullible. And yet, it is not really the sticks (or whatever is used in their stead) which by themselves, or even by the way in which they fall, supply the source of revelation.
It has been suggested that the individual "casting" them may possibly have \Jsubconscious\j control over the manner in which they fall by the amount of force he uses and the way he tosses them. It can be compared to someone throwing a dart. He will direct it in such a way that it hits the target desired. Only in this case, it is not the result of dexterity (or ruse) but by the strange operation of some psychic gift and its involuntary manipulation.
It was equally thought that the erratic pattern that the dropped spills form on the ground was not accidental and meaningless, a mere chance fall. The configuration indicated the answer to the question put. The real problem was to spell it out, to know its correct interpretation. To the psychic person the pattern that appeared on the ground, however, was not the actual message. It merely acted like a spark plug, firing their gift of \Jdivination\j, parallel to the cases of crystal gazing and cartomancy.
And that is most possibly the way in which the "looking into the future" worked. It all happened in the mind of the person who did the forecasting and had little to do with the spills. Nevertheless (and this is unfortunate), people soon imagined that they could apply the interpretation of the various patterns in some generalized manner and hence divorced it from the person of the "medium" who had hitherto been the intermediary to catch the message. They believed that all they needed was some kind of guide book that would give them the key to the meaning of the various forms.
It was therefore assumed that the shape displayed had an independent significance and did not need a special clairvoyant individual for its explanation. And it was this opinion that gave birth to "dictionaries" in which you could "look up" as it were what "fate" or "the \Jsupernatural\j" was trying to convey, by the way it had arranged the sticks for you. And among the works used for that purpose, the most ancient and famous, and oddly enough a favorite again in our time, is \IThe Book of Changes,\i the \II Ching.\i
Perhaps one of the oldest surviving Chinese classics, the work is said to date back to at least 1000 B.C. and is attributed to Wen Wang, the founder of the Chou dynasty. Numerous commentaries have been written on it, one of them allegedly even by \JConfucius\j. Greatly venerated, they are but little understood. The very antiquity of the work and the obscurity of its style gave ample room for diversity of opinions. This made the type of rhabdomancy on which \IThe Book of Changes\i was based even more difficult and more dependent on the individual interpreter.
The author of the book is said to have based its entire content on speculations made by Emperor Fu Hsi. He reigned at the beginning of the third millennium B.C. and, significantly, had invented a tool to split wood (thereby easily producing the sticks needed). Studying the markings on the back of a \Jtortoise\j, he had discovered eight diagrams which supplied him with a complete philosophy of life.
\IThe Book of Changes\i in its simplest (and oldest) form consisted of sixty-four oracles based on those eight \Jtortoise\j diagrams. According to the author, two primary and \Jfundamental forces\j exist in the world: "Light" and "Darkness" - \IYang and Yin.\i But differing from the Zoroastrian view, they did not represent an ethical \Jdualism\j of good and evil. Their distinction related to the solar and lunar aspects of life, the male and the female principles.
The graphs in the book (which it adopted from Fu Hsi's system as well) use the simplest possible method. An unbroken line represents \IYang\i - the sunny side. \IYin,\i the dark, lunar quality, is indicated by a line split in the middle. Each diagram or oracle is a combination of six lines: a hexagram of oblong shape.
Altogether there are, therefore, sixty-four different possibilities of joining both the divided and the continuous lines into a hexagram. To start with, their sum total was seen as a complete cosmological system, the sixty-four basic universal principles and fundamental conditions of life. With the passing of time however, the original \Jsymbolism\j with its depth of speculation got lost. People became more concerned with their own personal future than with ethical and philosophical contemplations. They employed the graphs now for purposes of \Jdivination\j alone. And thus \IThe Book of Changes\i became a favorite "key" in the realm of fortune telling, used solely to interpret the kind of life allegedly forecast by the pattern the spills or coins cast to the ground seemed to predict.
The "magic rod" of ancient days survived not only in the hands of the water diviner and fortune teller, in \IThe Book of Changes,\i and as the medical emblem in the staff of Aesculapius. Its occult power was responsible also for the creation of the royal scepter, the officer's baton, the mace, and (in part) the conjurer's wand! Even if nowadays looked upon as mere symbols, originally they were believed to invest those holding and keeping them with \Jsupernatural\j, occult power: to reign, to command, and to perform their magic art.
It shows how truly all our life - whether we know or admit to it or not - is deeply influenced, if not determined, by the occult. Whether it is so for better or worse depends on many factors: the circumstances of the situation and the individual. Whichever way, the first essential for anyone who is concerned and not merely intellectually curious is to find out how it all started and to what purpose.
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"Chinese Boy Who Made Good - Quong Tart",407,0,0,0
In a modest grave in the Rookwood Cemetery rests a Chinese entrepreneur whose name had become a legend during his lifetime: Quong Tart. His early death at the age of 53, on 26 July 1903, was the result of injuries sustained in the previous year, when a robber had brutally assaulted and almost killed him at his office in the Queen Victoria Building, the site of one of his numerous luxurious tearooms.
Two thousand mourners came to his funeral. They wanted to pay their respects to "Mac Tart" as he loved to be known, "a fine Australian gentleman of Chinese ancestry."
Police mingled with the mourners because at the time it was feared that, with so many Chinese people gathered, the Tong War once again might flare up. But no incident disturbed the laying to rest of one of Sydney's most beloved and admired achievers.
Born in Canton, Quong was nine years old when in 1859, accompanying his uncle, he came to \JAustralia\j, heading straight for the Braidwood goldfields. Quong soon found employment at the local store. Owned by a Scotsman, it sold everything from provisions to hardware.
An astute boy, he was a fast learner and, being able to read and write, had a great advantage over the mostly illiterate Chinese miners. Always alert, obliging and pleasant, he was also endowed with a vivid sense of fun.
He endeared himself to a wealthy family, who not only took him into their home, but treated him as if he were their own son. They instilled in him a love of all things English, not least cricket. They also gave him their Scottish accent which he never lost; cartoonists in later days depicted him as a Scottish Highlander. Certainly, he had come a long way from his Chinese home.
Quong became a favorite figure on the Braidwood social scene. His standing in the community grew greater when he acquired part of a mine, which proved most profitable. One of his greatest assets, however, was his ability to settle disputes among the Chinese community.
As country life no longer satisfied him, he moved to Sydney, where in no time, he became an equally well-known and respected figure - both in the Chinese and the general community.
An entrepreneur par excellence, Quong Tart was the first to import China tea into \JAustralia\j, and opened a chain of luxurious tearooms at wisely selected sites, near theaters, in the Queen Victoria Building, and in the zoo. A pioneer in public relations and advertising, he offered free cups of tea to any passer-by.
Tart's policy was that his tearooms were to provide every possible comfort, something totally novel in the city. Only the best was good enough for his guests. The rooms were decorated with beautiful Chinese carvings. Marble tanks had large \Jcarp\j swimming in them. There were separate smoking rooms for gentlemen and "retreats" for the ladies. Even the appointment of the toilets differed from anything seen before. Not only were there many of them, a wise move for an establishment dealing in cups of tea, but they were also possibly the first in \JAustralia\j to be equipped with both hot and cold water.
Quong's pursuits proved lucrative. But he had a social conscience as well; he showed his concern for those not as lucky as he had been, and his love for \JAustralia\j, in many ways. One Saturday, for instance, he invited more than 250 Sydney newsboys to be his guests. Their tables were laden with food, and the moment any plate was empty, it was replenished, until even the most hungry youngster had to give up. Aware of the trials of an alien in a foreign land, he took special care of his newcomer employees, for whom he established a school and a church.
Above all, he knew the dangers of a great city and the damage opium could do. He had seen, as a boy, its evil effect in his native China. So he took up the fight against the introduction of the vice into \JAustralia\j and tried to make people realize the tragedies it could create.
Many were the stories told all over Sydney about this fabulous Australian Chinaman. Perhaps the most popular was the one of the lady who ordered a cup of tea and a Quong tart!
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"Chinese Footbinding",408,0,0,0
A peculiar Chinese custom was the binding of women's feet. (It was discontinued as late as 1911, at the establishment of the republic.)
Practised in infancy when the feet were pliable, it had a crippling effect. Totally alien to western man, he misunderstood the practice and interpreted it as a shameful endeavor to keep woman in her place. Unable to move fast and, as it were, to step it out, she was forced submissively to accept her inferior status. Whilst man could stride along, all she was able to do was to hobble after him.
To the Chinese mind however, the binding of feet far from humiliated and disfigured a woman. On the contrary, it made her all the more attractive. The (artificially created) daintiness of her feet gave her special sex appeal. Were not a woman's mincing steps - even in biblical days-sensuously tempting and so seductive that a man watching her was bound to stumble - sexually?
A Chinese tradition believes that footbinding was introduced through the whim of Li Yu, king of southern T'ang. Watching one of his favorite palace dancers, he suddenly had the idea that her performance would be even more enchanting, if her feet were bound. She gladly obliged and justified Li Yu's expectations. Other dancers soon emulated her and to bind women's feet became a fashion throughout the region. It attracted men from far and wide who, by merely looking at the girls' feet, experienced an intense sexual arousal. If it was exciting to watch the bound feet, to hold them in their hands seemed to surpass any previous pleasure. Far from deforming a woman, the manipulation was thought to improve her figure, making her waist smaller and her bust fuller.
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"Chinese Grave Puzzle",409,0,0,0
A Chinaman's grave in the cemetery at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula poses a puzzle. Why is it so far away, indeed completely isolated, from all other graves? Tucked away in a hollow, it is out of sight and only the few people aware of its existence will find it.
All that is revealed about the deceased - on a narrow board on one side of the white picket fence enclosing the grave - is that his name was Charles A. Foo and that he died on 8 January 1894. The mystery deepens on consulting the cemetery records. According to them, Foo was buried on 3 June 1887, seven years prior to the date given on the epitaph. (Either year suggests that Mr Foo's was the oldest burial!)
The records also mention that his was a pauper's funeral. This raises another question as to who then erected the fence around his grave, something quite unusual in such circumstances.
There might be an explanation, at least for the position of Foo's grave. The cemetery was divided up into four distinct sections, allocated to members of the \JChurch of England\j, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Chinese. In fact, originally, three other people of his race were interred near Foo, though their graves no longer exist. If he was a pauper, why then was his grave preserved? Truly, it all seems like a Chinese puzzle.
#
"Chinese New Year",410,0,0,0
Though modern China has adopted the Gregorian solar calendar and hence, officially, begins the New Year on 1 January, it continues to celebrate the traditional Chinese lunar year, which has been renamed the Spring Festival. It falls on the first new moon after the sun has entered the \Jconstellation\j of \JAquarius\j, which may be any time in late January or early February.
The most popular features in the celebrations are the lion and dragon dances. Youths don strange and bizarre disguises, made of different types of cloth, to represent and operate the animal bodies. With monstrous heads and often breathing fire, dragons weave through the streets, which are ablaze with lights. To the amusement of the crowds of onlookers, they wriggle in grotesque patterns, imitating and exaggerating the movements of living creatures.
Now enjoyed as pure entertainment, the dragons and lions recall totems that were worshiped in former times. The dance survives from an ancient magic rite of exorcism. It was practiced to drive away the evil spirits that threatened the rebirth of nature and, therefore, people's wealth and prosperity.
The dragons, indeed, merit a special place in the festivities of the day. Though they are \Jsupernatural\j beings, they also symbolized the reproductive energies of nature. Fearsome in appearance, they were renowned for their vigilance, and were therefore welcomed as protectors. They would guard the people and the nation throughout the year which was about to begin.
The celebration of the New Year, which may extend well over three days, is observed by family reunions, with sumptuous banquets and special dishes, and visits to friends. It is a time of renewal of all bonds. It is also an occasion of general reconciliation when quarrels of the past must be forgotten and all debts settled. In fact, it is considered unlucky to start the New Year with unpaid accounts.
Ancient customs and superstitions, though now rationalized, are still conscientiously carried out. They include the thorough spring cleaning of the house in preparation for the day. Originally carried out to sweep away all past misfortune, it is now explained as a hygienic measure. All damage is repaired and the home repainted to symbolize the renewal of life.
Tradition demands that no knives, scissors or other cutting implements be used at home on New Year. To use them could result in the magical severing of precious links. Accordingly, all food is prepared on the preceding days.
Presents are thoughtfully chosen, not only for their usefulness but also for their \Jsymbolism\j. Chinese tradition requires that the recipient returns at least a portion of the gift, thereby expressing his unworthiness to receive it.
The day's festive atmosphere is further enhanced by the decoration of homes and streets with yellow-tasselled lanterns, by the letting off of fireworks and the explosion of countless crackers which, by their noise, are believed to frighten away the evil spirits. Red, the color of good omens and happiness, predominates everywhere. Streamers embellish the streets and houses. People wish each other wealth and prosperity in the year ahead, success in all undertakings and a long line of descendants - "ten thousand generations," according to the ancient formula.
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"Chinese Presence",411,0,0,0
Of the many ethnic groups that now make up the Australian population, the Chinese can claim to have been among the earliest. They were brought to this country soon after the cessation of transportation, to take the place of convicts as cheap labor.
The discovery of gold attracted many more of their countrymen. Their presence on the goldfields became a noticeable feature and, regrettably, at times a cause of resentment and even riots.
Large Chinese camps and settlements existed in various parts of the country and relics of the early Chinese presence and reminders of the part the Chinese played in Australian history can be found in not a few cemeteries, often tucked away in the bush.
Many of their gravestones are now in a state of decay. However, one of the largest Chinese burial grounds, kept in excellent condition, is part of the Beechworth Cemetery. Of the two thousand Chinese entombed there, a great number rest in multiple graves. All the memorials are of the same type of stone and of equal size.
The first Chinese arrived in the area during the gold rush days, in 1857; two ceremonial burning towers in the Beechworth Cemetery go back to that time. A typical feature of Chinese burial places, they were part of the Chinese funeral ritual, though their function is often misunderstood. They served not to cremate bodies, but to burn paper tokens representing money and prayers.
The ashes, together with offerings of pork, fruit and wine, were placed on an altar (the Beechworth altar is still in existence). These funeral gifts, real or symbolic, were believed to accompany and nourish the departed spirit of the deceased on its way heavenwards. To frighten away any evil spirits present, firecrackers were let off during the solemn ceremonial.
With the passing of time, the towers and altar fell into disrepair. However, out of respect for \JAustralia\j's Chinese heritage, the Beechworth Lions Club has restored these sacred remnants, so close to Chinese graves and Chinese hearts.
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"Chip Off the Old Block",412,0,0,0
Contagious magic has had a specific place in the realm of charms. Anything that once had been in contact with an object or person endowed with sanctity, was imagined to have caught some of its qualities.
Idol worshipers treasured chips of the \IAshera,\i the sacred pole and branchless tree-trunk that they adored as a symbol of vegetation. They believed that even to own one of its splinters would magically bestow fertility on them.
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"Chip on One's Shoulder",413,0,0,0
Man has always loved to fight. He would do so at the slightest provocation, "at the drop of a hat." Not least, those who have a chip on their shoulder, are oversensitive, will easily pick a quarrel.
When homes were still heated by log fires, plenty of wood chips were about, free for the taking. It became the practice for a person who was out for a fight to place one on his shoulder and challenge a fellow to dare to knock it off. That is how "a chip on the shoulder" started a brawl.
The expression may also go back to the American frontier days. Its pioneers were sturdy men, constantly ready to test their mettle against the forces of nature, and against each other. Perhaps it was also the need for entertainment to relieve a harsh existence that made them pick a fight. A man would put a chip, which abounded in the timbered country, on his shoulder and ask another defiantly to knock it off. To refuse to do so would have made him look like a coward in the eyes of all. A "chip on the shoulder" thus was bound to start a fight.
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"Chips are Down",414,0,0,0
Life has been likened to a gamble and, indeed, not a few metaphors applying to its various situations have come from the gaming room. Just as on occasions one has to "go back to square one" or is "checkmated," so it is said of a moment of crisis or testing that "the chips are down." The chips represent the money bets at poker. When all the chips have been placed, the players have to reveal their cards and, at this exciting moment, the winning hand is discovered.
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"Chock-a-block",415,0,0,0
Nautical terminology and experience are the basis of calling anything crammed to capacity, with no empty space left, "chock-a-block" full. It relates to a situation when the running and standing blocks of a tackle are so close together that they cannot be moved. Quite literally, they are "blocked."
The chock in the phrase is a "block of wood" or a "wedge." Etymologically it can be traced back to at least the fourteenth century and a root that described the "jaw bone." Chock-full has been explained as "full to the chops," so much so that it was choking one.
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"Chocolate and Religion",416,0,0,0
Although chocolate was first brewed in Mexico, and for mundane reasons, it owes its modern popularity to religion.
During the period of Lent, Christians used to be very concerned correctly to obey the rules of abstention. On occasions, they were not quite sure of what they were permitted to partake during this time of solemn fast, and not least so, when thirsty. (During their month of fasting, Moslems for instance, must not even swallow their own spittle!)
When a sixteenth-century Pope ruled that the drinking of chocolate was permissible, it did not take long for people to acquire a taste for the drink. In fact, they came to enjoy it so much that, no longer restricting its consumption to the period of the fast, they took to drinking it all through the year.
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"Chocolate's Meaning",417,0,0,0
No one realizes the true meaning of chocolate. In spite of its sweetness, its name - from the Aztec \Ixococ\i and \Iatl\i - means "bitter water." It was a drink brewed and popularized by the Mayas and \JAztecs\j, who in its preparation, mixed crushed \Jcocoa\j beans and ground \Jmaize\j - corn with a little water. They then flavored the "potion" with honey, fragrant herbs, and \Jchili\j. It was the latter that gave the drink its bitter taste, so completely different from that of our present-day chocolate, and responsible for its now so inappropriate name.
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"Chop Suey Origins",418,0,0,0
Chop suey is served in Chinese restaurants all over the world outside China. It shows how gullible men can be. They swallow almost anything, if the cook knows how to serve it up.
Chop suey is as Chinese as the turkey is Turkish. This odd mixture of bits of several ingredients, such as steamed or fried chicken, pork, rice, noodles, and vegetables, was invented (though concocted would be the better word) in the United States!
There are several claims as to who first devised it sometime during the last century. It is too far gone (in time) to be quite certain. The great variety of so-called originators includes a Chinese cook in a Brooklyn restaurant and another in a mining camp, a dishwasher in \JSan Francisco\j, and the chef of a Chinese ambassador in New York.
Even the name of chop suey is an odd mixture: joining the English "chop" - for anything that is "cut off" or "cut up" - with Chinese "bits," spelled phonetically \Isuey.\i
The diplomatic version gives the exact name, date and occasion. A newly-appointed Chinese ambassador to the United States, Li Hung-Chang, arrived in New York on August 28, 1896. His large staff was made up of 22 household servants, a personal barber, five valets, and three cooks.
From the outset, he was determined to impress the American people with the values of Chinese culture and cuisine. Losing no time, he gave a dinner party the following night to which he invited prominent members of both the American and Chinese communities.
To make the event memorable, he instructed his chefs to include in the menu an entirely new course which had equally to please western and eastern palates. The result was a mixture of many ingredients, all finely cut up and served under the mysterious name of chop suey.
It became the talk of the town and, in no time, the name and the dish spread far and wide. Not realizing that its birthplace was New York, people imagined that the strange concoction had come all the way from the Orient.
Another story links chop suey with the construction of the American Transcontinental Railroad. To help in the vast undertaking, thousands of coolies were brought from southern China. Used to hard work, they demanded little. They were satisfied with simple food, so long as it did not differ overmuch from what they were accustomed to at home.
To make sure that the meals were to their liking, the Americans wisely asked some of the migrant workers to do the cooking themselves. Not properly trained for the job, the best these men could offer was a stew: a mixture of all sorts of "cut up" things with rice.
When the railroad was completed, many of the Chinese workers chose to stay on. Among them were some of the "cooks." They regarded themselves now fully qualified to go into the catering business and opened up restaurants for their Chinese countrymen. The speciality on their menu was the novel chop suey. Soon westerners were attracted by it. Its name sounded so exotic but, above all, chop suey was so tasty, so filling, and so cheap.
Very late one night, a Chinese cook working for miners, yet another assertion claims, was asked to serve a meal. Pressed for time and without a sufficient quantity of fresh ingredients at his disposal, he used up all the leftovers....
The credit of inventing the chop suey has also been given to an Irish dishwasher, working in a \JSan Francisco\j restaurant. One evening, just when he was about to lock up the place, a large party arrived. All the chefs had gone, but anxious not to lose business for his boss, he went into the kitchen himself to prepare the ordered dinner. Finding nothing ready, he made up a concoction from all the rests in the pots. Ingeniously he served it up as "chop suey," making up the name on the spur of the moment.
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"Chosen People",419,0,0,0
The description of the Jews as the "chosen people" has been gravely and ominously misunderstood. It was (wrongly) thought to proclaim the Jews as God's favorites, and superior to others. The concept of the "chosen people" has a totally different meaning.
The Jews were "chosen" by God, the \JBible\j tells, solely to be his witnesses, "My servant," in the words of the \Jprophet\j Isaiah (43:10). As a people of religion, they were to spread God's message worldwide. It was their mission not to be above other men but to serve them.
This did not confer on, or entitle the Jews to any extra privilege. On the contrary, it imposed on them special responsibilities and obligations. If they failed to observe these, according to Amos' words (3:2), they would incur God's punishment.
A modern \Jepigram\j expressed wonderment of God's choice:
\IHow odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews!
Much thought is in the retort:
It's not
So odd.
The Jews
Chose God!\i
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"Christ's Mass",420,0,0,0
The word Christmas is derived from "Christ's Mass", the first religious celebrations which honored Jesus Christ's birth.
Interestingly, the Gospels do not indicate an actual date for this birth. In fact, to start with, "Christ's Mass" was celebrated some time in April or May. There was an obvious clue for this choice. Remember St Luke's report that, at the time, shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night "in the fields" (Luke 2:8)? This would have been most unlikely during winter, as sheep were kept indoors.
It was not until AD 350 that Pope Julius I designated December 25 as Christmas Day. He did so mainly to counteract the effect of the popular feast held in honor of Saturn - Saturnalia - which occurred at the time of the winter \Jsolstice\j. Many of the customs of Christmas merrymaking were similarly adopted from early pagan practices, and Christianized.
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"Christening of Ships",421,0,0,0
In spite of its apparent Christian association, the christening of a ship dates back to pre-Christian centuries and a pagan way of life. It is a relic of a rite of propitiation, when anxious sailors, afraid of the vagaries of the sea, tried to influence divine powers controlling the ocean, to protect their ship and keep them safe. To buy their good will, so to speak, the mariners bought the gods a drink.
In ancient days when a ship was completed, she was garlanded with flowers and the sailors wore floral crowns. And then, accompanied by loud acclamation to the gods, a pagan priest officiated at a ceremony. Equipped with a lighted torch, an egg and brimstone, he poured wine and oil on an altar, erected on the ship, and dedicated her to the goddess whose carved image she was to carry.
We no longer believe in idols, and divine figureheads have ceased to adorn and protect our ships, but we still carry on the ancient libations in the form of the christening ceremony. Some researchers have suggested that the modern way of shattering a bottle of champagne over the bows of a new ship has a link with the days when the Vikings and South Sea races invoked the protection of the sea gods on launching war galleys.
They did this making a human sacrifice! Victims were bound to rollers over which the ship was launched, and blood from the broken bodies of the sacrificed sprinkled the ship. In civilized times, blood-red wine preceded champagne as the christening beverage.
Modern authorities have vehemently decried as obnoxious and offensive the custom to call the naming of a ship her christening. After all, to christen implied to make Christian, and the use of a bottle of wine for this purpose appeared like a \Jparody\j of baptismal water.
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"Christmas Cake",422,0,0,0
The Christmas cake is a relatively recent addition to Christmas festivities, dating back only to the middle of the 19th century. It developed from the plum pudding; the contents were merely modified so that it would set solid.
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"Christmas Cards",423,0,0,0
The Christmas card was invented by Sir Henry Cole in 1843. He was a well-known London art dealer who aspired to improve the general public's taste.
Nothing was too small or too trifling for Cole's aesthetic attention. He firmly believed that everyday things should be beautiful as well as useful. He came up with the idea of the first Christmas card, a simple yet attractive token of friendship which, he felt, would further enhance this special day.
Two factors are thought to have inspired Cole's endeavor. Firstly, he had the example of Valentine cards, which had been popular in England for almost a century. Also, towards the end of the winter term it was customary for pupils in English schools to produce "Christmas pieces." These were large sheets of paper which the pupils decorated with colorful borders and headings, and then inscribed with Christmas greetings in their best copperplate. As well as being a charming expression of affection to the parents and teachers, such a piece also indicated a pupil's progress in the art of writing.
Cole commissioned a well-known artist, J. C. Horsley, a member of the Royal Academy, to design the picture for his first card, specimens of which can still be seen in museums and galleries. The picture was based on the common medieval artistic device of a \Jtriptych\j, a set of three illustrations. The central one depicted a jolly party of adults and children with plenty of food and drink - a subject that aroused severe criticism from the \JTemperance Movement\j at the time! Underneath the picture ran the seasonal greeting: "Wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you." Each side panel represented good works - the clothing of the naked and the feeding of the hungry.
Cole was well versed in the art of publicity and he did his utmost to popularize the new cards. However, for some unknown reason, his idea just did not catch on until 20 years later. By the 1860s, big stationery firms were producing thousands of Christmas cards and Cole's initial failure had become a tremendous success. During the next three decades, British printers supplied 163,000 varieties of Christmas cards. These are now collected in 700 volumes, which weigh almost seven tonnes!
Cole was knighted in acknowledgment of his many services to the nation. He died in 1882, having lived to see and enjoy the enormous success of his original idea.
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"Christmas Gifts",424,0,0,0
The exchanging of Christmas presents can be traced back to an ancient Roman custom of gift-giving which was practiced at Saturnalia, which also fell at this time of the year.
When this tradition was Christianized, it was said to relate to the gifts of gold, \Jfrankincense\j and \Jmyrrh\j that the Magi had carried with them from the East when they traveled to pay homage to the newborn Jesus Christ.
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"Christmas Parties and Party Hats",425,0,0,0
Strangely, the custom of wearing colorful paper hats at Christmas parties and festive meals originated years ago. In those days many superstitions surrounded the sun, especially in relation to saving the sun - and, therefore, human life - from \Jextinction\j. In early times, it was believed that evil forces constantly threatened the sun's survival. As evil could only be fought with evil, assuming the guise of the devil was therefore thought to drive away any real devils. Bizarre masks and hats were an essential part of such "devil disguises."
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"Christmas Tree Origins",426,0,0,0
The \JChristmas tree\j, with its green foliage, has its origins in very ancient beliefs in magic. At the time of the winter \Jsolstice\j, when all nature seemed dead, evergreen branches were thought to ensure the return of vegetation and new life. According to Norse \Jmythology\j, evergreen trees represented the World Tree, whose branches and roots joined together heaven, earth and hell.
Trees figure in many cultures as symbols of enduring and renewed life, since the color green is a universal emblem of immortality. For instance, the Egyptians used palm branches with 12 shoots as sacred expressions of the completion of the year. Palm branches were also carried during their funeral processions as symbols of life after death.
The Romans decorated their homes, temples and statues with foliage during the December festival of Saturnalia. This was a season of great goodwill towards all. Schools were closed. No battles could be fought. Punishment could not be inflicted on any criminal and distinctions of rank and class were put aside. The Jews also had a celebration that fell during this time - the Feast of Lights. For eight consecutive days an eight-branched candlestick would be lit in every Jewish home.
The early Christians realized it would be impossible to abolish all the old traditions, and so, wisely, retained the green tree and the burning lights - but gave them a new interpretation. In justification, they quoted the \Jprophet\j Isaiah who had spoken of the "righteous branch" and foreseen the day when "the glory of \JLebanon\j shall come unto you: the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box tree, to beautify the place of My Sanctuary."
How the first modern \JChristmas tree\j came into being is related in numerous legends.
A Scandinavian story tells of the violent deaths of two lovers and a consequent occult occurrence: a beautiful tree grew out of the blood-soaked soil at the spot where the murder took place. Flaming lights miraculously appeared on it at Christmas time every year, and nothing could put them out.
For Germans, the tradition of the \JChristmas tree\j began with an incident that is said to have occurred when St Boniface arrived from England in AD 718 to convert the pagans. He was determined to root out all that was heathen and, to this end, he cut down a sacred oak in the city of Geismar. To pacify the angry worshippers he planted a fir tree in its stead, and declared this to be the symbol of their new faith. It so happened that this event took place on Christmas Eve.
Martin Luther, the father of the German Reformation, has also been credited with the introduction of the modern \JChristmas tree\j. Returning home on a snowy Christmas Eve in 1517, he was deeply moved by the beauty of the glittering stars overhead. Wishing to describe this inspiring spectacle to his wife and children, he dug up a small fir tree and put it into the nursery. He then lit up its branches with candles, just as the starlit trees outside had appeared to him that cold winter night.
It took a long time for the tree to become part of Christmas celebrations in English-speaking countries. The first \JChristmas tree\j recorded in the USA was put up by Hessian soldiers in 1776. They were mercenaries hired from \JPrussia\j (now \JGermany\j) by King \JGeorge III\j of England to fight in the Revolutionary War. The first English \JChristmas tree\j appeared at a children's party held at Queen Caroline's Court in 1821. German merchants based in Manchester had just introduced trees to that region, thus starting the trend.
Royalty was responsible for popularizing the \JChristmas tree\j throughout the UK. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German-born husband, had a \JChristmas tree\j erected in Windsor Castle in nostalgic remembrance of his homeland. This royal example was soon copied by the general public, and the custom then spread throughout the world.
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"Chronic Disease",427,0,0,0
Traditionally, divine power has been worshiped as a source of help and healing in sickness. And yet, if one significant medical term is to be taken as evidence, it may sometimes not only prolong illness, but make it permanent.
A "chronic disease" - a term first used by \JHippocrates\j - is one that lasts a very long time. The derivation of the word \Ichronic\i links such conditions with Cronos, the celestial figure of Greek myth, associated with the destructive power of time. The god's realm now extends from \Ichronology\i and \Ianachronism\i to chronic disease which lasts such a long "time."
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"Church Bells",428,0,0,0
Church bells were unknown to Christians for at least the first five centuries - and for obvious reasons. \JChristianity\j at first was declared illegal by pagan authorities and its worship was punished. The devout had to gather clandestinely, in the \Jcatacombs\j and at night.
When \JChristianity\j became a recognized faith, it was even then a blast of trumpets, and not a peal of bells, that summoned the faithful to worship. Bells came into general use in the church after the 8th century only.
Bells developed out of small pieces of concave metal. That is why the word bell is derived from the Latin term for a foot-pan or basin. The original purpose of all bells was to make a loud, but not necessarily musical, sound to drive off evil spirits. It was for this reason that they were first introduced everywhere and could be found in Hindu temples, the \JHebrew\j sanctuary and Christian churches. Still in the year 1280 A.D. a theological work dealing with the Christian ritual records that "bells are rung in processions that demons may fear and flee. For when they hear the trumpets of the Church militant, that is the bells, they are afraid."
And this first and most important function of bells survived for centuries in many customs. The "passing bell," tolled at funerals, for instance, is known today as the herald of death and draws attention to the fact that a soul is "passing" from this world to the next and asks for our prayers on its behalf. Originally, however, its sound was meant to drive away evil spirits hovering around the dying man, ready to pounce on his soul.
Bells, likewise, were struck at times of sickness and natural disaster. Both were ascribed to the presence of fiends which only loud noise could scare away. That is why a blessing of church bells, suggested by Egbert, the \JArchbishop\j of York in the 8th century and included in his Pontifical, read: "Wherever this bell sounds, let the power of enemies retreat, so also the shadow of phantoms, the assault of whirlwinds, the stroke of \Jlightning\j, the harm of thunders... and every spirit of the storm winds." In modern times, French Church authorities have had the bells rung to ward off the effect of \Jlightning\j, and in 1852, the Bishop of Malta ordered the tolling of bells to "lay a gale of wind."
Roger Bacon, often quoted as the inventor of \Jgunpowder\j, recorded the prevalent belief of the demon-chasing quality of the sound of bells, saying that "the great ringing of bells in popular cities charmed away thunder and also dissipated pestilential air." Being however of a scientific bend of mind, he tried to rationalize the ancient \Jsuperstition\j. He claimed that it was not really the sound of the bells, but the \Jconcussion\j of air, caused by their tolling, which purified the atmosphere, driving away pestilence and turbulence.
It was firmly believed that the bigger the bell and the louder its sound, the farther the spirits were compelled to flee. Thus ever bigger church bells were used to guard God's sanctuaries and to keep them unsullied and at peace.
The tolling of bells as a call to prayer is a comparatively late development. Many other functions of bells have been added down the centuries. They make up a colorful list and have been subject to fascinating and sometimes even amusing interpretations.
In pre-Reformation days "church-going bells" were rung, not to make people leave their homes right away, but as an invitation to a preparatory prayer there that would put them in the right frame of mind for divine service. Later on, bells were sounded not so much as a call for spiritual preparation but as a reminder that people should get ready and dress for service, due to commence only an hour later.
On the other hand, it was also a custom at one time to ring bells at the conclusion of the sermon or end of the service. This has been variously explained. Some said that it was a procedure introduced to announce to those who had stayed away from worship that another sermon was to be preached, or service to be held, that same night which gave them a chance to make up for their lost opportunity. But then it was also interpreted as of special (and non-spiritual) benefit to the \Jclergy\j, who were said to like a hot Sunday dinner. It was to warn their cooks that the priest was about to leave church and that they had to hurry to be ready with the meal. Hence this particular tolling came to be known as "the pudding bell."
In \JWestmorland\j, bells were chimed during the service, immediately after the recitation of the Creed. This was done so that \Jdissenters\j should know that now they could join the congregation in worship - without any qualms of conscience.
At St. Michael's in York, bells were rung every morning at 6 o'clock. This was the result of an early incident, when people wandering in the nearby forest got lost and spent a terrifying night in the wood. They discovered their whereabouts only next morning, when they heard the chiming of the bells of St. Michael's. Out of gratitude and to help any future lost travelers, they endowed a fund which provided for the tolling of bells as a "homing beacon" at the same hour each day.
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"Cider and the Shicker",429,0,0,0
In modern slang, anyone "shickered" is drunk. He would not realize that this colloquial name for his state of intoxication comes from the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j. In fact, its source also gave us the word \Icider,\i once an excessively strong drink, already relished as such by the Britons when, in 55 B.C., Julius Caesar landed on their shores. Somehow, over the years, it seems to have lost some of its alcoholic content, for the word is also now applied to specifically unfermented apple juice (spelled almost universally \Icyder\i until the nineteenth century).
Both \Ishicker\i and \Icider\i are derivations of the \JHebrew\j word for strong drink, \Ishekar.\i It occurs early in the \JBible\j (Lev. 10.9) in a passage telling how the priests on duty at the sanctuary were commanded to drink neither wine nor "strong drink," lest they become intoxicated.
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"Cinch",430,0,0,0
To say of something easily accomplished that "it's a cinch" uses the Spanish word \Icincha,\i for a saddle-strap. Two versions explain its choice.
On their conquest of Mexico in 1519, the conquistadors introduced into the country their Spanish horses. In no time these multiplied and ran wild. Mexicans found it very difficult to round them up, which demanded great skill. To make sure that their saddle would not slip and throw them, they ingeniously fastened it with a belly strap, the cincha. It gave them a firm grip and thereby facilitated their task which they could now execute without much difficulty or peril to themselves. This "cinch" thus became synonymous with anything requiring little effort.
Of much later date is a second explanation. This traces the phrase to the Californian gold rush of 1849. Adventurers arriving from the east, even if unsuccessful in digging up gold, picked up a most useful new practice in securing their saddles. Often on horseback all day long in search of the elusive glittering substance, and still using the traditional English type of saddle, theirs was not a smooth ride. Frequently, they had to stop and dismount to tighten the slipping saddle girth. They noticed that Mexican and Indian riders had solved the problem by using their own kind of belly band; a rope they made of twisted horse hair. This not only stayed in place, but was not difficult to adjust. Keeping the saddle in position throughout, it made the ride an "easy thing." Cincha, the Spanish word for this equine girth, thus became part of the language used to describe anything that was as "easy and sure" as being secured by a cinch.
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"Cinderella's Glass Slipper",431,0,0,0
Cinderella's glass slipper has become so much part of the fairy tale that to change it in any way would spoil its charm. After all, it was by means of the glass slipper dropped by Cinderella on leaving the ball that the prince, who had fallen in love with her, was able to find her again.
However, with a little thought, it becomes apparent that glass slippers fit neither into the story nor on Cinderella's feet! No one would wear them on a cold winter's night. Moreover, to dance in them would prove very difficult.
And, in fact, the earliest French version of the tale does not speak of glass slippers but slippers made of fur, much more in character with the story, the season and the occasion. Comfortable to dance in, fur slippers would keep Cinderella's feet warm in the coldest of nights. They would have been of white ermine, fit for a princess!
The French for "fur" is \Ivair\i and for "glass," \Iverre.\i Differently spelled, the two words are almost identical in sound. It was quite easy to mistake one for the other. (It must be remembered that, at the time, stories were mostly not read from a book, but related by word of mouth.) Not magic therefore, but an error changed the fur into glass!
For once the perpetrator of the mistake can be identified. It was the French poet and critic (!) Charles Perrault, who in 1697 published the story in a collection of popular \Jfairy tales\j. He selected it from several versions of "Cinderella" then in circulation and at his disposal. Each one spoke of a fur slipper which he - erroneously - turned into glass. As all later editions and translations of the fairy tale were based on his text, they copied his mistake, which has never been corrected.
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"Circles of Magic",432,0,0,0
With all his sophistication, modern enlightened man little realizes how much even he continues to practise (though unknowingly) ancient magic.
When a groom places the wedding ring on his bride's finger, he may see in it a beautiful custom, expressive of love and lasting affection. Likewise, paying the last tribute to a deceased, his friends may put wreaths on his grave and thereby "honor" his memory.
But in reality, on both occasions the true and original reason is neither love nor deference. It is crude fear and, as it were, a protection-racket!
\IThe Wedding Ring\i
To make quite sure that the marital union will stay happy and that love will remain strong, the man placed a magic circle on his new property. In early cultures, in fact, the groom used to tie a rope around the bride! The magic of the circle thus would ensure the perpetuity of the bond, just as its lines were unending. By putting the ring on his bride's finger, the groom "surrounded" his good luck and thereby (magically) prevented it from leaking out.
\IThe Wreath\i
Nothing was more scary and fearsome than being haunted by the spirit of the dead. To make sure that the ghost of the interred relative or close friend would stay underground and not come up to do mischief, man devised numerous precautions which he now "explains" and rationalizes as hygienic and respectful, if not pious.
That is why the corpse is enclosed in a coffin with its lid firmly screwed down, the grave is filled in with heavy soil and, to top it all, a weighty, massive stone is put on top - as a "memorial!" But far superior to all those measures was magic: the power of the circular wreath which, more than any other "material" practice, would tether the spirit to the body.
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"Circuit Courts",433,0,0,0
Modern circuit courts emulate ancient \JHebrew\j judicial practice, introduced by Samuel, the Judge. Apart from trying cases regularly at the permanent central court that met at the sanctuary at Ramah, he "went from year to year on circuit."
His annual visits to Bethel, Gilgal and Mitzpah "to dispense justice at all these places" were the first of their kind, and served as the ultimate model for the modern circuit \Jcourt of law\j. The very term, \Icircuit,\i in its legal sense, is derived from these journeys and the wording of the biblical account of them (I Sam 7.16).
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"Circulation of the Blood",434,0,0,0
Michael Harvey is credited with having been the very first to demonstrate (in 1628) the circulation of the blood. But, actually, the phenomenon was first described seventy years earlier - in 1553 - in a theological work entitled \IChristanismi Restitutio.\i
Published, at first anonymously, by Michael Servetus, a Spanish scholar in \Jtheology\j, \JHebrew\j and medicine, the book proved fatal for its author. Its theological contents was severely censored and condemned by the Inquisition, and Servetus was arrested, tried and executed. As a heretic who refused to recant the doctrines he had expounded, he was burned at the stake.
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"Claddagh Ring",435,0,0,0
The claddagh ring, symbol of love and of Ireland, is named for Claddagh, an Irish fishing village on \JGalway\j Bay. The word refers to the flat stony shore or beach there, known as the \Icladdagh\i in \JGaelic\j.
Claddagh was established in 1232, and the settlement of thatched mud houses existed until 1934. It was a closed community, its residents being very proud of their past and jealous of their independence. Claddagh was always ruled by an elected head who, during the seven centuries of this mini-state's history, was known by a variety of titles. At times, he was referred to simply as the "mayor" or "the admiral" of \JGalway\j Bay, at others, more majestically, as "the King." His boat had white sails, distinct from those of all other vessels of the fishing fleet which were made from either black or brown cloth. The last ruler passed away in 1954, at 90 years of age.
Claddagh people preferred to choose their spouses from among themselves. They were equally anxious to preserve their local customs: one of them - and probably the most outstanding - was the wearing of the claddagh ring. Though its prototype is thought to go back to Roman days, Claddagh citizens made this ring their very own. Early specimens, wrought in gold, silver and bronze, are masterpieces of jewelry design. They are now treasured exhibits in the National Museum of Ireland and the \JVictoria and Albert Museum\j in London.
