The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 30

_Skeletons at Feasts._

In old times the guests at an Egyptian feast, when they grew hilarious, were called back to sober propriety by the exhibition of a little skeleton, and the admonition to reflect upon the lesson it conveyed.

_Hair Cutting in Russia._

Among the lower cla.s.ses in Russia, the barber, a primitive artist, claps an earthen pot over the head and ears, and trims off whatever hair protrudes from the pot.

_Antiquity of Tarring and Feathering._

Tarring and feathering, it seems, is an European invention. One of Richard Cur de Leon's ordinances for seamen was, "that if any man were taken with theft and pickery, and thereof convicted, he should have his head polled, and hot pitch poured upon his pate, and upon that the feathers of some pillow or cus.h.i.+on shaken aloft, that he might thereby be known as a thief, and at the next arrival of the s.h.i.+ps to any land be put forth of the company to seek his adventures without all hope of return unto his fellows."-_Holinshed_.

_Grinning for a Wager._

In 1796, at Hendon, England, on Whit-Tuesday, a burlesque imitation of the Olympic Games was held. One prize was a gold-laced hat, to be grinned for by six candidates, who were placed on a platform with horse-collars to exhibit through. Over their heads was printed in capitals-

Detur Tetriori; or, The ugliest grinner Shall be the winner.

Each party grinned five minutes _solus_, and then all united in a grand _chorus_ of distortion. The prize was carried off by a porter to a _vinegar_ merchant, though he was accused by his compet.i.tors of foul play for rinsing his mouth with _verjuice_.

_Eating for a Wager._

The hand-bill, of which the subjoined is a copy, was circulated by the keeper of the public house at which the gluttony was to happen, as an attraction for all the neighborhood to witness-

"_Bromley in Kent_, July 14th, 1726.-A strange eating worthy is to perform a Tryal of Skill on St. James's Day, which is the day of our _Fair_, for a wager of Five Guineas, viz: he is to eat four pounds of bacon, a bushel of French beans, with two pounds of b.u.t.ter, a quartern loaf, and to drink a gallon of strong beer."

_Curious Wagers._

Mr. Whalley, an Irish gentleman, for a wager of twenty thousand pounds, set out on Monday, the 22d of September, 1788, to walk to Constantinople and back in one year. Some years ago Sir Henry Liddel, a rich baronet, laid a considerable wager that he would go to Lapland, bring home two females of that country, and two reindeer, in a given time. He performed the journey, and effected his purpose in every respect. The Lapland women lived with him about a year, but, desiring to go back to their own country, the baronet furnished them with the means.

_The Jumping Jack._

This toy is of quite antiquated parentage. In the tombs of ancient Egypt figures have been found whose limbs were made movable, for the delight of children, before Moses was born.

_Love-handkerchiefs._

At one time it was the custom in England to present love-handkerchiefs.

They were not more than three or four inches square, wrought with embroidery, a ta.s.sel at each corner and a small b.u.t.ton in the centre.

The finest of these favors were edged with narrow gold lace or twist, and then, being folded up in four cross-folds, so that the middle might be seen, they were worn by the accepted lovers in their hats or on the breast. These tokens of love became at last so much in vogue that they were sold ready-made in the shops in Elizabeth's time at from sixpence to sixteen-pence apiece. Tokens were also given by the gentlemen, and accepted by the ladies, as is indicated in an old comedy of the time-

"Given earrings we will wear, Bracelets of our lover's hair; Which they on our arms shall twist, (With our names carved) on our wrists."

_Umbrellas._

Umbrellas are an older invention than some writers would have us suppose. Even the usually entertained notion that Jonas Hanway introduced the umbrella into England, in the year 1752, is proved to be false by evidence that can be cited. Ben Jonson refers to it by name in a comedy produced in 1616; and so do Beaumont and Fletcher in "Rule a Wife and Have a Wife." Swift, in the "Tatler" of October 17th, 1710, says, in "The City Shower"-

"The tucked-up seamstress walks with hasty strides, While streams run down her oiled umbrella's sides."

The following couplet also occurs in a poem written by Gay in 1712-

"Housewives underneath th' umbrella's oily shed Safe through the wet in clinking pattens tread."

It is probable that Hanway was the first _man_ seen carrying an umbrella in London.