Traditionally, the claddagh ring is shaped in the form of two hands holding a heart, which is surmounted by a crown. The heart stood for love, whilst the crown expressed unswerving loyalty. These rings were valued heirlooms, and were lovingly handed down from mother to daughter. The claddagh ring served a threefold romantic purpose: as a friendship ring, an engagement ring, and a wedding ring. Whichever of the three purposes it was chosen for was cleverly indicated by the way in which it was worn. Placed on the right hand with the crown nearest the wrist, it signified that one's heart was still to be conquered.
When engaged or married, one wore the ring on the left hand. If betrothed, the heart was made to point towards the fingertip; turned inwards, it intimated that one was married.
Traditions differ as to the origin of the claddagh ring. Though separated in time by a century, two of the most popular explanations are linked with members of the Joyce family (also spelled Ioyce), who were natives of \JGalway\j.
The earlier sixteenth-century legend claims that the first claddagh ring was a well-deserved and miraculous gift to Margaret Joyce. Domingo de Rona, a wealthy Spanish merchant whose business brought him frequently to \JGalway\j, met Margaret on one of his visits. He fell in love with her and she became his wife. Unfortunately, however, their happiness was short-lived. Soon after their marriage Domingo died, with Margaret inheriting his vast fortune.
In 1596, Margaret remarried, her second husband being Oliver Og French, the mayor of \JGalway\j. He certainly did not wed her because of her wealth - in fact, he left the use and administration of Margaret's large legacy entirely up to her. She did not spend any of the money on herself. Instead, she donated it to municipal improvement, paying for the construction of numerous bridges.
One day, so the story goes, an eagle dropped a golden ring into her lap - the very first claddagh ring. This was regarded not just as a mere fortunate accident but as a divine reward for her selfless generosity. The ring had been sent "from on high," in every sense of the word.
Much more down-to-earth is the second tradition. This tells us how, during the second half of the seventeenth century, \JGalway\j citizen Richard Joyce was captured by pirates whilst on his way to the West Indies. They sold him as a slave to a wealthy Moorish goldsmith in \JAlgiers\j; this goldsmith trained Richard in his craft, and he soon excelled in it.
In 1689, King William III of England succeeded in obtaining the release of all captured English subjects, including Joyce. By that time his Moorish master had grown fond of him. He implored him to stay on, promising him the hand of his daughter in marriage and half of all his possessions. However, Joyce was not tempted. He was adamant in wanting to return to his native village in far-off \JGalway\j. He carried all the knowledge and craftsmanship he had acquired during his captivity with him and, not least, the very idea of the claddagh ring. According to tradition, Joyce made the first of these rings as a token of his gratitude to the king to whom he owed his freedom.
Some specimens of the claddagh ring still in existence actually carry the initials "R.I." and have consequently been attributed to Richard. They also show an anchor, which has puzzled people. One explanation is that Joyce made the first claddagh ring whilst still a slave in Africa. The anchor was, therefore, meant to symbolize how deeply he was still attached to his distant homeland and his hope that one day he would return there.
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"Claret: Origin of the Name",436,0,0,0
Red wines coming from the \JBordeaux\j region became known among the English as claret. Their name obviously reflected on their "clarity," from the Latin \Iclarus\i for "clear."
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"Clasped Hands",437,0,0,0
In the solemnization of a marriage, the practice of clasping hands affirms the union between bride and groom - till death will part them. But the symbol of clasped hands, when used on a grave, goes beyond their span of life. It speaks of their unbreakable bond, which even death cannot sever.
The clasped hands also represent both a final farewell from one's beloved here on earth and the anticipation of a happy reunion in the world to come. Some have read into the symbol a welcoming handshake into heaven!
Mostly the clasped hands are those of a man and a woman. The man's hand, always on the right, can be identified by the shirt cuff and links, that of the woman by a frilled sleeve.
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"Clean as a Whistle",438,0,0,0
To make a pure sound, a whistle has to be completely clean. No dirt or \Jsaliva\j must block it. For anything to be "as clean as [such] a whistle" became a favorite \Jmetaphor\j among writers. Instead of speaking of it as being clean, they might refer to it as being clear, pure and dry, or as Robert Burns did, as "empty."
Definite and clear in its sound, it is no wonder that "clean as a whistle" became a simile for anything that was unsullied and so intelligible that no one could mistake it.
There are other interpretations as well. It has been claimed that originally the saying did not mention a whistle at all. It referred to a piece of wood that had been carefully shaved or whittled, which gave it an immaculate, spotless look. This made people speak of anything "as clean as a whittle." Unfortunately, by slovenly speech the word itself became soiled and that is how the whittle was changed into a whistle!
A further suggestion gives the phrase a martial origin. It recalls the clear whistling sound made by a sword. Wielded fast, it cuts the air in one clean swoop, inflicting an equally "clean" wound.
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"Clergymen and Their Resting Places",439,0,0,0
Some ministers' graves in Australian cemeteries are a vivid reminder of how, apart from serving their denomination and the spiritual life of the nation, individual clergymen, by their specific interest or initiative, have enriched the country in diverse and, at times, unexpected ways.
Tasmanian-born Rev Henry Atkinson, whose remains now rest in the \Jchancel\j of the Launceston Holy Trinity Church, died at the age of 86. Active to the very end, he had preached in the last week of his life. He was an expert on orchids, classifying 20 new species, one of which is called after him - \ICalandenia atkinsonii.\i
Buried in the Sydney North Shore Cemetery is William Clarke. An Anglican clergyman, he also proved himself a proficient geologist, with many achievements to his credit. Not least among them was his discovery of significant data relating to coal deposits in \JNew South Wales\j.
Charles Owen Leaver Riley, the first \JArchbishop\j of Western \JAustralia\j, whose body rests in the Karrakatta Cemetery, was a keen philatelist. His was the largest collection of the rare \JBlack Swan\j stamps.
Numerous were the attainments of Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls who, at his passing in Shepparton, Victoria, in 1988 was given a state funeral in Melbourne. He had excelled both as a footballer and a runner. He was also the first Aborigine and in fact the first Australian minister of religion, ever to be appointed a governor. He held this position in South \JAustralia\j from 1976 to 1977 and resigned before his term of office was complete only because of ill health.
These are but a few of the prominent clergymen who have left their imprint and legacy in the Australian pattern of life. A common and odd bond exists between two others, buried far away from each other, in Rookwood and in Herberton. Their epitaphs - in directly opposite ways - have established records. One inscription consists of just two words, whilst the other, enormous in length, completely covers the large headstone, with hardly any space left in between the lines.
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"Clink",440,0,0,0
To refer to prison as "clink" goes back to at least the sixteenth century and a jail so called in the London borough of Southwark. John Stow, the famous English chronicler living at the time, was the first to mention it. He relates how it served to incarcerate "such as should brabble, frey, or break the peace on the said Bank(side), or in the brothel-houses."
Burned down in 1780 by the "No Popery" rioters, it has never been rebuilt. Nevertheless, the street in which it once was situated is still called after it, and its very name survives whenever people speak of the clink.
No doubt its name recalled the sharp loud noise made whenever the cell doors were slammed shut and the rattling of the iron chains with which the prisoners were shackled.
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"Clinking of Glasses",441,0,0,0
The clinking of glasses at toasts nowadays is considered a sign of conviviality and friendship. But this has not always been the case.
The custom itself dates back thousands of years to our superstitious past. People were afraid that with the drink the Devil might enter their body. It was a thought which was not particularly far-fetched, considering the effects of intoxication. That is why, before actually indulging in the drink, they made a loud noise first. The sound was meant to frighten away the evil spirit.
It is for the same reason that Congolese natives and other primitive races, before emptying their cup, used to ring a bell, and Bulgarians make the sign of the cross.
A modern rationalization of the custom explains it differently and so much more pleasantly. To enjoy our drink to the utmost, it is not sufficient merely to drink it. All our senses must join in the pleasure. We must not only taste the drink, touch, smell and see it, but hear it as well. And it is for this purpose that we clink our glasses.
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"Clock Origins",442,0,0,0
The alternation of day and night offered the earliest means of keeping time. But just to say "We'll meet when it's dark (or light)" was insufficient. In search of something to assist him in being more specific, man looked up into the sky and duly noted the movement of the sun. He observed that it traveled westward as the day advanced.
Man's first clock thus was God-made - the sun. The day was divided according to its position - whether it was high or low in the sky, in the East or the West, rising or setting. That is how man began to speak of dawn, morning, noon, and evening. Actually, \IOrient\i still means (the) \Irising\i (sun) and in many languages the word for \Ievening\i is derived from a term denoting the \IWest.\i
Man soon felt the need to become more exact and to divide the time of day into much smaller and more definite units. From the sky, he turned his eyes to the ground and discovered the shadow. He watched it with fear and trembling as some kind of mysterious being which followed on his heels as long as the sun shone.
He also observed that the shadow's length and direction changed continuously throughout the day. When the sun was high, the shadow was short; when the sun was low, the shadow was long. During the first half of the day, when the sun was in the east, the shadow pointed to the west, and vice versa.
Most likely, the Babylonians first took note of these significant facts and began to use the moving shadow in telling the time much more accurately than had ever been done before by merely watching the sun.
That led to their invention - in the second millennium B.C. - of the first man-made clock, the sun-dial. It was one of the simplest instruments ever devised, consisting of a stick, stuck vertically in the ground. As the sun advanced, the stake's shadow told the time.
Dial comes from the Latin word for day. That is how the shadow-clock, as an instrument telling the time of \Iday\i by means of the \Isun,\i came to be called a \Isun-dial.\i
The movement of the stake's shadow described a curve. It did not take man long to realize that, for practical purposes, this curve could be divided into various parts. To identify these, the obvious thing to do was to allot them numbers. Each section was called an \Ihour,\i which is a Greek word meaning "the time of day." Thus we owe our hours to man's earliest clock and the Greek people.
Another important question still had to be settled - the number of segments most suitable for the division of time. Immediately, the figure 12 had suggested itself to the Babylonians for both religious and practical reasons; to them, it was a mystical number. Also, they found it most convenient to use it as it could be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, or 6. That is how the twelve-hour day started.
Sundials were very useful. Yet they had obvious disadvantages. They worked only when due sun was shining but in the dark or on a cloudy day the hours vanished. Furthermore, the speed of the traveling shadow was most irregular and hence the length of the hours varied. Some hours were short and others long, according to the season of the year and the \Jsundial\j's geographical location.
What man needed was a time-piece to make him independent of the sun and assure the division of time into regular hours. The Egyptians led the way in achieving that aim. They did so by inventing the water-clock. In its simplest form, it consisted of a pot with a hole in the bottom. As it always took the same time to empty the vessel, people could easily tell the hour of day and night by merely watching the water's level in the bowl.
From \JEgypt\j, the new clock spread all over the Mediterranean world. In the course of time man learned to improve its design. A floater was put on the water, now gathered in a vessel beneath, and linked to a gear which moved a pointer that turned in a circle. Behind this "hand" was placed a dial marked off all around and at regular intervals with the old \Jsundial\j's figures from 1 to 12. The face of the modern clock had made its appearance.
Yet water-clocks, just like their predecessor, the \Jsundial\j, still suffered from a disadvantage: they depended on the elements of nature. In a cold climate they were apt to freeze in winter and, once again, time stood still!
Further progress was made in the search for a more reliable time-recorder by the invention of the hour glass about the year 250 B.C. This replaced water by pure, dry sand. The quantity passing through a narrow neck between two bulbs determined the time.
Opinions differ as to where, and for which purpose, the sand-clock was first devised. Some say that it originated on sailing ships. Others assert that the Roman army first introduced it to measure "watches" in the night. A monk at Chatres, skilled in glass-blowing, is credited with having created its final shape in the 8th century A.D.
The sand-clock was retained for thousands of years and served man in diverse ways. It timed his tournaments in the \JMiddle Ages\j, helped housewives in boiling their eggs and congregations in restricting the time of their parson's sermon. They placed an hour glass conspicuously on the pulpit.
But again, even sand had its drawbacks. Its enemy was damp weather, in which it either got stuck or flowed so slowly that time began to drag.
Where water and sand failed, the burning of a light (or, as among the Chinese, of incense) succeeded. Thus, a burning \Jcandle\j was used as yet another way of measuring time. The \Jcandle\j became shorter at a steady rate. All that was necessary was to mark the taper, before it was lit, according to the passing of hours. It was a simple and effective (yet more expensive) way of telling the time.
Thus through the early history of man, the \Jsundial\j, water-clock, hour glass, and burning \Jcandle\j either displaced or supplemented each other. However, all of them were crude devices of poor accuracy which gave only a very rough estimate of the passage of time. There was still much room for improvement. Yet it was not until the \JMiddle Ages\j that a further advance was made and the first mechanical clock designed.
This applied the principle of the water-clock, but instead of using water to move the hand it employed weights. The invention of the \Jpendulum\j, the escapement, and the spring completed the development of the clock which had extended over almost 5,000 years.
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"Closing Eyes to Wish",443,0,0,0
The custom of closing one's eyes when making a wish goes back to ancient sunworship. People asking for a favor turned towards the sun which, as the giver of warmth and light, they imagined to have occult power. Being unable to look into the sun because of its glare, they instinctively closed their eyes simply to prevent \Jblindness\j.
Later generations forgot the original circumstances and the physiological reason. Without knowing why, people assumed that the gesture had magic potency. They were thus convinced that unless they closed their eyes when making a wish, it would not come true.
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"Clue",444,0,0,0
The clue that helps to unravel a problem, solve a puzzle or crime, goes back to an early mythological guide-line! The original "clue" (spelled \Iclew)\i was an enchanted "ball" of yarn that helped Theseus, the Greek hero, to find his way in and out of the labyrinth on the island of \JCrete\j.
The ball of thread was given him by \JAriadne\j, the Cretan king's daughter who had fallen in love with him and was determined to save him from being devoured by the \JMinotaur\j. He fastened one end of the yarn to the door lintel. Another version, more romantically, claims that in fact \JAriadne\j herself held it in her hand, anxiously waiting for her hero's safe return, after having slain the dreaded monster instead of being devoured by it.
Unwinding the ball, Theseus was magically led through the twists and turns of the maze to reach its very center, to confront there and kill the \JMinotaur\j. To find his way out again, all he had to do now was to rewind the clue.
Clues continue to show us the way, though in less lethal circumstances they do so in a variety of puzzling and perplexing situations. Literally, we "thread" our way through difficulties.
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"Coaches as Early Transport",445,0,0,0
The coach perpetuates the village of Kocs, situated in northwestern \JHungary\j, in which the first vehicle of its kind was built. Unmatched in comfort and mobility at the time, it was soon adopted all over Europe where, in acknowledgment of the site of its origin, it was referred to as "the wagon of Kocs." Anglicized, it became the (modern) coach.
One of the most illustrious Hungarian kings, Matthias Corvinus (1458-90), is said to have been responsible for its construction. Fighting many wars, he had vanquished the Turks, conquered \JBohemia\j and captured Vienna. His, indeed, had become the most powerful kingdom of Europe. Not only a soldier, he equally excelled in the pursuit of culture. A patron of the arts and sciences, he founded the University of Budapest and established a library which became renowned as the finest in Europe.
Visiting many parts of his empire, he was shaken about in the vehicles put at his disposal. Apart from being totally unsatisfactory in their performance, he felt, they were completely unworthy of his status.
Aware of the craftsmanship of the people of Kocs, he commanded them to construct an up-to-date carriage which embodied every feature to ensure a fast ride in comfort.
When the finished product was presented to him, the four-wheeled vehicle exceeded all his expectations. Nothing like it existed at the time. Its passenger cabin, suspended by leather straps, provided a ride so smooth that even on the roughest of roads the traveler would not be jolted. Sitting in an enclosed compartment, he was protected against weather and wind.
In every place it called, people admired the novel, luxurious carriage. Soon the noble and rich, always anxious to emulate the royal example, had like vehicles built for themselves. Wherever they traveled, they carried the name of the village of its birth. Thus, "the carriage of Kocs" conquered the roads and made the name of a formerly unknown township world-famous - in its English pronunciation - as "coach."
Once a luxury item, it became the generally adopted vehicle and its name was retained in the motorized carriage, to be adopted also as a term for the individual carriages of a train.
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"Coaches in Sport",446,0,0,0
To get to a chosen destination as fast as possible, people used to take a coach, and that is exactly what students and sportsmen do as well. Only in their case, the goal is not a locality but a diploma or a medal. It explains and justifies the choice of the identical name for both the wheeled vehicle and the two-legged trainer.
It is not difficult to follow the road the coach took from its use in transportation via the academic field to the sports arena. It all started at English universities, and Oxford stakes the claim to have been the first, in 1848. Private tutors who prepared undergraduates for their examinations had not always an easy task. To guide their charges called for skill, alertness and constant attention. Was not indeed their "driving" them like driving a coach along bumpy roads, with frisky horses that needed much control? In no time, the new type of "coach" became university slang, and as such, entered the English vocabulary as a colloquialism.
The university boat races were a highlight in the academic year. Students spent much time and energy to prepare themselves for this event. It was almost a foregone conclusion that, eventually, the name of the coach which had become an accepted title of the tutor in the academic field should be adopted for the trainer of the crews manning the boats. This happened around 1885. It was but a small step for the (name of the) coach to be employed in almost every field of athletic contest.
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"Coat of Arms History",447,0,0,0
Originally, the coat of arms served as a means of recognition that often spelled the difference between life and death, and can be traced back to the twelfth century - particularly to the \Jcrusades\j.
The knights going out to conquer the Holy Land were encased in armor which protected their bodies from head to toe and unless they raised their visor, not even their faces could be seen. As uniforms were still unknown, this made them all look alike, and no one could tell friend from foe.
To distinguish knights in combat, they needed some mark of identification, a device which was their very own. The knight's symbol usually had some link with their family and its past, the service they had rendered to their country or lord, or some individual quality or incident in their life. Conspicuously, they displayed this symbol on the armor they wore, which explains why the design soon became identified with, and known as, their "arms." It was shown, too, on the shield and the crest of their helmets.
The burning sun in the Holy Land heated the armor so much that it caused great discomfort to the wearers who, feeling totally exhausted, found it hard to fight. Wisely, they therefore covered their armor with a long flowing cloak of linen or silk, paradoxically, to keep themselves cool (and back home in Europe to protect the armor from rust and dirt). But this, of course, concealed their individual "armorial bearings" and, still to be recognized, they had these embroidered on their coat which thus became known as their "coat of arms."
Modern pursuit of \Jgenealogy\j has renewed interest in a family's coat of arms. After all, if genuine, it bestows special status to its ancestry. Some families, indeed, proudly display their insignia on the gate posts of their homes, their cutlery, and even on their stationery.
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"Coat of Many Colors",448,0,0,0
Joseph's "coat of many colors" (Gen. 37:3) has puzzled people. It just did not make sense that a garment, merely because of its colorfulness, should have aroused such envy in Joseph's brothers that they "could not speak a friendly word to him."
The fact is that the "many colors" are not mentioned in the original text. They, too, are based on a mistranslation of a single word, the \JHebrew\j \Ipassim.\i This did not refer to any multiplicity of colors, but to the coat's extraordinary length: both in hemline and sleeves. Such a garment was not worn by the working man. The "long tunic with sleeves" indicated authority. Conspicuously it placed its wearer among the leisured and ruling class. It was no wonder therefore that Joseph's brothers showed deep resentment when their father thus singled out young Joseph and thereby elevated him above them.
What happened is obvious. When the \JBible\j was first rendered into \JAramaic\j and Greek, the translators were not certain what the word \Ipassim\i meant. They merely guessed that it referred to some "variation:" a "special" coat which was either multicolored or made up of strips of cloth of many hues. Subsequent translators of the \JBible\j did not query this interpretation but adopted it, which made the "coat of many colors" part of our linguistic heritage and biblical lore. And all this is due to a mistake!
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"Cobwebs Stop Bleeding",449,0,0,0
Cobwebs must have intrigued man early on. It seemed that some \Jsupernatural\j power gave the intricate texture woven by a \Jspider\j the ability to trap insects of considerable size and stop them from escaping. The belief in the occult gift of the web made people attribute a magical medicinal property to the cobweb, that of stopping wounds from bleeding.
Shakespeare not only accepted the fallacy, but further spread it when, in \IA Midsummer Night's Dream\i (Act III, scene 1), he made Bottom say, "I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you."
Cobwebs do not stop bleeding but can create additional trouble. Often spun in dark corners, they catch dirty flies and harbor microbes. Applied to wounds, instead of stopping the bleeding, they thus might easily infect them.
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"Cock and Bull Story",450,0,0,0
A typical feature of most fables is that all the characters are animals who act and speak like humans. It was first popularized in classical times by the sixth-century B.C. collection of Aesop. They do not represent real life, but literally are cock-and-bull stories, highly imaginative but incredible. This most likely contributed to the description of any unbelievable tale.
Another possible source of the expression were the inns, once a popular center of social life, each known by a distinctive name, conspicuously displayed on a sign outside. Among the names favored by the English were "The Cock" and "The Bull." In a jovial mood and high-spirited from their drinks, and not least, to boost their egos, the patrons told all kinds of "tall tales." Most of them were of things that had never happened. No wonder that people soon called any fantastic claim, obviously totally untrue, "a cock-and-bull story."
#
"Cockfighting Methods",451,0,0,0
For the actual combat, the birds were dropped into a pit, and "pitted" together, fought their bloody battle. And so we still speak of teams and opponents being "pitted" against each other.
The fact that cockpits were restricted in space made people apply the term figuratively to other small enclosures. Seventeenth-century warships used the word to describe the quarters of junior officers. To call these "cockpits" was the more appropriate because they served also as first-aid posts for those wounded in combat and, therefore, at times presented a bloody spectacle. Airmen in World War I, adopting naval tradition, feeling rather confined in their flying cabin, began to call this a cockpit, as well. From its initial, temporary, improvised stage of a mere hollow in the ground, the real cockpit developed as a permanent feature. Circular in shape, to give all the spectators the best possible chance to watch the fight "in the round," the matted stage was guarded by a barrier to prevent birds from falling off. And just as "cockpits" became the site for England's performances of dramatic art, present-day theaters still recall this early "stage" by describing the lowest part of the auditorium as "a pit."
The effect of \Jcockfighting\j also extends to terms relating to weapons and to concepts such as cowardice and bravery. "Crestfallen," indeed, was the bird that gave up fighting. Standing listlessly with its crest drooping, it waited for the death blow. When a game cock was so intimidated by its opponent that it decided to give up the fight, it announced the fact by lifting its hackle and, in doing so, revealed white feathers under the hackle. To "show the white feather" thus became identified with faint-heartedness and proving oneself a coward.
Patriotic women during World War I presented men staying away from the fighting front with a white feather - and everyone knew what it meant. Another theory suggests a different origin of the "white feather." The best fighting cocks were of a pure breed and had coats of black and red feathers. Inferior birds, which lacked courage, were of mixed blood. This could be recognized by a white feather in the tail. No matter which explanation is right, both agree that the white feather was a symbol of weakness and lack of daring comes from the cockpit.
The bird's self-assurance created the term "cocksure." Its courage, pugnaciousness, and (in most cases) determination to fight to the death became a symbol of valor and aggression. This has left its trace in the history of the gun. In its earlier forms, the powder, placed in the pan, was fired by dropping into it a lighted match (a cord impregnated with saltpeter), held in the hand. In the late fifteenth century, a movable arm was invented into which the burning match (or wick) was placed and by means of a trigger, released into the firing pan situated below. Appropriate to its "aggressive" function, the novel match lock was shaped like a cock. Even when flint and hammer had supplanted the cock, people continued to "cock" their weapon (in the manner of speaking) when readying it for discharge.
A study in itself are the pros and cons regarding \Jcockfighting\j. They are revealing of human nature and the devious working of the human mind. Those stressing the cruelty of the sport nevertheless sometimes admitted that, at least, it diverted men from slaughtering each other. Sponsors of the contests (like lovers of bullfights) gave numerous reasons for holding the fights. They claimed that they promoted bravery in man, and selflessness, by the birds' example of carrying on the combat against any odds to complete exhaustion and the bitter end. Cocks could not be enticed to fight but did so only by their own "\Jfree will\j." It was their inherent disposition, and therefore no cockfight could ever be arranged without the birds' cooperation. All that a cocker did was to let the rooster live (and die) according to the plans of nature.
The very motive-power of the fight was the cocks' innate pugnacity, and not any feelings of fear. In fact, they relished the battle and, after all, prior to it they led a "luxurious" kind of life in which everything was done to keep them happy and in comfort. The excitement of the actual combat was so immense that the contestants certainly were unaware of any injuries or pain inflicted. Death came so quickly that the mortally wounded bird was spared agony. As for the use of artificial spurs, often in the form of razor-sharp knives, these were far from cruel. On the contrary, they expedited the final, mortal blow and thereby prevented drawn-out battles, with possible unnecessary suffering.
\JCockfighting\j was also seen as greatly fostering the breeding of the best of birds, which profited not only nature lovers but - very substantially - the poultry farmer and through him the diner's table!
Those opposing \Jcockfighting\j pointed out how most of the "pro" arguments proffered were spurious and mere rationalizations. Was it not obvious, they asked, that even admitting the birds' innate pugnacity, the cockers greatly fostered it by providing circumstances that brought out something merely latent that otherwise might never be manifested?
The betting associated with all fights, opponents declared, was demoralizing. It was not merely cruelty towards the birds that had to be prevented. Worse was the fights' brutalizing effect on the spectators, in whom they roused the lowest and ugliest traits of human nature. Finally, to amuse oneself at the expense of any creature was unworthy of people calling themselves civilized.
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"Cockneys",452,0,0,0
Correctly applied, "cockney" refers to a Londoner who was born "within the sounds of the Bow-bells." They were the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, the church situated in the very center of the city. Like most of the buildings, they were destroyed in 1941 by German bombs, but like the sanctuary, have been restored since.
Much thought has been given to the origin of the nickname, first used in the seventeenth century. Many an explanation proffered is fictitious. This applies to the fanciful claim that it was the result of the cockney's cheekiness. They were "cocky" people. And for the cocky to become (a) cockney was not too far to go. It has equally been asserted that this designation grew out of country folk's contempt for the city dweller. Divorced from the soil, they had lost all contact with nature. They knew nothing about animals, crops, and hard work. Pampered by the soft life, it could truly be said that they were cockered. A word now rarely used, it described anyone who was spoiled like a child. It may well have been suggested by the cockerel, kept and treated as a pet.
A seventeenth-century anecdote gives yet another reason for the cockney's existence. It illustrates the disdain in which they were held at the time in the Lexicon published in 1617 by John Minshew, a "Ductor in Linguas." (An extraordinary work, it gives the equivalent of the words listed in eleven languages.) Accompanying his (derogatory) explanation of the cockney, Minshew relates an incident typical of the ignorance of city people.
He tells how "a citizen's sonne riding with his father in the country, asked when he heard a horse neigh, what the horse did. His father answered, 'Neigh.' Riding further, he heard a cock crow and said 'Does the cock neigh, too?'" And that is how, according to Minshew, the cockney was born!
In reality, the cockney evolved from a "cock's egg." In medieval times this was known as cokeney. A malformed egg, it was the very first or last laid by a hen. Very small in size, it might even lack the yolk. Compared with a real egg, it was truly odd, without substance, just as the (London) cockney was a mere \Jcaricature\j of a real (country) person.
In their own inimitable way, the cockneys then changed the term intended to abuse and debase into a name of pride.
#
"Cocksure",453,0,0,0
A cock struts among the hens, letting them know, as it were, that he is their master. Would it be any wonder then that people who are very self-assured and dogmatically self-confident to an almost overwhelming degree, are described as cocky? Nevertheless, the word cocksure owes nothing to the rooster.
This cock does not belong to the farmyard at all but is part of a cask of liquor. It is the tap or turnkey that opens it up and lets the precious liquid flow. But it has to be so perfect, so sure, that no drop leaks out. "Cocksure" therefore describes a situation of absolute certainty. This \Jgenealogy\j and real meaning of cocksure, a term so easily traced wrongly to the chicken-run, teaches not to be too sure about anything.
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"Cockswain",454,0,0,0
A cockswain combines in his name remnants of the distant Saxon tongue. A "cock" described a small boat, and a "swain" was a lad or a servant. Originally thus, a cockswain was a junior member of the crew who, in the absence of the superior officer, was put in charge of a boat.
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"Cocktail",455,0,0,0
America is the home of the cocktail, but no one is sure about the first concoction - either of its name or ingredients. Cocktail parties have become a social institution the world over, with plenty of people standing all the time, talking inanities and leaving none the wiser but richer in some kind of spirit.
The earliest reference to the cocktail appears in 1806 in an American periodical, inappropriately called \IThe Balance,\i which defined the drink as "a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind." Indeed, the cocktail may be a mixture of many things and there is as great variety of ingredients as there is of explanations as to the origin of this drink.
First of all people sought for a solution of the mystery of the cocktail in its literal meaning. They tried to fathom any connection (real or imagined) between the cock's tail and the drink. However, the plumage of the rooster in itself did not supply the answer.
It was the dictionary which revealed that a certain type of horse, used mostly for hunting and drawing stagecoaches, at some time had been referred to as a "cocktail." And for an obvious reason. The horse's tail was generally cut so short, that it stuck up like a cock's tail. Those horses were never thoroughbreds, but a mixture, just as the drink:
\I"Perhaps it's made of whisky, and perhaps it's made of gin:
Perhaps there's orange bitters and a lemon peel within..."\i
More likely than horsebreeding as the source of the cocktail are certain historical events associated with the ancient \JAztecs\j, Mexicans, and American forces of the Southern states.
The ancient Aztec civilization is renowned for many of its achievements and, not surprisingly, it has been given the distinction of having made the first cocktail as well. An Aztec nobleman, so the story goes, brewed a drink out of the sap of the \Jcactus\j plant. This he sent as a gift to the emperor by the hand of his daughter, Zochitl, a fact which - no doubt - made it all the more intoxicating.
The emperor tried it, and liked the drink and the daughter so much, that he acquired both! As it was Zochitl, his newlywed wife, who first introduced him to the world of intoxication, he thought it only fair to call the beverage by her name. Pronounced with the royal Aztec accent, it came to sound like Octel.
All this took place generations before the establishment of the United States and gave the drink time to take root. When, many years later, the American army, under General Scott, invaded Mexico, they were impressed not only by the country's brave warriors but by their spirit, which soon conquered the would-be conquerors.
They carried it back to the States as their most potent and lasting booty, assimilating its name into their own tongue by changing Octel into cocktail. Thus a relic of the \JMexican war\j still fights many a battle inside numerous men all over the world.
Another explanation also links the birth of the drink with American soldiery but relates it to the time of the War of Independence. A young widow named Betsy Flanagan then kept a popular tavern close to New York. She called it "The Four Corners" and not without reason, as both French and Americans, and coming from all directions, made it their haunt. They were attracted by the friendliness of the inn and the charm of its hostess but - most of all - by its drinks.
Patrons spent many hours there \Jplaying cards\j and gulping the sparkling liquor, which Betsy herself mixed according to a formula she jealously kept secret. Mrs Flanagan's "bracers" became known far and wide, and no other tavern had a chance to compete with them.
It happened that adjacent to the inn was the property of an Englishman, a loyalist and the soldiers' inveterate foe. He excelled in farming chickens, and his fowls, like Betsy's drinks, had no equal. What a pity that they could not meet - at least inside her guests!
Betsy was a good hostess and a good sport and loved to join in the fun of the soldiers. Soon it became her habit, when the spirit in the tavern reached intoxicating heights, to promise that one day she would serve her guests, free-of-charge, a meal of fried chicken, stolen from the finest coop in the country - next door.
This became a standing joke but eventually it was taken seriously. Officers, visiting the inn, began to inquire when they could expect the promised meal. Then, one day, Betsy made good her promise. To celebrate the occasion (and the theft), Betsy decorated the inn's jars and bottles with the feathers of the roasted roosters.
One of the soldiers, who craved a bracer, noted the decorated bottles and asked for a glass "of those cocktails." His call soon was taken up by others and the trophy of a theft became perpetuated for all time by being linked with Mrs Flanagan's drink.
That same night, a further tradition says, one of the soldiers, surfeited pleasantly with fowl and drink, remarked: "We are drinking the beverage that offers the palate the same charming sensation as the feathers of the cock's tail offer the eye." At once, it is said, a Frenchman proposed a toast: "Long live the cocktail!"
That is how from "The Four Corners," from a theft, a war, and an early antagonism between British and Americans, spread a new name and concoction to the four corners of the earth. At that early stage it showed how British and Americans, though they may differ in some things, by joining forces around the table, can create an invincible spirit.
There is yet another interpretation which associates the first cocktail with the American-\JMexican war\j. But this time with its final phase.
A truce had been called, and both the commanding general of the Southern armies and King \JAxolotl\j VIII had agreed to meet. The negotiations took place in the royal palace. The two men, accompanied by their officers, were seated ready to commence the talks when the king, in a convivial mood, suggested as one man to another they first should join in a drink.
The American guest gladly agreed and the king ordered that a drink should be served at once. A girl of striking beauty appeared, carrying a magnificent golden goblet, which contained a potion of her own brewing.
What had been meant as a friendly gesture now assumed a critical aspect. A hushed silence fell over the party and it seemed that the fate of the war was in the balance. There was only one cup. Who should drink of it first? Whoever it was, his precedence was bound to insult the other. It was a delicate situation.
The girl quickly assessed the implications of the single cup. With a smile she bowed to her king and the general, and then drained the cup herself. Her presence of mind and female intuition had saved the situation.
Before leaving, the general asked the king who the tactful young lady was, whose beauty equaled her wisdom. In reality, \JAxolotl\j had not the slightest idea. He had never seen her before. Nevertheless, he told the American that she was his daughter Coctel. On hearing this, the general replied: "I shall see to it, your Majesty, that your daughter's name will be honored by my army for all times." The general not only kept his promise, but through the American forces "Coctel," now spelled "cocktail," conquered most of the world.
Some people who indulge in drink explain that they do so for medicinal purposes only. In the case of the cocktail, so yet a further claim asserts, it was actually the medical profession that was responsible for its invention. An American "ancient print," quoted by a New York paper, stated that doctors used to treat certain diseases of the throat with a "pleasant liquid" which they applied by means of the tip of a long feather, plucked from a cock's tail. Patients soon referred to the treatment as that of "the cocktail."
At first only used for painting the throat, the liquid was later prescribed as a gargle, with its original name still clinging to it. Possibly to make its taste more pleasant still, several "appetizers" were added. No wonder that soon the sick swallowed the gargle! Eventually, the cocktail became completely divorced from sore throats and assumed its social function.
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"Codswallop",456,0,0,0
The contents of a cod's \Jstomach\j, it is said, made British naval personnel refer to worthless rubbish as codswallop. Therefore credit goes to those seamen to have added the word to English slang as a description of nonsense.
The "wallop" part of the fish has meant different things at various times. Now obsolete, it once was used for "gallop." Subsequently, as it were, running away from its early beginnings, it took on the meaning of a thrashing. One of the (apocryphal) reasons given for the change once again is linked with the British navy and one of its successful actions in which it thoroughly defeated the French. The name of the admiral in charge of the attack was Wallop. In admiration, people came to say that he "walloped" the French, making his name synonymous with a sound beating.
Ultimately, as late as the 1930s, wallop became an English colloquialism for "beer." Codswallop would come up in taste to its name - as undrinkable as a cod's brew.
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"Coffee and Alcohol",457,0,0,0
It is wishful thinking and a fallacy to assume that \Jcoffee\j has a sobering effect of inebriates. As a stimulant, the \Jcoffee\j may exhilarate them and lead them to think that they are less "under the influence." \JCoffee\j does not reduce the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream nor does it accelerate its elimination.
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"Coffee Beans",458,0,0,0
Coffee beans are not beans but seeds. The misnomer was the result of their beanlike shape.
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"Coffee's Popularity",459,0,0,0
Whilst \JBuddhism\j played its significant role in promoting the drinking of tea, \JMoslem\j faith greatly contributed to the popularization of \Jcoffee\j.
Islam prohibits the drinking of alcohol. At times, however, man needs some stimulant. Not least so did the Moslems, since they had to keep awake and alert during periods of prolonged worship, and particularly so when undertaking their once arduous pilgrimage to Mecca. For this reason, they substituted, for the forbidden alcoholic drinks, a brew made from the seeds of the \Jcoffee\j plant. This explains the odd fact that the word \Icoffee,\i derived from the Arab \Iquahwah,\i etymologically has the root - meaning of "wine!"
Europeans adopted the drinking of \Jcoffee\j from Moslems, though religious antagonism almost prevented them from doing so. An unconfirmed tradition tells that, after their defeat by the Austrians at Vienna in 1529, soldiers of the \JMoslem\j (Ottoman) army, in their hasty retreat, left behind several bags of \Jcoffee\j beans. These were picked up by their victorious foes. Initially, however, the Austrians actually refused to make use of the loot. After all, they were Christians and \Jcoffee\j was the infidels' drink.
However, when Pope Clement had tasted of it, he found it so delicious "that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive enjoyment of it."
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"Cognac",460,0,0,0
"One cannot improve upon perfection" say the brandy makers. And cognac, this world-famous grape brandy - so Frenchmen claim - was the result of their countrymen's contempt for the inferior, and of pure chance.
Peasants who lived near the river Charente, on which the town of Cognac is situated, had an overabundance of white wine. It was of such poor quality that to sell it locally was out of the question. They decided to send it to markets further away, less discriminating in taste. However, as transport was costly, to do so would not have been worth the expense. Shrewdly they solved the problem. They reduced the large volume of the consignment by boiling down the wine. The result was most unexpected: the cheap wine had turned into the first cognac thus created by accident.
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"Coin in the Pudding",461,0,0,0
An exciting moment during the Christmas dinner is finding out who the lucky person is whose portion of the pudding contains the coin. Children especially treasure this custom, even though the coin itself has little value.
The coin in the pudding might well be a remnant of the exuberant festivities once held on the very last day of the Christmas period, Twelfth Night. In memory of the three kings who are said to have arrived in \JBethlehem\j at that time, a special mock "king" would be chosen for that day only. Their rule was distinguished by turning everything topsy-turvy, and reversing every social and moral tradition. Servants were to be served by their masters and sexual indulgence abounded. Very appropriately, this person's title was "the King of Misrule."
An alternate name for this "king for a day" was "King of the Bean," a name based on the method by which he or she was chosen. A bean was included in the mixture of a cake baked for the occasion. When the cake was broken up and its pieces distributed among the company, whoever found the hidden bean was crowned the "King of the Bean." This ancient ritual might well be the origin of our modern coin in the pudding.
Going much further back in time, a gruesome ceremony belonging to the pagan Saturnalia celebration could also be responsible for the custom. Then, the finding of the coin brought not pleasure but death. It was part of a barbaric lottery in which the "winner" lost his life. The people back then believed that they needed the gods' aid to save themselves and the world from freezing to death - but the "price" of this was a human life. This sacrifice would ensure the gods' help in preventing the sun "standing still," the literal meaning of "\Jsolstice\j." At the same time, the sacrificed person's blood would magically fertilize the soil on which it fell to ensure its ability to produce crops in spite of the freezing conditions.
The only problem was how to decide who would be sacrificed! To this end, a lottery was devised so the gods themselves could choose. A coin was hidden in a pudding, and whoever found it was considered to be the divine choice for the sacrifice. Thankfully, all that remains of this original draw for death is the idea of the coin.
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"Coin Under Mast",462,0,0,0
The custom of putting a coin under the mast of a boat may well go back to the ancient Roman practice of placing a coin in the mouth of the dead. This was to pay Charon, the ferryman, for his carrying them across the river \JStyx\j to the realm of \JHades\j.
Should shipwreck cause sailors to drown, there was no one to pay for their transportation across the mythological river. Never reaching its other bank, they truly would become lost souls. To avoid this, a coin was deposited under the mast to be used in such eventuality. It paid for their passage across in advance.
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"Coins and a New Moon",463,0,0,0
When seeing the new moon, people superstitiously jingle coins in their pockets. They imagine that this will make their money grow, though they do not know why.
The moon has contributed much to life both in true and false notions. Wrongly, it has been believed to control a woman's \Jmenstruation\j. On the other hand, everyone knows the pull the moon has on the ocean causing its tides. Therefore, it was not so far-fetched, after all, to think that it could equally affect the money in one's pockets.
Just as the thin crescent of the moon inevitably grew to ever larger dimensions, eventually to assume its full size, so magically, it was thought, it would make one's money increase simultaneously. However, this could never happen automatically. Only by turning a coin in the pocket, would it be completely exposed (with both its sides) to the lunar radiation. Better still, by jingling coins, their sound would immediately trigger the magical growing process.
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"Cold Duck",464,0,0,0
The story goes that waiters in German restaurants used to have a peculiar custom. After guests had departed, they did not pour away what was left in their bottles of wine and beer. Instead, they mixed the left-overs and drank the concoction themselves! The waiters referred to it as "the cold end" - in German, \Idas kalte Ende.\i This sounded very much like the German for a cold duck - \Ikalte Ente.\i Enjoying the pun and much preferring the animated name, they humorously now called their freely-obtained "drink" just that - the cold duck.
The name became so popular that it was regarded unworthy to be applied to mere residues. Thus it was transferred to a new alcoholic drink, also a mixture, not of left-overs but made of equal amounts of burgundy and champagne. When the British took a liking to it, they adopted its German name, translating it into English. And that is the origin of the cold duck.
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"Cold Enough to Freeze the Balls Off a Brass Monkey",465,0,0,0
To describe icy weather as "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" is not obscene, as some might imagine.
It is straight naval talk. "Monkey" used to be the nickname for a young cadet, assigned with the duty to fetch the ammunition. His description was then transferred to the large brass plate on which the cannon balls were placed, accordingly called a brass monkey.
The practice created a problem. As the rate of contraction of the brass plate differed from that of the iron cannon balls, it so happened that in extremely cold weather the balls would roll off the much faster shrinking plate. Quite correctly, therefore, on such occasions the sailors could observe that it was "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."
Another derivation has the same basic interpretation. However, it recognizes in the "brass monkey" a seventeenth-century sailor's nickname for the ship's cannon. When the temperature dropped far below freezing point, the iron balls, contracting at a different rate from the brass cannon, put it out of action!
Whichever way, the words were ambiguous. To avoid any misinterpretation, those anxious not to endanger their reputation slightly changed the saying, remarking that it was "cold enough to freeze the ears off a brass monkey."
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"Collations",466,0,0,0
A collation of food is a light informal meal, mostly eaten at odd hours. At first, however, the term did not refer to any consumption of food, not even the least formal, but to a religious practice of Benedictine monks: the reading out aloud of religious lore, followed by its discussion.
Some people love to read whilst eating. Simultaneously they thus partake of food for their body, and food for their mind. They are not the first to combine the two, but were preceded long ago by "learner" monks who, by their practice, added a new word to the dictionary of eating habits.
In the fourth century, a young man, Romanian - born Johannes Cassianus, joined a monastery in \JBethlehem\j. Indeed, he was one of the very early monks in the history of the Church. He did not stay long with his brethren in the Holy Land, but moved on into the Egyptian desert, to make a special study of the hermits who had settled there, those early Christian recluses who had retired into a solitary life.
From \JEgypt\j he returned to Europe, to southern \JFrance\j and, at a time when monasticism was hardly known in the Western world, founded two monasteries near Marseilles, between A.D. 419 and 429.
Obviously, those joining him and taking the monastic vow knew little of what was expected of them. For their instruction, Cassianus wrote a special guide, entitling it "Conferences of the Fathers" \I(Collationes patrum).\i The book contained a record of his conversations with the hermits in the Egyptian desert. The practice developed for Cassianus nightly to read to the gathered novice monks sections from his "Collations," subsequently to discuss any point they might raise. While doing so, all present shared refreshments, so that what could be called a seminar was accompanied by the serving of snacks.
Readings and food became so closely linked in the monks' minds that the word \Icollation\i (an abbreviation of the title of Cassianus' tract) soon came to refer to any minor repast. This explains why even the light meal served on fast days instead of the usual full dinner was so designated.
With the passing of time, the term was applied to light spreads of any kind, irrespective of their location and circumstances. Nothing was remembered of its literary source and monastic beginnings. No wonder that Samuel Pepys could record in his \IDiary\i how much he had enjoyed a collation - of anchovies and bacon.
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"Colonel",467,0,0,0
There is a reason for everything, including for the peculiar pronunciation of some words. Many may rightly wonder why it is that people speak of a colonel, as if he were a kernel.
It is not the only problem he presents, as even the origin of his title may be traced to two entirely different sources. The colonel may have his root in a "crown," the Latin \Icorona.\i After all, he served his king, "the Crown." On the other hand, as an "outstanding" leader he was entitled to be called after the very "column" \I(colomna\i in Latin) he led, and this could explain his name.
Somehow in the way of a British compromise, even adopted by his American cousin, the colonel is still spelled the "column" way, but pronounced as if there was no doubt of his former "crown" which he thus retains, vocally, both in a monarchy and in a republic.
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"Colony's First 'Principal Commissary'",468,0,0,0
\BJohn Palmer\b
The Rev Samuel Marsden conducted the funeral service for John Palmer, who is buried in the historical cemetery of St John's, Parramatta. Palmer's death certificate gives his "quality of profession" as a "Gentleman," with no indication of the many offices he held and the part he played in the very early days of the colony.
Born in England in 1760, John went to sea as a boy of ten. As the purser on the \ISirius\i he sailed with the \JFirst Fleet\j to \JAustralia\j. In 1791, Governor Phillip appointed him the first Commissary-General of the colony.
Prior to his coming to \JAustralia\j, Palmer had fought in the American War of Independence and been taken prisoner by the French. Whilst in New York, he had married an American girl. Eventful, indeed, were Palmer's 73 years of life - he made many friends and foes in the highest places, with consequent assignments and dismissals.
Granted an extensive plot of land on the shores of Sydney Harbor (at Woolloomooloo), he built himself a grandiose house. He acquired his own vessels which plied as far as \JBass Strait\j, and built a large stone mill at the back of the Government House Domain, much to Governor Macquarie's displeasure. Taking Captain Bligh's part during the mutiny, he was relieved of his duties and imprisoned, eventually to be reinstated.
Made a magistrate, a quarrel once again put him into disfavor, resulting in his temporary removal from the bench.
Through grants and his many ventures, Palmer amassed great wealth and much property, employing more than a hundred people. But then, through floods and other misfortunes, he fell on hard times. He had to dispose of all he had gained and suffered deprivation.
At his death - on 27 September 1833 - he could have well prided himself on yet another achievement: to have survived all his fellow officers of the \JFirst Fleet\j. He now rests in a family \Jcrypt\j next to his wife, who had predeceased him by one year and to whom he had been married for half a century.
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"Colorblindness",469,0,0,0
It is a mistake to speak of colorblindness. The description suggests that people suffering from this defect cannot recognize any color, their visual world being altogether gray, which is exceedingly rare. In the majority of cases, those afflicted with colorblindness cannot differentiate between certain colors, mostly red and/or green while all others can be distinguished by them, only less vividly.
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"Colors of Eggshells",470,0,0,0
The color of an eggshell depends on the breed of the hen that laid the egg. It is no indication of its nutritional value. This is not related to whether the shell is white or brown.
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"Come a Cropper",471,0,0,0
If someone fails completely, they "come a cropper." They do not fall on their feet but on their head, and "crop" was an old description of it. The word comes from English riding slang, in which "neck and crop" referred to the entire body of a horse. Someone who experienced total ruin is like a rider who tumbles off their mount head-over-heels, or a horse which falls to the ground.
Derived from a word for a swollen protuberance, in Old English (and still in the eighth century) "crop" was specifically applied to the "head" of herbs, shrubs, and flowers. Farmers then used it for the "heads" of vegetables they had planted and, as it was those alone they gathered at harvest time, they became known as their "crop."
Animal's preference to eat merely the succulent tops of grass made people say that they cropped it. In its multiple use and long history, crop, both as a noun and a verb, always ended up with the head - of the rider, the horse and the unlucky person whose misfortune, too, had come to a head, making them come a cropper.
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"Come to a Head",472,0,0,0
For something to "come to a head" is the climax of a development. The phrase has two interesting, but completely diverse explanations.
The expression has been traced to fifteenth-century England, when cabbage was the staple food. On maturing, the plant's leaves came together, making the vegetable look like a head. This is the reason why people still ask for "a head of cabbage."
Naturally, the process of ripening took time, and one can well imagine how anxious people were for the cabbage to mature, as well as their disappointment when being told by the grower that they would still have to wait for it "to come to a head."
Totally different is a derivation which links the phrase with boils and carbuncles. Before they could be lanced by the doctor, they had to "come to a head" - meaning that the pus had to ripen.
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"Commemorative Origins",473,0,0,0
A remarkable number of names on the map recall specific dogma or significant figures and events in the history of religion. Trinidad, for instance, might well refer to the Trinity, though some authorities have suggested that Columbus merely called it so after the three peaks he had seen when approaching the island.
\JMedina\j in Saudi \JArabia\j stands for \IMedinet-an-Nabi,\i "the town of the \JProphet\j." Originally known as Yathrib, it was the city to which Mohammed fled from Mecca and where he died in 632. To Moslems it is the birthplace of their religion.
The name of \JIstanbul\j in Turkey has been explained as the combination, \IIslam-bul,\i "the city of \JIslam\j," while \JBaghdad\j, the capital of \JIraq\j, derives its name from the Persian for "God's gift."
Recognition of the divine protection which had guarded him and his faithful adherents led Roger Williams, the clergyman - founder of the colony of \JRhode Island\j, to call the first settlement, established in 1636, "Providence." He explained that "God's merciful providence" had aided him to survive and overcome all hostilities experienced at the time.
\JDunkirk\j, the historic site of the successful evacuation of hundreds of thousands of troops from the Continent of Europe to Britain during World War II, recalls in its Flemish-derived name a simple, seventh-century "church on the dunes."
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"Communion Service",474,0,0,0
The Holy Communion service, with its bread and wine, began within the \JSynagogue\j. It is derived from the ancient \JHebrew\j custom of offering special thanks to God at the beginning of every Sabbath and festival, which was always on their eve. The head of the family praised God at the festive table, before the actual meal. He did so over wine and bread, which symbolized the bounty of the vineyard and the field. All present partook of the bread he broke and the cup of wine he blessed.
According to the \JSynoptic Gospels\j, Jesus' "Last Supper," His final meal on the night before the Crucifixion, took place on the eve of the Jewish Passover and was, therefore, the traditional Passover celebration. This was held in every home all over \JJerusalem\j and the Holy Land. Its ritual included the blessing of wine and bread. But instead of ordinary loaves, unleavened bread (known as \IMatsah)\i was broken, in memory of the Israelites' affliction and their exodus from \JEgypt\j.
As a Jew, Jesus followed meticulously the ancient practice of breaking the bread and blessing the wine and den sharing both with His 12 disciples. But while doing so, the Gospel account relates, He referred mysteriously to the bread as His body and the wine as His blood.
Tremendous conflicts were joined over these words and their interpretation. Their very brevity and obscurity laid them open to various explanations. Critical scholars were reminded of pagan sacramental rites in which, by means of a joint participation of sacred food, the eaters were knit to the god and to one another. Did Jesus intend, it was asked, to introduce similarly a mystical and sacramental idea into the Jewish practice, linking it with His forthcoming sacrificial death?
Or, conscious of the forgetfulness of man, was He concerned about giving His disciples and those who followed them some way of remembering Him and of holding them together when He had gone? An association of thought could serve as the best reminder. The substance of bread would suggest to them His body and the red color of wine would bring to mind His blood.
No matter what Jesus really meant when He uttered the words, the fact is that the \JEucharist\j, which became a central act of Christian worship, is the perpetuation of Christ's last Passover supper and of the Jewish practice of thanking God by breaking bread and blessing wine, still carried on in every Jewish home.
Indeed, its Jewish tradition survives in the very name of Holy Communion, the \JEucharist\j, meaning "to give thanks." The term itself is not found in the \JNew Testament\j and stems from the Greek. That the thin wafer, used as the Host, must be unleavened, equally recalls its \JHebrew\j origin: the unleavened bread of the Jewish Passover feast.
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"Company: Origin of the Name",475,0,0,0
Common interests or shared duties make people dine together. This is the origin of any company: social, commercial, or martial. The name of the "company," from the Latin \Icum pane,\i "with bread," speaks of the sharing of bread. A company ate together or, in military terminology, were mess mates.
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"Concentrating on the Negative",476,0,0,0
\BThomas Treacy\b
Just outside the township of Barridale are the remnants of an early settlement, Gegedzerick. Its name, of Aboriginal origin, is difficult to pronounce. Still standing is its early, now renovated church.
Opened in 1860, it was dedicated only eight years later, most likely because of its remoteness. Significantly, the ancient churchyard adjacent to it contains graves of even earlier times, of which no other records exist. The church register lists as the first burial that of James Harvey, an infant of seven weeks, who had died on 17 August 1856.
Some of the inscriptions on still older graves do not eulogize the deceased, but are concerned with their fate in the hereafter. The words on the headstone for Thomas Treacy are typical: "A Native of C \JTipperary\j, Ireland, who died January 9. 1846, Aged 54 Years." The reader is asked "in charity" to pray for his soul as "it is . . . a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins."
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"Confidence",477,0,0,0
The real meaning of confidence suggests that it once named a religious virtue. One who lives "with confidence" does so "with faith," \Icon-fides\i in Latin. Thus Daniel Webster observed that confidence could never be attained by compulsion. Man cannot be forced to trust, to have faith.
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"Conjugal Rights",478,0,0,0
Conjugal rights are now taken to speak specifically of the mutual obligation of a husband and wife - mostly in a sexual sense. This, however, is the result of a misspelling. Originally, the term referred to the rites of the Church. Not a slip of the tongue, but a clerical error changed a religious ceremony that wedded a man and a woman into a legal "affair."
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"Conquest of Beriberi",479,0,0,0
For centuries beriberi was a sickness that haunted people, particularly in Asian countries where rice was the staple food. Medical research just could not trace the organism suspected to cause the debilitating disease. An accidental occurrence (in 1896) then led to the cure, finding it in an entirely unexpected direction.
Dr Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch physician who was engaged in pathological research at the Medical School of Batavia (the present-day \JDjakarta\j), used chickens for his experiments. All of a sudden these showed the very symptoms of the evasive disease. Attempts on his part to discover the cause and identify the mysterious germ proved abortive. And then, as quickly and unexpectedly as the disease had started, it disappeared.
The conscientious and scientifically trained doctor, however, was determined not to give up his quest. His zeal paid off. He discovered a strange coincidence of dates. It was linked with the hiring of a new \Jhospital\j cook. Very economically-minded, he had discontinued his predecessor's practice to feed the chicken "guinea-pigs" with unpolished rice, specifically purchased for the patients. Scraps, he felt, were good enough for the fowl. The outbreak of beriberi occurred soon after the change of diet.
Experimentation confirmed his suspicion. Thus, by mere chance as it were, beriberi was conquered, and the entirely new concept of dietary deficiencies added to medical knowledge.
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"Conservatorium",480,0,0,0
Conservation has become a significant preoccupation today. This makes one wonder why a school for musical instruction is called a \Iconservatorium\i (or \Iconservatoire).\i The name certainly has no connection whatsoever with music, except that perhaps a college of its kind helps in "preserving" the art.
Its application in this peculiar sense is due to Antonio Vivaldi, the brilliant violinist and composer of 700 pieces of music. In 1693, at the young age of fifteen, he had taken \Jholy orders\j. Ten years later he was ordained a priest. In 1703, he was appointed Director of Instrumental Music at a Venetian church-sponsored home for foundling girls, known in Italian as a "\Jconservatory\j of orphans." With a few interruptions, he occupied this position for thirty-seven years. During that time, he made the teaching and practice of music a paramount part of the orphans' education and life, with the result that the institution's very name became identified with a school of music, an association it has never lost.
A letter written from Venice in 1739 and still preserved, vividly described the circumstances as witnessed at the time. It tells how the orphans' "sole training is to excel in music. Thus they sing like angels, and play the violin, flute, organ, oboe, violin cello, and \Jbassoon\j - in fact there is no instrument so big as to intimidate them. They are cloistered like nuns. They perform without outside help, and at each concert forty girls take part. I swear there is nothing prettier in the world than to see a young and charming nun, in a white frock, with a spray of \Jpomegranate\j flowers over her ear, conducting the orchestra and give the beat with all the exactness imaginable."
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"Contemplation",481,0,0,0
Whenever we "contemplate" a situation or some future action, figuratively we enter a temple! A temple was a space "marked out" (Greek \Itemnein)\i by priests, from "within" (Greek \Icon)\i which they communicated with the divine to gain insight into the future.
In the same way, Roman priests would forecast events to come. Inside the hallowed enclosure (Latinised as \Itemplum),\i they examined the entrails of sacrificed animals to read the message thus conveyed. The chief augur, on the other hand, used to ascend an observation tower on top of the Capitol, and there "mark out" with a wand a section of the sky, referred to by the identical \Itemplum.\i He studied the flight of birds within this air-space and interpreted their movements prophetically.
Our word \Icontemplation,\i then, harks back to the ancient practices of priests and seers who, inside the temples, tried to divine the future.
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"Contemporary Art",482,0,0,0
Much modern abstract art, both in sculpture and painting, appears to reflect the influence of "primitive" tribal religion and imitate native ritual objects of dynamic force. Whether this happened fortuitously or whether modern painters have actually copied tribal man's religious expressions, a striking affinity between works from each source is often apparent.
It is no mere coincident that renowned modernists were enthusiastic collectors of religious artifacts, such as masks, imagery and ceremonial reliquaries of tribal societies in Africa, \JOceania\j and the Americas. Even the distortion of bodily proportions, so conspicuous, for instance, in Picasso's work, bears an uncanny resemblance to tribal figures and fetishes.
The surrealists' assemblages, bringing together most disparate objects, among them nails, nuts, string and bolts, equally reveal a startling likeness to figurations used in the religious life of primitive man, the structures based on tribal myth and \Jcosmology\j.
A sculpture of the god, A'a, from the \JAustral Islands\j, for instance, is covered with tiny crawling figures, upside-down, right-side-up and Iying on their sides. They represent the god's eyes, ears and mouth. This icon formidably illustrates the fundamentally religious purpose of native art.
Conscious of an awesome force not easily to be deflected, tribal artists were motivated by the anxious desire to avert evil, to relieve anxiety and to coax unknown, potentially threatening spirits. And it was this primitive religious art, with its disregard for physical verisimilitude, which had such an impact on the style of twentieth-century western art that it became the very heart of \Jmodernism\j.
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"Continents of Europe and Asia",483,0,0,0
To count Europe and Asia as separate "continents" is a mistake. The Latin-derived term was coined to describe a continuous mass (of land) which is "held together" \I(contenere)\i and not divided by an ocean. As Europe and Asia are joined over a distance of thousands of miles, they are not individual continents. Correctly, both should carry one name, as suggested by the rarely used Eurasia.
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"Cooee Corner",484,0,0,0
A burial plot in the Camperdown Historical Cemetery is known as the "Cooee Corner." It contains the graves of Mogo, Berry Tommy, and Wandalina, three \JAborigines\j who were among the first of their race to be buried according to Christian rites.
The peculiar designation is most apt. Cooee was the typical Aboriginal call used to attract attention of people far away, as the sound carried a long distance. Here in the cemetery, the cooee comes from the world beyond.
Cooee is also the \JAborigines\j' vocal invitation to a "get-together." They might well have copied the koel cuckoo, known as the cooee bird. Cooee then would be an onomatopoetic word the white settlers adopted, first as a cry for help or a rallying call.
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"Cook One's Goose",485,0,0,0
Whoever spoils his chances, "cooks his goose." The \Jmetaphor\j has been explained by an apocryphal story told about King Eric of Sweden. With a comparatively small band of soldiers, he was besieging a town. Seeing that Eric's troops were only few in number, the inhabitants did not feel threatened at all.
On the contrary, they imagined themselves to be so superior and safe that, looking down from the ramparts, they laughed at the king and to ridicule him, hung down a goose from the city's walls. They did so for a twofold reason. Mockingly it suggested that all he was able to do was to shoot at the bird. But it was also meant as a personal insult. European tradition regards the goose a brainless creature and the act suggested the king equaled it in stupidity.
Their action misfired. Greatly angered, the king was now determined to teach the citizens a lesson. He not only victoriously assaulted the town but burned it down. In the conflagration the goose was cooked.
Another version relates that, after having suspended the goose from the wall, the citizens sent a message to the king, asking him what he wanted. "To cook your goose," was his reply, instantly followed by his attack.
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"Cool One's Heels",486,0,0,0
Anyone forced to wait cools their heels. This odd figure of speech originated at the time when the horse served as the principal means of transportation, either as a mount or in pulling a coach. When, on long trips, its hoofs became heated, the rider or driver had to stop and interrupt the journey to let them cool down. Though, as the saying goes, horses are (now only) for courses, in the manner of speaking, people still cool their heels when kept waiting.
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"Cooling Fan",487,0,0,0
A fan does not lower room temperature. It merely swirls the hot air around. The movement of air helps to dry \Jperspiration\j faster which makes people feel more comfortable. Drawing the wrong conclusion, they imagine that the fan has actually cooled the atmosphere.
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"Copernicus' World View",488,0,0,0
Copernicus was not the first to teach the heliocentric world view that the sun and not the earth was the center of the universe around which the planets (including the earth) revolved. His theory \IConcerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies\i was published in 1543, the very year of his death. (The reason was his justified fear of public reaction to his "revolutionary" work, which was bound to lead to his prosecution.)
However, more than 1,800 years before him, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of \JSamos\j (d. 230 B.C.) had propounded the identical notion. At that early date, he had also taught that not only the earth revolved in a circle around the sun but that, simultaneously, it rotated on its own axis.
His view, just like that of Copernicus later on, caused consternation and opposition, particularly so on the part of the established religion. \JPlutarch\j quotes a Greek opinion voiced at the time, suggesting that the people should indict Aristarchus on the charge of impiety for putting "in motion the hearth of the universe."
Copernicus knew of his predecessor and is believed to have actually referred to his concept in support of his own. However, he is said to have removed the passage again later on, to make people think that he was the very first to have expressed the theory.
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"Coppers",489,0,0,0
For policemen to be nicknamed "coppers" may reflect the fact that one of their main duties was to "cop" criminals. One hypothesis, in fact, traces the description to ancient Roman days in which a similar-sounding Latin word - \Icapere\i - referred to the "catching" of thieves.
A conspicuous feature on the London policeman's early uniform jacket was its shiny copper buttons. These caught people's eyes and ultimately were identified with the guardian of the law, who became "the copper." The nickname has stuck, though the original buttons have long been removed.
As in England police officers are often known as constables, it has also been suggested that the "cop" is really an \Jacronym\j, combining the first letters of a constable on patrol.
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"Cordon Bleu",490,0,0,0
The finest cuisine cannot be surpassed - which is the literal reason for its being referred to as "cordon bleu." It is heavenly food, so to speak. This explanation is not a flowery praise, but the exact meaning of the term.
God was thought to dwell in heaven; heaven was believed to be up in the sky. As the sky was blue, this became the divine color. Linked with the Supreme Being, it was applied to anything exquisite that could not be surpassed.
The Most Noble Order of the Garter - the oldest surviving badge of chivalry in Europe - is of royal blue, embroidered with gold. Animals awarded the first prize at agricultural shows are decorated with a blue ribbon. A blue ribbon was the coveted trophy in trans-Atlantic shipping as well, when huge ocean liners were still competing with each other for the fastest crossing. It was in the same tradition that the French Knights of the \JHoly Spirit\j wore their insignia suspended from a blue ribbon around their neck.
Like all Frenchmen, the knights were fond of good food. It was not surprising therefore that the club at which they met became renowned for its excellent cuisine.
Anyone who had enjoyed a really outstanding meal compared it with the food served for the knights of the "blue ribbon" - \Icordon bleu\i - saying that it was worthy of them, \I"C'est un vrai repas de cordon bleu."\i That is how the "blue ribbon" in its original French became synonymous with the finest of cooking.
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"Corduroy",491,0,0,0
Sales promotion possibly was responsible, if not for the naming, for the spelling of corduroy. This hard-wearing, rough-ribbed fabric was first manufactured by the English firm of Corderoy. But, well aware that people preferred French fashion and were attracted by anything that bore some regal mark, the owner of the firm simply changed one letter in his name, replacing the "e" with a "u," he called his product corduroy.
It now fulfilled the two conditions to make the cloth sell: it sounded French and suggested some royal association.
Other suggestions, also linked with the French, are rather unconvincing. Some see in the corduroy a combination of the French \Icorde du roi,\i meaning "the cord of the king." However, they could not explain why it should be so called. The general claim that originally it referred to fine silk cloth manufactured in \JFrance\j and used for the royal hunting dress has been rejected, as no actual examples could be traced. Equally unsubstantiated is the assertion that its original name was \Icouleur du roi,\i "the king's color" as it was first dyed purple.
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"Corn Spirit and Lammas",492,0,0,0
Lammas falls on 1 August. Its name is hardly known nowadays to the average person. Yet once, as the beginning of the harvesting season, Lammas dominated life. So much so indeed that its observance and celebration continues in almost every land, though in forms so different that no one would guess the connection.
Only witches preserved the original name and did so as that of one of their four annual (Sabbat) conventions based on the ancient Celtic agricultural calendar. Significantly, the day survives in new guises in Britain's August Bank Holiday and America's "Thanksgiving!"
It all started thousands of years ago when man, aware of his dependence on the soil, recognized that corn did not grow of its own accord. There was so much more to it than the seed, the sunshine, the rain, and his own ploughing of the field. Just as he himself had a soul, so, he was sure, the grain had an indwelling spirit. And at the time of harvest when man cut down the corn, the spirit had to move on to take refuge in the ever smaller portion that remained standing on the field. In the end, the spirit was confined to a last, tiny "retreat." Indeed, it was literally "cornered."
No one would dare by himself to cut down that corner and thereby make completely homeless the spirit on whose good will his daily bread, and therefore his very existence, depended. Only collective action would wipe out any personal feelings of responsibility and of guilt as well as fears of punishment and reprisal. It is a psychological phenomenon well known in modern persecutions.
Therefore, reapers jointly, or in turn, threw their sickle at the spot where, as it were, the spirit had taken its last stand. Some primitive races actually felt that they had to make proper \Jrestitution\j to pacify the corn spirit whose rightful home they had destroyed. To do so they brought sacrifices to it as recompense. Among the \JAztecs\j, who were used to offering human beings to their gods, this took the form of the ritual murder of a young girl! They thought she would be the right price to make up for the loss of home suffered by the corn spirit.
Other races, less cruelly, adopted different methods. Though cutting down the "corner," they would not destroy this last refuge of the spirit by "processing" the corn. The moment they had reaped the last corn stalks, they would bind them together into a sheaf, often plaiting it into a female figure. Thus personified, the "corn doll" or "great mother," as it was called, solemnly and joyously was carried away. At the ensuing harvest thanksgiving feast it was given a place of honor. The reapers might then take it home, to their barn or to a sacred shrine, where they paid homage to it as a divine being.
They kept the corn spirit, caught in the last sheaf, in safe custody throughout the winter. But when the time for sowing came in the following year, they took it back to their field, for it to re-enter the soil, to bless and fructify it.
There was another way in early times to evade possible retribution from the corn spirit for having cut down its last refuge. None of the local and indigenous people would ever try to undertake the ominous operation. They themselves left the corners standing, so that others - the hungry and needy - might do the work for them and at their own peril!
This, in fact, is the long forgotten basis of the significant social legislation found in the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j which actually commanded "at the harvesting of your land" not totally to reap the corner (Lev. 19,9;23,22). It should be left for the poor and the stranger . . . Originally, the law was not as well-meaning as it now appears. To start with, it had cleverly shifted a dangerous and thankless job to those who had little to lose and all to gain.
Nothing could give greater joy to a man than the safe gathering of a plentiful harvest. After all, it meant that he would not go hungry in the year to come. And gratefully he acknowledged the divine gift of "food." Apart from verbal expressions, he did so by giving something he greatly treasured to the deity in the form of offerings and sacrifices.
No doubt it was this recognition of \Jsupernatural\j help that gave Lammas its name. However, its true meaning has mystified people and led to various derivations. Once again, those steeped in and enthused by the lore of the ancient Druids, recognized in Lammas, one of their festivals. This was celebrated to pay homage to Lugh, the Celtic sun god whom they also worshiped as the bountiful giver of harvest.
Early in August, nature began to show the first signs of autumn. The sun had spent itself and seemed to die. And very much concerned with its fate, the Druids introduced the festival to honor the "memory" of the god. Appropriately, they called the day dedicated to him Lughnasadh, a word which referred to the "commemoration of Lugh." But when later generations could no longer make any sense of the rather cumbrous name, they shortened it into the much more easily pronounced Lammas.
Even if the memory of an early Celtic god had originally its place in the Lammas, he did not stay there permanently. As it were, man in his "progress" evicted the deity to replace him with his own "bread" (and butter).
Having ground the first corn they had gathered, people baked it into loaves which they took to their shrines and dedicated to their gods.
Christians adopted the pagan custom. In the Old English tongue, a "loaf" was \Ilam,\i from the Saxon \Ihlaf.\i Consequently, the day of thanksgiving on which the faithful brought their loaves to the service came to be known as the "loaf's mass." And in its later shortened and unidentifiable form this became Lammas!
Eventually people forgot the early tongue. Many communities did not live solely on the soil but raised sheep, just as their ancestors once had done. And when Lammas came along, its name no longer reminded them of the original "loaf" baked from the first corn but, by its very sound, of their "lambs." So they took their lambs to the service!
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"Corny",493,0,0,0
Townspeople have often regarded themselves superior in intellect and culture. Rural districts, to their minds, reared "peasants!" This \Jprejudice\j created the yokel and the boor as descriptions of the simpleton and the fool. The yokel derived his name from the yoke of the oxen he drove. The boor comes from the German and Dutch words for a peasant, \IBauer\i and \IBoer.\i
Jews, who always treasured education which they had made compulsory two millennia ago, equally described an ignoramus, colloquially, as an \Iam ha-aretz.\i A \JHebrew\j term, literally and originally it referred to "the people of the soil," to peasants.
A very similar bias was responsible in modern show business for anything that is "corny." In the American theater world, Broadway reigned supreme. For a long time its audiences alone were considered to have discriminating taste, refinement, and intellectual depth. Outside New York, in the country so to speak, people lacked their sophistication. There the humor was earthy and crude and, consequently, subtlety in a play would be lost. The audience, figuratively speaking, was described as "corn-fed." Only "corn-fed" humor would be understood. This rural characterization soon contracted into the one-worded "corny." Eventually, completely divorced from its rustic surroundings, it became the slang expression for anything that was banal and trite.
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"Coronation Stone",494,0,0,0
A king is one of his kin (and kind) and therefore blood-related to the people he rules. The \IKaiser\i and \ITzar\i recall Julius \ICaesar.\i
The splendor of royal regalia and the solemnity of the ceremonial of coronation are rooted in most ancient and sacred traditions, going back to pre-Christian days and the rim of a hat, the branch of a tree, a magical potion and a stone, said to have been used as a pillow.
Stones have played a significant part in the history of religion, not least those which seemed to have descended from heaven and which we now recognize as meteorites. These were held to be sacred and regarded as the abode of \Jsupernatural\j forces which could act as a safeguard from evil.
In his flight from Esau's wrath, Jacob "by chance" had chosen such a stone for a pillow. His subsequent dream of the ladder linking heaven and earth convinced him of the sanctity of the site and the stone, which he thus set up as a pillar and anointed with oil. There is no doubt that it became the most sacred object in the later Sanctuary. If not divine itself, the stone was "the House of God," or, as the original \JHebrew\j has it, a \IBeth El.\i
Had not the stone proved itself, as it were, to be heaven's gate, admitting the divine here on earth as well? As a king was God's anointed, he, most of all, was in need of this stone, which could act as a special protector and continuous source of divine power.
That is how the Coronation Chair, made by order of King Edward I and still in use at Westminster Abbey, was specially designed to enclose this very stone, believed to be Jacob's pillow. The story of how the stone finally found its place in the chair is full of mystery and associated with strange legends that proliferated through the centuries.
When Nebuchadnezzar of \JBabylon\j had destroyed the ancient Temple in 586 B.C., Israelite refugees are said to have carried the stone with them to Ireland. Recognized as the Stone of Destiny, the Irish used it at the coronation of their chieftains, initially when one of them married an Israelite princess.
More than a thousand years later (about 850 A.D.) the stone reached Scotland. There, at Scone, two miles north of Perth, it was enclosed in a wooden chair which served at the coronation of Scottish kings.
Still, its destiny was not settled yet. Once again, in 1296, Jacob's (alleged) pillow was carried away, as the Stone of Scone, by Edward I. Ever since, it has formed part of the throne in England, though from time to time Scottish patriots have tried, either by force or an Act of Parliament, to remove it to what they consider its rightful place.
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"Corporal",495,0,0,0
Traditionally, military companies were split up into tactical "squares." Each was led by an expert veteran who appropriately was referred to as "the head of the square." The French \Icaporal,\i meaning a "head" or "leader," created the English title of corporal.
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"Corryong's First Grave",496,0,0,0
A peculiar feature of the Corryong Cemetery is that one row of its graves - in the \JChurch of England\j section - runs diagonally across the others. This is a result of the first burials at the site.
The cemetery is located on lofty ground, overlooking the town. When its site was first mooted, it was strongly opposed. The municipal authorities were afraid that because of its elevated position, seepage might create a health hazard.
Before the final decision had been made, in 1889, Albert Gerecke, a young child of nine, unexpectedly died. Without further consultation, the boy's father had him buried on the site. And, according to tradition, the grave faced from west to east. When new graves were dug, the diggers followed suit, and soon an entire row of graves was orientated in this way.
When, years later, the health department agreed on a plan for the cemetery, they decided on a geometrical pattern, in conformity with the ground. But now a problem confronted them. The Gerecke grave and those which had followed it did not fit into the framework. They solved the dilemma very simply. They left the existing row of graves where it was, but dug all the new ones around it orientated in a different direction. This created the conspicuous pattern, unique of its kind.
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"Cortisone: the Discovery",497,0,0,0
Not a few benefits to mankind were the by-products of major wars. One such boon is the synthetic hormone cortisone, used so effectively in the treatment of rheumatoid \Jarthritis\j and skin diseases. Its production was due to an unfounded rumor!
During the Second World War, intelligence reports reached the United States claiming that to enable German pilots to fly for extended periods at altitudes of 40,000 feet (approximately 13,000 meters), they were given a special substance extracted from the adrenal \Jgland\j of \Jcattle\j.
Though it turned out that the information was incorrect, it was the incentive to make Dr Edward C. Kendall, a biochemist at the famous Mayo Clinic, speed up his research. For some time he had suspected \Jhormones\j to possess healing qualities, particularly a substance known as Compound E. So far, this could be obtained only in minute quantities. If it could be produced in large amounts, it would be of tremendous therapeutic value.
Urged on by the government and assisted by several colleagues, he continued his research, culminating in 1946 in the synthesizing of the hormone which they named cortisone. Kendall compared its discovery with the finding of a pearl of great beauty in the murky depth of the sea.
#
"Cotton on",498,0,0,0
Those who "cotton on" quickly get the meaning of something explained to them. But this was not the original connotation of the phrase. Initially, those who "cottoned on" had taken a fancy or a liking to a person or an idea. They clung to them. They did so just as bits of cotton did in eighteenth-century English weaving mills. Floating about, the fibres got stuck in the machinery or on the worker's hair and garments.
#
"Count Sheep",499,0,0,0
Those suffering from \Jinsomnia\j are often told to count sheep. It can do no harm. It costs nothing and will have no unpleasant side-effects.
The sleep-inducing effect of the "count-down" is not the result of the sheep, but of autosuggestion. One may as well count cats and dogs, or well-nigh anything so long as it empties the mind of other thoughts which keep one awake. Certainly, the steady and repetitive counting is soporific. The best advice to insomniacs is to make themselves so tired that they will not have even the inclination or time to count anything before dropping off.
#
"Countermeasures Against the Evil Eye",500,0,0,0
Believing that exposure to the malignant rays of an evil eye could do untold damage to him, his animals and his crop, man felt the paramount need to guard and protect himself and all he cherished by taking immediate and strong countermeasures.
Possibly no other fear has been so worldwide; there is a multitude of defensive precautions to deceive or avoid the evil eye. These include an imaginative variety of remedies, amulets, charms, spells, and gestures. They extended from the simplest measures to quite complicated procedures.
People wore around their neck a piece of \Jgarlic\j - renowned as a devil repellent. They attached to (or sewed into) the clothing worn by their children a bag containing bread and salt. At times they would put these "God-blessed" ingredients into the child's pocket. Bracelets, brooches, and bangles were worn to avert the glance of the evil eye and thereby avoid the malignancy it could create which would be beyond repair. Sometimes the amulets were suspended between the eyes.
Inevitably magic played a significant part in man's unceasing fight against the demonic evil eye. He confronted the person suspected to be endowed with it with the potent symbol of the devil's horns which he made with two fingers of his hand. It was the application of "like to like" magic.
Many a custom, attitude and expression now common and regarded as completely innocuous, originated in man's dread of the evil eye and his consuming concern to defy and defeat it.
\IEye-shadow\i
Modern women might be horrified to realize that the eye-shadow they use was first introduced for reasons that had nothing to do with beauty culture. A women darkened her lids as one of the precautions against the pernicious influence of an evil eye.
\IBlue for Boys\i
"Blue for boys" seems such an innocent, lovely custom. But it did not begin as a proud display of his male sex. Very seriously it was "put on" the still weak infant to protect him from any harm that could be done to him by the evil eye of someone jealous of his masculinity. This, too, was the purpose (particularly in the Orient) for people to "ornament" both children and livestock with strings of blue beads. Their "divine" color was meant to act as a guard against devilish glances. The colored balls often attached to a baby's cot or pram go back to this identical, original fear. They provided the infant not with an innocuous toy, but with a protection against the spell of the evil eye.
\IPrecious Stones and Painted Eyes\i
Once again, the belief that like can cure (or beat) like has been applied here. It was thought that you can outstare malevolent glances! That is why some specially polished precious stones came to be worn. They, too, were not ornaments but magical eyes for protection.
More conspicuous still was the use of huge eyes painted on both sides of the prow of a ship. Certainly they were not merely decorative either nor a magic means to enhance the vision of the skipper. As outsized eyes, they would outshine the death rays of evil eyes.
\IThe Fig\i
Latin Americans still use the obscene gesture of "the fig" to avert the influence of the evil eye. The thumb thrust out between the first and second fingers symbolizes the genitals. Their vital generative potency was regarded as strong enough to overpower the evil glance.
\ISpitting\i
People spat, if possible three times, at anyone thought to possess the evil eye. This was not done out of contempt. Spittle used to be regarded as a holy substance, as part of man's soul power. And this divine ingredient therefore would be inimical to evil forces.
\IHorse Brasses\i
Horse brasses now are merely part of history and, possibly, exhibits in museums. Once they were thought to be necessary to the animal, but they were not (as people might imagine) to provide the horse with a shining and attractive ornament. They were to give protection against the evil eye!
A popular pattern used was that of the disc: the shape of the sun, which renowned for its \Jsupernatural\j power, was able to outshine the forces of darkness. The highly polished brass was meant by its dazzling effect to deflect the injurious glance from the vulnerable animal.
\IThe Nurse's Belt Buckle\i
Knots were yet another safeguard. They were considered to entangle the evil force and thereby keep it at bay. This is the origin of the buckle once worn on nurses' belts, a custom still observed in some parts of the world. The nurse's constant proximity to the spirit of sickness was her professional hazard. To be safe from infection by its radiation, she needed an extra "shield" that immunized her from being "overlooked."
\IBridegroom Breaks Glass\i
A peculiar custom at a Jewish wedding occurs at the very end of the ceremony when the bridegroom breaks a glass and does so rather noisily. The glass itself originally had to be a valuable one, not of the cheap kind. The material loss and the "racket" were thought to divert the attention of the potentially evil force from the happiness experienced by the couple at that very moment. Otherwise, the evil spirit might be so roused in its envy that it would be determined to spoil the good luck, and the marriage would never "take." That, too, is the reason why the assembled congregation accompanies the breaking of the glass by shouting loudly \I"mazzal tov"\i "good luck."
\IBritish Understatement\i
The less you talked about your good health and the more you hid your good fortune, the safer you were and the surer to keep them. During the Second World War the airforce dropped metal strips from planes to make radar-directed missiles aimed at them veer off course; similarly, primitive man already knew how to use deception to distract or neutralize the lethal rays of the evil eye.
This is the origin of the so "typical" British way of understatement. This traditional national "trait" was due not to a sense of modesty or to gentlemanly restraint, because to boast was just "not the done thing." On the contrary, its basic source was selfish fear and concern to preserve one's good luck. Speaking too much of one's blessings would rouse the envious agencies of the evil eye.
Therefore it was not advisable, nor even a sign of friendship, to praise others or overly express admiration of them. Such acknowledgment of their merits would be tantamount to endangering them by drawing them to the attention of the evil eye.
That is why people learned carefully to qualify any compliment they paid; the person concerned well understood why and appreciated it. And if no restraint was shown, the recipient of the praise did not feel flattered but frightened. He well realized that the "praise" could act adversely. (It is not accidental that in ancient \JHebrew\j, the identical word expressed both "blessing" and "curse.")
Those exposed to too much praise would show no gratitude for the "kind" remarks made. Instead they would immediately appeal to higher powers to help them against the sudden threat (activated by their so-called friend) to their good luck. A common exclamation on such an occasion used to be the \JHebrew\j for "glory be to God," i.e., hallelujah. This was not voiced to thank divine power for all the good given. God's name was used as a bogey to frighten off the envious evil forces.
Those who were lucky enough to have good fortune, whether in wealth, good health, good looks, or happiness, were well advised to camouflage it. To keep it they had to do everything within their power to avoid drawing attention to it (which for many would spoil most of the pleasure). Beautiful children were given ugly names or wrapped in rags. You did not boast of your wealth or advertise it by showy display. And you certainly did not provoke the jealousy of these mysterious powers by talking of any success you might have had.
\IA Verbal Counter Spell\i
Jews who were afraid of the evil eye felt its threat particularly when discussing something happy or somebody (especially a child) who was good looking. As a countermeasure, they followed the remark at once with a word-charm. This consisted of a telling \JYiddish\j-\JHebrew\j phrase that implied "May there be no evil eye!" - \Ikayn ayn ha'rah.\i Slightly mispronounced and shortened, the words are usually rendered \Ikaynahorah\i which sounds very much like \Ikayn\i (the \JYiddish\j for "no") horror!