At Persepolis, in Persia, are some sculptures supposed to be as old as the time of Alexander the Great, and on one of these is represented a chief or king, over whose head some servants are holding an umbrella. At Takht-i-Bostan are other sculptures, one of which is a king witnessing a boar hunt attended by an umbrella-bearer. Recent discoveries at Nineveh show that the umbrella was in use there, it being common to the sculpturings, but always represented open. The same is to be seen upon the celebrated Hamilton vases preserved in the British Museum. In many Chinese drawings ladies are attended by servants holding umbrellas over their heads.

Loubere, who went to Siam as envoy from the king of France, describes the use of umbrellas as being governed by curious regulations. Those umbrellas resembling ours are used princ.i.p.ally by the officers of state; while those several tiers in height, as if two or more umbrellas were fixed on one stick, are reserved for the king alone. In Ava, a country adjacent to Siam, the king designates himself, among other t.i.tles, as "Lord of the Ebbing and Flowing Tide, King of the White Elephant, and Lord of the Twenty-four Umbrellas." This last t.i.tle, although ridiculous to us, is supposed to relate to twenty-four states or provinces combined under the rule of the king, the umbrella being especially a royal emblem in Ava. The umbrella is also the distinguis.h.i.+ng sign of sovereignty in Morocco.

_Fas.h.i.+onable Disfigurement._

The custom of dotting the face with black patches, of different patterns, was introduced into England and France from Arabia, and was at its height during the reign of Charles I. The ladies, old and young, covered their faces with black spots shaped like suns, moons, stars, hearts, crosses and lozenges, and some even carried the mode to the extravagant extent of shapening the patches to represent a carriage and horses.

_Fine for Insulting a King._

The use of gold and silver was not unknown to the Welsh in 842, when their laws were collected. The man who dared to insult the king of Aberfraw was to pay (besides certain cows and a silver rod) a cup which would hold as much wine as his majesty could swallow at a draught. It was to be made of gold; its cover was to be as broad as the king's face, and the whole as thick as a goose's egg or a ploughman's thumbnail.

_True-Lovers' Knots._

Among the ancient Northern nations a knot was the symbol of indissoluble love, faith and friends.h.i.+p. Hence the ancient runic inscriptions are in the form of a knot, and hence, among the Northern English and Scots, who still retain, in a great measure, the language and manners of the ancient Danes, that curious kind of knot exists which is a mutual present between the lover and his mistress, and which, being considered as the emblem of plighted fidelity, is therefore called "a true-love knot." The name is not derived, however, as would be naturally supposed, from the words "true" and "love," but is formed from the Danish verb "trulofa," _fidem do_, I plight my troth or faith. In Davidson's "Poetical Rhapsody," published in 1611, the following is the opening verse of a poem ent.i.tled "The True-Love's Knot"-

"Love is the linke, the knot, the band of unity, And all that love do love with their beloved to be; Love only did decree To change this kind in me."

_Hundred Families' Lock._

A common Chinese talisman is the "hundred families' lock," to procure which a father goes round among his friends, and, having obtained from an hundred different parties a few of the copper coins of the country, he himself adds the balance to purchase an ornament or appendage fas.h.i.+oned like a lock, which he hangs on his child's neck for the purpose of figuratively locking him to life and causing the hundred persons to be concerned in his attaining old age.

_The King's c.o.c.k-crower._

A singular custom of matchless absurdity formerly existed in the English court. During Lent an ancient officer of the crown, called the King's c.o.c.k-crower, crowed the hour each night within the precincts of the palace. On Ash Wednesday, after the accession of the House of Hanover, as the Prince of Wales (afterwards George II.) sat down to supper, this officer abruptly entered the apartment, and in a sound resembling the shrill pipe of a c.o.c.k, crowed past ten o'clock. The astonished prince, at first conceiving it to be a premeditated insult, rose to resent the affront, but upon the nature of the ceremony being explained to him, he was satisfied.

_Mourning Robes._

Under the empire male Romans wore black, and Roman women wore white mourning. In Turkey, at the present day, it is violet; in China, white; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia, brown; in Europe and America, black; it was white in Spain until the year 1498. The mourning worn by sovereigns and their families is purple.