\IOn the Loom of Language\i
The evil eye had its lasting effect on the way we talk. Just as it was responsible for the word "illness" and was said to be activated by jealousy, the evil eye has actually created "envy."
This word is the one case in which jealousy, instead of splitting up a unity, has joined "two into one." Etymologically, "envy" is the combination and contraction of the Latin words for to "look" \I(videre)\i "against" \I(in)\i - a person. It is the same "ill will" that gave birth to all that is "invidious."
These many customs, taboos and words were not coined or created accidentally. They were devised and designed with deep thought and anxious concern. Each of them was the result of man's constant obsession with the destructive potentialities of the evil eye.
#
"Counting and Accounting",501,0,0,0
Man has always felt the need to take the measure of things, and anything that could assist him to do so he gladly employed. That is why he first of all used parts of his body, such as the feet, for a measure, and the fingers for counting. The power of a horse and the weight of a stone were other aids. The sun, moon and star helped him as ready reckoners of the passing of time.
Coins are unrivaled story tellers and an important source of historical data. Payment by money replaced the more primitive method of barter, a term that not accidentally also meant cheating.
The earliest currency did not consist of coins, but of objects such as knives, just as Roman soldiers were paid in salt, essential for life and still ingrained in our present-day "salary." The original type of money was not counted but weighed, which explains the English \Ipound,\i at first describing a "load" of 7,680 well-dried grains of wheat.
It is often said that "money is the root of all evil." This is a misquotation from the \JNew Testament\j, which says that it is the love of money that is the source of wickedness, and not money itself. Boldly, Mark Twain amended this passage by stating that not love, but lack of money, was the root of all evil. Though it is good to remember that sometimes you can pay too much for money.
#
"Covering of Head in Synagogue",502,0,0,0
For a man to cover his head in a \Jsynagogue\j and generally at prayer is now accepted as a Jewish religious custom. It is followed throughout the world, except by Reform congregations in the United States and Britain. Anyone entering a \Jsynagogue\j, Jew and Gentile alike, is expected to keep his hat on, or, if without one, to use a skull cap.
The fact that Christian Church dignitaries, including the Pope, wear the same type of skull cap, and that \JMoslem\j worshipers also cover their heads, shows not only the ubiquity of the custom, but how it has spread from \JJudaism\j to its daughter religions.
In its origin, the covering of the head had no religious implication. The earliest Hebrews did not know the practice, and it is not mentioned anywhere in the \JOld Testament\j. The custom entered \JJudaism\j at a later date from the outside world and possibly, first of all, for health reasons.
People in the East suffered from the frequent and considerable changes of temperature and felt the need to protect the head. Long before the establishment of the first synagogues, the Hebrews prayed in the open. In the Temple of old, the altar on which the sacrifices were offered stood in a courtyard and those participating in the ceremonial were exposed to the sun. To cover the head, for that reason as weIl, became a wise precaution.
The original, practical purpose was soon forgotten. The custom became a gesture of humility and submission. Bareheadedness, on the other hand, was considered obscene and a demonstration of defiance. Thus, pious mourners put ashes on their heads. By that act they tried to proclaim visually their resignation to God's inscrutable will. Eventually, anyone standing before his God began to cover his head.
At first, only the priestly class were appointed to serve God. They did this on behalf of the people and mainly by the sacrificial \Jcult\j. They were distinguished by their head-dress, the High Priest wearing a miter, a cloth of fine linen, coiled around his head like a turban. But after the Romans had destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D., the offering of sacrifices became impossible. Consequently, the chief office of priesthood lost its justification and ceased to exist.
Prayer came to take the place of animal sacrifice, and the whole of the Jewish people took over the task of the ancient priesthood. At long last they were able to fulfill the biblical injunction that not just a selected class, but all the Israelites, should be "a kingdom of priests and a holy people." To indicate their assumption of priestly duties, they adopted the custom of covering the head, formerly reserved for the High Priest and the ministering \Jclergy\j.
While Western man raises his hat as a courtesy, Eastern tradition demanded the opposite. When entering a home, you had to take off your shoes, but keep your head covered. A host, similarly, did not dare appear before his guests bareheaded, as that would be considered a breach of good manners. Eventually, the hat, or whatever took its place, acquired an almost sacred significance.
Western man swears by his \JBible\j, the Arab by his headcover. By a natural process of assimilation, the Jews of the Orient adopted the custom of their environment, probably first in \JBabylonia\j, and covered their heads as a general symbol of deference and a simple act of civility.
But, if you covered your head to pay respect to your fellow man, was it not more essential to do so when standing before your God and addressing Him? That is how the custom became part of \Jsynagogue\j worship. When the Jews migrated to Western lands, they continued to cover their heads, carrying with them the Eastern style though, in their new homes with their different code of etiquette, its original purpose had lost its meaning. They were no longer aware of its roots and it was given new interpretations and considered as a hallowed tradition. It had become one of the most striking, yet least significant, features of Jewish worship!
#
"Crackers",503,0,0,0
These are comparatively recent, dating back to the middle of the 19th century, and are said to be of French origin.
In their earliest form, in \JFrance\j, crackers were sweets or bon-bons enclosed in twists of colored paper. An English pastrycook named Tom Smith saw these bon-bons while visiting Paris. On his return home, he copied the idea of a wrapper, but added other small gifts, as well as slips of paper inscribed with jokes, wise sayings, or imaginative advice concerning the future. Small toys and paper hats were other surprise inclusions.
Smith's novel idea did not catch on at first. Then, on Christmas night 1846, as he sat in front of his fireplace with its crackling logs, he got the idea of imitating this sound. He did this by inserting a small explosive in the paper tube, which was set off with a bang by pulling from either side. This saw the birth of the popular and appropriately-named "cracker."
#
"Cranky",504,0,0,0
Anyone who is cranky owes the description of their bad-tempered condition to the same source responsible for the naming of the mechanical crank, the handle which is "bent" or "twisted."
Though, to start with, chiefly an Americanism, applied to an eccentric person full of quirks and mentally "twisted," no doubt \Ikrank,\i the German word for being "sick" consolidated the term's meaning. After all, many Americans were of German stock and therefore well acquainted with the language.
The crank owed its final acceptance - in 1881 - (as a word, not a person) to one man who gave it widest currency. He was Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield. On numerous occasions he used it, either for himself or for others. He did so in newspaper interviews he gave in prison and when speaking to the prosecutor during his trial. The subsequent reports, conspicuously featuring the "crank," gave him his permanent place in its twisted sense.
#
"Cravat Origins",505,0,0,0
National armies often made use of foreign troops. Croat soldiers thus served with the French in King \JLouis XIV\j's Royal Regiment. As was their custom in their own country, they wore a scarf around their neck as part of their uniform. Completely unknown in \JFrance\j, it became their distinguishing feature, so much so that Frenchmen came to identify the scarf with the wearer. They called it after him: a "croat." In fact, the French took a liking to it. They adopted it and to wear the croat became the fashion. It did not take long for the Croat's scarf to lose its national identity and for its name to be changed beyond recognition. The French misprounced the "croat" \Icravate.\i In this shape it reached Britain, where, shedding its final letter, the croat survives in the cravat.
#
"Crayfish Not a Fish",506,0,0,0
The \Jcrayfish\j is not a fish but a \Jcrustacean\j - a crab. Resembling a small lobster, its favorite habitat is beneath rocks in the water.
#
"Cream",507,0,0,0
Prior to modern \Jcholesterol\j avoidance, cream used to be thought of as the best part of the milk. Its elevated status was well-deserved, as the Greek word, \Ikhrisma,\i from which it comes, was applied to divinity. Transformed into the Latin \Ichrisma,\i it came to designate the consecrated oil - the unguent - used at \Jbaptism\j, confirmation and supreme unction, just as in the early days of the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j, it had been applied in the ordination of priests. Rather come down in the world, the original sacred \Ichrisma\i now tops the milk in the (linguistic) form of "cream."
#
"Creation of the Lapel",508,0,0,0
The lapel has been adopted from a military uniform. A stand-up collar was part of the tunic of Prussian soldiers. Tightly-fitting, it constricted their throat and chest. Not surprisingly, thus, when off duty to make themselves more comfortable, the soldiers unbuttoned the top part of the tunic. Turned back, it formed two elongated narrow triangular strips. Looking rather attractive they caught people's attention and took their fancy. It was the creation of the modern lapel.
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"Creation of the Nocturne",509,0,0,0
A composition of a tranquil, lyric nature, specifically relating to the romantic beauty of the night, became known as a \Jnocturne\j. The first to create and so call it was John Field (b. 1782), the famous Irish composer and pianist. His example was then adopted by Chopin (b. 1810). Some explain the choice of name by the early practice to play a musical composition of its style in the evening.
Whatever the true explanation, the name suggests the divine source of the form, as the very term (like anything described as "nocturnal") honors Nyx (the Latin \INox),\i the ancient Roman goddess of the night. Endowed with a force for good and evil, Nyx was regarded as so powerful that she could bestow sleep and rest, or darkness and death.
#
"Credit",510,0,0,0
To be given credit is to be trusted, to have one's word believed. And this applies not only to what one says or does, but also to what one owes. Thus, like the creed of religion, \Icredit\i in its financial sense, is derived from the Latin \Icredo,\i "I believe."
#
"Crescent Moon",511,0,0,0
"Crescent," from the Latin \Icrescere,\i means "growing." That is why in music when the volume of tone increases we speak of a crescendo. However, we thoughtlessly describe the lunar sickle in the night sky as a crescent moon, irrespective of whether it is in its increasing or decreasing phase, the first or the last quarter. Correctly, the term should be applied exclusively to the waxing moon.
#
"Cretinism and Christians",512,0,0,0
Of all of the names bestowed on diseases, be they scientific or popular, many are meaningful at least to the initiated. Others are puzzling. None, however, is as curious as that applied to certain unfortunate people who are mentally retarded and physically deformed: \Icretins,\i from the Swiss-French \Icrestin,\i "Christian."
The lack of \Jiodine\j in the drinking water in one \JAlpine\j region caused the local population to suffer from a \Jthyroid hormone\j deficiency that caused this mental and physical deformity. These unfortunate people were despised, because, dwarfed and retarded, they seemed so different from ordinary men and women. Indeed, they were regarded as barely human, almost animal. Others, however, had understanding and compassion. To stress that, in spite of their defects, these deprived people had not lost their dignity but, like every man, possessed a God-given soul, they called them "Christians."
It must be realized that the name \IChristian\i was once commonly used, even in Shakespearean times, to designate not only members of the Christian faith, but to describe any person, as distinct from the animal.
There is an additional explanation why those victims of environmental circumstances were referred to as "Christians." Childlike, they were truly innocent, incapable of doing wrong or hurting anyone, and thus ideal Christians, or \Icrestins\i in the local tongue.
A name given in good faith and out of sympathy was soon debased. Visitors from other regions, ignorant of the facts, used the word for any extremely stupid person, an idiot. In the vocabulary of disease, however, \Icretinism\i now denotes a precisely defined medical condition.
#
"Crew",513,0,0,0
Crews (on the seas) and recruits (on land) share a common root. Both go back to a Norman source that spoke of that which "accrues," i.e. increases in number. Crews augmented the naval and military power of a nation.
#
"Criticism As Negative",514,0,0,0
Criticism is wrongly associated, if not identified with fault-finding or, put the Australian way, with "knocking." Such destructive interpretation does not reflect the original meaning of the term and is merely symptomatic of modern negativity.
"Critical" - from the Greek \Ikritikos\i - referred to objective "judging." A critical review can express praise as much as disapproval.
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"Crocodile Tears",515,0,0,0
We say of the hypocrite displaying grief that he sheds \Jcrocodile\j tears. This picturesque phrase dates back thousands of years to ancient \Jfable\j and a sort of archaic science-fiction. It was believed then that crocodiles used guile to trap their prey. Lying camouflaged in slimy water or mud, they spat mouthfuls or water on to the soil near the lair, to make it so slippery that people or animals approaching would miss their footing and fall. Unable to get back onto their feet quickly enough, they would be caught by the \Jcrocodile\j and duly devoured.
Another interpretation discovered in the (non-existent) \Jcrocodile\j tears an ingenious ingredient which the \Jreptile\j itself supplied to add to its daily diet, to make otherwise indigestible parts of its victim soft and palatable! It was thought that the \Jcrocodile\j spurted its tears to soak the skull of its prey, macerating the hard substance and preparing it for a tasty meal.
This piece of \Jfolklore\j was soon embroidered upon. People attributed to the beast the most evil cunning, believing that it attracted its daily "bread" with bait of a most unethical kind. The myth-makers now alleged that when hungry, the creature deliberately sobbed and sighed, simulating a human in distress and so luring prey to the slippery river-bank. From sobbing and moaning it was only a short step to dreaming up real tears.
To add insult to injury, it was further assumed, that whilst eating its victim, the \Jcrocodile\j continued shedding tears. But now it did so out of pity for the unfortunate fool.
The fact is that crocodiles never shed tears, but they do make peculiar groaning noises. Once upon a time, the \Jcrocodile\j's tears were a traveler's yarn. But credulous people eagerly lapped them up and believed in them. Though nowadays crocodiles no longer cry, even fictitiously, before or during meals, their tears have not completely dried up. They survive even among the most civilized people: in their conversation, especially when they talk of the humbug and hypocrite.
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"Croissant",516,0,0,0
Memorials of significant victories exist in a variety of forms. Unique is the edible monument, created to celebrate one of the decisive battles in world-history.
In the seventeenth century, the \JMoslem\j Ottoman (Turkish) army was victoriously advancing from the East and had succeeded in conquering a vast expanse of territory - most of what is now \JGreece\j, Yugoslavia and \JHungary\j. In 1683, it reached the outskirts of Vienna, the Austrian capital, the last outpost of Christendom. If this city fell to the Moslems, the gates would be open for \JIslam\j to overrun the rest of Europe. When Prince Eugene, in command of the Austrian army, stemmed the flood by defeating the Turks, he saved not only Vienna but, with it, the Western world. It was a most momentous event in the confrontation of the two faiths. Its outcome determined the course of history.
A Viennese baker, tradition tells, joined the jubilant population in their celebration. He did so in his own gastronomic way, not slow in commercialising the occasion. The crescent was the emblem of \JIslam\j and, as such, had become part of the national flag carried by the Ottoman army. To highlight its defeat, the baker produced - as a totally novel line - a roll of flaky pastry shaped in the form of the crescent! It enabled the rejoicing Viennese literally to devour with relish the very symbol of their foe!
Though the Turks were forced to retreat, the edible crescent advanced further west, to take \JFrance\j by storm and to become known by the French rendering of its name, as \Icroissant.\i Eventually, this \JMoslem\j emblem was to conquer the entire world, however in a way the Turks would never have believed - as a much favored breakfast roll.
There is another, slightly different version of how the croissant was first baked. Though still closely linked with the clash between the \JMoslem\j East and the Christian West, this story claims that it all happened in 1686 in Budapest when, on their retreat from Vienna, the Turks besieged the city. One dark night they decided to conquer it by tunnelling their way inside. However, their construction of the underground passages did not go undetected. All-night bakers, catching them in the act, immediately sounded the alarm. Thus alerted, the defenders successfully frustrated the attackers. To reward the bakers' watchfulness, they were given permission to commemorate for all time the valiant part they had played in saving Budapest. They could do so by making use of the \JMoslem\j emblem of the defeated Ottoman army, and do so in whichever way they deemed best. The tasty, crisp croissant was the result.
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"Croquet in the US",517,0,0,0
When croquet reached the United States during the second half of the 1800s, it was taken up in many centers. These groups combined in Philadelphia in 1880 to form the National Croquet League. The 18 assembled clubs then standardized the game, reducing the size of both ball and hoop. The first president was George Washington Johnson, of the Lemon Hill Club.
At a tournament meeting in New York City in 1889, Samuel Crosby created a variation of the game. It was more scientific but adhered to the essential features of the original croquet. To indicate both its difference and affinity, Crosby eliminated the "c" and the "t" of the old game, thereby coining Roque.
Organized croquet itself then almost vanished. It was revived only in 1950 at \JOklahoma City\j, Oklahoma. Though rules, dimensions, lay-out, and even terminology (a hoop is called a wicket and pegs are stakes) differ in the American version, exciting tournaments took place between players of both the American and English traditions.
Croquet enthusiasts say that the game has enriched English idiom. They contend that the expression "to ring a bell" to recall some faint memory - comes straight from the croquet lawn of former days. At one time, a player in making the winning stroke actually caused a bell to ring. The game was completed when the winner hit, not the stick used now, but a combination of two hoops which crossed each other at right angles forming a dome from which a bell was suspended. The game was over when the player drove the ball through the hoops and thereby rang the bell.
The bell eventually was replaced by two sticks, officially called pegs. Then, in 1922, to make the game more difficult, one of the pegs was removed from the play and the other moved into the center, a practice claimed first to have been introduced in \JAustralia\j. The winning hit had to touch the peg. The game was finished, and one "pegged out." The term was then transferred (so croquet lovers assert) from their lawn to life (or rather death). When the "game" is over, you "peg out."
#
"Cross My Heart",518,0,0,0
"Cross my heart," in fact, was an oath. It combined a sacred (Christian) symbol with a physiological misconception. No one, at least no practising Christian, would make the sign of the cross and tell a lie.
For thousands of years, the heart and not the brain was erroneously regarded as the seat of all knowledge and thought. That is why the memorizing of a text or a poem is still referred to as learning it "by heart."
All thought is formulated in words, even if these are only silently spoken. Therefore, anything said comes "from the heart" not emotionally, but cerebrally, so to speak. To make the sign of the cross above the very source of one's thoughts gave sanctity to one's words and affirmed their truth.
#
"Cross One's Fingers",519,0,0,0
Keeping one's fingers crossed is believed to help in making a wish come true.
To start with, what is now often merely a figure of speech, was a solemn action expecting a twofold result. It would ward off evil forces and attract good luck. This would make certain the fulfillment of a wish.
The two crossed fingers symbolized St Andrew's cross. A sacred sign, it protected not only the present but, as it were, things to come, by keeping away the devil always so eager and ready to destroy hope.
There was magic in the gesture as well which, at the meeting point at the two crossed fingers, "nailed" good luck. Thus secured tightly, it could not escape and thereby ensured that whatever was wanted would eventuate.
#
"Crossing of Knife and Fork",520,0,0,0
The custom of putting knife and fork side by side on the plate on finishing a meal has practical and religious explanations.
The position of the knife and fork gives a message to those waiting on us that "we have finished eating and you can take away the plate." Crossed cutlery indicates, very quietly and politely, that "there is still room for more."
Crossed knives and forks can easily fall off when the plate is removed. That is not so when they are placed next to each other, a position which also facilitates picking up the cutlery and stacking the dishes.
The sign of the cross is a sacred symbol which should be reserved to its proper place, which is certainly not a dirty plate. Nor would anyone wish to see as the constituent parts of the cross such menial instruments of eating as a dirty knife and fork.
However, there are always exceptions, and Browning mentioned people who specially crossed their knife and fork as a pious act.
#
"Crossing the Line",521,0,0,0
"Crossing the Line" offers the modern tourist plenty of fun. A (mock) \Jbaptism\j, unique of its kind, awaits those who cross the Equator for the first time. The ceremonial includes a Court, held by Neptune, the ruler of the seas, and the victim's lathering, shaving and ducking. When all is over, a "baptismal certificate" records that the person in question has been duly initiated and, therefore, never again need undergo the ordeal.
Everything appertaining to the event is now part of the social program, arranged on board ship to keep passengers busy and amused. And yet, it all started - centuries ago - as a most serious occasion.
Crossing the Line was an auspicious event, not for passengers but for the crew. The first description of the ceremony belongs to French sources and the year 1529, when the brothers Parmentier crossed the Equator in a French ship.
Many important factors contributed to the introduction of the ceremony and its paraphernalia.
Sailing was not safe at the time. Storm and calms alike were a constant threat to the lives and health of those manning ships. Sailing south of the Equator presented additional hazards caused by the tropical climate, scarcity of drinking water and stale food.
It was a big event for any sailor who had never traveled so far before. First of all, therefore, the occasion was marked by a service. Solemnly the men asked for divine protection in those insecure and still little-known regions. And then, at the conclusion of the voyage, they thanked God for having guarded them.
Though invisible in the ocean, the "line" was conspicuously marked on all maps. Hence in the mind of a sailor it played an important role, showing where he entered the Southern Hemisphere.
The fact that the Equator could not be seen in the water, but was an imaginary line, gave the occasion of its crossing a mysterious and mystical meaning. \JSuperstition\j and fear, always present in a sailor's life, soon attached themselves to the event. Somehow the Equator's spirit had to be placated. To achieve that, sailors were ready to suffer ignominy, ridicule, and even pain. They paid with them, as it were, for their safe passage.
Passing from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere was like entering a new world. Therefore, it was considered a sailor's graduation and attainment of maturity. Small wonder that he adopted a kind of initiation rite, practised in other trades and crafts as well. The \Jbaptism\j, like the christening of a child, signified his being admitted into the company of fully qualified seamen.
The rough and sometimes merciless play that accompanied \Jbaptism\j belonged to all \Jinitiation rites\j. It was a test. The young and inexperienced sailor was "on trial" and had to prove his power of endurance, his courage, and his indifference to physical and mental pain.
That is why, in early days, apart from the shaving and general humiliation, the ritual also included corporal punishment and the throwing of the sailor from the deck into the sea. Having passed the ordeal, this test of manhood, he was presented with a certificate, stating that "it gives the god of the ocean particular pleasure to be able to say that during \Jbaptism\j he bore himself as a brave tar should."
The initiation soon came to serve other purposes. Voyages were protracted and could become boring, which did not exactly improve the morale of the crew. The rites of the crossing offered a welcome break from monotony and served, too, as a safety valve for the sailors to let off steam.
Discipline was rigid. The cat o'nine tails was not just a figure of speech. It left its deep marks on many a sailor's body and mind. It was good, therefore, to create a temporary make-belief world where things were topsy-turvy and members of the crew could imagine for once that they were the masters and ruled the waves.
Paradoxically, the ceremony reinforced discipline. Every member of the crew had to conform. However ridiculous or meaningless the ritual appeared to him, he was not permitted to exclude himself from it. Whether he liked it or not, he could not break the tradition of the group to which he belonged.
Travelers entering a new country have to obey strict health regulations in order to keep out disease and infection. Before entering the Southern Hemisphere, sailors equally had to cross an - invisible - border, the Equator. But, first of all, they had to be cleansed of all impurities, both physical and spiritual, and from the dirt of the North. Only then were they allowed to proceed.
Even the shaving part of the ceremony originally was not meant to be hilarious. To remove all of one's hair has always been part of \Jinitiation rites\j on land and at sea. But then there was another significant factor. A youth who started sprouting a beard, and therefore needed a shave, had "grown up," just as a sailor who had crossed the Line.
Neptune with his Trident (or a fishing spear), now belongs to the festive occasion. Yet actually he is a comparatively recent (English) newcomer. He was preceded by a French figure whose duties he first shared and in later times appropriated.
Neptune was the ancient Roman god of the water, identified with the older Poseidon, the Greek deity of the sea. He was, therefore a most fitting figure to participate in the event. Yet his first appearance was the result of man's need to personify the invisible line of the Equator. People just cannot live with an abstract idea. They need its symbolic expression in something tangible, such as a picture, an icon or, as here, a figure of flesh and blood.
The presentation of a certificate, also, had a practical purpose. To undergo the whole treatment certainly was not pleasant. Once was enough. But how could anyone prove that he had been baptized before? He could do so only by producing documentary evidence. Hence sailors treasured and always carried with them their baptismal form. The document's frequent use wore out the paper and therefore only a few of the original copies have survived.
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"Crossword Puzzle Origins",522,0,0,0
The crossword puzzle is of comparatively recent origin and to solve the mystery of its first appearance is therefore not so difficult. The credit belongs to America. The puzzle was invented by Arthur Winn and published for the first time in the "New York World" on December 21st, 1913.
Actually, it was a development of the old word-square. This consisted of a set of words of the identical number of letters which had to be found and so arranged in a square that they read the same horizontally and vertically.
The new and ingenious kind of puzzle in the supplement of the Sunday edition of the \INew York World\i was welcomed so enthusiastically that it was retained as a weekly feature. Eleven years later, the first book of crossword puzzles appeared on the market. Its impact was tremendous. Almost overnight a craze for the new brain-teaser swept America and then spread throughout the world. Newspapers everywhere adopted the crossword puzzle as a standard feature.
Britain succumbed to it in 1925 and soon developed her own style, pattern, and definitions. Crosswords now exist in almost every language except those, like Chinese, which do not lend themselves to this kind of up and down manipulation of words.
It was only in 1930 that crossword was included in dictionaries as a legitimate word. It was a deserved recognition of what had become an institution. After all, it was those very puzzles that had boosted the sale of dictionaries in unprecedented measure.
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"Crow's Nest",523,0,0,0
Prior to modern navigation systems with their technology and electronic aids, sailors very much depended on their eyes to find their way across the wide expanses of the ocean. For this purpose, one of the sailors kept constant watch from a lookout. To have an unobstructed view, he took his place in a basket fixed at the highest possible point of the vessel, the very head of the mast. No wonder his perch reminded people of a bird's nest, and as the crow was well-known to them as the largest roosting bird, they called the lookout after it, a crow's nest.
Historically, it is thought that the earliest such observation post, in the form of a barrel, was used by whaling vessels. It enabled the whalers to discover from afar their prey, by the creature's spouts. It also helped them in wintry seasons safely to traverse ice-bound stretches of water.
An alternate suggestion claims that the name of the crow's nest was based on a much more realistic former practice. Boats used to carry in a basket or cage a number of birds, including crows. If lost at sea and unable to find their way back to dry land, the crew released the birds who instinctively flew towards the land, thereby acting as invaluable guides.
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"Crowbar",524,0,0,0
The association of the crowbar, that useful tool, with the bird is one of mere appearance. The grappling, wedge-shaped beak at one end reminded people of a crow's foot. This, as it were, got stuck in the tool for all time.
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"Crucial",525,0,0,0
Crucial moments in life are critical times when man stands at the crossroads. Wrong decisions then taken may have disastrous effects. This possibility is clearly implied by the word. Based on the Latin for "cross" \I(crux),\i initially it was intended to remind those involved of Christ's agony on the cross.
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"Crying Out Loud",526,0,0,0
The apparently innocuous exclamation of amazement or resentment, "for crying out loud," like many other oaths, is a euphemism for something that once was regarded too blasphemous to be voiced in so many words. "For crying out loud" was used instead of "for Christ's sake" first in the United States in 1924. To avoid profaning Christ's name, it was camouflaged beyond recognition.
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"Crystal Gazing",527,0,0,0
Crystal gazing goes back to the far-distant past and has been practised in many parts of the world. It is a variety of the many applications of the same principle of penetrating the veil. This practice assumed that a man's clairvoyant gift could be activated by his fixing his gaze for a prolonged period at a shining surface. Thus "entranced," the viewer could see what was hidden from ordinary mortal sight.
Early Babylonians already knew that staring at a glistening surface could reveal secrets. Hidden objects could thereby be discovered, stolen articles retrieved and other desired information gained (which included, for instance, the identity of unknown thieves).
A great variety of so-called \Ispecula\i (the Latin for "mirrors") serving the identical purpose, preceded the modern crystal ball. Any kind of polished, shining, light-reflecting article might be employed. This included the nail of one's thumb, a man's shiny bald pate, an animal's liver, the flashing surface of a pool, a blot of ink, the sharpened iron edge of an arrow-tip, or a bowl filled with oil or treacle.
The "demon of cup or thumb" (as the Jewish tradition called him) was thought to reveal to the spellbound visionary the information sought. The "magician" himself was often a young boy placed within a magic circle.
Those claiming the gift of crystal gazing do not actually "see" what they find out about the future or relate as the answer to the question inside the object on which they fix their eyes so intently. It does not "appear" as such, for instance, inside the ball of solid, polished glass crystal. Focusing their mind on it and its light refractions is merely a method of concentration which "switches on," as it were, their \Jclairvoyance\j. It enables them to discover in their mind, and not in the actual glass, the knowledge they seek.
This explains why centuries ago the term "scrying" was chosen to describe crystal gazing or some related pursuit in the realm of fortune telling. Like "descry" the word referred to the act of "catching sight of" and "discerning." The word "crystal" itself is derived from the Greek \Ikrystallos.\i The Greeks gave this name to the natural mineral because it looked to them like "clear eyes." Crystal was a very apposite choice for its later application in the occult, to "clear up" mysteries and to penetrate a hitherto opaque situation.
Crystal gazing evolved through the years to become a complicated affair in which every aspect had carefully to be considered. Each feature associated with the practice was intended to create the right type of atmosphere and to bring about the proper conditions in order to assure success in the occult pursuit which thus became a very solemn procedure.
As it was believed that the information gained came from a spirit, the spirit had to be invoked in a manner that would prompt it to divulge the secret. The crystal gazer himself had to be a person known for his integral and pure character, and dedication to the occult. Prior to commencing his task he had to cleanse himself. And to do so both physically and spiritually he underwent ritual ablutions, abstained from food, and spent considerable time in \Jmeditation\j and invocation of invisible co-operators.
The very site chosen for the consultation had to be a secluded spot where there was least likelihood of interference from any disturbing noise. Equally important was the timing. The operation had to take place at the most propitious moment and therefore meticulous observation of the planets was essential. Their \Jconstellation\j had to be "just right" and the procedure had to be initiated at the time of the waxing moon.
Finally, of course, there was the crystal itself (or whatever took its place). If possible, it should be inscribed with sacred magical symbols and it had to be positioned firmly, preferably on a stand. Such elaborate systems of crystal gazing did not last. They became ever less complicated. Some authorities, like \JParacelsus\j, felt that all that was needed to obtain the desired result was "magnetic" power in the man himself.
It was further realized that the effect of crystal gazing was not due to the work of a demon (as the ancients had thought) or the gift of a benevolent spirit (as medieval society had assumed). It was a psychic communication received in a state of trance attained by the prolonged gazing at a shining object.
The eventual choice of the crystal glass had several reasons. First of all, there was the psychological consideration. Crystal was a very precious substance which added to the "value" of the entire affair that could not be regarded as something cheap. The boundless spherical shape of the crystal ball gave it extra mystical and cosmic significance. The endless lines, it was thought, brought man into contact with the infinite. For the identical reason at times the egg, too, was used for \Jdivination\j and, in fact, some of the crystals were egg or pear-shaped.
In the majority of cases however, fortune tellers came to substitute the real crystal by common glass. And they did not do this on account of any monetary reason. Men and women already under suspicion of having contact with the occult world, especially so-called witches, would rarely own a crystal. For one to be found in their home would be taken as irrefutable proof of their nefarious work with all the dire consequences this implied to loss of their property and their lives.
Therefore they made use instead, of other everyday objects which would draw no attention. Among them were fishing floats made of glass. They fixed their gaze on these.
Crystal gazing was not reserved for fairs or for odd people and the unenlightened. It was a highly regarded art. Queen Elizabeth I had on her staff her personal occultist, the famous Dr John Dee. It was according to his astrological advice that she fixed the date of her coronation! Dee frequently made use of his crystal ball to which he referred as his "shewstone." His detailed description of it as a flat circular black stone with a highly polished surface is still in existence. When not being used, he safely stowed it away in a leather case.
A scryer staring at a crystal might imagine to visualize the appearance of a substance which initially is foggy and blurred. Soon however, he would recognize in it an actual picture or symbolic pattern. Each case demanded careful individual interpretation, which rendered crystal gazing highly specialized and in no small measure subject to the scryer's way of thinking and looking at the world.
Modern science offers several possibilities for the revelations experienced by crystal gazing: they may be the result of mind-reading or of telepathic communication; or a state of visionary \Jhallucination\j or self-induced \Jhypnosis\j. No matter which it is, they all are the ultimate product of the prolonged gazing at a selected object, just as a Buddhist monk achieves his aim of spiritual enlightenment by focusing his eyes on his navel.
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"Cue",528,0,0,0
The cue given to an actor is really (the name of) a single letter, the "Q." Drama scripts contained not only the text of a play, but stage directions. They indicated to each actor when to come in with the initial of this very word which in Latin was \Iquando.\i It was the birth of the "q" as cue.
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"Cunningham Brothers",529,0,0,0
The brothers Allan and Richard Cunningham had much in common. Born in Wimbledon, Surrey, both became botanists and explorers and held the same position of Colonial Botanist of \JNew South Wales\j. Neither ever married. They also shared the fate of an early death.
Allan died when he was 48 years old and Richard at the age of 42. Here, however, their parallel paths end. One brother died a natural death and the other was murdered. Their graves in Australian soil are hundreds of kilometers apart.
Allan, the elder of the two (he was born on 13 July 1791) was the first to come to \JAustralia\j, in 1816. An accomplished botanist, within a year he joined one of Oxley's expeditions, collecting the first of his many treasures of plant specimens, of about 450 different species.
In 1831, at the death of the then Colonial Botanist, he was offered the position. He declined in favor of his younger brother Richard, (born on 12 February 1793) who at the time was working in London, at \JKew Gardens\j.
Taking up the new appointment in Sydney, Richard fulfilled his duties with zeal and enthusiasm. He greatly improved the Botanic Gardens, introducing a wide range of new plants, many of them exotic and from remote regions.
In 1835, two years after his arrival in \JAustralia\j, he joined Major Thomas Mitchell's expedition to the Bogan River. Five weeks after setting out, despite warnings not to wander from the party, Richard became hopelessly lost in hostile terrain whilst looking for new plant specimens.
When he failed to return, Mitchell sent out rescue parties, but four days later he had to record that "we explored every open space, and we looked into many bushes, but in vain." Nevertheless, he did not abandon the search, and eventually, discovered "Cunningham's saddle and bridle, whip, one glove, two straps, and a piece of paper folded like a letter."
On being informed that Cunningham was missing, the Colonial Secretary instructed Lieutenant Henry Zouch of the mounted police to go into the interior "for the purpose of ascertaining his fate." On this mission, Zouch met two blacks who told him of "a white man having been murdered on the Bogan."
They took him to the very spot, an Aboriginal camp site. There Zouch was able to identify some of Richard's belongings, such as a small portion of a coat and a Manilla hat. Most gruesome of all, as he reported to his superiors, "the man showed me some bones which he said were those of a white man they [had] killed."
It was not difficult for Zouch to reconstruct the tragic chain of events. Cunningham, having lost his way, was befriended by the blacks, who gave him food and shelter.
During the night, however, they became greatly perturbed when they observed Cunningham acting strangely. Actually, they did not imagine it, as most likely he was delirious at the time. Out of fear and to protect themselves, they killed him.
Zouch buried Richard's remains and, in order to be able to relocate the site again, ringbarked some nearby trees. On the western side of the Bogan River, about 26 kilometers south of Dandaloo, a memorial tablet now marks his grave. Put up by the Parliament of \JNew South Wales\j, the plaque reads:
\IRICHARD CUNNINGHAM
Government Botanist of the Colony,
attached to an explorative expedition
into the interior, under command of Major Mitchell Surveyor
General;
wandered in his enthusiasm for botanical investigation,
From his companions and losing himself in the desert country
on the Bogan River fell into the hands of one of the native
tribes
by whom he was unfortunately killed
about the 25th of April 1835, in the forty-second year of his
age.\i
The wording is a copy of the text on the memorial tablet of Carrara marble that his brother Allan had put up in St Andrew's Scots Church in Kent Street, "as a lasting and affectionate tribute to his memory."
The natives, duly apprehended, admitted their guilt and were taken into custody. Subsequently, two of them escaped, whilst the third was released for lack of evidence.
On Richard's death, Allan once again was asked to take on the position of Colonial Botanist. This time he accepted it, arriving in Sydney in 1837. But he was greatly disappointed; he had not been told of all the additional duties he was expected to undertake, such as gardening, the laying out of paths along the foreshore and, worst of all, the growing of vegetables for the government officials' private use!
He felt that he was wasting his life; and within two years he tendered his resignation, much to the dismay of Sir George Gipps, the governor. Gipps admired Cunningham and was loath to lose his services. He asked some of his notable friends to form a committee to explore ways and means of retaining him.
Allan left them in no doubt as to what he wanted. The "Government Cabbage Garden" had to be abolished and his responsibilities as the Government Botanist should not include the supervision of the Botanic Gardens. He expected to be paid a greatly increased salary and all traveling expenses incurred on exploration trips, for himself, and his entire party.
Surprisingly all his demands were agreed to. However, the committee refused his further stipulation, that he have a free hand in disposing of his time. It would establish a bad precedent, they felt. Instead, he would be promised an annual leave of six months which time he was to spend on explorations.
It was an extraordinarily generous offer of unprecedented privileges. No wonder Governor Gipps, in spite of being his friend and patron, vetoed the recommendations. Yet he did so only because of the annual leave clause; expressed in money terms, it would have amounted to an additional payment of รบ850 ($1,700), an enormous sum at the time.
Cunningham remained unbending. With his demands not met "in toto," he "finally washed his hands of the gardens." He went to \JNew Zealand\j, to engage in further botanical research, but things did not go his way. He took seriously ill and returned to Sydney, initially staying in a lodging house. He expected to recover swiftly and even made plans for a trip to England. When his health did not improve satisfactorily, he took up residence in his old official cottage in the grounds of the Botanic Gardens, hoping that the change of scene and air would prove beneficial.
He had resigned himself to whatever was going to happen to him. Thus he said to a visiting clergyman, "If it be the will of God that I recover, I will go to England; but if not, I submit myself with patience and resignation to the divine will."
Cunningham died of consumption on 27 June 1839, in the cottage, "in the arms of a friend," his successor as superintendent of the gardens. He was buried in the Old Devonshire Street Cemetery with the headstone on his grave merely recording his name, the date of death, and his age.
To honor the great botanist and to perpetuate his memory at the most appropriate site, in 1844 an \Jobelisk\j was put up on a small island in the Botanic Gardens, and a grove of Bangalow palms \IArchontophoenix cunninghamia\i was planted nearby.
Still fate did not let Cunningham rest. When the Old Devonshire Street Cemetery had to give way to Central Station, the little that was left of Cunningham's remains was exhumed and in a small leaden casket reverently removed to the Botanic Gardens.
In the presence of a few of his former friends, the casket was placed, on 25 May 1901, in a cavity of the \Jobelisk\j! The headstone, too, was taken to the gardens. It was cemented into the wall of the National Herbarium, near its entrance. Further, as a living memorial, the institution named its official journal \ICunninghamia.\i
Though the headstone says little, very explicit was the text on a marble tablet put up in St Andrew's Scots Church in Kent Street, adjacent to the plaque Cunningham had dedicated to the memory of his only brother and near the spot on which his own coffin had rested prior to its committal. The inscription was drafted by Captain King, his long-cherished friend and companion. One of its conspicuous features is its odd punctuation:
\IALLAN CUNNINGHAM, F.L.S.M.R.G.S.
Associated in the pursuit of Botanical Discovery,
with Oxley, in exploring the interior of New Holland.
With King, in four times circumnavigating its coasts.
And by subsequent personal research, having more
fully developed the \JGeography\j, and Flora, of the
northern districts of this Colony, and of Norfolk
Island, and \JNew Zealand\j, he has, left enduring
monuments of devotion to the cause of science. And
eminence in those branches, which he most assiduously
cultivated.
Frank, unaffected, firm in principle, with warm
feelings, tempered by a most kind and benevolent
heart, deservedly beloved by his friends, some of
them, in the foremost rank of science in England,
\JFrance\j, and \JGermany\j, he died, in unrepining
submission to the will of God: and in a calm
dependance, on the merits of his adorable Redeemer.
27th June 1839. Aged 48.\i
Even this memorial was not to stay at its original place. When Kent Street was widened and the congregation dwindled, it was decided to demolish the church and to re-erect it (in 1913) in Rose Bay. To the new sanctuary were transferred some significant items once part of the old "Kirk." They included the \Jcedar\j pews, the timber roof, and both Cunninghams' plaques. They can still be found on one of the inside walls.
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"Cup and Saucer",530,0,0,0
The cup is much more poetic than it now sounds. From a Sanskrit root, it described a (little) well, though one of limited flow, it appears.
A saucer originally meant what it said. It contained sauce and recalls the Norman practice of serving it on individual plates to each diner, who dipped his food to enhance the flavor. Only in modern days the saucer was emptied out, so to speak, to become a mini-tray for a cup to stand on.
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"Cupboard",531,0,0,0
Nowadays a closed cabinet contains all sorts of things, at times locked up; the original cupboard was nothing of the kind. Just as its name says, a cup-board was a simple shelf on which crockery was kept. That is how it all started. In the 15th century, it was thought that the empty space underneath could well serve for the storage of food and for this purpose it was enclosed. Aware of its separate function, it was given a name of its own to become known as an \Iaumbry.\i However, the cupboard above predominated for its name eventually to be transferred to the cabinet underneath which has been called (very inappropriately) a cupboard ever since.
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"Cupidity",532,0,0,0
The best of things, supplied in excess, lose value; names that once spelled unsullied happiness may become tainted and ugly. This happened to \JCupid\j, the Roman god of love, well known as a cherubic, winged figure with his ability to make people fall deeply in love by "piercing" them with one of his arrows.
No wonder that \JCupid\j's name expressed "passionate desire." But then mere amorous craving grew all out of proportion into excessive, inordinate desires of any kind, particularly an insatiable greed for wealth. Little \JCupid\j with his chubby face, the boy-god of love, changed into the ugly monster of cupidity.
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"Curfew Origins",533,0,0,0
Curfews nowadays are imposed on towns, cities, and districts to subdue or contain trouble. A military or police measure, it restricts people's movement in specified areas or at certain periods of time, mainly after dark. Those affected have to remain indoors.
The \Jetymology\j of the term reveals its original use in totally different circumstances and far removed from tumultuous times.
From the French, curfew spoke of "covering [up the] fire" - \Icouvre feu.\i During the \JMiddle Ages\j, when the majority of homes were built of timber or other easily combustible material, fire hazards were a constant threat. A single house on fire in no time could start a devastating conflagration, easily spreading through and destroying an entire village. It could be started by just one spark from an unattended open grate.
A wise precaution, therefore, was the enforcement of a regulation compelling every householder to cover up the fire in their grate during the night. This had to be done at a fixed time, publicly announced by the ringing of a bell which, accordingly, became known as the curfew bell. It served as a reminder to everyone and marked the birth of the modern curfew.
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"Curling Broom and Tee",534,0,0,0
An important item in \Jcurling\j, and one which has given rise to controversy as to its usefulness and real purpose, is the broom or \Ibesom.\i While one member of the team delivers his stone, his team mates are poised with their brooms ready to sweep \I(soop)\i or scrub the ice ahead of the moving stone until it reaches its target, should the skip (the name of the captain) consider the stone is moving too slowly.
The broom's first use, obviously, was merely to clear the surface of the frozen loch, or pond, of leaves and refuse blown on to the ice by the wind, or of newly fallen snow that might obstruct the path of the stones. Players quickly realized that proper sweeping smoothed the ice, and it became a practice for partners, "before beginning to play," to use the broom. Laws were made and then rescinded, to be replaced again by others, as to who should undertake the sweeping, at what stage of the game, and in what manner.
The earliest reason for the practice eventually was forgotten and sweeping the ice became a solemn and even exciting part of the game. Players firmly believed that no one who had not learned to smooth the ice could excel in \Jcurling\j.
Opinions still differ as to the present purpose of sweeping. Some think that, by removing dust, ice, or snow, sweeping adds to the distance a stone will travel. Tests proved, in fact, that proper and effective sweeping made a stone move up to 15 feet (4.50 m) further. Others believe that sweeping in front of the stone produces a partial vacuum that gives the stone extra power. A third explanation assumes that vigorous "sooping" melts the ice slightly and thereby lessens friction. Those unconvinced that there is any direct purpose in sweeping have to admit that in cold weather it offers good exercise and that energetic sweeping keeps the players warm (and awake!). Sweeping, too, has a psychological effect on both players and the game. Indeed, to observe curlers keenly "sooping," with grace and rhythm of movement, is like watching a unique ballet on ice.
Almost a mystical quality came to adhere to the "besom" and it was not surprising that players, joined in contest, called themselves "the brethren of the broom."
The broom itself, once merely a long-stemmed bush, came to be manufactured in definite measurements, suited to the individual player. Lighter in weight than an ordinary broom, its bristles were longer, but its handle thicker, and it was made of soft wood. Curlers became truly fond of the broom. A poem by W. A. Peterkin, published in the \IAnnual\i of the Grand Caledonian \JCurling\j Club more than a hundred years ago, reflected this affection towards "My Bonny Broomy Kowe," of which this stanza is typical:
\IYou've been my friend at ilka spiel,
You've polished up the howe,
You've mony a stane brocht owre the hog,
My bonny broomy kowe.
As mem'ry noo recalls the past,
My heart is set alowe,
Wi' moistened e'en I gaze on thee,
My bonny broomy kowe.\i
Players used the broom for other purposes also. Some curlers, instead of tossing a coin to determine which side should play first, placed their hands alternately along the stick. The last player able to find room to do so would be the first to curl.
The broom also served to convey the skip's instructions, and saved him from having to bawl them out. The signal of a horizontally held broom, for instance reminded the player to restrict his speed, and thereby the distance curled. Held in a vertical position, it indicated a stone belonging to one's team. Inverted, it pointed to an opponent's rock.
The aim of the game also passed through several stages of evolution. At first, players simply tried to slide the heavy stone farthest. Then a target was placed on the ice (rules up to this day do not specify its actual nature). The mark was initially known as a \Itoesee,\i or \Icock,\i later to become the modern tee. Most probably it originally was just another stone put on the ice. This was replaced by a wooden pin, standing a foot (30 cm) high, so as to be clearly seen from the other side of the "rink." Then, going to the other extreme, some curlers preferred to use as their aim a small coin or a button. The tee may also be a small iron plate, fixed by a protruding spike underneath, or merely a depression cut into the ice.
Eventually, the tee was surrounded by a circle scratched into the ice and its area referred to as "the house." Its purpose was to help players in determining the exact distance of shots from the tee.
Each team, consisting of four men, is known as a rink. This term has been derived either from the ancient Saxon \Ihrink,\i meaning "a strong man" or more probably from the \JAnglo-Saxon\j \Ihring,\i describing a circle and ring. The rink is captained by a skip, who gives detailed instructions to the player about to cast the stone. Nothing excels in importance the right way of "delivering" or throwing it. What the golf swing is to the golfer, the "delivery swing" is to the curler. In achieving it, the proper grip of the handle is an essential factor, but no one can curl successfully without a firm stance and to ensure this, curlers created another, minor accessory. In its oldest form this was known as the \Icrampit.\i It was a thin plate of iron or steel with small spikes underneath to grip the ice, and straps on top to fasten it to the curler's feet.
"Almost barbarous," according to famous Dr Cairnie, was its "improved" version, the Currie crampit, which employed screwbolts to hold the feet tightly. He invented foot irons which in time were called after him and eventually took the place of the crampit. A modern development was the hack, consisting of a brass or cast-iron frame with a central ridge. It is called after the original "hack" (or groove) in the ice, into which the curler used to put his foot to stand firm. The invention of felt and rubber-soled boots rendered all these types obsolete.
#
"Curling Clubs",535,0,0,0
The Scots' love of \Jcurling\j was freely expressed. Hundreds of songs and poems have been written in its honor, and clubs, becoming close fraternities, developed their "courts," with mystical \Jinitiation rites\j, secret "grips," and whispered passwords. Scotsmen came to believe in a mystical, unseen queen of \Jcurling\j on whom they called for guidance. No one really knows whether it was mere fun, or a sacred, religious pursuit. Certainly, even sermons have been preached on \Jcurling\j, praising it as "a splendid sport for man to indulge."
There is a tradition of the existence of a \Jcurling\j club as far back as 1668 and one of the earliest recorded clubs was that of Muthill, of Perth, founded in 1739. Apart from the fact that only one stone was then played by each man, little is known of the club's actual methods of play. However, regulations were very definite as to proper behavior "during the time of game:" "that there shall be no wagers, cursing, or swearing." Those contravening the regulations had to pay a penalty of two shillings Scots per oath, while wagers were declared null and void.
The most famous and oldest club in existence is The Duddingston, named after a small loch. It was founded in 1795. Members were renowned for "their scientific knowledge, wealth, respectability, and worth." In a special resolution they stipulated that "the sole object of this institution is the enjoyment of the game of \Jcurling\j which, while it adds vigor to the body, contributes to vivacity of mind and the promotion of the social and generous feelings," in short, to \Ibonhomie.\i
Each parish, however, evolved its own methods of play, which differed as much as the size, weight, and condition of the stones. That was all right as long as the clubs did not meet. But when that inevitable moment came with the increasing popularity of this "auld Scottish game," much difficulty was experienced and there were heated arguments over arrangements. A general wish to standardize the game resulted, in 1834, in the formation of the Amateur \JCurling\j Club of Scotland. It ceased to function four years later.
In the same year, an advertisement in the \INorth British Advertiser\i of 26 May 1838, addressed "To Curlers" in Scotland, invited them to meet in the Edinburgh Waterloo Hotel on a Wednesday of the following month at eleven o'clock "for the purpose of making the mysteries more uniform in future, and if requisite to form a Grand Court to which all provincial ones are subject, and to elect a Grand President with other office bearers."
Adding to the "mysteries," the announcement was not signed, and when a couple of interested players called at the newspaper office to identify the advertiser, the only information available was that a gentleman had handed in the notice and paid ten shillings and six pence for it in advance but had given neither his name nor address.
Nevertheless, on the specified date, 20 June, about a dozen curlers gathered at the hotel. It soon became evident that the anonymous author of the advertisement was not among them. They waited for some considerable time, not knowing what to do. Suddenly the door opened and a stranger entered, carrying some books under his arm. Throwing them on the table, he introduced himself as "Mr Cairnie of \JCurling\j Hall." The volumes he had brought were copies of his work on \Jcurling\j. No doubt he was the anonymous convener of the meeting. It was almost a foregone conclusion that those present elected him, by acclamation, president of the new Society which was officially established (with an initial membership of 28 clubs) at a subsequent meeting. Known as the Grand Caledonian \JCurling\j Club, it duly drew up rules and regulations and fixed the maximum weight of the stone, including handle and bolt at 44 lbs (19.80 kg).
When, four years after the formation of the club, Queen Victoria and her Consort, Prince Albert, visited Scotland, members took due advantage of the occasion. They invited the royal couple to a contest, which the Queen highly praised, and presented Prince Albert with a pair of exquisite \Jcurling\j stones. Subsequently the club was honored with the Royal Patronage and received permission to change its name to the Royal Caledonian \JCurling\j Club (RCCC). Ever since, it has been the ruling body of the sport throughout the world.
John Cairnie occupies the most illustrious place in the history of \Jcurling\j. Born in Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1769, he graduated as a surgeon from Edinburgh University. After visiting China and serving in India, he settled at Largs, 43 miles (68.80 km) from Glasgow, where he introduced \Jcurling\j. In his passionate love of the game he called the home he built there "\JCurling\j Hall."
Determined to pursue the game as soon as possible, even when the ice on lochs and streams was of insufficient thickness to support the players and heavy stones, he pioneered the artificial rink. Its idea, he related, was based on a boyhood memory when, with other lads and to everyone else's annoyance and peril, he used to pour water on pavements that soon became covered with ice.
He himself began to construct the first artificial pond at Largs. However, as curlers were few in number in this part of the country and none of these was willing to help him meet the comparatively high cost, Cairnie did not complete his project. Instead, he passed the plan on to the famous Duddingston \JCurling\j Club.
Yet he was not prepared to see his own dream unrealized and in 1828 - this time at his own expense - he completed a clay pond for \Jcurling\j. After a good frost he and a party of eight friends inaugurated this new stepping stone in the sport. He was highly gratified to find that the first artificial \Jcurling\j rink in the world was equal to the best nature provided.
As soon as the ice was suitable, Cairnie hoisted a flag at \JCurling\j Hall to summon his friends to a game. When he died in 1842 (at 73 years of age), the world mourned not only the founder of the ruling body, but the greatest curler. An elegy written by his close friend, Captain Paterson, expressed the sorrow of all at his passing:
\IWhy droops the banner half-mast high,
And curlers heave the bitter sigh?
Why throughout Largs the tearful eye,
So blear'd and red?
Oh! Listen to the pour man's cry!
John Cairnie's dead!
Cairnie! Thy name by land or seas
Shall never die.\i
From Scotland, \Jcurling\j reached Canada and the United States and spread to other parts of the world: to Sweden \JNorway\j, \JSwitzerland\j, \JNew Zealand\j, and even \JRussia\j.
#
"Curling Stones",536,0,0,0
The earliest \Jcurling\j stones were natural boulders, taken from a stream. They were irregular and square-edged. A very primitive type was the loofie. It was as flat as the human hand, which gave it its name - from the Scottish \Iloof\i for a hand. However, players soon realized that to fling the stone efficiently they needed a firmer hold on it so they cut into it, on opposite sides, holds or hollows in which they could insert the fingers and thumb. This innovation is thought to have been made around 1500.
After a period of approximately 150 years, these kuting stones, as they were called, were replaced by channel stanes. They received their name from the rock-strewn channels of rivers or brooks from which they were taken. Nature had smoothed them through the centuries with water and ice. An iron handle wedged or pounded into the rock provided the curler with a much firmer grip and enabled him to lift and throw the missile more easily. To fix the handle properly, a thicker stone was needed to furnish the essential depth and, this, in turn, led to an increase in weight. At this stage the handle was fitted permanently and the stones certainly were of all sizes, weights, and shapes: triangular, square, oval, and round.
An early description refers to "some three-cornered [stones] like those equilateral cocked hats which our divines wore . . . others like ducks, others flat as a frying pan." The handles, also, were "clumsy and unelegant, being malconstructed resemblances of that hook-necked bird, the goose."
Individual stones became famous and a few are still treasured by the Royal Caledonian Club. They bore distinctive names, often linked with some conspicuous (or imagined) feature, such as "The Horse," "The Hen," "The Saddle," "The Barn," and "The Kirk." Opinions differed as to the reason for the naming of yet another stone "The \JBible\j." Some pointed to its square appearance as being 'bookish' and, of course, to the pious Scot, "the Book" was the \JBible\j. Others felt that a stone so named would have extra, mysterious power, since it was called after Holy Scripture.
Those early stones were individually marked, which helped to prove the antiquity of the game and gave special encouragement to those engaged in digging up the past. Specimens of giant stones, weighing 117 lbs (52.65 kg) have been discovered. One, of blue whinstone bears the inscription "A GIFT" in Roman capitals and the date - 1511 - and is considered the oldest preserved \Jcurling\j stone in the world so far unearthed.
The stone with its fixed handle was not the ultimate product. Other stones evolved. No longer rough boulders, as supplied and moulded by nature, they were the result of skilled handiwork. By 1800 stones were both round and polished.
A problem that beset \Jcurling\j enthusiasts arriving in far-off settlements was the absence of the right kind of stone. Reluctant to forgo their pastime, they searched for a substitute for granite, which was far too costly to import. The Royal Montreal Club, for instance, (established in 1807 and the earliest recorded in Canada) curled with "irons."
The story is told that after Quebec had been captured by Wolfe's army, soldiers (most probably the convalescent, wounded, and sick) were keen to curl, but were unable to obtain granite. So an ingenious infantry man melted down iron cannon balls and forged copies of the genuine \Jcurling\j stones. There was no limit to the weight of the "irons," which ranged from 45 to 115 lbs (20.25 kg to 51.75 kg). In \JOntario\j, however, where Scottish settlers were able to obtain granite from river beds, players soon realized that the poor-quality local stone made it unfit for the game. They thus began to mould their own hardwood "stones" which they ringed with iron to make them heavy enough.
For many years the game was played in different parts of the world with a great variety of stones - granite, timber, and iron - until finally the modern, standard \Jcurling\j stone was adopted everywhere. It weighed 44 lbs (19.80 kg) and was completely circular and had a detachable handle. Yet it introduced another feature it could be used either side up, one side being rough and the other smooth, and the player chose the side which best suited to the condition of the ice.
The rock island of Ailsa Craig, at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde, was the most famous source of the best granite, which was exported across the seas for making \Jcurling\j stones. A legend told that whenever the last of Ailsa Craig's granite had been used up, the end of the world would have come. However, even legends have a way of becoming obsolete and the manufacture of synthetic, composite stones, with all the properties essential for \Jcurling\j, assures that life will go on - just as \Jcurling\j will - even when Ailsa Craig is no more.
#
"Curling Terminology",537,0,0,0
\JCurling\j has been described (to the indignation of curlers themselves) as "lawn bowling on ice." Some authorities claim that it arose out of that summer game which had already been popular for centuries among the Scots. Undoubtedly, man's need of exercise in cold weather led to the sport's inception. The sight of thick layers of ice, his innate love of hurling stones and pleasure in seeing them slide along a smooth surface were all contributing factors.
\JCurling\j is the Scots' national game and wherever they went - climate permitting - they introduced the pastime. However, their anger has been aroused by a suggestion that \Jcurling\j was not indigenous to their country but imported either from the north (\JIceland\j) or from the south (the Netherlands), where 450 years ago games very similar to the earliest forms of \Jcurling\j (which were akin to quoit - pitching) did exist. It was asserted that either Flemish migrants had brought it to Scotland sometime during the sixteenth century or Scottish travelers themselves had brought it back on their return from visits to the Low Countries (or \JIceland\j).
The only testimony offered in support was the vocabulary of the sport. The majority of its terms, it was pointed out, were foreign - mostly Dutch or German. The word curl itself, it was claimed, was derived from the German \IKurzweil,\i denoting a pastime and amusement. Therefore, \Jcurling\j merely meant - very generally - to play for pleasure. Equally, kuting (also spelled coiting or quoiting), an early alternative term for the sport in Scotland, came, it was said, from the Teutonic \Ikluyten\i and referred to a contest with \Jquoits\j (lumps or balls) on a frozen plain. The word \IBonspiel,\i describing a \Jcurling\j match, was obviously foreign and made up of the French \Ibon\i (good) and the German \ISpiel\i (play).
Some critics were adamant that the solitary fact of the existence of foreign words proved nothing, and that such etymological evidence was as slippery a game as \Jcurling\j itself. Although in fact similar kinds of ice sports were played in the Low Countries four and a half centuries ago (in \JIceland\j, people then enjoyed a game played on ice with "bowls"), there was no proof whatsoever, these critics said, that either was the father of the game which for at least 400 years had been played in Scotland. However, they acceded that only during the middle of the eighteenth century did it become the country's truly national game.
To make an effective shot, curlers learned to deliver the stone with a certain twist which made it rotate, swerve, and curl. It was this twisting, undulating motion of the stone which most probably was responsible for the sport's name.
James IV (1473-1513) was the first Scottish king linked with the sport but no literary mention appears of the game in that country before 1600. Tradition relates that he had ordered a silver \Jcurling\j stone for which men were to play annually. Although there is no historical evidence to support the assertion, a toast proposed in 1844 at a meeting of the Jacobite Society in honor of the then Prince of Wales suggests that James Vl of Scotland (who became James I of England) was "a keen, keen curler who knew how to keep his own side of the rink and to sweep."
The proposer of the toast suggested that the Royal Grand Club should take the young prince in hand to make him follow his illustrious ancestor's example and "thoroughly initiate him into all the mysteries of that health-giving, strength-renovating, nerve-bracing, blue-devil-expelling, incomparable game of \Jcurling\j." To neglect this responsibility would certainly contribute to royal degeneracy and entirely 'bungle the Prince's education."
There are no historical facts to prove that James VI really was proficient in the game. Nevertheless, the toast highlights the place \Jcurling\j had come to occupy in Scotland's life in the middle of the last century.
Clergymen, particularly, must have enjoyed \Jcurling\j from earliest days. They were even accused of \Jcurling\j on the sacred Sabbath. Presbyterians at the Glasgow assembly in 1638 indicted the Bishop of Orkney of the Episcopal church of the offense, though the charge was dismissed. Clergymen were the authors of classical treatises on the sport. The earliest historical account of it in existence is that of the Rev. John Ramsay. It was published in Edinburgh in 1811. The most monumental work on \Jcurling\j was written by the Rev. John Kerr in 1890.
William Guthrie, another minister of the same century, was such an expert curler, that his admirers expressed the prayerful wish that "his memory live forever among us, for a worthier than he never lifted the channel stane." A further reference to the game at that time was made by J. Wallace, also a clergyman, at Kirkwell. He gave his flock helpful information about sites where "excellent stones for the game . . . could be found in great plentie."
Through the centuries \Jcurling\j conquered more and more Scottish hearts, helping to lighten Scotland's grim winter and warming frozen limbs.
The Highlanders have always been renowned for their love of feats of strength. As they knew how to throw the hammer and toss the caber, so they learned to curl. In winter it was only natural for them to transfer their contests of strength and skill to the icy surface of tarns and lochs.
Moreover, \Jcurling\j was democratic and excluded professionalism. It was played solely for the love of the game. Its excitement and exhilaration were sufficient to ban nefarious practices often associated with other games. Gambling and betting were strictly outlawed. A modern guide to the game, issued from \JWinnipeg\j, its Canadian center, affirms an ancient tradition when it declares that "the heart of \Jcurling\j is its incomparable spirit. Without that spirit, \Jcurling\j is just another pastime. Played in that spirit, it is the king of all games. The spirit of \Jcurling\j is reflected in its most cherished traditions. Curlers play the games to win, but not to humble their opponents. Every \Jcurling\j game ends with a hearty handclasp of friendship and good will to both teammates and opponents."
#
"Curry Favor",538,0,0,0
Whoever seeks to gain special advantage by excessively flattering an influential person is said "to curry favor." Though the meaning of the phrase is clear, its origin has been misunderstood. It is rarely realized that the expression was born in the stable!
The "favor" in this case is the corrupted name of Favel (or Fauvel), a legendary chestnut mare and subject of a fourteenth century French satire. Highly prized, she was well looked after. To curry, a term also derived from the French and in no way connected with Indian curry, described the grooming and rubbing down of a horse, a meaning still recalled in the curry comb used for this purpose. "To curry Favel" therefore expressed the special care and concern shown to the horse.
When, eventually, the English adopted the phrase, they misunderstood and distorted the French, rendering it in their tongue "to curry favor." Thus the \Jmetaphor\j became totally divorced from its original equestrian context.
#
"Curtsy",539,0,0,0
The curtsy in our time is a slight bend of the knee and lowering of the body. It is a custom reserved for women only.
It is the last remnant of the days, not so long ago, when woman was considered inferior to man and was expected to bow down in his presence as a sign of subservience. The curtsy, as practised now, is the last relic of complete genuflection.
Curtsy and courtesy seem such near relatives. They almost sound alike. But in reality they are worlds apart. A curtsy belongs much more to the shameful history of female degradation than to books on etiquette. Perhaps Lewis Carroll was not just being funny when, seeing "Through the Looking Glass," he explained that a woman, while curtsying, may think what to say, which would save time.
#
"Curvature of the Eye's Lenses",540,0,0,0
A seventeenth-century German Jesuit, Christopher Scheiner, was the first to recognize the curvature of the eye's lens. The peculiar facility of the lens to accommodate itself to focus clearly on objects at different distances was his discovery as well. To demonstrate his findings, he devised a "pin hole" test which, in acknowledgment of his work, was called after him, the \IScheiner test.\i
The priest was indeed one of the great pioneers in physiological \Joptics\j.
#
"Cut and Dried",541,0,0,0
Things arranged and finalized without a chance of change are said to be "cut and dried." The phrase originated in the processing of timber. Once cut and dried, it was ready for use.
Another suggestion, giving the words a completely different slant, links them with the practice of seventeenth-century herbalists. They sold their remedies not in the form of freshly-picked plants, but prepared for immediate consumption or application: cut and dried.
#
"Cutting the Wedding Cake",542,0,0,0
The cutting of the wedding cake follows a prescribed ritual. Whilst the bride holds the knife, the groom places his hand on hers, slightly pressing it down, so that jointly they make the cut. The action expresses their new unity and their complete sharing of everything that is to come. Magically, it is thought to ensure their togetherness for life.
The cake, once cut, is shared with all the guests. Even absent friends will receive their mini-slice by mail. This is not a mere act of courtesy. Its origin is the belief in the magic sharing of happiness by association. No matter how tiny, the piece as an integral part of the cake had participated in the fulfillment of love. Good luck therefore was now attached to it. That is why unmarried girls used to take home their piece, to put it under their pillow to sleep on it. They were convinced that endowed with occult power, it would send them the man of their dreams.
#
"Cycle Racing Evolution",543,0,0,0
Almost from the very beginning of \Jcycling\j, people in many countries realized the cycle's great potentialities for racing. Early competitions were very informal and, naturally, aimed at covering a distance in record time. The formation of clubs stimulated the sport. In \JFrance\j, for instance, contests were held every Sunday.
The first official \Jcycling\j race on record took place at Hendon, England, in 1868. \JFrance\j did not lag far behind. In the same year, a French manufacturer organized a 1,200 meter race. In 1869, an International Road Race, open to all, extended from Paris to \JRouen\j, starting at the Arc de Triomphe. Its rules make interesting reading: riders were not permitted to change machines during the race, but could employ any type - with rubber tyres, crank or gears, and wheels of all dimensions. However, competitors were not permitted "to be trailed by a dog or use sails!"
A rider's credential was an officially signed map, which he had to collect between 6 and 7 am on the day of the race, at the sponsoring firm's office. The first prize was 1,000 francs. Of 323 cyclists who entered, 200 started in the race which was staggered, because of the great number of competitors. The English cyclist James Moore (pronounced by the French as Jimmie Meere) was the winner. His machine had been manufactured in a French jail just outside Paris!
In 1883, H. L. Cortis of the United States set the first \Jbicycle\j record in the United States. Riding continuously for 24 hours, he covered 200 miles, 300 yards at a speed of just over 8 mph.
In the same year the first American road race was run - "for the championship." Within less than twelve months, Thomas Steven decided to "ride around the world" on the high wheeler. He pursued his task for two years and, on his return to the States, claimed to have cycled "everywhere where there was land."
The introduction of the pneumatic tire gave the sport its greatest impetus. Clubs grew up in many places, and races enthralled huge crowds. Astute promoters of the sport in the United States supplied - for a fee - chairs for the comfort of spectators who gathered at the finishing line. Proper stands soon replaced those improvised seats. Those who came to watch the races were soon dissatisfied with merely seeing its finish. This led to the building of special arenas with saucer-like tracks. At first, these were of level grass or cinders. With the advent of the "safety" and pneumatic tyres, tracks were constructed of cement.
Two types of competition had come into being: the encircling of the arena tracks, and road races. The latter provoked much anguish and opposition, as frequently pedestrians were knocked down and seriously injured, if not killed. Thus, authorities took strong measures, restricting races to certain hours and prohibiting the riding of a cycle on footpaths or lanes used mainly by pedestrians.
It was to promote the sport even further and to add to its excitement (as well as to make it a more profitable source of income) that the famous six-day race was devised. lt was inaugurated at Madison Square Garden, New York, in 1891. It was run over 142 hours, with "Pugger Bill" the winner.
In England, the National Cyclists' Union (established in 1878, under the name of the \JBicycle\j Union) was the first association to put up danger boards and issue regulations to control cycle traffic. It held annual championships and became the controlling body of all forms of cycle racing, including record breaking on the roads and the tracks. Eventually, it was recognized by the lnternational \JCycling\j Union, the world body of the sport. This had been formed in 1900 with its headquarters in Paris, to become generally known by the abbreviation of its French name as the UCI.
That is how, through the years, the various types of racing evolved, with men either riding against the clock or against each other.
#
"Cycling History",544,0,0,0
Man has always sought to cover distance at a pace faster than walking. Once he had invented the wheel, he thought of rolling his weight along, instead of carrying it on his own two feet. The idea of propelling himself by means of wheels must have entered man's mind early. In fact, \Jcycling\j enthusiasts of last century were convinced that some crude form of "\Jcycling\j" existed in ancient days, and in 1895 Luther H. Porter wrote:
\IWhen we consider the inferior means of locomotion possessed by man, the dissatisfaction he has always felt with the limitations of his own gait, the vast importance to him of means of rapid progression . . . it is impossible not to believe that he long ago endeavored to discover means of propelling himself rapidly by the aid of some simple mechanical contrivance.\i
Early Babylonian and Egyptian representations as well as frescoes excavated at \JPompeii\j, seemed to confirm this opinion. Most frequently referred to is a \Jstained glass\j window, dated 1642, in a church at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, England (20 miles - 32 km - from London), the village immortalized by its churchyard, which had suggested to the poet Thomas Gray his famous "Elegy." This "cycle window," as it came to be called, depicts a cherub seated on a two-wheeled chariot! How it moved about was left to the viewers' imagination by the Italian artist who made it. It may be that the cherub used some \Jsupernatural\j motive power, or, as others have claimed, advanced by the rider pushing his feet against the ground.
The first really known attempt to ride a sort of cycle dates to 1690, when a Frenchman, the Chevalier M. de Sivrac, contrived a machine consisting of two wooden wheels with upright posts on their sides, which were connected by a backbone. The people of Paris could well stare. The \Icฮlฮrifฮฆre,\i as it was called, could not be steered, and hence had to follow a straight course with the rider sitting very uncomfortably astride the crossbar, pushing himself along with his feet striking the ground alternately, in a manner somewhat akin to skating. No wonder, this "bike' was doomed to failure and soon disappeared.
After others had made several attempts at improvement, all of them short-lived, a Frenchman and a German both became renowned as the true fathers of the modern \Jbicycle\j. Each claimed "the child" as his very own and there was an acrimonious controversy between their two nations. Quite likely, it was all a matter of coincidence. It is not uncommon in the history of invention that two men, unknown to each other, have conceived the same idea, on occasion at the same time.
The Frenchman's claim goes back to 1816. M. Niepce was a pioneer of photography. Possibly with Sivrac's contraption in mind, he built a machine that, because of its speed, he called a celeripede. It was a simple device of two equal-sized wooden wheels connected by a bar upon which the rider sat and pushed himself forward by "walking." The new machine differed from Sivrac's significantly: it could be steered! In the artistic tradition of \JFrance\j and in keeping with her people's love of ornamentation, the inventor carved on the connecting bar of his machine likenesses of animals and snakes. Frequently, he chose the figure of a horse, and thus, this early model of the cycle became known as a \Ihobby horse.\i
In \JGermany\j, Baron Karl von Drais, almost simultaneously constructed a cycle which also could be steered by means of a handle and a pivot incorporated in the front wheel.
Drais was a forest warden, employed by the Duke of \JBaden\j. His hobby was making all kinds of gadgets, which led his friends to nickname him the "professor of mechanics." His chief duty, of course, was to inspect the woods, a task which, because of their extent, became tedious. As he had not the means to own a horse, his love of gadgetry and his fertile mind combined to move in mysterious ways in a quest for mechanical transport. He asked himself whether it was not possible to accelerate, and thereby shorten, his patrols by inventing a man-made "horse" - some wheeled contraption suitable for bridle paths. That is how, tradition says, he came to build his steerable "hobby horse."
He joined two small carriage wheels in tandem to a wooden spine, adding a saddle with a back-rest for comfort. His system of locomotion broke no new ground - he struck his feet alternately forward, but, in between, he was able to "coast" along. His scientific bent soon impelled him to publish comparative figures, pointing out, for instance, that whereas it might take four hours to cover a certain distance on foot, he could complete the journey on his machine in one hour.
Drais' chubby figure was frequently seen on his machine in the streets. He wore a green, military coat with gold buttons, and \Jperspiration\j often ran down his red face as he pushed his bike. People were greatly intrigued by the invention, but it did not take them long to raise objections. In fact, they demanded its removal from the thoroughfares of their city, pointing out that events had unfortunately proved that the new-fangled monstrosity threatened them in life and limb. The machine subsequently entered the history of the cycle as the draisine, being called after its inventor.
The Baron was no fool and knew its value, for all that the people resented it at the time. On 12 January 1818, he obtained from his ducal lord and master a patent protecting his rights. This read:
\IWe, by the Grace of God, Grand Duke of \JBaden\j ... grant to Karl, Baron von Drais, for his invention of the tread machine an invention patent for ten years' duration: that nobody may copy or have copied in the land of the Grand Duchy, or shall use this on public streets or places without having first agreed on it with the inventor and to have received proof of this transaction from him.\i
In the very year that Drais took out his patent in \JGermany\j, Dennis Johnson, a coachmaker of Long Acre, introduced the \Jbicycle\j from \JFrance\j into England. In London, he established a school to teach people how to ride the new "pedestrian curricle." The cost of the machine was far beyond the reach of ordinary men and women. Dandies, however, took great delight in showing off their "hobby horse," which led to pedestrians calling it a \Idandy horse.\i Eventually riding one became almost a mania and Johnson's business began to flourish.
Then, suddenly, it flagged. There were two reasons for this. It was thought that the continuous pushing action caused varicose veins! However, it was public ridicule that really "punctured" the new sport. But not for long. Cyclists again were awheel, although they had no reason to take pleasure in the tiring "scooting" method of propulsion. They sought something better. One of the first devices to mechanize the \Jbicycle\j's movement was a type of gear attached to the front wheel and pulled by a rope. This system was in fact cumbersome and exhausting and often led to the rider falling off the bike. Some completely different idea was needed. It was the ingenious Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a Scottish blacksmith of Dumfries, who supplied the solution, and he was the first to adopt crank-driving.
In 1840 Kirkpatrick Macmillan built a cycle with pedals, for the first time enabling cyclists to ride with both their feet continuously off the ground. Another new feature of his machine was a kind of mudguard, though most probably the inventor designed it to safeguard the rider against getting dangerously involved with the driving wheel.
Macmillan rode his machine to Glasgow in two days - a distance of 80 miles (128 km). Its prototype can be seen at the South Kensington Museum in London. He was able to attain speeds up to 14 mph (22.40 km/h) and, to the dismay of drivers and passengers, on many occasions he overtook the local stage-coach. Enthralled by his invention, he indulged in all sorts of tricks, such as coasting downhill, standing in the saddle, and while steering with one hand, holding a girl on his shoulder with the other.
Not infrequently, his many experimental and promotional rides led him into conflict with the police, who prosecuted him for "furious driving on the road." Once he knocked down a girl, was duly arrested and fined five shillings. On another occasion he was stopped by a constable for riding on the footpath. Being a canny Scot, he won the policeman over by treating him to a display of fancy riding, with the result that he was let off and got away - scot-free!
Further advance in the evolution of the cycle was made, once again, in \JFrance\j, when E. Michaux, of Paris began to construct the original "boneshaker" in 1865. This was designed by Pierre Lallement, a mechanic employed by Michaux's firm. Its main feature was that the front wheel (larger than the rear wheel) was driven by a crank, fixed on its axle. The wheels themselves were still made of wood, but had iron tyres. When Lallement migrated to the United States, he patented his model there.
In England at about this time, the Coventry Sewing Machine Company began to manufacture the Michaux type of machine. Most of their products were exported to \JFrance\j, but when the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War made further delivery impossible, and in fact, stopped all orders, the firm, then trading under the name of the Swift Cycle Company Ltd, was forced to seek a home market. These circumstances established the industry in Britain and the English became truly \Jbicycle\j-conscious.
Further improvements in the machine were to come. These included the introduction of wire-spoked wheels and the substitution of India rubber for the iron tyres. The remaining wooden parts were dispensed with and the entire frame, wheels, and spokes were made of iron. Tubular frames were adopted to reduce the weight of the machine. For the first time a chain and gears made their appearance. However, they were fixed to the front wheel.
To gain greater velocity without increasing the pedaling speed, the front wheel was gradually enlarged, with the size of the back wheel diminishing proportionally. This difference in circumferences eventually reached record dimensions. One rider, it is said, even suggested that the front wheel should be 52 inches high, while the rear one should be as low as six inches! This type of bike has always been known as the penny-\Jfarthing\j.
#
"Cyclone Tracy",545,0,0,0
Forty-seven men, women and children were killed by \JCyclone\j Tracy which, very early on Christmas Day in 1974, almost totally devastated Darwin. Half of its population was made homeless, with 90 per cent of its buildings being damaged or destroyed.
The \Jcyclone\j hit the town at 10 o'clock on Christmas Eve, and lasted for four hours with wind gusts reaching 259 kilometers per hour, the highest ever recorded on the Australian mainland. It was one of the worst natural disasters to have struck an Australian town.
More evocative of the loss suffered and grief caused than any memorial set up in a public square could be, is the simple stone on the grave of a young girl, one of the \Jcyclone\j's victims, in the McMillan Road Cemetery:
\IPORTMAN
To the Memory of
Our loved Daughter & Sister
SUZANNE MARY
Died During \JCyclone\j Tracy
25th Dec. 1974
Aged 8 Years
R I.P.\i
#
"D.O.M",546,0,0,0
Unmistakably, Benedictine liqueur carries a religious flavor. Everyone knows of the Benedictine monks. They merited thus to be honored, as it was a member of their Order who, at the French Abbey of Fecamp in 1510, first blended the drink. It contains a mixture of various herbs, fruit peels, aromatic plants, and a fine cognac. The exact formula however, has never been revealed. Closely guarded, its secret is confined to a maximum of three initiates.
The initials D.O.M. appearing on the Benedictine label are so well known that people mistake them for a trademark. In reality, theirs is not a commercial but a religious meaning. They dedicate the product "To God, Most Good, Most High." In its original Latin, the language of the Christian Church then, it is \IDeo Optimo Maximo.\i
#
"Dago",547,0,0,0
Nicknames are labels stuck on people, difficult to remove, whose effect may therefore be potent.
In the realm of nicknames, St James, \JSpain\j's patron saint, experienced a fate totally different from that of St Patrick and St David. Whilst \IPaddy\i and \ITaffy\i are always used affectionately, not so \IDago\i (the corrupted form of \IDiego,\i the Spanish for \IJames),\i which was applied contemptuously, at first to Spaniards, later also to Italians.
St James' association with \JSpain\j derives from a tradition that this first \JApostle\j to die for the Christian faith, had visited the country to preach the Gospel there. Additionally, there is a legend that, after his death in the Holy Land, his remains had miraculously reached \JSpain\j and been buried at Compostela, around which arose a city called after him, Santiago (from \JSan Diego\j).
Through the saint's fame, it became a center of pilgrimage for the whole of western Europe. Crowded by the faithful from many lands, it was called the Mecca of \JSpain\j.
No wonder that Spaniards came to favor the saint's name for their sons. Soon there were so many Diegos about, that foreigners identified their name generally with any Spaniard. Its sacred roots forgotten, the name, in its corrupted form, \IDago,\i ultimately found its present place in the category of derogatory nicknames.
#
"Damask and Gauze",548,0,0,0
Damask and gauze are typical examples of the many and varied products called after the location either where they were first manufactured or from which they were initially exported.
During the \JCrusades\j, fighting frequently extended to Damascus. And it was from there that the Crusaders brought home to Europe a new type of cloth. In reference to its place of origin, it became known as \Idamask.\i
Gauze, on the other hand, owes its name to the city of Gaza, situated on the southern coastal plain of the Holy Land. This light and thinly woven fabric proved most suitable for clothing worn in the hot climate of that region. The texture of the material also ideal for the dressing of wounds.
Two biblical towns thus continue to play a significant role not only in modern history but in clothing and bandaging.
#
"Danger of a Little Knowledge",549,0,0,0
The well-known \Jepigram\j that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" misquotes Alexander Pope, its author. What he actually wrote (in 1711) in his \IEssay on Criticism\i was that "a little learning is a dangerous thing."
#
"Danger of Being Counted",550,0,0,0
That people nowadays, and particularly women getting on in years, are loathe to reveal their age, is easily understood. Everyone likes to stay young.
But no immediate, satisfactory explanation is apparent for the odd biblical account of the disastrous effect of the \Jcensus\j taken by King David to establish the exact number of his men of war. He did so against the advice of Joab, his chief in command (II Sam. 24 and I Chron. 21).
The \JBible\j very factually reports that the moment the "counting of heads" had been completed, a plague broke out which killed 70,000 men within three days. It further significantly mentions that David had embarked on the entire venture because Satan had enticed him "to count the people."
This "motivation" is the key which helps to understand the true and original reason for people's general resistance throughout the ages against "taking stock" of any kind. They were most reticent to reveal or even take count themselves of their "vital" statistics, whether this concerned their age, their fortune, or the population of their country.
Even in our modern "enlightened" era, a custom prevails among some Jewish people who, if asking a person's age, preface their inquiry by saying, "up to 120." This odd sort of remark is really meant as a kind of countermagic to annul any possible harm caused by revealing the number of years one had lived so far.
By giving away the number - of your years, your fortune, or your population - just like once upon a time by revealing your "real" name, you delivered yourself (or the people) into the power of the devil. Knowing the "right number," one gained power over the person to whom the figure not only referred but who it actually represented.
Figures were not just a matter of mental calculation or cold statistics. They were identified with the individual to whom they belonged. Whoever discovered the numbers "possessed" the person and could manipulate his fate, for better or - mostly - for worse.
#
"Daphne and the Laurel Bush",551,0,0,0
Greek \Jmythology\j pictures the gods as being very human, particularly in romance, and not least so Apollo. He fell in love with Daphne, a river god's daughter, who was a nymph of great beauty. He pursued her passionately. Daphne, determined to remain a virgin, tried to escape his advances - without success. Desperate, she called for help from her father, who arrived at the very moment when the great god was about to seduce her. To save his daughter, he transformed her into a laurel bush. This has been known ever since by her name - \IDaphne,\i the Greek for "laurel."
#
"Darwin and Atheism",552,0,0,0
Darwin was not an atheist as has been suggested. The many violent and scurrilous attacks he experienced must have embittered him against established religion as he encountered it at the time. This may explain why, in spite of his many irrefutable declarations of a sincere religious faith, he expressed views which reflected \Jagnosticism\j and that, on not a few occasions, his wife had to restrain him from speaking harshly against religion. It should give much food for thought that notwithstanding the outrage and controversy his theory of evolution had caused among the orthodoxy of science and religion, at his death, Darwin was buried in the sanctified precincts of Westminster Abbey, Britain's holy shrine.
Theologians of old had proved the existence of God from the design of the world. Nothing in it was haphazard or casual. Its very construction revealed a plan and an elaborate pattern which showed it to be the work of a creator. Darwin expressed the identical thought, recognizing the awe-inspiring unity of the universe. The only difference was that he did so in terms of nature.
In many passages dispersed through his writings, Darwin affirmed his faith, his belief in God, and his practice of religion. There are many examples in his 1831-36 \IJournal of Researches into the Natural History and \JGeology\j of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World.\i Thanking the Almighty for the progress of the expedition, he looks forward to entering the \JPacific Ocean\j "where a blue sky tells one there is a heaven - a something beyond the clouds above our heads." When he recalls a Tahitian's prayer before going to sleep, he does so admiringly because the native prayed, "as a Christian should do, with fitting reverence, and without the fear of ridicule or any ostentation of piety." Speaking of his own crew, he records approvingly how none of them would ever sit down for a meal and start eating "without saying beforehand a short grace."
Darwin disagreed with the critics of Christian missionaries. He reminded them of "the march of improvement, consequent on the introduction of \JChristianity\j" in far off places which had greatly reduced "dishonesty, intemperance, and licentiousness." Darwin said "It was all the more striking when we remember that only sixty years since, Cook, whose excellent judgment no one will dispute, could foresee no prospect of change."
When in 1835 Darwin spent Christmas in Pahia, \JNew Zealand\j, he attended church, joining the natives in their prayers. An atheist could have never written that, "no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body."
Darwin, who as a young man had wanted to become an Anglican priest, could not understand the antagonism his thoughts created. In the final chapter of his \IOrigin of Species\i he thus wrote that he saw no good reason why the views "given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of anyone." There was nothing in his teachings to undermine the miracle of creation. Charles Kingsley, the renowned English clergyman and chaplain to Queen Victoria, in fact welcomed Darwin's theory as it gave new grandeur to the universe - "a new understanding of its mysterious law." As if to confirm his deep faith, Darwin spoke in the \IDescent of Man\i of the "ennobling belief in God."
#
"Dave of Radio Fame",553,0,0,0
\BFrederick MacDonald\b
For many years, Frederick MacDonald played the part of "Dave" in the popular radio series of Steele \JRudd\j's \IDad and Dave.\i He died on 5 October 1968 and was cremated at the Wollongong Crematorium. His remains now rest in one of its walls. The plaque covering the niche, though limited in space, does not omit to recall the role he had played so well on the air:
\IFrederick W. MacDonald
'Dave' of Stage Screen & Radio\i
#
"Days of the Week",554,0,0,0
While the years and months are the result of the observation of natural phenomena, the week owes its origin to early astrological and superstitious beliefs. There was nothing in the order of nature that suggested it but merely man's vivid imagination, his limited knowledge, and his assumption that his fate depended on the stars.
The figure 7 has always been considered holy and magical. It stood for completeness and was thought to bring luck. The seven-day week undoubtedly goes back to ancient Babylonian \Jastrology\j which linked each day with one of the seven known planets.
This scheme of dividing time into units of seven days was then adopted by the Hebrews. They did so probably during their \JBabylonian exile\j in the 6th century B.C. and purified it - temporarily - from its astrological associations.
They, in turn, brought it to \JEgypt\j. There, it is claimed, priests were the first actually to name the seven days after the planets. They assumed that the heavenly body which was in charge of the first hour of a particular day controlled the day as a whole. Thus they obtained the following list of "regents" and days: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus.
From \JEgypt\j the week found its way to the Romans, to whom it had been unknown in pre-Christian days. From them it spread all over Europe and then to England.
But in a strange kind of selection "up North" only some of the Roman names were retained. Others were replaced by their Nordic equivalent. Thus throughout every week we recall, in a peculiar mixture, pagan deities both of Roman and Teutonic lineage.
\BSaturday\b was \ISaturn's\i day. It was the planet associated with the Roman god of that name who had taken the place of the Greek god of Time. Saturn is said to have devoured all his children except three. It was imagined for a long time that people born under his star were unlucky, as they had entered the world under an evil omen.
It is perhaps more than a strange coincidence that many Sabbatical prohibitions are paralleled by regulations concerning the Roman festival of Saturn. During it law courts had to be closed, no public business could be transacted, schools went on holiday, no war could begin, and even criminals could not be punished.
\BSunday\b obviously is the day of the \Isun,\i which controls all its events. It was only in the 4th century that the Church declared it a holy day, in commemoration of the \JResurrection\j of Christ and replacing the observance of the Jewish Sabbath.
The \Imoon's\i day became \BMonday.\b
Then, suddenly and for no known reason, the English changed their system and, for the remaining four days of the week, made use not of Roman, but Norse \Jmythology\j.
\BTuesday\b was so called in honor of the Scandinavian god of war - \ITiw.\i Formerly, he had been a daring Norse hero who had lost his hand in a fight.
\BWednesday\b recalls the god \IWoden,\i which is the \JAnglo-Saxon\j for the better-known Odin. He was the god of storms who welcomed brave warriers to \JValhalla\j and treated them there to the delights they had most desired on earth.
His dominion extended to the realms of wisdom, poetry, and agriculture. The latter accounts for the widespread belief for many centuries, that Wednesday was specially favorable for sowing the crops.
\BThursday\b belongs to \IThor,\i god of thunder and Woden's son. Strong, brutal, and greedy, these very qualities endeared him to the people. He was famous for his hammer, which typified \Jlightning\j and thunder, his belt of strength and his iron glove with the aid of which he threw the hammer.
\BFriday\b is \IFrigga's\i day. She was Woden's wife and chief goddess and patroness of love, marriage, and fertility. Originally a moon goddess, she traveled in a chariot, drawn by two cats.
Thus every week without realizing it, we continue to honor the planet Saturn and worship the sun and the moon and pay homage to war, storm, brute force, and love.
#
"Dead As a Doornail",555,0,0,0
Originally there were no bells or buzzers on doors. To be let in to a home, people announced their arrival by hitting a large doornail with a knocker attached to the door for this purpose. Generally it is believed that this early method of seeking entry was responsible for the morbid expression "dead as a doornail." After all, a nail knocked so hard and so often, had little chance of surviving.
Much more likely, however, the phrase stems from the carpenters' craft. To make the door really sturdy to withstand the wear and tear, carpenters reinforced the wooden doorframe by hammering into it nails so deeply that these left holes above their sunken heads. To hide these, they filled them with putty. When painted over, no trace was left of the "buried" nails, just as those "dead as (those) doornails" would not be noticed.
#
"Dead Men Tell Tales",556,0,0,0
Death always has haunted man. To cope with its dread, he devised all types of precautionary measures. Many of them we continue to practice under the guise of so-called mourning customs.
The power of the dead, however, was thought to go far beyond the ability to send their spirits back from the grave to harm those who neglected to look after them properly. It was believed that the dead were specially gifted to foresee future events. No longer constrained by the limits of mortal existence, the horizon of their vision included the things to come. That is why from earliest days, man has tried to make contact with the dead to get the information he so deeply desired.
Ancient \JMesopotamia\j already practised the art, and the Assyrian magicians who engaged in it were known by the title of "raiser of the departed spirit." The famous Babylonian \IEpic of Gilgamesh\i (which influenced, if not suggested, the biblical story of Noah and the Flood) tells how the hero, aided by god, summoned Ea-bani, his dead companion. In Greek legend, Odysseus goes to \JHades\j to have his future told by Tiresias, the blind Theban seer who by then had joined the spirits of the underworld.
Greeks esteemed this pursuit so highly that according to their tradition a goddess, \JHecate\j, looked after it. No wonder that \JEuripides\j, the great Greek dramatist of the fourth century B.C. referred to her as "the queen of the phantom world."
Necromancy became almost a permanent feature, practised in every generation of man. The term itself means literally in Greek "prophecy" \I(manteia)\i by the "dead" \I(nekros).\i With its roots in antiquity, it survives in the ritual of the sฮance in which the medium claims to commune with the spirits on "the other side."
A well-known example of necromancy is in the \JBible\j. Unfortunately, like other of biblical stories and records, it has come down to us rather slanted and inaccurate. And certainly not accidentally so! The incident, of course, is that which tells of King Saul on the eve of the battle of Gilboa - the decisive confrontation of the Israelite forces with the powerful Philistine foe. Saul was greatly perturbed and worried about the final outcome. Disguised as an ordinary man, he called on a woman who he had been told was able to contact the dead. He hoped that by her occult gift she would gain for him (from dead Samuel) the information he sought.
The \JHebrew\j text refers to her simply as "a master of \Iov."\i \IOv,\i from the Hittite, is a very appropriate term in the circumstances. Originally, it described the "pit" out of which the spirits of the dead were thought to rise. Eventually, \Iov\i became the description of those very spirits. Thus, literally, the passage spoke of the woman as "a master of the spirits" or, as we would say in modern parlance - a medium.
The Authorized Version of the \JBible\j of 1611, however, (mis)translated the phrase and called the woman "a witch!" And as such, as "the witch of Endor," she has survived in people's minds ever since, though the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j, of course, never said so.
Certainly, the translators did not choose the term deliberately to falsify Scripture. But at the same time a person gifted with psychic power was regarded as being in league with the devil and therefore considered (and condemned) as a witch. And that is how, without compunction, the translators submitted to the prevalent opinion and rendered the text accordingly. They changed its meaning and did so without even indicating that what was presumed to convey the literal wording, was in fact a paraphrase which fitted in so well with the attitude (and \Jprejudice\j) of the age!
The Revised Version somehow mitigated the calumniation. Yet even its rendering of the passage remains inexact. It changed the (non-existent) "witch" of 1611 into "a woman that has a familiar spirit."
No doubt, the woman of Endor was a medium who practised necromancy. The \JBible\j further relates how she actually succeeded in contacting Samuel's spirit. He foretold - accurately - the imminent total defeat of the Israelite forces and the death in battle of Saul himself and his sons.
(Mis)translations, indeed, can play havoc. And it was not only the non-existent witchy part of the original \JHebrew\j text that has left its permanent imprint. Necromancy seemed to be fated. When the Greek term eventually was expressed in Italian, it appeared there as \Inigramancia\i which became known as "the black art."
Undoubtedly, many of the features that accompanied attempts to contact the dead appear obnoxious and terrifying to the healthy mind. They included the desecration of graves and exhumation of bodies, preferably of people recently buried. Murders were actually committed to use the corpse, in all its freshness (and possibly youth) to reach the realm of the dead, to gain from there a knowledge of the future.
Through the ages, a vast and exacting ritual was developed to summon the dead, and it was applied by the sorcerers who became experts in necromancy. They made use of magic circles, special bells, an altar and tripod, magnetized iron, the sign of the pentagram, and mystical incantations - to mention just a few!
#
"Dead Reckoning",557,0,0,0
Death - so ubiquitous - has even intruded spheres where it does not belong. Its presence in naval terminology is merely fictitious. There is nothing fatal in "dead reckoning."
A system of measuring at sea, its deadly association has been totally misunderstood. For many centuries, when still lacking modern navigational aids, boats far away from land charted their course by purely theoretical calculations. They established their position by taking into account the distance and direction they had traveled, making due allowance for currents and tidal streams. For at least 400 years, this system was described as "deduced reckoning." As this was a rather lengthy and learned term, sailors shortened it. Both in speech and in their logbook entry, they referred to it as "ded. reckoning," a description which to ordinary people made no sense. Not realizing that \Ided\i was an abbreviation, they wrongly took it to stand for "dead."
Others believe that "dead" reckoning went back much further, to the very days when large parts of the ocean were still uncharted. Not knowing how far the waters reached, sailors then referred to the "unknown sea" as "dead."
#
"Deadline",558,0,0,0
To meet a "deadline" is a somewhat gruesome description for the urgency of a task, oddly employed nowadays by authors, journalists, and many others.
Originally, however, the phrase was not a mere \Jmetaphor\j, but very real. It goes back to the \JAmerican Civil War\j and to Andersonville in Georgia (some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Macon), the site of the notorious prisoner-of-war camp established by the Confederate forces.
It covered an area of less than 16 acres (6.6 ha) and lacked proper sanitation. At times, 30,000 men were jammed into the stockade - without sufficient food. Between February 1864 and its closure in April 1865 more than 45,000 members of the Union army were confined in it. Thirteen thousand captives perished from disease, overcrowding, exposure, \Jmalnutrition\j, or other unidentified causes.
The agonies suffered generated enormous bitterness and anger. Captain Henry Wirz, its commandant, a Swiss mercenary, was described as a vicious sadist, a monster, and a beast. At the abandonment of the camp, he was arrested and, once hostilities had ceased, was tried by a military court. Found guilty, he was executed for his war crimes. Later historians have attempted to exonerate him, attributing the horrible conditions of his camp to circumstances beyond his control.
The prison was surrounded by an almost impregnable palisade. Sentry boxes, nicknamed "pigeon roosts," were positioned all along its top. It was said that they afforded the guards "a comfortable place in which to stand and watch what was going on inside the camp."
Parallel to the stockade, wooden stakes, driven into the ground at intervals formed an imaginary line, beyond which no prisoner was permitted to proceed. Whoever did so nevertheless, in an unsuccessful bid to make a run for freedom, was shot dead on sight. No wonder that the imaginary boundary became known as the deadline - the first in history.
#
"Death and Mourning",559,0,0,0
Life is a continuous progress toward death. The latest drug may extend man's life-span by many years, but it cannot remove the inevitability of his passing. Thus, Victor Hugo could comfort the condemned criminal, standing in the shadow of the \Jguillotine\j, by saying that "all men are condemned to death - only the date of execution is uncertain."
The mystery of death puzzled and haunted the primitive savage as much as modern man. Was death merely a portal to a further existence, a gate through which man had to pass, or complete \Jextinction\j?
Mourning is a universal reaction to death, but the way we express our grief varies widely. Likewise, several factors account for man's sorrow which is not just, as we believe, the result of piety and loving remembrance of the departed.
There are psychological reasons. These include an unconscious but healthy desire to externalize sorrow which otherwise might cause serious harm to the bereaved.
People are sorry for themselves. They have lost a companion and are all the poorer for it. Ashamed to admit that it is for their own selves and their loneliness that they mourn, they rationalize their grief.
Many of our present mourning customs, however, are a legacy of obsolete fears of the dead and of their power to haunt and harass the living.
#
"Decades and Centuries",560,0,0,0
A miscalculation advances the beginning of a new century or decade by an entire year. The twentieth century did not start, as commonly assumed, on January 1, 1900, nor did the decade of the 90s begin on January 1, 1990.
A century, as its name suggests, lasts a full 100 years. As the first century started on January 1 A.D. 1, the cycle of a hundred years was completed on December 31, 100.
Consequently, the second century could not begin until January 1, 101. All subsequent centuries, to run their full time, must follow suit. To conform, the same reckoning must apply to decades. Just as the twentieth century started on January 1, 1901, the 90s began in 1991.
#
"Decaf Coffee and Sleep",561,0,0,0
Decaffeinated \Jcoffee\j, really a contradiction in terms, has most of the \Jcaffeine\j removed. Nevertheless, it still retains a minute amount of the stimulant. Even this smallest of quantity might prevent those highly susceptible to \Jcaffeine\j from going to sleep.
#
"December",562,0,0,0
Derived from \Idecem,\i the Latin for ten, the name December referring to the last, and twelfth, month of the year, is as inappropriate in its modern context as are the names of the preceding three months.
#
"December 10",563,0,0,0
\BThe Nobel Prize Awards: An Anniversary of Death as a Day of Celebration\b
The annual award of the \JNobel Prizes\j takes place on 10 December. It is the day on which, in 1896, Alfred Nobel died in his villa at San Remo, \JItaly\j, at the age of 63. The first distribution of awards did not take place till 1901.
Nobel's legacy amounted to nine million dollars. Invested in safe securities, the accruing interest was to provide money for awards "to five persons, regardless of nationality, for valuable contributions to the welfare of humanity."
The actual ceremonies for the presentation of the awards are subject to special provisions. Those winning the prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine (which includes \JPhysiology\j) and Literature are honored at a brilliant ceremony in Stockholm. The Peace Prize is bestowed separately, in Oslo. There is a valid reason for this. \JNorway\j was respected throughout the world for its impartiality and no nation would doubt that the five representatives appointed by its parliament would make a fair and unbiased selection of the person who had done most in the service of peace during the preceding year. Each prize winner (both in Stockholm and Oslo) receives a gold medal, an illuminated diploma and an envelope containing a \Jpromissory note\j for the prize money.
Some extraordinary features distinguish Alfred Nobel's life, death and bequest. Nobel's invention of dynamite gave new impetus to the war industry and was responsible for the deaths of countless people. It has, therefore, been suggested that he established the peace award principally to salve his conscience and in expiation of the evil that his inventive genius had bequeathed to the world.
Paradoxically, Nobel himself had never thought much about the giving of any prize. In fact, he denigrated those he received himself. They had not been awarded to him, he maintained, for true merit, but merely because he had the right kind of connections with the people that mattered, or had entertained them lavishly.
A wealthy man, Nobel was determined that none of his family should benefit from his fortune. This was not out of personal acrimony, but because of his conviction that unearned money never brought happiness: "Inherited wealth is a misfortune which merely dulls man's faculties." His family's loss became mankind's gain.
Nobel drew up his final will a mere two weeks before his death. He did so, not in a solicitor's office in a formal document, but on a torn half-sheet of paper at a \Jcoffee\j table in a Parisian cafe. No one else was aware of its contents until four days after his death! His own family had no knowledge that any will existed, and therefore no inkling of its provisions.
#
"December 31",564,0,0,0
\BNew Year's Eve\b
An atmosphere of hilarity distinguishes the New Year's eve celebrations. Farewelling the old year, people welcome the new year boisterously, feasting and drinking until the revelries reach their climax at the stroke of midnight.
What is no longer understood is that all the fun and noise originated in fear. People believed that on the night of the last day of the year all evil spirits were let loose and devilish forces were all around. From very early times, then, they used every possible means to drive the evil spirits away, so that they could start the New Year unharmed and unimpeded.
Those evil spirits, as the servants of the forces of darkness, were, it was thought, afraid of light. To scare them away, people set off fireworks. The demons were thought to be equally averse to noise. It made them turn tail! At midnight, then, the most critical moment of all, people combined to produce a deafening racket.
The practice survives in the present New Year custom of ringing church bells, blowing horns, sounding sirens and exploding fire crackers on the stroke of midnight.
The New Year's eve celebrations thus started as an anti-demonic ritual, designed to ensure that the beginning of the New Year would be totally free from evil. The way the year started magically determined the rest of its course.
#
"December 31: 'Auld Lang Syne'",565,0,0,0
At the very end of the old year people gather to celebrate the occasion and join in singing "\JAuld Lang Syne\j." They do so standing up, crossing their arms in front of them and simultaneously clasping the hands of their neighbors on either side. Rhythmically they swing their arms in time with the nostalgic, sentimental song.
Robert Burns, who is usually credited with the words, admitted that he was not their author, but that he had first heard them sung by an old man. Deeply moved, he had adopted them for the poem he wrote in 1788. He not only entitled it "\JAuld Lang Syne\j" (meaning literally "old long since" but more freely translated as "the good old days") but he ended each verse with these words.
The melody of the song is not his either. In a letter, Burns once explained that "untill I am compleat master of a tune, in my own singing (such as it is) I never can compose for it." The melody is attributed to William Shield, a well-known composer at the time, who based it on a folk tune. Part of the \Joverture\j to his opera \IRosina,\i it was first performed in 1783 in London's Covent Garden. Shield specially stipulated that the orchestra should play it in a manner that simulated the sound of Scottish \Jbagpipes\j.
The air, the words, and the ritual all combine to make "\JAuld Lang Syne\j" a fitting and moving conclusion to the year.
#
"Decoy for a Chinese Bushranger",566,0,0,0
When in 1865 rumors of a Chinese bushranger roaming the countryside around the Tambaroora fields - between Bathurst and Mudgee - were first heard, people just laughed. How could such an outcast become an outlaw? But they were mistaken. The man was Sam Poo, \JAustralia\j's only Chinese bushranger.
A loner, Sam was shunned by other members of his race. "Him no good. Him bad man - no like," they said. Knowledge of his people's customs helped him on his first exploit when holding up ten of his own countrymen on the Mudgee road. After many months of back-breaking labor in the goldfields, they were returning to their homes. The small fortune they had gathered they kept concealed (as they would do with anything precious) under their pigtails. Sam, well aware of the hiding place, swiftly relieved them of their burden.
His initial success encouraged him to continue his career as a bushranger. Luck was with him and in a short time he was able to collect plenty of loot, both from Chinese and European victims.
To start with, the authorities did not take much notice of him. Their attitude drastically changed when Poo raped a white woman.To catch him, the police set a trap. John Ward, senior constable of the Coonabarabran police, dressed as a civilian, set himself up as a decoy. The ruse seemed to work, as on 5 February 1865, Poo too bailed him up. But in the ensuing exchange of shots, Ward was fatally wounded!
A settler who lived at Talbragar found him and took him to his house. In his later submission to the court he related how Ward, fully conscious, realized that he was dying. Deeply concerned with his family's fate, he had repeatedly asked, "What is to become of my wife and children?" - At 4 o'clock in the afternoon he passed away.
Born in Surrey, England, Ward had joined the police force in 1858 and had been in \JNew South Wales\j for 16 years.
Further details of his last moments were given by Mr Innes, who had witnessed the death and, at the request of the judge, was later to defend the murderer:
\IConstable Ward . . . asked us to pray for him. The prayers we offered up were those of the prayers of the \JChurch of England\j for the sick and dying. I read the whole service. I sent for a doctor who was 40 miles [60 km] away . . . The doctor came and remained after Ward was dead. His family were, at his request, also sent for, but they did not arrive till he was buried.\i
Ward was buried on Birriwa Station, a private property near Mudgee. The 1.5 meter high headstone on his grave, it is believed, was paid for by his widow from moneys collected for her and her five children by the people of Coonabarabran. The minister's home was close to the cemetery; to fulfill the widow's fervent wish to stay near to her husband even in death, he let her move into his house with all her family. There had been no need for dying Ward to worry about his dear one's fate.
Poo was at large for another 15 days. When he was finally caught, with the aid of a black tracker, he did not surrender without a fight. In the encounter he was seriously wounded in the head. He was taken to the Mudgee \Jhospital\j, and it took nine months for him to recover sufficiently to stand trial at Bathurst. Found guilty of murder, he was hanged in the prison on 19 December 1865. He was then 35 years of age.
Though a clergyman and the undertaker witnessed the burial of Poo's body, the site of his grave is unknown. So is the hiding place of his loot of gold. No doubt, he must have stashed it away somewhere between Gulgong and Mudgee. There it is still waiting to be discovered and recovered.
#
"Delayed Acknowledgment of a Prospector",567,0,0,0
\BRichard Greaves\b
Recognition of achievement often comes late, if ever. It took over a hundred years for one of Western \JAustralia\j's great gold discoverers to be "remembered." It was only in September 1987 that a memorial stone was erected, by the Historical Societies of Western \JAustralia\j and the Mining and Exploration Industries, on the grave of Richard Greaves in the Karrakatta Cemetery. Now at last, it records for posterity how he was:
\IThe First to Find Gold
In the Southern Cross District
1887
Pegged the First Lease
on the Eastern Goldfields\i
Those present at the unveiling of the monument on the 70 year old gravesite included surviving members of this pioneer prospector's family.
Early in life, Richard had joined his father in the gold rushes on the Victorian fields. In 1886 he had proceeded to Western \JAustralia\j. With a Perth boatbuilder, he then followed up rumors of gold deposits at Toodyay, and eventually formed a syndicate with others, to set out on a venture that was to locate a reef with the first payable gold in the eastern goldfields. Greaves died suddenly, at 62 years of age, on 17 March 1916.
#
"Dentures",568,0,0,0
Vanity has often led man astray. Dentures - from the French \Ident\i - merely refer to (a set of) "teeth." However, those in need of false teeth, not wanting to draw undue attention to the loss of their own, call the replacement dentures. The misleading term has become so much accepted that, though the owner of artificial teeth may remove them every night, his denture is firmly stuck in man's dictionary, if not in his mouth.
#
"Derivation of 'Noel'",569,0,0,0
Noฮฆl, the French word for Christmas, is derived from the Latin \Idies natalis,\i meaning "birthday." It became established in the English language through the popular carol, "The First Noฮฆl."
The word Noฮฆl has been the subject of fanciful folk \Jetymology\j - interpretations that go far beyond the Latin root have been ascribed to it. For instance, Noฮฆl was said to derive from \Inouvelles,\i the French word for the (good) "news," because this is what the birth of Jesus Christ brought to the world. Others recognized in Noฮฆl a corrupted rendering of the joyful claim that, with the savior's coming, everything was "now well." A third interpretation suggests that Christmas was called Noฮฆl because, for those who accepted Jesus Christ as the \JMessiah\j, there would be "no hell."
#
"Derrick",570,0,0,0
A whole gallery of men and women of all ages is hidden away in everyday talk and the dictionaries of all nations. Usage has so camouflaged many words that no one would expect to find behind them someone who, in some way, has enriched the language. This process was without design or intention. The mass of the people, impressed or revolted by a person's behavior, ingenuity or mode of living, seized his or her name and retained it.
Thus, Amelia Bloomer's fashion, though shrunk to shorts, survives, the fourth Earl of Sandwich's hasty meal is still popular, and Adolphe Sax's name is heard whenever the \Isax\iophone is played.
Similarly, Tsar recalls Caesar, the Count of Sade's sexual degeneration survives in sadism, and Quisling's name has become a byword. Shakespeare, once again, was so right when he said that "the evil that men do lives after them."
The ship's derrick owes its name to Thomas Derrick, of London, executioner during Queen Elizabeth's reign. His most renowned "case" was that of the Earl of Essex.
Derrick did not like the old-fashioned rope-method of hanging. He felt that there was much room for improvement. He certainly did not lack material on which to experiment. That is how eventually, he developed his new "killing machine," the device which bears his name.
Not long after his death, a hoisting apparatus was introduced. Its appearance closely resembled Derrick's gallows, and inevitably people called it a derrick, as well.
That is how innocuously a hangman's name lives on. Once used to describe a gadget applied to transport men from this world to the next, it now identifies a much less gruesome machine, a crane moving merely goods into and out of the holds of a vessel.
Derrick served in Earl of Essex's expedition against Cadiz where he was sentenced to death for rape. However, possibly aware of the man's usefulness in his peculiar trade, the Earl pardoned him, and Derrick for a long time afterwards was able to continue his grim profession.
This would have been a suitable finish to any story. But unfortunately it did not end there. However grateful Derrick had cause to be to the Earl for saving his life, the day came when he was called upon to take the life of his own benefactor. When Essex committed \Jtreason\j and Queen Elizabeth condemned him to death, Derrick himself had to execute the sentence.
But the noble blood of the traitor excluded the usual method of hanging, and beheading with an axe was considered more appropriate for his status. Derrick certainly did not like the job or the occasion. Politely he apologized to his former friend for what he was about to do: he was merely obeying orders. But then things went wrong. Inexperienced in this type of execution, Derrick had to apply the axe three times.
As a result, the huge crowd of the Earl's admirers who had come to witness his sad departure became enraged, seized Derrick, and would have killed him had not soldiers come to his rescue. Thus, for the second time, his life was preserved in order to end the lives of many others. He became notorious as "the hang man of Tyburn" and in people's minds his name became synonymous with the gallows. Thus are linked a man, a gibbet, and a crane.
#
"Dessert",571,0,0,0
That the last course on the menu closely resembles (in its spelling) a desert, might not be a mere coincidence after all. In former days, once the main course had been served and eaten, the table was completely cleared, to make room for the sweets, and that is what the dessert, from the French \Idesservier,\i says. It refers to the "removal" of all plates and dishes from the table.
#
"Deuce Meanings",572,0,0,0
Deuce, derived from the French deux, for "two," has found its way into the scoring of tennis, the playing of cards and even into American criminal slang for a two-year prison sentence. Best-known, however, is its use as a mild expletive.
"Deuce" is the gambler's exclamation at their lowest throw of dice, the "two." For them it is the most unfortunate number, spelling bad luck. This gave the figure altogether, mispronounced as "deuce," an evil connotation, soon to be identified with the devil.
This came in handy for those too afraid to call the devil by his real name, and thus added yet another word to the long list of euphemisms used for him. It was a precautionary measure, based on the widespread belief that literally to speak of the devil was dangerous. Hearing his name, it would conjure him up and make him cause mischief. That is how "What the deuce!" became a curse, blurted out not merely when unfortunate in playing dice but, generally, when frustrated or in anger.
There is also the assumption that in common speech "deuce" came to take the place of the devil for the simple fact that the word shared with him and all things damned, the initial.
The deuce of the outcry has been seen as well as all that is left of the name of a giant of ancient German myth and of a Celtic phantom figure.
One suggestion - going to the other extreme - recognizes in the deuce of the exclamation not a call on the devil but on God. However, not to offend the divinity by the profane use of his name, people express it in this context in Latin as deus and, to camouflage it even further, changed the deus into deuce.
#
"Development of Baseball Rules",573,0,0,0
The earliest stages of \Jbaseball\j's forerunner (no matter which it was) can easily be imagined. A boy would pass his time with a ball and a bat. (The ball, perhaps, was a cast-off cricket ball, or one made by the lad himself of tightly wound yarn without any covering. The bat was a stout, round stick or a discarded cricket bat.) A friend joined him and the two improvised a game with a ball, a bat, and a base (in the form of a stake or a stone). The batter tried to hit the ball far enough to give himself time to run to the stake (or stone) and back, without being hit ("plugged" or "soaked"). As other boys joined in the fun, they added more bases, until eventually the field of play had assumed a square shape, with a base at each corner.
Gradually other features demanding greater skill were added. Once the batter had hit the ball, he ran the bases as far as he could get at first, and until 1839, in a clockwise direction. He was "out" if he missed the ball three times, if the ball was caught in flight or after the first bounce, or if he was hit while trying to reach a base. When each player of one side had been put out, the other took over.
Sometimes the runners collided heavily with the stakes and injured themselves. To avoid this, the stakes were eventually replaced by flat stones. However, when these proved far from an ideal solution, they were superseded by sacks filled with sand. To prevent them from being moved, either accidentally in the heat of a game or deliberately so as to increase the distance the runner had to cover, they were secured to a small peg. The type of game thus arrived at revealed the features of rudimentary cricket and of rounders. Following this evolution of bases, terminology changed and, instead of "running to the stakes," the players began to speak of "running to the base." As a natural consequence, it became customary also to describe the game as base ball, eventually to be fused into one word.
Undoubtedly all these games were improvised, and "rules" were agreed upon on the spur of the moment, depending on the lie of the ground and the number and type of players. A significant difference from later \Jbaseball\j was that a batter was "out" when hit by a thrown ball. This necessitated the use of a ball that was not too hard. It was made, therefore, of cotton or wool. Its texture, of course, restricted the distance it would travel and its bounce.
All these popular games with bat and ball were merely variations on the same theme. They were really recreations, and not organized sports. Most prominent among them were "one old cat," "two old cat" etc., rounders, and town ball. They differed only in minor ways.
In its most primitive form, the game of "old cat," as played in England, at first used a wooden cat in the shape of a spindle, which was hit by a stick. It then grew into a pastime with a batter, a pitcher, and two bases. A boy, after batting the ball from one base, ran to the other and back. He was "out" if a rival caught the ball either while it was in flight or after it had bounced. The number of boys taking part in the game determined the number of bases, and according to their number, the game was called "one old cat," or "two old cat," and so on.
In rounders, played by schoolboys in medieval England, the field was marked by posts or stones. As in old cat, the number of players was not fixed and any number of lads could take part. They divided themselves into two teams of equal size. There was no specified position for those taking the field, except for the pitcher (known as the packer or feeder) and the batter (referred to as the striker).
Town ball actually was only another name for rounders, and possibly it was introduced through games played by village boys on the occasion of town meetings.
Out of those diverse versions of a game with a bat and a ball evolved \Jbaseball\j. It was not born suddenly, but grew slowly and steadily. \JBaseball\j, indeed, is the American adaptation of the much older English rounders, though it differs from it as much as draughts from chess. Both are played on a checkered board, yet they are worlds apart in intricacy and the skill they require.
In search of references to some earliest types of American \Jbaseball\j, some significant dates have been found in journals and autobiographical works. Pride of place belongs to the diary of a revolutionary soldier. It recorded a game of "base" in which he had taken part at \JValley Forge\j in 1778. A Princeton student in his journal referred to a game of "baste ball" he had played on his university campus in 1786. Another source, an \Jautobiography\j, speaks of an actual \Jbaseball\j club that existed in Rochester, NY, in 1825. It counted 50 members whose ages ranged from 18 to 40 years.
In the 1820s, a rudimentary form of \Jbaseball\j (under various names) had become an enjoyable pastime for groups of people in several places. Yet it experienced no dramatic growth and the game was pursued rather haphazardly. Town ball was an early, popular pursuit in New England and certainly was modeled on rounders. It was introduced into \JPennsylvania\j in 1831, and the Olympic Town Ball Club was established in Philadelphia in 1833. The "New York Game" first came under notice only in 1842.
There was no uniformity of rules. Rival captains merely agreed on each occasion on the size of the field, the distance between bases, and the number of players. In the 1830s it had become customary to limit a team to 11 or 12 men, as the batsman rightly felt that to drive a ball through a larger number was hardly possible. There was a continuous exchange of ideas and all the time players improved their game by adopting better features from others. Still, there were marked differences between various cities, though all versions of the game had taken over from rounders the four post base stations and the rule that base runners were put out by being hit with the ball.
In 1842, a group of young men in New York, keen on promoting "health, recreation, and social enjoyment," began to meet in Lower Manhattan. On Sunday afternoons they played \Jbaseball\j on a vacant lot there, the future site of the original Madison Square Garden. To start with, everything was informal. In 1845, they organized themselves into a social and \Jbaseball\j club, which they called the Knickerbockers. One of its charter members, Alexander Joy Cartwright, then pointed out that the time had come to organize and standardize the game, and for this purpose he was asked by Duncan F. Curry, the president, to chair a committee. When they had drawn up rules, they submitted them to the club for due consideration. \JBaseball\j owes its modern, significant features to their proposals. In fact, the committee established the fundamental rules that still prevail.
A team was limited to nine men. Each player was allotted a definite place (almost identical with the present-day practice). The committee did not forget, either, to position the scorer and umpire. For the first time it was ruled "that in no instance is a ball to be thrown at a player." This was the final break with rounders. The ball was now thrown to a baseman, but no longer at a base runner.
Most importantly, Cartwright himself drew up the blueprint of the diamond, fixing the distance between the bases at 90 feet (27 m). Its modern version is an exact replica of his design. The adoption of the diamond was due to a practical consideration. Players on the home run experienced difficulties in turning the corners of the square, and to streamline their progress the diamond shape was chosen. This enabled them to move almost in a circle.
The Knickerbockers were the very first regular \Jbaseball\j team to be formed. Another similar group started at the same time called the New York Club. It was a foregone conclusion that the Knickerbockers, who so far had only played among themselves, would challenge the new club. This happened on 19 June 1846 - an historic date in the history of \Jbaseball\j. The Knicks invited the New Yorks to a match at their new home at Elysian Field, Hoboken, NJ, "one of the most picturesque and delightful places imaginable," fronting on the \JHudson River\j. The five-acre (2 hectares) property was easily accessible from New York by ferry. The match took place on the Knickerbockers' permanent playing field there, on which they had laid out the first regulation diamond. (A plaque erected in 1946 on its very site commemorates the auspicious occasion, adding to the legend that "it is generally conceded that until this time the game was not seriously regarded." Of course, the implication here was a protest against the fictitious claims of Cooperstown, and an intention to put history right.)
It did not really matter that the challenger, the Knickerbockers, were slaughtered by 23 to 1 "aces" (the original term for runs). Another historic "first" of the occasion was the fine (of six cents) one of the Knickerbockers had to pay for swearing. Unfortunately, his actual words (and what caused them) have not been recorded, though the name of the offender (J. W. Davis) is preserved. In fact, this very first club worked out a whole schedule of penalties. This fixed a fine of 50 cents for disobeying the instructions of one's captain, and of half the amount for disputing the umpire's decision or even anticipating it by voicing one's own opinion.
A few years later (in 1849), Cartwright's group pioneered the earliest \Jbaseball\j uniform: straw hats, white flannel shirts, and blue woollen trousers.
\JBaseball\j, indeed, had arrived. All that was to follow merely evolved what the Knickerbockers had started. They certainly could not restrict its practice to any exclusive class. All amateur clubs in the New York district, which were created soon afterwards, adopted their rules. New and exciting techniques were added and the first stars appeared.
#
"Development of Rubber Tires",574,0,0,0
In 1871, Harry J. Lawson, of Brighton, made the first rear-chain-driven "safety" cycle. The pedal moved the back wheel by means of a chain on sprockets.
It would not have been surprising if, of all names for their machines, the early cyclists considered that of "boneshaker" most appropriate. A ride certainly shook them up. Even the solid-rubber tire was not a sufficient cushion on the rough, ill-made roads. It was his own experience of such bone shakings, as well as his ten-year-old son's complaints at the discomfort, that led John Boyd Dunlop to develop the pneumatic tire. He himself was the first to apply the word pneumatic, in this new sense, adding it to the world's vocabulary. The word is derived from \Ipneuma,\i the Greek for "wind" and "air."
Dunlop also was a Scot. He practiced as a veterinary surgeon in \JBelfast\j, Ireland. Of medium height and with a full beard, he moved about rather ponderously. He was somewhat of a hypochondriac. Ever since he had been told that his mother had given birth to him two months prematurely, he imagined that this had impaired his health, with the result that he always avoided unnecessary exertion. However, it should be noted that when he died in 1921, he was aged 82!
His son, Johnnie, loved riding his bike, although it was not always a pleasure on the cobbled streets of the city. The boy told his father that he had set his heart on outdistancing his friends, all of whom were \Jcycling\j enthusiasts. To help his son get both a smoother ride and greater speed, Dunlop (then aged 48 years), set to work in his back yard. He was convinced that a hollow tube filled with air under pressure, and attached to the rim of the wheel, would act as a cushion and achieve both his aims at the same time. There are two versions of the story of how he did so.
One tells how he went straight to a chemist to purchase a rubber tube. He filled this with air and then, with strips of canvas, fixed it round a wooden wheel. Trained in exact research, he now felt compelled to test his idea by comparing the two types of tyre. He did so in a simple experiment. He sent a wheel with the inflated tire and another with a solid tire spinning across the yard of his home. The result confirmed all he had thought. The solid-tired wheel toppled over half-way across. The newly "attired" wheel went not only all the way but bounded wonderfully on striking the wall!
More anecdotal is the second report. This relates how Dunlop, deep in thought, was pacing his garden. While doing so, he suddenly caught sight of a length of water hose. At once he grasped its import for the problem he wished to solve. Picking it up, he inflated and fixed it to Johnnie's cycle, with remarkable results. He patented his invention in 1881. So it was that an inventive father's love for his son, and desire to please him, gave the world of locomotion one of its great advances, still recalled by the trademark of "Dunlop." One of the original wheels with the Dunlop tyre is in the Royal \JScience Museum\j in Edinburgh. It is said that it had covered 3,000 miles (4,800 km) before being "retired."
Just as in the case of "Niepce vs. Drais," Dunlop also was accused of plagiarism. It was said that ten years before his invention, a one-time \Jcycling\j champion had conceived the idea, but lack of money had prevented his implementing and patenting it.
At all events, in principle the modern \Jbicycle\j had now arrived. All innovations that were to be added were mere refinements, such as the free wheel and variable-speed gears.
#
"Development of Sails",575,0,0,0
Paintings, drawings, and actual models of ancient boats have been discovered at many excavation sites, including Egyptian tombs. Some most primitive vessels are still employed in isolated parts of the world: for instance, in Polynesian waters, on the Euphrates, and, 13,000 feet (3,900 m) above sea level, on the huge South American inland sea, Lake Titicaca in \JPeru\j.
The earliest way to propel and steer a boat was by means of a tree branch. From it evolved the punting pole (when the water was shallow), the paddle (for greater depths), and eventually the oar. For a long time no one ever thought to make use of the wind.
Again, it can only be conjectured how the first sail was rigged and what it was that led man to discover that he could harness the wind to carry him across the water. No one knows when and where this happened. Certainly, it took several thousands of years to reach this stage. Most likely, of course, it was not by design but accident that the discovery was made. Possibly, a hide or some reeds joined together, after having been used to catch fish, were hung up on a pole to dry out on the return trip. To his amazement man might then have noticed how, caught in the wind, this primitive "sail" helped him to propel the boat.
Ingeniously man learned to make sails out of skin, \Jpapyrus\j, and cloth. He hoisted them first on one pole, and then on two or three. These were the original masts. Once he knew how to take advantage of the wind, he realized how this saved him much arduous toil in punting, paddling, and rowing.
We know that Egyptians used sails at least in 4000 BC. Similarly, sails were rigged on Chinese junks and Viking boats in very early years. It was a development, it can be assumed, that occurred not at one place alone, but wherever man ventured on the surface of the water. The first sails were rectangular. Next came the triangular, lateen shape (introduced in the Mediterranean by eighth-century \JArabs\j), to be surpassed by the fore and aft rig, greatly improved by the Dutch. Norsemen poetically called their sail "the cloak of the wind" and "the tapestry of the masthead."
Out of the pursuit of sailing as a means of fishing, commuting, commerce, and warfare, the sport was born naturally. Experiencing the challenge of the wind and the water and all this meant in adventure, excitement, and exhilaration, man must have acquired a love for sailing for its own sake. Boats once used solely for utilitarian purposes, began to serve man for pleasure.
To begin with, and for many centuries, only the high and mighty, royalty and nobility, were able to sail for enjoyment. The ships they used were of the traditional type but reserved (and possibly more luxuriously equipped) for the pastime. These pleasure boats were the forerunners of the yacht.
The Egyptian Pharaohs enjoyed cruising on the waters of the Nile. Its navigation became so important to the country that nautical terms even entered their language. "To go south" was thus expressed by "to go upstream." Most famous of all was Cleopatra's barge, from which the queen watched the battle at Actium. Its sails were of purple silk and its poop was covered with gold. The Viking kings also are thought to have kept pleasure boats.
Sailing as a pastime certainly was known in the \JBritish isles\j before the advent of the yacht. A "vessel with purple sails" was the regal gift bestowed in AD 925 by the king of \JNorway\j to Athelstan, England's Saxon ruler. King Robert of Scotland is said to have owned his own pleasure craft (in 1326) while Queen Elizabeth I had hers, called the \IRat of Wight,\i built at \JCowes\j in 1588.
In 1604, Phineas Pett (of the family of renowned English naval architects) constructed at Chatham "a miniature pleasure ship" for Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I. "Garnished with painting and carving," the royal family cherished it although inexplicably it bore the ominous name \IDisdain.\i
Such craft were rare and differed completely from the kind that introduced yachting. These were born in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. The Dutch were an outstanding maritime nation, a true sailing race. By the very nature of their country - many of its thoroughfares are waterways - the Dutch had become an amphibious people. They excelled in "boating" and 'sailing," whether in their own country, on its canals and the \JZuider Zee\j, or in the service of the East India Company. Boats (whether large or small) were not only their most customary means of commuting and transportation, but almost a way of life for them.
#
"Development of Skiing as a Sport",576,0,0,0
An early chronicler tells of Austrian peasant skiers crossing the countryside on skis of a mere five-foot length: "No mountain is too steep, or too overgrown with big trees to prevent them \Jskiing\j down it; they wind and twist about like a snake. But if the terrain is open they run straight, leaning back on their sticks, firmly and stiffly as if they had no limbs or joints in their bodies."
However, the real start of \Jskiing\j as an independent competitive sport dates only from the late 1850s, in \JNorway\j, when in the valley of Telemark farmers inaugurated an annual "meet."
The first ski jump took place at Huseby Hill, near Christiania, in 1879. A description, given by Crichton Somerville, recalls the occasion:
\IThe Huseby slope was one which, only a few years previously, had been described as highly dangerous and impossible to descend when snow was fast and in good condition. The leaping competition proved most highly interesting, though in some respects quite comical. Every man, except the Telemarkings, carried a long, stout staff, and on that, so they thought, their lives depended. Starting from the summit, riding their poles, as in former times, like witches on broomsticks, checking the speed with frantic efforts, they slipped downwards to the dreaded platform or "hop," from which they were supposed to leap, but over which they but trickled, as it were, and landing softly beneath, finally reached the bottom somehow, thankful for their safe escape from the dreaded slide.
But then came the Telemark boys, erect at starting, pliant, confident, without anything but a fir branch in their hands, swooping downwards with ever-increasing impetus, until, with a bound, they were in the air, and 76 feet of space was cleared ere, with a resounding smack, their ski touched the slippery slope beneath and they shot onwards to the plain, where suddenly they turned, stopped in a smother of snow-dust and faced the hill they had just descended! That was a sight worth seeing, and one never to be forgotten, even if in after years such performances have been, in a way, totally eclipsed.\i
No individual has done more to foster the sport than Fridtjof Nansen, the polar explorer. His feat of crossing the frozen wastes of \JGreenland\j on skis in 1888 and its description in a book he published subsequently (in 1890) thrilled the world and popularized \Jskiing\j far and wide.
He wrote: "Nothing hardens the muscles and makes the body so strong and elastic; nothing steels the will-power and freshens the mind as \Jskiing\j. This is something that develops not only the body but also the soul . . . "
The patronage of the Norwegian royal family gave further impetus to the sport and led, in 1892, to the inauguration of the world's most famous \Jskiing\j "Derbys" - an annual tournament at Holmenkollen, a site distinguished by its exquisite ski run. A small museum just below the ski jump-off treasures some five hundred historic pairs of skis.
All through the decades, Norwegians spread the new and exciting sport into almost every country where it could be practiced. Small wonder that its best-known terms are in their language.
The \IChristiania\i (a swing used to turn or stop short) perpetuates the former name of \JNorway\j's capital city. The \ITelemark\i recalls that region of \JNorway\j in which the earliest competitive ski games took place. It denotes an expert manoeuvre in changing direction or stopping short.
Although, like many other ski features, the \Islalom\i was greatly developed by the British (its modern type is the invention of Arnold Lunn), its name is Scandinavian. It was adopted from the Telemarken \Jdialect\j into the Norwegian tongue about 1890 and is a combination of two words: \Isla,\i meaning "a little slope" and \Ilom,\i describing the track left by something that has been dragged.
Throughout the ages, skis have differed in many ways. The world's first skis were probably of bones from large animals. There are remnants of \JNeolithic\j, \JBronze Age\j, and \JIron Age\j skis. To begin with, the woods most favored were pine and spruce. The ski itself was cut from the outer curve of a tree.
It took a long time for skis to become standardized. In the eleventh century, skiers considered that their speed would be greatly increased if the length of the two snow shoes was not the same. They thus made the "kicking ski," worn on the right foot, much shorter than the "running ski," on the left foot. However, this differentiation, with a few exceptions, was eventually abandoned.
From early times, man's artistic instinct led him to decorate his skis. Carved ornaments on the upper surface of skis proved of great value to the modern researcher in dating their origin.
Generally, the ski was strapped on with leather thongs. Primitive types had a footrest, hollowed out of the wood, with two wooden tongues holding the foot in position from either side. The thong itself was threaded through holes in those side pieces. Other skis employed a contraption held to the board by a thong fastened through holes bored vertically into the ski. Yet a third kind had those holes driven horizontally through the footrest, which, for the purpose, was raised.
The earliest skis were made smooth on the running surface. But here, too, necessity was the mother of invention. Soft snow got stuck to these "wooden runners", which greatly impeded the skiers' progress. They therefore began to cover the boards with skin from the elk, \Jreindeer\j, and seal. This gave the ski the necessary grip.
Toward the end of the \JBronze Age\j, grooves (approximately two inches wide) were made in the snow shoe, and filled with hairy skin. This was then secured by wooden borders. When skiers realized that this arrangement greatly assisted them in keeping a straight course, many abandoned the inlaid skin but retained the raised borders.
Skiers learned the advantage of using a stick that, for many centuries, was simply a sturdy branch. Bone points were then fixed to its lower end and a hoop to its top. It was only in 1615 that mention (from northern \JFinland\j) was made of the use of two sticks. But there were skiers who never adopted any. They secured themselves by a rope that they tied to the point of each of the skis.
All this demonstrates the great variety of experimentation that took place and how experience continually taught skiers to improve their "wooden horses." In modern days, Germans and Americans introduced special alloys and plastics to take the place of the hard woods, such as as ash and hickory, that, centuries earlier, had been subsituted for spruce and pine.
Few people realize that \JAustralia\j introduced \Jskiing\j as a sport long before it was taken up by \JSwitzerland\j and \JAustria\j. Its birthplace was Kiandra, in the \JAustralian Alps\j, where the snowfields, in extent, equal those of \JSwitzerland\j. lt was started early in the 1860s by Norwegian gold miners, who, no doubt, had brought their skis with them from their homeland. Locals soon emulated their example by rushing to the nearest fence and requisitioning palings to serve as skis.
Waxes were homemade and known as \Imoko,\i a typical Australian abbreviation derived from the expressive "more go." The word was adopted in other countries and is \JAustralia\j's contribution, in the form of a word, to the world of \Jskiing\j.
#
"Devil to Pay",577,0,0,0
When we say that we'll "have the devil to pay," we might in fact recall early traditions which referred to such hellish debt. To gain an object or enjoy a pleasure, people were believed to have made a bargain with the devil. He would procure their desire at the price of their soul. If ever they regretted the deal or tried to cancel it, they would have to pay the devil an amount which was almost impossible for them to raise.
However, it may be misleading to link this phrase with this tradition. There are certainly many times when witchcraft might be so well camouflaged that its presence and practice would not be recognized or even suspected. But there are also cases in which its "apparent" presence is not real. And this could well apply to the payment of the devil. In fact, the origin of the phrase much more likely belongs to the realm of nautical life and its specialized terminology.
The devil on a ship does not refer to the "evil one" but - very prosaically and technically - to a seam in her hulk which is most difficult to reach. And even the "payment" in this connection does not speak of money - in its nautical sense it describes the laborious procedure of tipping the ship on to her side and smearing her with tar to make her waterproof.
The two types of "payment," though derived both from Latin, come from two totally different sources. The monetary reward - rather appropriately and psychologically apt - is rooted in the Latin word (and wish) to "appease" and "pacify" \I(pacare).\i The caulking version of "pay" applied to the nautical "devil" is rooted in the Latin description of "pitch" \I(picem).\i The complete and accurate quotation says "the devil to pay and no pitch hot."
Almost like a postscript and final bill is the claim that the outstanding debt to the devil was related to an entirely different type of "spirit." Certainly, this time it was linked with "The Devil." But in this case it was the name of a well-known tavern in Fleet Street, London. For reasons that can only be surmised, it had been given this extraordinary name. Close to the Law Courts, it soon became a favorite haunt of legal men who, in between cases or waiting for a brief, spent their time (and credit) at "The Devil."
It sometimes happened that a client calling on a \Jbarrister\j would not find him at his chambers. But he was told that he should "go to the Devil," where no doubt he would find him. It was also a common experience that barristers, fond of their beer but in want of necessary funds to pay for it, would accept small briefs and other odd legal jobs to enable them "to pay The Devil," where their bill had run up to quite a substantial amount.
#
"Devil's Advocate",578,0,0,0
The official decision by the Church to exalt an individual to sainthood carried tremendous responsibility. Enthusiasm, human error or misinformation could mistakenly ascribe to the candidate the necessary qualities of extraordinary worthiness. Everything possible therefore was done to avoid the slightest chance of such error.
The nominee had his (or her) merits and character examined in the most minute detail. To make doubly sure, the papal court appointed a special officer whose duty it was to contest the candidate's claim. He was to raise every conceivable objection and scrupulously to examine all evidence put forward by those recommending him, and the case was allowed to proceed only after every one of his objections had been answered.
Called "the promoter of the faith," popularly he became known by the telling title of "the devil's advocate," \Iadvocatus diaboli\i in Latin. It was a name well chosen as, after all, no one could resent sainthood more than the devil, and presumably he would do everything in his power to prevent yet another saint from being added to their already considerable number.
The original purpose of his office was then forgotten and, with it, its religious context. To act as the devil's advocate took on a totally different meaning and function. He argues for the unpopular side of an issue, a cause or a controversy.
#
"Devil's Mark",579,0,0,0
Passports nowadays record "distinctive marks" of an individual as an identification aid. But thousands of years before the introduction of this modern practice, many a man was distinguished from his fellows - for good or ill - by being "branded" in some way.
Cain's mark is the earliest such example from the \JBible\j. Of whatever the Cain mark consisted, it served a dual purpose: both to identify him as his brother's murderer and to protect him.
A slave who refused to accept his automatic release after seven years and who thereby showed deliberate contempt for freedom was permanently marked. We recall this practice whenever we use the word "earmark." Now a mere \Jmetaphor\j, in biblical times it was literally applied to the man who did not treasure his liberty. He had his ear pierced with an awl at the doorpost, the threshold of his master's house.
Tattoos were etched into a sailor's skin not for adornment but to ward off the demons of the sea and - in the unfortunate eventuality of his drowning - to make identification of his body easier.
Hitler, too, made use of the ancient method, to indelibly mark and permanently identify both those serving him and those he was determined to humiliate and exterminate. His S.S. guards were thus tattooed in the arm pit and his \Jconcentration camp\j victims were branded on their wrist. And in odd anticipation of such diabolic application, the devil worshiper was also said to be "marked." His brand, too, could take on two meanings. It could serve as a sign of shame or be regarded as a proud distinction of a servant dedicated to the forces of evil.
It was firmly believed that the devil bestowed his insignia on those who joined his ranks. In fact, the initiation of witches (who after all served the devil) included their being branded with his mark.
However, as it concerned the realm of darkness, the "decoration" was kept dark as well. Often it was stamped on the most private and concealed part of the anatomy: it might be hidden under the pubic hair, in the anus, under the eyelid, or in the armpit. It was thought that a clever camouflage was to disguise this devil's mark so that it appeared to be a "benign" and quite common blemish of the skin, such as a \Jbirthmark\j, a pimple, or a mole. Lacking this, a mere discoloration of the skin might be taken as irrefutable evidence of that person's allegiance to the powers of darkness.
The belief that the devil marked his disciple at the time of initiation gave witch-hunters the excuse to prosecute and condemn practically anyone, as there is certainly hardly a human body that has not some slight blemish or other.
One of the first procedures, therefore, in the examination of a man or woman alleged to be a witch, was to shave the entire body and thereby to remove any possible hairy "cover up." If the examiner failed to reveal any mark, he did not give up his search. He devised a new fiendish scheme to convict those he wished to brand as a witch: the view was spread that at times the devil's mark (so sure an indication of a witch) could actually be completely invisible. Nevertheless, it was claimed, it still could be discovered because the "spot" would prove insensitive to any sensation of pain and if pierced would not bleed. Hence all one had to do was to examine a suspect's entire body by systematically pricking his skin with large needles or a spike. The moment the person thus "tried" gave no indication of pain or did not bleed, the purpose had been achieved.
The "pricker" became a new occupation at the time of devil \Jhysteria\j (and money-hunting at the cost of happiness and countless lives). And as he was paid a good fee for each "mark" he discovered, the pricker left no stone unturned (or part of the body untouched) until in his cruel, sadistic, and lustful quest, he had "caught" his quarry.
And all this was done in the name of religion! It does not take much imagination to realize how the search mission specially catered for the lewdness and sadism in man. It presented him with a legal and sanctified excuse to give vent to all his lusts and, on top of it all, to amass a fortune for himself.
A simple - real or imagined - mark thus belongs not alone to the occult world, but has in very fact diabolically branded man in his most evil and wicked genius.
#
"Dick Whittington's Cat",580,0,0,0
The story of Dick Whittington and his cat, though most appealing, is unhistoric. He never was the poor orphan who, thanks to his cat, advanced in life from rags to riches, three times to become the Lord Mayor of London. The earliest reference to his cat, in fact, goes back to a play performed in 1605, almost 200 years after his death!
Richard Whittington (1358-1423) was not born poor. He was the youngest son of a nobleman, the Lord of the Manor of Pauntley in \JGloucestershire\j and, to add to his (good) fortune, married a rich heiress, a knight's daughter. Dealing in textiles as well as engaged in the lucrative coal trade, he increased his wealth to such an extent that Kings Richard II, Henry IV, and \JHenry V\j borrowed money from him!
The office of a Lord Mayor did not exist at his time. It was established only after Dick's death. However, he served as the Mayor of the city, filling the position not three but four times. Dick's fictitious association with a cat has variously been explained. A once popular legend related that a cat had served as a guide to great and good fortune. For people to link it with Whittington would romantically account for his fabulous wealth.
The sailing vessels which at the time carried coal from Newcastle to London were known as cats. The name was possibly suggested by their blackness. As a prosperous coal merchant, Whittington owned his personal "cat." Therefore it was quite correct to say that a cat brought him fortune. Later generations, no longer aware of this alternate meaning of cats, mistook it to be of the feline kind.
Another hypothesis derives the "cat" from the (fifteenth century) French description of profitable trade transactions as \Iachat.\i On English tongues this could easily have sounded like a - cat leading to the confusion.
#
"Diddle",581,0,0,0
The London stage has made many a lasting contribution to culture. It has even enriched the English vocabulary with all those who "diddle." The word used for petty swindling was adopted from the name of the chief character in a \Jfarce\j. Written by James Kenney, it was first performed in 1803.
A small-time crook, Jeremy Diddler, made his living by constantly obtaining small loans. He did so from every possible source and on any pretext - without ever repaying them. His method of raising finance gave Kenney the idea to call his \Jfarce\j \IRaising the Wind.\i
The play caught on, and with it, popularized Diddler's name and people described malpractices of his kind as "diddling." The new word gained even wider currency from an Edgar Allan Poe essay dedicated to Diddler's pursuit - "Diddling considered as One of the Exact Sciences."
Most likely, Kenney created his character's name from "duddle," a sixteenth-century \Jdialect\j word used for cheating and tricking.
#
"Die with One's Boots on",582,0,0,0
"Dying with one's boots on," as a modern phrase, reflects heroism and determination. Whoever does so, has carried on to the very end. Dying in harness, one never retired or surrendered. That "they died with their boots on" was the highest praise that could be given to soldiers. The saying gained popularity in an Errol Flynn movie based on General George Custer's last stand with his 700 troops of the US Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The film was entitled \IThey Died with Their Boots On.\i
Initially though, the phrase - of American origin - had no laudatory connotation. Criminals, guilty of heinous crimes and condemned to die on the gallows, were hanged still wearing their boots! Unfortunately, so did the victims of violent death. Neither had the comfort to pass away peacefully in their beds.
#
"Died of Sunstroke",583,0,0,0
One grave at Goulburn Historical Cemetery is that of Horace, the beloved son of Thomas and Jane Fuljames, "who died of \Jsunstroke\j after 24 hours illness, on September 8th, 1889." He was a mere two years and eight months old at the time, which explains the moving verse on his epitaph:
\ILet us go for night is falling, leave our
Darling with his flowers,
Other hands will come and tend them,
Other friends in other hours,
'Suffer little children to come unto me'.\i
#
"Difference Between Tea and Coffee Pots",584,0,0,0
The present-day shapes of tea and \Jcoffee\j pots seem designed to produce the best brews. A low, wide pot provides for the maximum expansion of the tea leaves which, being light, tend to rise in hot water. On the other hand, soon after boiling water has been poured on \Jcoffee\j, the grounds sink to the bottom and pure clean \Jcoffee\j is left in the rest of the pot. Its narrow, high shape thus serves it best.
Originally, however, there was no difference between \Jcoffee\j and tea pots. When first introduced in England, each was circular and tapered towards the top. It was only several years later that the tea pot diminished in height and increased in diameter. This actually resulted from a wish to get a Chinese atmosphere. It became fashionable to copy the wide and bulky Chinese \Jporcelain\j tea pots. Their shape has been maintained since.
#
"Different as Chalk and Cheese",585,0,0,0
To underscore the unlikeness of two people, situations or substances, it is said that they are as different as \Jchalk\j and cheese. To differentiate between \Jchalk\j and cheese seems so easy. Not even the most ignorant could confuse the two. It is easy to imagine that their so obvious contrast was responsible for the analogy.
Nevertheless, there is much more to the original phrase. It recalls former fraudulent trade practices!
In the process of modern cheese making a coloring agent is used. It distinguishes the cheese not only in appearance but in taste. Centuries ago, however, cheese was "naturally" white - as white as \Jchalk\j. Tricksters took advantage of this similarity by selling to unsuspecting housewives pieces of suitably-shaped \Jchalk\j, as cheese! This malpractice was responsible for the popular simile to stress the striking contrast.
#
"Different Way of Buttoning for Men and Women",586,0,0,0
How to secure one's dress has been a problem ever since man has worn clothes, which means from the beginning of human existence. Even \JAdam and Eve\j must have wondered at first how to fasten their fig leaves!
The bulk of early clothing used merely to hang down from the shoulders, but later the folds were secured by laces and braces. A later development was the button.
This was adopted as early as the 13th century, about which time it first appeared on man's dress either hidden, visible or conspicuous. Man used buttons either practically, decoratively or rather shamefacedly, as in the case of man's fly, introduced into the breeches in the days of King Charles I.
It might be thought that even though men and women wore different types of garments, at least they would share the same method of fastening it. But, as everyone knows, this is not so.
Men button their clothes from pajamas to everyday jackets from left to right, while women do exactly the opposite.
The origin of this peculiar fashion and its variation in the case of women is not due, as cynics have sometimes suggested, to a woman's stubbornness and her traditional way of being just contrary - but to the fact that most men and women are right-handed.
It was practical, but now forgotten and obsolete, considerations that led to this little - noticed but nevertheless marked distinction in buttoning a garment.
Men were always independent. At least, in their manner of dressing, which they did themselves and mostly without any assistance. But women, and noble ladies especially, were dressed by their maids.
Therefore, in the case of women it was a convenient process to reverse the sides of the garment on which the buttons were secured because the maid, who faced her mistress during dressing operations, used her right hand and so found it easier to button the garment from right to left.
Another possible reason is that medieval man always had to be prepared for a fight and, therefore, walked about armed. So that he could readily grasp and effectively use his sword, it was essential for him to have his right hand ready for combat and not stiff from cold. To ensure this, he thrust it into his coat to keep it warm. But to be able to do so, his coat had to open from left to right.
In the early days, men also wore a loose cloak which they grasped with their left hand, throwing the left side over the right so as to keep the right hand free. This, too, contributed to the introduction of overlapping from left to right for men's clothes.
Women had to carry a baby, usually supporting it with their left arm. When it became necessary to breast-feed a child in public - and it quite often did, among the masses, anyway - the left breast was used as being most convenient.
To shelter the infant from wind and cold while it was feeding, they covered it with the right side of the dress or coat and thus designers of those days made women's clothes so that they would button-up from right to left.
All these motives no longer apply. Yet habits do not die easily, and men and women still carry on the now apparently senseless fashion of buttoning-up their garments in opposite ways.
#
"Digger",587,0,0,0
It is surprising how the origin of even modern traditions and usages is sometimes doubtful and shrouded in mystery. That applies to the Australian term "digger."
It is commonly accepted that it first referred to the miner on the goldfields of the 50s of last century. English people then generally regarded all Australians as diggers for gold and rolling in wealth. But how did the word become the description of the Australian soldier?
Some date this custom back to the South African War, though no record confirms their claim. Much more feasible and widely accepted now is the claim by Charles Everitt of Birdgrove (NSW), that he introduced the term in its modern connotation. But gold diggers were then furthest from his mind.
He was stationed with the 17th Battalion at Gundagai Post on the \JSinai\j Peninsula. "All we did," he recalled, "was dig trenches." Drifting sand made the work almost futile and again and again they had to dig the same trenches. "We aren't soldiers, we're \Idiggers!"\i he complained. Use of the term soon became common throughout the \JMiddle East\j and the soldiers of the A.I.F. adopted it as the proud title now emblazoned in the annals of Australian history.
#
"Diplomatic Immunity and Parliamentary Privilege",588,0,0,0
Even before entering the Holy Land, the Israelites were commanded to set aside "cities of refuge." These were to provide shelter to anyone who had committed unpremeditated \Jmanslaughter\j. There he could lead a normal life, unafraid of anyone seeking blood-vengeance, then still an accepted custom all over the Orient.
To enable the fugitive to reach safety soonest, the assigned cities (of which there were six) were strategically located, so that no part of the country was too far from such a place. Later, the roads leading to those sanctuaries were specially signposted, lest the party concerned lost his way. Equal protection was extended to slaves who had fled from a master who had ill-treated them.
The tradition survived the conquest of \JJudea\j by the Romans in A.D. 70, to be adopted and adapted by \JChristianity\j. It was now any church building that was to act as such a sanctuary. Once inside, fugitives from the law were safe from arrest. Eventually, this function of places of worship lapsed but not so the Mosaic tradition, from which evolved the modern ideas of diplomatic protection and parliamentary immunity.
The early "cities of refuge" of biblical days live on in both: the internationally recognized right of foreign embassies to offer asylum to political fugitives, and the guaranteed freedom of speech (without the possibility of a libel action) and freedom from arrest inside Parliament, this "sanctuary" of democracy.
#
"Dirge",589,0,0,0
Wondrous indeed are the ways of language. At times a word no longer means what it actually says. It has absorbed its environment so intensely that it has taken over an originally completely alien "sound effect." This happened to the once innocuous \Idirge.\i Derived from the Latin, it shares its linguistic root with the \Idirector\i of a company and the \Idirigible\i ("\Jairship\j") once known as the Zeppelin. Grammatically, the word is the remnant of the imperative form of the Latin word \Idirigere.\i All it expresses is the petition or request to "Direct!" or "Lead!"
That a dirge is now exclusively a mournful song, a threnody, is due to religion, to the medieval \JRequiem\j Mass. The Catholic funeral prayer, known as the Office of the Dead, begins with the plea, "Direct, O Lord my God, my way in Thy sight." In the Latin text, used until recently, this was rendered \IDirige, dominus meus...\i
The mere fact that, quite by chance, \Idirige\i was the first word in the prayer, has associated it for all time ever since with sorrow, even when the rest of the funeral chant was generally forgotten. The company this one word had kept for so long had left its permanent trace. Unconsciously as it were, people could not forget its link with death.
That is how finally, contracted and pronounced the English way, the imperative \Idirige\i became the mournful \Idirge.\i As such it is now listed in every dictionary and solely used in its specifically doleful sense.
#
"Dirty Pig",590,0,0,0
Undoubtedly, the pig tops the list of animals that have been maligned and "verbally" abused.
To call someone a dirty pig or to speak of people as "living in a pigsty" are accusations based on entirely false premises.
Pigs are quite fastidious animals. If provided with a clean sty and plenty of straw, they will make sure that one corner stays unsoiled, enabling them to keep their bodies clean. Pigs that are dirty are a reflection on their owner who often locates the animals' pen at the worst possible site of his farm, on muddy ground.
That pigs enjoy wallowing in mud because they love dirt also is a false accusation, due to a wrong deduction. The pig's skin is provided with very few sweat glands. In hot weather therefore the animal suffers and, to relieve its discomfort, to cool off, it cleverly rolls in wet mud, just as humans will jump into a swimming pool. Actually, pigs have an advantage over dogs and cats: they have no fleas.
#
"Discovery of America",591,0,0,0
For millennia man imagined that the earth was a circular flat plate. Anyone who dared to sail beyond its rim would therefore fall off into an endless abyss. In Columbus' day this view had been disproved. The world was round! Columbus thus rightly reasoned that, even when sailing westward, by encircling the world he was bound to reach India in the East and do so long before those traveling the traditional land route. (It was not mere adventurous spirit that prompted him, but economic motives. Proving the feasibility of such voyage, he would greatly expedite the import of the highly-prized Indian spices!)
That is how, by accident, he discovered the New World! Nevertheless, we continue to speak of Red Indians and the (West) Indies. They are a living monument to the fruitfulness of mistakes.
#
"Diva",592,0,0,0
The operatic diva who acts like a \Iprima donna\i ("first lady"), likes to be worshiped like a goddess. And perhaps she is entitled to be, since, after all, the honorific name often applied to her, \Idiva\i (from the Latin for "divine") means "a goddess."
#
"Divan",593,0,0,0
A divan may now serve as a comfortable couch in a home. Those reclining on it do not realize how, far from being a piece of furniture, the divan once fulfilled an entirely different purpose and was reserved for the highly educated. In Persian and Arabic cultures, "divan" described a collection of poems written on individual leaves which were bound together.
The deterioration of such intellectual delight into a backless sofa is hard to understand. It happened gradually. To begin with, people thought that such a "brochure" could equally serve to register accounts, and it became a kind of ledger. Subsequently, its name was transferred to the office in which the ledger was "kept." In Turkey, this was the Council Chamber, where the judicial body met, to record their code of law. Finally, the Council members became known by the name of their meeting place as the divan.
European visitors were intrigued by the cushioned bench on which the councillors and judges took their seat and which ran along the chamber's walls. Mixing up names, they wrongly assumed that this was a divan! That is how the original "collection of poetry" - a volume of leaves - became a mere sofa. Introduced into Europe as a fashionable and, at times, most elaborate adaptation of Oriental comfort, people were unaware of the confusion wrought.
#
"Diwali Festival",594,0,0,0
\BThe Festival of Lights\b
The Hindu festival of \JDiwali\j occurs in October or November. Based on an enchanting story, this festival of lights has a ceremonial that literally spreads light all over the country. It celebrates the return of a prince to his country after fourteen years of unjust banishment. His people jubilantly welcomed him and made him their king. To mark the occasion and express their joy, they lit lamps everywhere. This is exactly how the festival is now celebrated, with thousands of clay oil lamps illuminating the homes and streets.
Also worshiped during this feast is Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Her ritual has very practical aspects. To welcome her, homes are spring-cleaned, all damage is repaired, the walls are whitewashed and fireworks set off to scare away evil spirits. It is a special festival for business people. They open up new account books and also the goddess to bless them with plenty of profit and much success in all their undertakings.
#
"Dixson Library",595,0,0,0
The Dixson Library is located right next to the Mitchell Library in the same building, and most appropriately so. Their position reflects their complementary purposes as collections of some of the most precious treasures of Australiana.
William Dixson (later knighted, in recognition of his gifts and services to \JAustralia\j), was born in Sydney on 18 April 1870. Educated at All Saints' College, Bathurst, at the age of 19 he went to Scotland, where he worked as an engineer. On his return to Sydney in 1899, he joined the family business of Dixson & Son.
William's father was a bibliophile who had acquired a copy of almost every book on Australiana ever published. His son, who caught the passion from him, gave it his individual angle. For nearly 50 years, for his own historical researches, he purchased whatever he could find in the way of pictures, portraits, prints, charts, maps, coins, stamps, and manuscripts of Australian interest.
Inheriting his father's generosity and noting that Mitchell's legacy excluded all the objects he had gathered, he offered his precious collection to the State - with the same stipulations Mitchell had made. And in 1929 the Dixson Gallery was opened.
Dixson was able to make his vast benefaction through the wealth he had inherited and accumulated from his family's involvement in the \Jtobacco\j business. William himself was for five years director of the British-Australasian \JTobacco\j Company.
Dixson linked his name with Mitchell yet in other ways. In honor of the man he tried to emulate, he presented the library with its large, heavy bronze doors, ornamented with Australian motifs. To add beauty to the reading room, he provided it with three large stained-glass windows.
Dixson died on 17 August 1952 at the age of 82, still a bachelor. After a service at the Anglican Church of St Martin's in Woollahra, he was cremated. His ashes were then placed in the family grave in the Presbyterian section of the Rookwood Cemetery.
The burial place, a truly monumental plot surrounded by a low iron fence, is marked by an ornate large square pillar, with individual memorial tablets on its side. The pillar is surmounted by two huge figures, exquisitely sculptured. The larger one portrays an angel poised on a marble cloud, with wings outstretched. One of its hands points heavenwards, guiding the soul on its way, whilst the other holds a trumpet, ready to announce the time of \JResurrection\j.
On the occasion of Dixson's committal, Dr H. V. Evatt, the then president of the Public Library of \JNew South Wales\j, paid tribute to this benefactor whose gifts were "of the utmost national importance." According to his wish, at his death, the remainder of Dixson's books and manuscripts were transferred from his home to the library, to make up what has been described as an "unrivalled collection of national and international interest" by a man once acclaimed as "the greatest living collector of Australiana."
#
"Do Re Mi Fa So....",596,0,0,0
All early song was to worship God (or to enchant - in the magical sense of the word). People learned the tunes by ear, transmitting them orally from generation to generation. That is why the invention of scales proved such a history-making development in music. For the first time, it enabled man to write down the exact melody, to record it literally. The system still used today (with only a few minor alterations) was introduced by Guido d'Arezzo, an eleventh century monk. Even more surprising is the fact that the well-known naming of the notes, \Ido, re, me, fa, so, la, si, do\i - the very basis of \Jmusical notation\j - comes from an early Latin hymn.
Guido was born in Paris (c. 995). For some time he lived in Arezzo, which explains the name by which he became known. A learned ecclesiastic and the author of numerous volumes on musical themes, his influence on music was profound. He felt the need of some easy way to teach the scale.
Tradition tells that one day whilst practicing with choristers a certain hymn (in honor of St John the Baptist), he was overjoyed to find that this very song seemed to provide the answer. In its first three verses, the initial syllable of each successive section opened up with a sound that represented a stage in the ascent of the scale. All that was necessary to do was to detach those syllables from the rest of the Latin text and use them independently to make up the scales, so that they could easily be used for teaching sight-singing. \IRe,\i for instance, was the first syllable of \Iresonare, fa\i of \Ifamuli,\i and \Ila\i of \Ilabii.\i
His new method of teaching, he was convinced, would enable boys "to sing an unknown melody before the third day, which by other methods would not have been possible in many weeks." And his assumption proved correct. A dismembered hymn, then, with some slight amendments and additions, still provides the skeleton of the modern scale.
#
"Dock in a Court",597,0,0,0
The enclosure occupied by the defendant in a \Jcourt of law\j is known as the "dock." A strange choice of word, it is reminiscent of naval dockyards. However, there is no connection between the two.
The judicial dock can be traced to the Flemish tongue in which the word initially described a type of cage, particularly a pigsty, a chicken coop, or a \Jrabbit\j hutch. Charles Dickens popularized the word in its modern connotation which led to its general adoption. It shows the influence an author can have on his native tongue.
The nautical dock, on the other hand, goes back to the end of the fifteenth century, when (in 1495) the term was first applied to the Royal Dock at Portsmouth, England, and adopted from its earlier use for the groove a boat left in the mud or sand after having been beached for repairs or pulled up at high tide.
Though of such diverse backgrounds and, linguistically, of such different parentage, one having been born on the waterfront and the other coming out of a cage, both "docks" share, after all, a common purpose. They secure or prevent from drifting or escaping whatever or whomever they hold.
#
"Doctor's Red Lamp",598,0,0,0
The red lamp which indicates a doctors surgery also recalls the early practice of blood letting, so popular in former days as an imagined, and apparently effective, cure of many ills.
We need little imagination to see in the red globe evidence of a flourishing practice. The sign represents a vessel brimful with patients' blood. "Here is the place where you can get relief!," was the unspoken but once unmistakable message.
The red lamp was introduced in 1745, the very year when the Barbers' and Surgeons' Company was dissolved and surgery became an independent profession, practised by "specialists" - properly qualified doctors. There was need for them, too, now to display their presence, in spite of all later adverse opinions on advertising. They wanted people to know where they could be found. The obvious choice was the bloody globe.
That the red color is easily seen from a distance and is therefore a good guide for the distressed, added to the importance of the doctor's red lamp.
Perhaps an ancient survival of the belief in the curative power of the actual color may also be responsible subconsciously for its retention. Centuries ago, for instance, people suffering from smallpox were treated not merely with drugs but with the color red. When John, one of the sons of King Edward II, was treated for the disease, his bed was surrounded with red drapings, his body was covered with red blankets and he was prescribed a gargle of red \Jmulberry\j wine and a diet of the red juice of pomegranates.
Times have changed. Ancient cures are outdated and patients and doctors alike frown on the primitive method of letting blood. Yet the red globe remains. It is a symbol of the advance of medicine, a monument to the birth of an independent medical profession and, at the same time, another vivid example of the \Jconservatism\j of our customs which linger on even when their original, and then logical, meaning and reason no longer apply.
#
"Dog in the Manger",599,0,0,0
Whoever begrudges another's pleasure of something which is useless to himself, and stops them from enjoying it, is contemptuously called "a dog in the manger." This designation is based on yet another of Aesop's fables.
The \Jfable\j tells of a dog who took up position near a manger full of hay. It did so viciously to prevent \Jcattle\j and horses from getting near it. As the dog did not eat hay, it did not want others to enjoy it either.
#
"Dog on the Tuckerbox",600,0,0,0
Almost every Australian has heard of the "dog on the tuckerbox," sitting next to the Hume Highway, just outside Gundagai on the Sydney side. But hardly anyone is aware of the burial place of Jack Moses, whose \Jballad\j, "Nine Miles from Gundagai," inspired the statue.
And even those who know that he is buried in the South Head Cemetery will have difficulty identifying his grave. When Moses passed away in Sydney on 10 July 1945 at the ripe old age of 85, he was laid to rest next to Florence Lucy, his wife, who had died 13 years before him.
The stone marking their double grave bears her name only. Though cemetery records confirm his interment by her side, the place on the plaque which was reserved for his epitaph has remained blank.
An eerie incident is said to have occurred at the gravesite during Moses' funeral. From nowhere, so it seemed, a small \Jfox terrier\j came along and sat down among the mourners. At the end of the service, it vanished as mysteriously as it had come.
Other puzzles and even controversy are linked with Moses' famous \Jballad\j. Obviously, it referred to a drovers' camp, formerly located at Five Mile Creek outside Gundagai, where, on their way from Melbourne to Sydney, teamsters used to make a halt. Why did Moses, in his poem, increase the distance to nine miles?
There is supposed to have been a change in the wording of the \Jballad\j as well. Originally, so it is said, the dog did not just sit on the tuckerbox but, being very naughty, did something unmentionable on top of it! Later on, for refined ears, the verse was amended, and the obscene word replaced by a euphemism.
The dog, so the story goes, belonged to a teamster or drover who, whenever he had to leave the camp, would tell him to guard his tuckerbox. Obediently the dog would jump on to the box, and would stay there, keeping watch, till his master returned and told him to get off. Nothing and nobody else could make him climb down.
Jack Moses described himself as "the last of the bush \Jtroubadours\j." Almost to the day of his death, he loved writing his special kind of poetry. As a traveling wine salesman, for 60 out of the 86 years of his life he had roamed the countryside. He loved to spend much of his time with the men in the bush and on the land. He felt closest to them and took up their causes ardently. Just as he fought for the improvement of their living conditions, so he helped in the promotion of their produce, wherever and whenever he could.
To honor their district's early pioneers, the people of Gundagai put up the statue, which has become a tourist attraction.
According to most accounts, the "dog on the tuckerbox" monument was the work of Francis Philip Rusconi of Gundagai, at the time renowned as an outstanding artist and sculptor. However, his widow refutes this claim: "Frank merely made the marble pedestal of the bronze statue, but not the dog," she says. He never worked in bronze, nor did he design the monument. He merely erected it.
Frank Rusconi was three months short of 90 when he passed away on 21 May 1964. He is buried in the Gundagai Cemetery. An unassuming headstone marks his grave, most surprising, given that Rusconi excelled as a monumental mason with his outstanding marble monuments adorning many a graveyard in \JNew South Wales\j.
There was a reason for this paradox. "When I die," he had told his wife, "I don't want any tombstone. The 'Masterpiece' is my monument." And, indeed it is. Made of all-Australian marble, of every color, it took him 28 years to complete.
Every night he was awake for many hours, planning what he could add to it the following day. His wife wanted him to call it "The Marble Marvel." The government intended to acquire it, but was forestalled by the Shire Council. It is now displayed in a special room at the Gundagai Information Centre.
A tradition tells that, knowing the lack of stonemasons in his district, Rusconi had sculptured his headstone himself long before his death, leaving blanks for the date and age to be added when his time had come.
#
"Dog Racing Clubs",601,0,0,0
Modern coursing owes its sound organization to the history-making establishment by the then Duke of Norfolk, Lord Orford, of the first known club at Swaffham in 1776. He was not only a patron of the sport and its zealous promoter, but the owner and breeder of racing dogs. His experimentation in crossing breeds led to a further improvement of the \Jgreyhound\j's stamina.
The club itself was distinguished by several odd features. The number of its members was limited to that of the letters in the alphabet - 26. Each member was given a letter, in addition to a separate color. Of course, the chief activity of the club was the holding of races, for which each dog owner appointed a judge. Jointly, they chose a referee to act as an arbitrator in any conflict of opinion.
Lord Orford's death has even been linked to his insatiable enjoyment of coursing. Although sick, he was determined to watch his favorite bitch, Czarina, win yet another race (for the 47th time "running"). Straight from his sickbed, he followed the greyhounds on horseback. When, as expected, Czarina once again proved the winner, Orford's excitement was too much. He collapsed, fell from his horse, and died. There is another version of his death in 1791. It was due, the story goes, to a broken heart over the sudden passing of the girl he loved.
Other clubs were soon formed throughout the \JBritish Isles\j and some of them made valuable contributions to the further advance of the sport. The Ashdown Park Meeting first introduced the idea of a proper enclosure for the coursing field. Not the first in time, but the first in social importance and in its influence on the sport was the Altcar Club, founded by the Earl of Sefton near Liverpool in 1825. To be elected a member of this amounted almost to an accolade. However nothing surpassed the prestige of the \JWaterloo Cup\j, which became the "Derby" of coursing. It was named after the Waterloo Hotel at Liverpool as its proprietor, Mr Lynn, had first suggested the race. Himself a lover of greyhounds, in 1836 he submitted to Lord Molyneux a plan to run a contest of an eight-dog stake (at a sovereign each), also asking permission to use the grounds of the Altcar Club.
The nobleman agreed to both propositions and, enthusiastic about the idea, entered one of his own dogs, Milanie, which, rather deservedly so, won the race. In addition to the stake, the winner was presented with a trophy, a silver snuff box.
The sweepstake's success was so great that another meeting was arranged the following year, when nominations of dogs were increased to 16. On the next occasion, a year later again, this number was doubled, and from then the race became the most important annual event in the world of dog-racing. Since 1857 64 dogs have participated in each race and the \JWaterloo Cup\j has come to be regarded as "the blue ribbon of the leash."
All that was further required was a generally accepted code of rules and a strict supervision of the greyhounds entered to prevent substitutions. The establishment of the National Coursing Club in 1858 met both needs. It became the controlling body and from 1882 onward published a \IGreyhound Stud Book\i for the registration of the dogs, their pedigree, and history.
A principal feature of coursing eventually led to its decline and to the creation of the modern sport of \Jgreyhound\j-racing. People no longer approved of creatures suffering for the sake of their own enjoyment, not even the \Jrabbit\j, however much it was considered a pest as it is in \JAustralia\j. Coursing came to a dead end as it were.
A drastic change was clearly needed to revive it. The problem was to find a satisfactory substitute for a hare. In seeking one, enthusiasts well remembered that, fortunately, greyhounds pursued their quarry by sight and sound, and not by scent. It was reasoned that an inanimate dummy, moving along noisily, would therefore excite the dogs as much as a live bunny. English sportsmen conceived the idea of using an object that was mechanically propelled but, nevertheless, would make greyhounds chase after it as if it were a living quarry.
A first attempt was made in 1876 on a field near the Welsh Harp, Hendon. The promoters of the race for the first time used a mechanical hare. Mounted on a rail, it was pulled along by means of a rope wound around a wheel.
The experiment failed for two reasons. The course was the traditional straight track of 450 yards (409.50 m). Chased hares, or rabbits, moved erratically, taxing a \Jgreyhound\j's agility and sagacity. A mechanical hare mounted on a rail never wavered. It progressed in a \Jstraight line\j. Knowing the individual \Jgreyhound\j's approximate speed, and the fact that it almost invariably runs true to form, the result of the race could be accurately forecast and bets were no longer exciting or profitable. Secondly, on the traditional straight track, it was impossible to see the start and finish of a race equally well, which greatly reduced its appeal.
These faults could only be remedied by changing the shape of the course and providing a circular or oval track so that the race not only could be followed easily from beginning to end but no longer would it go merely to the fastest runner. The dog which knew best how to negotiate the curves and take advantage of opportunities in running would be the winner. And so the modern dog-racing track came into being. First envisaged by an Englishman in 1890, its construction died prematurely through lack of funds. Where the English failed, the Americans succeeded. Modern \Jgreyhound\j racing was born in the United States.
The first races were held in \JMassachusetts\j in the eighteenth century. The dogs were released from the arms of "slippers" on a gunshot. They raced towards a cloth waved by a "handler" who stood approximately 20 feet (6 m) beyond the finishing line. A live hare released into a circular arena replaced the waved cloth, and the winner was the dog who caught it.
However it did not take long for animal lovers to condemn the sport as inhumane and it was prohibited.
Owen Patrick Smith of Oklahoma, prosecuted for ignoring the ban, felt that an efficient replacement for the live \Jrabbit\j was all that was needed. After years of trial and error he was able to produce an ideal mechanical hare which was run along an electrified rail around an oval track. It was a resounding success and the mechanical hare was eventually adopted all over the world.
In 1925, Charles Munn, an American sportsman and lover of \Jgreyhound\j racing, took the idea to Britain. The conservative British at first gave him the cold shoulder but, undaunted, Munn persisted, to succeed at last in rousing interest and in getting support from General A. C. Critchley. Together, they organised the first experimental track at Belle Vue, Manchester, in 1926. The choice of that Lancashire town had its special reason. The men were convinced, it is said, that if Manchester liked \Jgreyhound\j racing, the whole of England would too. At all events, the new sport caught on and the two men founded the \JGreyhound\j Racing Association of Britain.
\JGreyhound\j racing, streamlined as the \Jgreyhound\j itself, has thus become the dignified and humanized heir of coursing.
#
"Dog Watch",602,0,0,0
A sailor welcomes cats on board ship, as their diet of mice and rats suits both parties concerned. But dogs really have no place at sea. Yet we speak of a "dog watch."
However, there is nothing canine about the expression. The dog crept into it only by linguistic corruption.
Members of the crew were divided into two watches - the star board and the port. They went on duty alternately for four hours each. But soon it was realized that this division of time and service was neither practical nor fair. It could easily happen that the same men had the identical four-hour period every day.
To avoid this, the watch from four to eight in the late afternoon and early evening was halved into two short watches of two hours each, one from four to six and the other from six to eight. Thus the number of daily watches was increased from six to seven, an uneven number, which ensured a just rotation of duties.
For men to be called upon to do the same duty at the same time on the following day was now impossible. And as each watch would \Idodge\i a watch, it was called the dodge watch. Somehow its original purpose and meaning were forgotten, and the men came to speak of it as the dog watch.
No one likes to be associated, even in a manner of speaking, with dodging work. Sailors on guard might have found an affinity, and not merely a play on words, between a watch dog, in which capacity they really served, and a dog watch.
#
"Dog's Loyalty",603,0,0,0
Proverbial is a dog's loyalty to its master. However, at times this is vastly exaggerated and generalized. Dogs have been known, without provocation, to attack their masters or, ungratefully, to run away from a home which lovingly cared for them.
A dog's repute, most likely, is based on the Greek myth of Argus, Odysseus' faithful old dog. For 20 years it anxiously waited for its masters return and when, at long last, Odysseus came home, Argus immediately recognized him, in spite of his disguise in beggar's rags. It was a most moving reunion. In welcoming his beloved master, Argus was so overjoyed that he died from the excitement.
#
"Dog's Role in History",604,0,0,0
There is no doubt that from prehistoric times dogs proved their value in helping man chase his quarry and provide him with food. All over the world, man came to appreciate the dog, to utilize and even to venerate it. Myths of dogs belong to the lore of numerous races in every continent.
Cerberus, with its many heads, was believed to guard the gate to the infernal region of \JHades\j, while in \JBorneo\j a fiery dog was thought to watch the entrance to paradise.
Many ancient monuments, some dating back to 5000 BC, have been unearthed, telling in picture or word the story of man's love for his dog, and the part it already played in his life in that early period.
Long before the building of the pyramids, Egyptians had adopted the dog. They called it by individual names, and early hieroglyphic signs refer to it by the syllables \Ib\i and \Iw\i which anticipated by thousands of years the children's custom of speaking of the dog as a \Ibow wow.\i Egyptian beliefs portrayed dogs as companions of their master at home and in the field. Mummified bodies of dogs were found in Egyptian graves, showing how, at the dawn of history, man venerated the canine species.
Dogs were also pictured on the friezes of Assyrian kings, on Greek terra cotta vases, and on numerous artifacts of the Romans. Mayan civilization lacked all domestic animals - except the dog. The Incas kept it, both as a pet and a scavenger, while the Mochica race raised dogs that had no bark, and their artists immortalized the dog's shape in exquisite, unrivalled pottery.
Andean tribes around \JPeru\j used to eat dogs, a custom that was condemned by the royal Incas. \JAztecs\j sacrificed dogs, particularly so on the passing of a king, to accompany his body across a mystical river. On the other hand, Persians loved the animal so much that anyone killing a dog was severely punished.
Never throughout history did the dog lose its prominent place. Loyally he guarded his master's property and his flocks. When, in the 23rd Psalm (which compared God's care for man with that of a shepherd for his sheep) the last verse speaks of "goodness and mercy" that "shall follow me all the days of my life," some commentators have pointed out that, in fact, "Goodness" and "Mercy" were the names of two sheepdogs.
The dog served as a scavenger not only among the Incas but all over the ancient world - as it continues to do in some Eastern lands. It could be trained as guide and carrier in peace and war. Its sensitivity in hearing and smelling proved far superior to that of man. Many lost people and wounded soldiers owed their survival solely to a dog. Moving and beautiful were the words of a blind man who, so truly, could say of his guide - dog that "my eyes have a cold nose." In \JArctic\j zones, to this very day, dogs pull man's burdens.
Above all, dogs have proved themselves effective in the hunt. Their pursuit of game, including gazelles, deer, and hares, dates back to antiquity. The dog most favored in coursing almost from the very beginning was the \Jgreyhound\j. It is remarkable that its breed has hardly changed any of its main features for the last 7,000 years. Its characteristics have always been a slender body and long legs but, above all, superlative vision, an acute sense of hearing, and swiftness. These attributes made the \Jgreyhound\j the ideal hunter, unsurpassed in ability to track game and catch up with it. The \Jgreyhound\j followed the quarry not by scent but by sight, which differentiates it from most other dogs.
The meaning of its name is not certain and has been explained variously, though all agree that the prefix "grey" (of which the \Jetymology\j is doubtful) does not refer to the dog's color. Hound, of course, is an ancient description of a dog preserved in the German \IHund.\i Some saw in the word \Jgreyhound\j a corruption of "Greek hound."
Dr Cayus, Queen Elizabeth's court physician, in his book on dogs, suggested that the syllable "grey" had evolved from a word signifying "degree," as this breed was of "the highest degree." His book was the first ever to be written exclusively on the subject in England, though in Latin. His opinion, even if incorrect, certainly must have been influenced by the royal bearing, proud stance, and beautiful lines of the breed. No wonder that the \Jgreyhound\j became a living symbol of grace and nobility.
#
"Dog-collar",605,0,0,0
The clergyman's badge of office - his collar worn back to front - is of comparatively recent origin and far from being ecclesiastical. To wear it is really contrary to the early wishes of Church authorities, who were strongly opposed to a priest putting on any distinctive kind of dress. Indeed, Pope Celestinus, in 428 A.D., reprimanded those bishops who dared to wear a costume that distinguished them from other people. This was considered a denial of the original democratic and non-professional character of \JChristianity\j.
When, despite these views and directions, priests eventually appeared dressed differently from the laity, their clothes were not a new ecclesiastical type of uniform. On the contrary, they were a continuation of a pagan mode of attire! It did not originate in biblical teachings or traditions, but in old Roman custom.
When in the 6th century fashions changed and people abandoned the traditional Roman kind of apparel, the \Jclergy\j, conservative in all things, did not follow suit. They refused to adopt the "modern" garment and continued to use the now outmoded dress.
Whilst laymen got used to putting on the new short tunics, trousers, and cloaks, priests persisted in wearing the Roman toga and long type of tunic, still surviving today in the surplice, cassock, and frock. Indeed, Pope Gregory the Great, determined to obstruct any change, decried the new fashion as barbarian and decreed retention of the Roman garb by his priests.
It was only in the 9th century that Christian authorities tried to add to this Roman way of secular dress some likeness to the ancient priestly \Jvestments\j, worn by the Aaronites in King Solomon's Temple.
The clerical collar itself is a development, or more accurately a relic, of that part of medieval "priestly" garb which was known as the Amice. This was a square of white linen worn in the 11th century by priests celebrating Mass. Tied both at back and front with a series of strings, it formed a triangular type of scarf. This was modified in Tudor times to become a white neck cloth with long tag ends which, eventually, were dropped.
The original purpose of this "dog-collar" had no religious association but was most utilitarian. It was a sort of scarf (worn already by Roman public orators) to protect the throat and neck of speakers against cold and a very practical way of preventing the rest of the garment from being stained by \Jperspiration\j.
The cloth is attached to a white collar. This is merely the old white neck band which was worn by everybody from the 16th century onward until the introduction of our modern collar late last century.
#
"Dog-eared",606,0,0,0
Dog-eared pages are so called because the reader, lacking a proper book mark, has turned down the corner which thus looks much like a dog's ear, flopping over.
#
"Doghouse",607,0,0,0
Those in disgrace are said to be in the doghouse. It is a drastic way to show one's displeasure. Often applied to a wife punishing her husband for things done (or left undone), in no uncertain terms it tells her (not so) "better half" that he is not fit to share her bed. His proper place is to sleep with the dog. To spend the night in a kennel is not exactly the most comfortable way for a human, particularly in inclement weather, not to mention the fleas...
In his famous story \IPeter Pan,\i Sir James Barrie tells how Nana, the Darling children's Newfoundland pet dog which served them as nursemaid as well, had been shabbily treated by their father. Realizing how unkind he had been to the animal and feeling ashamed of it, in self-inflicted punishment he went to live in the doghouse! When the tale of Peter Pan captured people's imagination, it perpetuated the "doghouse."
There is the suggestion that gruesome reality rather than fiction was responsible for the idiom. It was linked with the African \Jslave trade\j and the ships which carried their unhappy cargo across the Atlantic. During the night the victims were shackled in the holds. Afraid that they might break their chains and rebel, to ensure their own safety their guards and captors improvised sleeping places on deck, above the hatches covering the floating prison. To protect themselves against the cold and wind, they used small cubicles which, because of their uncomfortable constricted space, were soon nicknamed doghouses.
#
"Doll",608,0,0,0
Toys seem to belong so exclusively to a child's world as to be far removed from religious matters. And yet, this is not the case. If taken apart, as many youngsters love doing - but this time etymologically - a doll will reveal the very presence of God.
That \IDorothy\i is a divine name is obvious to those acquainted with elementary Greek. The name plainly tells (in that classic tongue) that one bearing it is "the gift of God." \I(Theodore\i is the male equivalent.) However little it may be apparent, the word \Idoll\i shares their origin and meaning.
Early in the sixteenth century, Dorothy became a fashionable name in Britain, to remain so for almost 200 years. Its popularity led people to shorten it to \IDolly\i or \IDoll.\i It was not surprising that eventually children's playthings were also called by this well-liked name. The first documented instance is found as early as 1700.
Thus, not only in the eyes of the children who receive them, but also in name, these toys are truly a "gift of God."
#
"Dollar",609,0,0,0
Tracing the dollar to its original source, the name paid homage to a saint, Joachim, the father of the virgin Mary. That is where all dollars come from.
A small mining town in \JBohemia\j (later to become part of \JCzechoslovakia\j) was called in honor of the saint. As it was situated in a valley or dale, the German \IThal\i or \ITal,\i its name became \ISankt\i (Saint) \IJoachim's Thal,\i eventually contracted into one word, Joachimsthal.
The Counts of Schlick owned the town, as part of their vast estate, and with it, a rich silver mine. From the silver extracted, they struck their own (one-ounce) coins, first in 1519. They embossed on them the image of St Joachim. Soon the coin became popularly known by its place of birth, in German, as Joachim's Thaler. This was too long a name. Thus people dropped the saint and all that was left was the reference to the valley or dale, the Thaler. This was pronounced in Low German, Dutch and Danish as Dahler, eventually to change on English tongues into the dollar.
#
"Dollar Symbol ($)",610,0,0,0
The dollar symbol, as known today, originated in the United States. It is derived from the Spanish dollar sign. To avoid any confusion between the two, it was slightly modified and Americanized. The way this was done is told in different versions.
When President Jefferson adopted the Spanish unit as American currency, this was generally known as a "piece of eight," because it was valued at eight Spanish Reals. What now looks like an "S" actually was a disfigured "8," it is claimed, and to differentiate it from the "S" on the Spanish prototype, two vertical lines were put through the figure. To make them more meaningful, they were said to portray the two pillars of Hercules.
Another claim stresses that the pillars of Hercules, separating the \JAtlantic Ocean\j from the \JMediterranean Sea\j, had already been part of the Spanish coin. They had been stylized by the Americans who reduced them to two vertical lines representing a fragmented "U." A ribbon that used to entwine the pillars and originally ran from the upper left to the lower right, was reversed to look like an "S," thereby incorporating in the new symbol the U.S. of the United States. With this adaptation, the U.S. Congress officially adopted the Spanish dollar as American currency on 6 July 1785.
Yet a third version asserts that, in the Spanish model, a "P" (for Peso) was combined with the "8." Later on, the letter was omitted to leave only the figure between two sloping lines. The two strokes eventually were transferred on to the "8" which by careless writing came to look very much like an "S," so that, to the imaginative, patriotic American, the symbol appeared like the letters "U.S." interwoven.
#
"Don't Give a Jot",611,0,0,0
Those who just could not care less may express their contemptuous lack of concern by saying that they "don't give a jot." They might not realize that the phrase derives from the \JBible\j. In the \JHebrew\j alphabet, the letter \Ijot\i is conspicuous (!) for its tiny size. Like a small hook or comma, it hangs down from the upper line. The jot thus came to typify something trifling and diminutive.
The Gospels tell (Matth. 5.18) how Jesus, when discussing his attitude towards Jewish tradition, emphasized that he had not come to destroy it. On the contrary, he assured his listeners that not "one jot or one tittle" of it would pass away.
Jesus - like all Jews at the time - spoke \JAramaic\j, and most likely used an \JAramaic\j transcript of the \JHebrew\j \JBible\j in which, as in the closely related \JHebrew\j, the letter jot was the smallest of all characters and could easily serve as a figure of speech for anything that was minute.
#
"Donkey's Years",612,0,0,0
For things to last "for donkey's years" is obviously a misunderstanding. Donkeys, after all, do not live all that long. However, they are distinguished by their extra long ears which were stretched into donkey's years. As if to add insult to injury it was all due to being misheard.
#
"Door Knocker",613,0,0,0
A knocker on a door seems such an innocuous object used for a caller to gain entry. However, its introduction and early use had an additional and significant magical function. The magic (of its) sound was meant to dispel all evil forces lurking around the door, to prevent them from entering with the caller.
Even the devil and all those serving him, it was believed, have a chink in their armor. Loud noise scared them off.
#
"Dot on the 'i'",614,0,0,0
A mere \Jmetaphor\j now, to be meticulous and exact, people are reminded to "dot the i's (and cross the t's)." Originally, however, the saying was taken very literally. The dot was added only later on, around the eleventh century, and for a pertinent reason.
In early \Jcalligraphy\j, two i's following each other in a text could easily be confused with the letter "u." To avoid such error, scribes felt the need to identify the letter so distinctly that it became unmistakable. For this purpose, they crowned it with a dot!
Etymologically, the dot itself has an intriguing past. Prior to topping the letter "i," the dot referred to the head of a boil and a nipple.
#
"Double Dutch",615,0,0,0
The English, loathing the Dutch for many centuries as dangerous rivals, certainly made no effort to speak or understand their language. If Dutch therefore was unintelligible to them, "double Dutch" was so in the extreme. Totally beyond their comprehension, it was gibberish. That the English created the term to use it for anything that did not make sense was intentionally done, further to insult the Dutch and to show their contempt for them.
The slander did not escape the Dutch. Cleverly they outwitted the English. As they could not alter the English vocabulary and remove the obnoxious idiom, they did the next best thing. They ordered all officials to discontinue altogether the use of the word Dutch and to replace it with "Netherland."
#
"Double Talk",616,0,0,0
Some people repeat themselves, saying things all over again, though they might do so with different words. We decry such repetition as a waste of time and as boring. We do not realize that, frequently and without knowing it, we ourselves commit the same offense. It has become an integral part of ordinary speech, technically known as tautology, from the Greek \Itauto\i for "the same" and \Ilogo\i for "saying."
The phenomenon has a valid reason. Language, like everything that lives, changes. Words and expressions that once were part of everyday speech, age and become obsolete. However, instead of replacing the archaic term with its modern \Jsynonym\j, possibly introduced from abroad, language adds the one to the other, thereby duplicating whatever is said. Numerous examples can be found in almost every aspect of life.
#
"Double-cross",617,0,0,0
Religious relics used to be so highly treasured and venerated that monasteries and churches vied with each other to obtain them.
Most prized were splinters believed to come from the cross of Christ. (To touch the wood, indeed, was considered lucky, which belief explains the well-known \Jsuperstition\j and phrase.) Rogues soon took advantage of the demand to bring on to the religious market worthless pieces of wood which, they alleged, were such sacred relics.
The malpractice became so widespread that, in the slang of thieves, "to give the cross" came to mean "to deceive a person by engaging in a dishonest deal." Though it is said that there is honor among thieves, it nevertheless happened that these fellows were not above cheating each other. So they "double-crossed."
Fragments of Christ's cross are no longer offered for sale, even fraudulently. However, they survive whenever someone betrays you. He double-crosses you.
#
"Doughnuts",618,0,0,0
Doughnuts are so called because originally they were fried sweetened dough, in the shape of solid balls, called nuts.
Though now typically American, they were introduced by the Pilgrim Fathers who had acquired a liking for them during their stay in the Netherlands on their way to New England. They picked up the recipe, as it were, from the Dutch who, frying the dough in hog's fat, referred to the pastry as "oily cakes."
The modern doughnut is ring-shaped. Wits suggest that the best recipe for making a doughnut was to take a hole and surround it with dough!
Hanson Crocket Gregory, a 15-year-old American youth, is credited with inventing it in 1847. He lived at Rockport in the state of Maine. Although he very much enjoyed eating his mother's fried round pastries, he had one complaint. While they were crisp on the outside, their centers were always soggy.
Speaking to his mother about it, she explained to him that she was well aware of it, but that it was not her fault. In fact, to overcome the problem, several times she had kept the cakes longer on the fire - with the result that they were burned. Hanson accepted her answer, but did not take it as final. He felt that there had to be a solution and, ingeniously, he found it in the simplest possible way. Using a knife, he removed the center of the round pastry before his mother fried it. This gave it the novel shape of a ring which was neither burned nor soggy.
Making a hole in the story itself, as it were, is another version. This claims that Hanson Gregory was not a schoolboy, but a sea captain. He had invented the hole in the doughnut for a practical reason. He realized that a helmsman, whilst on duty for long periods then, must get hungry. He needed some refreshment, which a cake or bun could well provide. However, there was the problem of how to keep these within easy reach and ready for the eating without interfering with his task. It was so simple, Gregory found. By making a hole in the cakes, they could easily be slipped on the spokes of the wheel from which the helmsman could serve himself whenever he felt hungry and could do so without leaving his post.
There is even a tradition that an American Indian was responsible for the hole. Watching one of the Pilgrim women frying the traditional (Dutch) cakes, he shot an arrow through it. Too late to reshape the half-cooked doughnut and too poor to dispose of it, she finished frying it. The hole left at its center made it all the more crisp and delicious. It caught people's fancy and made the hole a fixture in all the doughnuts cooked since.
#
"Doves on Gravestones",619,0,0,0
The Gospels tell (Matth 3, 16) that after Jesus' \Jbaptism\j the heavens opened for the \JHoly Spirit\j to descend, "in a body shaped like a dove." The dove, in Christian tradition came to represent the third person in the trinity, and as such it appears as a motif on tombstones. It is intended to convey the consoling message that the \JHoly Spirit\j was watching over the deceased.
Tenderness is said to be one of the dove's characteristics. Portrayed on a monument, a dove thus is also meant to recall the gentle nature of the departed and, if the bird is white, his or her purity in thought and in life.
Turtledoves, particularly, are renowned for their affection and constancy in love (alluded to in the phrase "billing and cooing," used to describe lovers' amorous play). A turtledove depicted or sculpted on a stone commemorates conjugal loyalty and mutual trust.
Like all birds, the dove represented spirituality in its deepest sense. A winged creature effortlessly could rise to celestial heights, leaving behind the mundane world. A myth told that a dove carried the soul of the dead into heaven.
A dove with an olive branch in its beak betokens the end of life's struggle, with all its worries and anxieties. It brings the good tidings of a new and secure existence in the shelter of God.
The \Jsymbolism\j is based on the biblical story of the Flood. After the horrendous catastrophe, Noah and his family, the only human survivors, were anxiously waiting in the Ark for the waters to subside, to be able to disembark and start a new life on earth. To ascertain how far the waters had receded, Noah cleverly made use of birds. When, at his third attempt, a dove returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak, Noah realized that at long last the waters had subsided sufficiently for vegetation to reappear, and God had made peace with man.
The dove with an olive branch thus became the symbol of a world at peace. Whenever shown on a headstone, it refers to the eternal peace now experienced by the soul of the departed.
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"Dowry",620,0,0,0
The dowry once brought into marriage by the bride-like the trousseau - goes back to the early days, when the groom's parents had to pay for their son's spouse. At least partially to compensate for the money spent for her purchase, she repaid, so to speak, in kind. Dowry, trousseau and bride price thus are closely related.
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"Draconian",621,0,0,0
To speak of anything as Draconian emphasizes its harshness. It is one of the many expressions called after an historic figure.
Draco was an Athenian legislator and the first to codify the laws of \JAthens\j (in 621 BC). The penalties he introduced were most severe. Draco showed little pity even for the most minor offenses. Relieving oneself in public was thus regarded a grievous misdemeanor and accordingly punished. Creditors were entitled to enslave a debtor who was unable to repay the money owed. On the mere suspicion of having committed \Jmanslaughter\j while abroad, a traveler was refused re-entry into the country until he had been cleared of the charges. In fact, the majority of crimes (which included the stealing of a head of cabbage) carried the death sentence.
No wonder that, traditionally, it was said that Draco had written his laws in blood - both metaphorically and literally. His name became synonymous with the merciless and ruthless execution of justice.
When challenged about why he had made his penalties so savage, he replied that it was his opinion that small offenses merited death, while he could think of no harsher penalty for greater crimes.
Nevertheless, to regard "Draconian law" merely as something negative is unfair. It ignores Draco's significant place in legal history. He has the credit to have been the first in \JGreece\j to abolish the practice of taking personal revenge, and to replace it with a strictly controlled system of objective justice, at least as it was understood in his day.
His legislation was not to last for long. Within 27 years, Solon, one of the "seven sages" of \JGreece\j, repealed Draco's entire code, with only one exception, the law dealing with \Jhomicide\j. In spite of it, "draconian" as a description of anything "cruel" and "severe" has survived to the present day.
#
"Dragon Boat Festival",622,0,0,0
The Dragon Boat Festival is the biggest summer event in the Chinese calendar. It is celebrated by boat races. The boats, painted in bright red, are decorated at their prow with a dragon's head, which explains the name of the festival.
A tragic incident in the third century BC. is said to have been responsible for the introduction of the festival. In 285 BC. Chu Yuan, a member of a noble family and a great poet and patriot of the Chu dynasty, roused his king's anger by fearlessly denouncing him for his injustice and corruption. As a punishment, he was exiled to Hunan.
As the years passed he longed more and more for his home and loved ones. Utterly depressed, he decided to end his life. On the fifth day of the fifth moon in 278 BC, he threw himself into the Milo River. Fishermen who witnessed his suicide attempt immediately tried to save him from drowning or being devoured by man-eating fish that infested the waters. They raced their boats towards him and, to divert the fish from the drowning man, tossed bits of food to them. However, they did not succeed.
Their vain attempts are re-enacted annually by the dragon boat races and the throwing of rice into the water. Yet another feature of the festival now so far removed from the harrowing event is the eating of rice dumplings!
Because it is held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month - supposedly the anniversary of Chu Yuan's death - the day is also known as the "Double Five Festival."
#
"Drama and Greek Religion",623,0,0,0
Drama as entertainment emerged from religious ritual and its dramatization. It was an integral part of early \JGreek religion\j, dedicated to a deity. It grew out of the worship of Dionysus, the god of wine, and was performed at the festival celebrated in his honor. Those attending were therefore filled with awe. They came, not to be entertained, but to be uplifted - to be inspired and "possessed" by the divine spirit.
#
"Draw the Line",624,0,0,0
People may tolerate certain behavior and permit things to happen - up to a point. But then they refuse to go any further. That is when they "draw the line."
At first thought, it might be imagined that the line employed in the figure of speech referred to a rope stretched across to stop anyone from going beyond it. However, the phrase, taken very literally, might speak of a geometrical line. Drawn on the ground, it indicated a limit in a game, a sport or a fight. Opinions differ as from which of these the phrase was first derived.
Chief contender is tennis. A line drawn on either side of the improvised court indicated how far the ball could be hit before it was "out." Boxing also has been cited. A line scratched in the sand of the boxing ring showed the limit to which a contestant could advance.
Totally different is yet a third suggestion. It traces this idiomatic line to medieval peasants' fields. Cut by ploughshares, it clearly designated the boundary of their property, beyond which they were not allowed to harvest.
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"Dressed (Up) to the Nines",625,0,0,0
Anyone clothed very elegantly is colloquially "dressed (up) to the nines." The choice of the number has been related to the significant part it has played in \Jmythology\j, \Jmysticism\j, and reckoning. In the traditional scale of values, rising from one to ten, nine was closest to perfection. Hence, those dressed up to the nines had almost reached it.
In classical times, it was believed that the world of art, literature, and science was controlled by the nine \Jmuses\j. Their number represented the total sum of everything that attracted and inspired the mind, just as would a person conspicuous by the smartness of dress.
Nine was three times three, the figure Pythagoras had already regarded as "the perfect number." Therefore it trebled its supreme value.
Ninepins once was a popular pastime. Those spending an evening out playing the game were said to have gone "to the nines." Properly dressed for the occasion, they were "dressed (up) to the nines."
Many of these explanations, obviously, are far-fetched. No wonder doubts have been raised regarding the use of the nine altogether and it is thought that it might not be part of the phrase in any figurative sense at all. What now appears as a "nine" is the remnant of an Old English word, misunderstood and, subsequently, wrongly divided.
People exquisitely attired were said to be dressed "up to the eyes." Their smartness extended all over, from the feet up to their very eyes. "To the eyes" in Old English was to then eyne. When grammar and words changed, it was no longer realized that eyne was the plural of an eye. This led people to make the wrong connection, linking the final "n" of the preceding and by then obsolete article "then" to the archaic eyes, in "the nines."
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"Dressing Down",626,0,0,0
To put someone in their place by giving them a "dressing down" has nothing to do with clothes. It might merely perpetuate the once common use of the word "dressing" for the "scolding" of a person, setting them right. Equally possible is the crossover of the term from the meat trade. A butcher is said to "dress down" a carcass when cutting it up. And whoever is being given a severe reprimand (a "dressing down"), metaphorically, is cut into pieces.
Probably though, the figure of speech is not a survival of outdated English nor borrowed from butcher's terminology, but comes from the early mining of ore. When rock containing the metal had been dug out of the ground, prior to being crushed in the mill or going to the smelter, it was broken up into small pieces, a process termed "dressing down." Anyone being severely told off must have felt crushed or broken up - as were those pieces.
#
"Drink Like a Fish",627,0,0,0
To say of anyone intemperate that he drinks like a fish, is based on an optical illusion. In fact, if taken literally, it would mean that he is drinking very little indeed. Because fish appear to be constantly swallowing water, it only seems that they are drinking it. In reality, the water never enters their \Jstomach\j. It passes through their gills which extract from it necessary oxygen. Any liquid the fish require is absorbed from their food.
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"Drinking Customs",628,0,0,0
Of the "isms" that threaten the world, one of the most dangerous is \Jalcoholism\j. Yet spirits, ever since their first appearance, have not only haunted man but helped him to relax, to rejoice and to instill good will. Drink makes some people jolly and others depressed. It can sharpen the appetite, help digestion, or act as a tranquilizer.
Drink has been used from earliest times as part of communion with gods. Alcohol is mentioned in the \JBible\j 165 times and, it is well to note, in most cases favorably. Wine was served at the Last Supper. Indeed, the ancient Hebrews used to bless and thank God for having created the fruit of the vine. On the other hand, some ancients and moderns have decried it as the worst of all evils, a gift of the Devil.
Alcohol is one of the most volatile spirits that have roused human passions. In America, bootleggers fought the police and prohibitionists fought governments. The teetotaller fought himself. Scots and Irish still fight each other if, for nothing else, for the credit of having invented whisky, whose name derives from \JGaelic\j, meaning so aptly "the water of life." Rum used to be called the motive power of the British navy, but in \JAustralia\j it became the earliest currency.
Whether drink is good or evil is a matter of degree. It has been pointed out rightly that first the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, and finally the drink takes the man.
A legend relates that when God created the first grapes, He was assisted by three members of the animal kingdom, the lion, the ape, and the pig - who, each in turn, sprinkled some of their own spirit on the young plant. That is why, up to the present day, anyone who drinks just a little grows in strength like a lion; he who imbibes several glasses starts resembling strongly his simian ancestor; and he who does not know when to stop, eventually lies under the table like a pig.
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"Driving on the Right and Left Sides",629,0,0,0
In the early days traffic was sporadic. Although roads, if they existed at all, were narrow, no one had to worry about colliding with a rider or vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. Traffic rules then dealt only with specific situations. These included the breaking down of a loaded wagon; the procedure to be followed when a faster vehicle wanted to overtake a slower one; and which of two vehicles traveling in opposite directions had to give way by drawing up by the roadside.
In some parts of the world traffic laws reflected the class-consciousness of the time. The number of horses permitted to pull a person's carriage was determined by his social standing. A mere count of the horses thus would reveal the importance of their owner and with it, who had the "right" of the road. The practice certainly anticipated the modern \Jcult\j of high-powered cars with a maximum of horse(!)-power as a status symbol.
\IChoosing Sides\i
Once traffic had become relatively heavy, moving almost continually both ways, to avoid accidents and, not least, head-on collisions, its flow had to be controlled. The obvious thing to do was to widen the roads and then to legislate that traffic had to keep to one definite side for each direction. The question now was to which one.
It is a rather intriguing, if not puzzling fact that to this day countries are divided into two groups: those who keep to the left and those who prefer the right. Certainly this choice of the right or the left does not reflect the politics of a nation. It was the result of a combination of many factors: practical considerations; man's innate wish to do things the easy way; national and religious antagonism; exigencies of war; plain logic and road safety of a particular kind.
\IThe English Left\i
The English and those who follow their example such as \JAustralia\j, \JNew Zealand\j, \JJapan\j and \JThailand\j keep to the left. Their persistence, there is no doubt, is due not least to English \Jconservatism\j. They preserve regulations which, when introduced, made good sense, though their motivation has long become redundant.
It all goes back to the days when the horse dominated the road. For thousands of years it served man as his only means of fast transport. Riders everywhere mount a horse from the left. It was the natural way for a right-handed man to grasp its mane and the reins with his left hand and then to swing his right leg across. Therefore it became a universal practice.
This was the first step along the road. The next followed almost inevitably. By mounting his horse from the left side, a rider would naturally keep to that side of the road. That is how the horse first "pointed the way" and taught man how to travel. Accordingly, special mounting posts provided for riders on early English roads were always on the left. The introduction of the coach did not change matters. In fact, it reinforced the rule of the left.
\ILashing the Whip\i
Good horses certainly made good miles. At times they needed some prodding. As mere vocal exhortation proved insufficient, coachmen and postillions used a whip. But to do so they needed ample room. Heavy transports and some of the carriages were pulled by several teams of horses. To reach those in front, the driver had to have still more freedom of movement for his whip.
Thus it was really the whip that drove man to keep to the left. Urban and rural conditions, in their separate ways, underscored the selection. If coachmen had been driving on the right of the narrow city streets, the walls of houses would have impeded the use of the whip.
Worse still, they could easily have hit and injured pedestrians on that side of the road. On country lanes, the whip would have been caught in the hedges and trees flanking them. The adoption of left-hand travel was the logical choice, and for many years it remained the universal European custom.
The earliest known official "keep left" regulation was issued in 1756 for vehicles crossing \JLondon Bridge\j. Scotland was the first country - in 1772 - to make left-hand travel a national law, applying to all city traffic. (Offenders were fined 20 shillings - $2 - a substantial amount then.) England and Wales followed suit in 1835.
Coaches and traffic could thus run as smoothly as could be expected at the time. An apparent contradiction did not go unobserved. Henry Erskine put it in rhyme, when he wrote:
\I"The rule of the road is a paradox quite,
Both in riding and driving along;
If you keep to the left, you are sure to be right.
If you keep to the right, you are wrong."\i
\IGoing to the Right\i
Views still differ why this general and practical rule of the road was altered, leading to the present world confusion between the right and the left - traffic - wise.
One theory credits warfare for the change in sides. Traditionally, a battle was started by an attack on the enemy forces from the left. For this purpose the troops advanced along that side of the road. But Napoleon shrewdly reversed the sides. He foresaw that the enemy army trained in the standard way would thus be completely taken by surprise. Unable quickly to switch, from the outset of battle they would be at a great disadvantage.
His new strategy of launching attacks from the right necessitated that his marching columns should proceed to their battle stations on that side of the road as well and therefore no longer from the left. Napoleon carried his new "order of march" wherever he went in his conquest of Europe. Inevitably, all other traffic had to adjust itself to his way.
This military explanation of right-hand driving is greatly supported by the fact that two countries Napoleon did not reach - Britain and Sweden - kept to the left. (Sweden switched to the right in 1967.)
\IReligious Antagonism\i
Another theory attributes the reversal of sides to religious antagonism. For centuries, Papal authority felt that the well-being of the entire man and not merely his soul was its responsibility. Thus it regulated everyday life over the vast area of Catholic Europe and road-safety was part of the Pope's concern. He made it mandatory for all traffic to move along the left side of the road.
Robespierre, the French revolutionary and atheist, was determined to break the power of the Church and \JRome\j. He set out to display the new freedom and independence from the Church and the Pope who represented it, wherever he could. For no reason other than to be contrary and to show his contempt, he reversed the order of things. That is how, it is suggested, he abolished the Papal traffic law and made the French people change sides on the road. Later, with Robespierre gone, traffic in \JFrance\j continued to move in the new direction. It became the state law in 1835, the same year in which England legislated for the "left." When it became fashionable to copy all that was French, many other countries adopted their rule of the road as well!
\IThe American Way\i
Americans chose the right side. Some have wondered why. After all, America is a former British colony. It was certainly not done as a gesture of defiance or expression of independence, nor in imitation of the French. The most likely reason is linked to the postillion who usually was in charge of the many horses necessary to pull large transports. To have maximum control over them, he had to be mounted on the left horse in the rear. There he could freely lash out with his whip and was able to reach each of the horses without much difficulty. Thus mounted, his left leg was slightly sticking out, easily to be caught by a tree or hedge or even to be squashed by a wall, if he kept on the left side of the road. (At the time sidewalks for pedestrians, which could have acted as a buffer zone, did not exist.) And so, for the protection of the postillion, traffic in America kept to the right.
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"Drop a Clanger",630,0,0,0
A clang is a resounding noise, like that made by a struck bell. To "drop a clanger" is to say something so embarrassing or to blunder so badly that it cannot go unnoticed. As it were, it reverberates in people's mind like - in modern parlance - a \Jsonic boom\j.
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"Drowned Crossing the Bar",631,0,0,0
For a boat to cross a bar (a ridge of accumulated sand and mud across the mouth of a river or harbor) has often proved a dangerous, if not fatal, operation. Three victims are buried together in a lonely grave in a paddock not far from an oyster lease on the shores of the small port of Laurieton, just outside Dunbogen.
Their tragic fate is recalled on the memorial erected on their joint resting place, of which the inscription mentions merely the name of one:
\IJAMES STUART
Chief Engineer of the Prince of Wales
And two seamen of the Diamantina.
Who were drowned from a boat
In crossing the bar in 1862
R.I.P.\i
Another memorial next to the seamen's burial place on this isolated spot is totally unrelated to them and their fate. It covers the remains of a Mrs Francis Williams "who departed this life 26 January 1868," at the early age of 27. The choice of her gravesite is not, as many have assumed, because she drowned; in fact, she died in childbirth. But as the area was flooded at the time, her body could not be taken to the cemetery at Laurieton, so she was buried next to the sailors.
Two wooden crosses set in concrete now mark the graves, which are also surrounded by broken iron railings. The crosses, obviously, are not the original ones, which time and weather had eroded, but replacements, put up by local citizens, concerned to see the graves preserved.
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"Druidic Survivals and Legacies",632,0,0,0
Numerous examples can be quoted from almost every sphere of life of the survival of Druidic thought and practice.
Many of the later witches may have been "defrocked" Druidic priestesses. In those far-off days, Druid women had their own rights and - as distinct from other cultures and religions of that time - had an acknowledged place in the pattern of society. They not only participated but, like the men, led the religious \Jcult\j - they acted as priestesses. But when the Druids' faith was eventually outlawed and suppressed by the Christian Church, those Druidesses might well have continued their duties but, under new management, as it were, in the profession of a witch; they thus made a lasting contribution in the field of the occult.
It cannot be by mere accident either that \IWalpurgisnacht,\i Lammas, \JHallowe'en\j, and Candlemas - the four great Sabbats of the witches - coincide with the four great annual feasts of the Druids.
\IThe Tonsure\i
Druid priests shaved part of the hair of their head. It was a peculiar custom which led J. Rhys to suggest that the Catholic priest's \Jtonsure\j was actually also "a Druidic survival."
\I"Touch Wood"\i
If people "touch wood" for luck, it is a modern \Jsuperstition\j that also might well go back to the Druids' ancient worship of trees. They touched (or knocked on) the wood of the oak, to summon its spirit for help, to pay homage to it, and to ensure their own good fortune.
\IThe Star of David\i
Some authorities have claimed that even the so-called \JStar of David\j was originally a Druidic magic seal. This hexagram, they said, was first employed by those Celtic priests in their \Jsupernatural\j rites.
Only later ignorance and the erroneous rendering of its name came to link "the star" with King David. In reality, it should be called - as the earliest spelling is said to have been - the Star of the Druid. And in \JHebrew\j lettering, in fact, this would imply a minute change in just one letter by lengthening its upper bar and rounding its corner. This would make the "V" (the \JHebrew\j \Ivav)\i of David into the "R" (the \JHebrew\j \Iresh)\i of Druid and it must be remembered that early \JHebrew\j was written without vocalization, using consonants only.
\IKissing Under the Mistletoe\i
To kiss under the \Jmistletoe\j is a welcome custom at Christmas time which few people would ever realize is derived as well from the ancient Druids. Its original purpose was not just to steal a kiss and do so "duly authorized" by an established tradition. On the contrary, it is a relic of the Druidic belief in the fertility-promoting qualities of this divine "golden bough," which they might have looked upon as the oak's genitalia.
The \Jmistletoe\j, a \Jparasitic plant\j, grows in bunches entangled with branches of the (holy) oak, so by mere association it was made sacred too. Its seed had been carried there by birds. The magic potency of the branch, according to the Druids' belief, extended far beyond the realm of fecundity. Thought to cure almost any disease, the \Jmistletoe\j frequently was referred to by the name "all-he
