The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 26

_Crinoline in 1744._

Addison, who wrote a good deal about female fashions in the "Spectator,"

very much ridiculed the hoop-petticoat, which was so large, about the year 1744, that a woman wearing one occupied the s.p.a.ce of six men.

_PaG.o.da-shaped Head-dresses._

The head-dresses of the ladies in 1776 were remarkable for their enormous height. Fashion ruled its votaries then as arbitrarily as in our day. The _coiffure_ of a belle of fashion was described as "a mountain of wool, hair, powder, lawn, muslin, net, lace, gauze, ribbon, flowers, feathers and wire." Sometimes these varied materials were built up tier upon tier, like the stages of a paG.o.da!

_Preserved in Salt._

We are told that Pharnaces caused the body of his father, Mithridates, to be deposited in salt brine, in order that he might transmit it to Pompey. Sigebert, who died in 1113, informs us that a like process was employed upon the body of St. Guibert, that it might be kept during a journey in summer. The priests preserved in salt the sow which afforded a happy omen to aeneas by having brought forth a litter of thirty pigs, as we are told by Varro, in whose time the animal was still shown at Lavinium. The hippopotamus described by Columna was sent to him from Egypt preserved in salt.

_Luxury in 1562._

The luxury of the present time does not equal, in one article at least, that of the sixteenth century. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, the queen's amba.s.sador at Paris, in a letter to Sir Thomas Chaloner, the amba.s.sador at Madrid, in June 1562, says-

"I pray you good my Lord Amba.s.sador sende me two paire of perfumed gloves, perfumed with orrange flowers and jacemin, th' one for my wives hand, the other for mine owne; and wherin soever I can pleasure you with anything in this countrey, you shall have it in recompence thereof, or els so moche money as they shall coste you, provided alwaies that they be of the best choise, wherin your judgment is inferior to none."

_Trains in the Fourteenth Century._

In Mr. Wright's collection of Latin stories, there is one of the fourteenth century-a monkish satire upon dresses with long trains-

_Of a Proud Woman._-I have heard of a proud woman who wore a white dress with a long train, which, trailing behind her, raised a dust as far as the altar and the crucifix. But, as she left the church, and lifted up her train on account of the dirt, a certain holy man saw a devil laughing; and having adjured him to tell why he laughed, the devil said: "A companion of mine was just now sitting on the train of that woman, using it as if it were his chariot, but when she lifted her train up, my companion was shaken off into the dirt, and that is why I was laughing."

_Foppery in Eminent Men._

Peculiarities of dress, even amounting to foppery, so common among eminent men, are carried off from ridicule by ease in some or stateliness in others. We may smile at Chatham, scrupulously crowned in his best wig, if intending to speak; at Erskine, drawing on his bright yellow gloves before he rose to plead; at Horace Walpole, in a cravat of Gibbon's carvings; at Raleigh, loading his shoes with jewels so heavy that he could scarcely walk; at Petrarch, pinching his feet till he crippled them; at the rings which covered the philosophical fingers of Aristotle; at the bare throat of Byron; the American dress of Rousseau; the scarlet and gold coat of Voltaire; or the prudent carefulness with which Caesar scratched his head so as not to disturb the locks arranged over the bald place. But most of these men, we apprehend, found it easy to enforce respect and curb impertinence.-_Edinburgh Review._

_The Turban in Arabia._

A fashionable Arab will wear fifteen caps one above the other, some of which are linen, but the greater part of which are thick cloth or cotton. That which covers the whole is richly embroidered with gold, and inwrought with texts or pa.s.sages from the Koran. Over all there is wrapped a sash or large piece of muslin, with the ends hanging down, and ornamented with silk or gold fringe. This useless enc.u.mbrance is considered a mark of respect towards superiors. It is also used, as the beard was formerly in Europe, to indicate literary merit; and those who affect to be thought men of learning, discover their pretensions by the size of their turbans. No part of oriental costume is so variable as this covering for the head. Niebuhr has given ill.u.s.trations of forty-eight different ways of wearing it.-_King._

_Queen Elizabeth's Dresses._

The list of the queen's wardrobe, in 1600, shows us that she had then _only_ 99 robes, 126 kirtles, 269 gowns (round, loose and French), 136 fore parts, 125 petticoats, 27 fans, 96 cloaks, 83 safe guards, 85 doublets, 18 lap mantles.

_Absurdities of the Toilet._

The ladies of j.a.pan gild their teeth; those of the Indies paint them red; while in Guzerat the test of beauty is to render them sable. In Greenland the women used to color their faces blue and yellow. The Chinese torture their feet into the smallest possible dimensions. The ancient Peruvians used to flatten their heads; among other nations, the mothers, in a similar way, maltreat the nose of their offspring.

_Gambling for Fingers._

Such is the pa.s.sion among the Chinese for gambling, that when they have lost all their money they will stake houses, lands, their wives, the clothes on their backs. Those who have nothing more to lose will collect around a table and actually play for _their fingers_, which they will cut off reciprocally with frightful stoicism.-_Hue's Chinese Empire._

_Pigmies._

"Among vulgar errors is set down this, that there is a nation of pigmies, not above two or three feet high, and that they solemnly set themselves in battle to fight against the cranes."-_Strabo._

"Strabo thought this a fiction; and our age, which has fully discovered all the wonders of the world, as fully declares it to be one."-_Brand._

This refers to accounts of the Pechinians of Ethiopia, who are represented of small stature, and as being accustomed every year to drive away the cranes which flocked to their country in the winter. They are portrayed on ancient gems as mounted on c.o.c.ks or partridges, to fight the cranes; or carrying gra.s.shoppers, and leaning on staves to support the burden.

_The Letter "M" and the Napoleons._

The "Frankforter Journal," of September 21st, 1870, remarked, that among other superst.i.tions peculiar to the Napoleons, is that of regarding the letter M as ominous, either of good or of evil, and it took the pains to make the following catalogue of men, things and events, the names of which begin with M, with the view of showing that the two emperors of France had cause for considering the letter a red or a black one, according to circ.u.mstances.

It says, "Marbuf was the first to recognize the genius of Napoleon I.

at the military college. Marengo was the first great battle won by General Bonaparte, and Melas made room for him in Italy. Mortier was one of his best generals, Moreau betrayed him, and Marat was the first martyr to his cause. Marie Louise shared his highest fortunes; Moscow was the abyss of ruin into which he fell. Metternich vanquished him in the field of diplomacy. Six marshals (Ma.s.sena, Mortie, Marmont, Macdonald, Murat, Moncey) and twenty-six generals of division under Napoleon I. had the letter M for their initial. Marat, Duke of Ba.s.sano, was his most trusted counsellor. His first battle was that of Montenotte; his last, Mont St. Jean, as the French term Waterloo. He won the battles of Millesimo, Mondovi, Montmirail and Montereau; then came the storming of Montmartre. Milan was the first enemy's capital, and Moscow the last, into which he entered victorious. He lost Egypt through Menou, and employed Miellis to take Pius VIII. prisoner. Mallet conspired against him; Murat was the first to desert him, then Marmont.

Three of his ministers were Maret, Montalivet and Mallieu; his first charmberlaind was Montesquien. His last halting place in France was Malmaison. He surrendered to Captain Maitland, and his companions at St.

Helena were Montholon and his valet Marchand."

If we turn to the career of his nephew, Napoleon III., we find the same letter no less prominent, and it is said that he attached even greater importance to its mystic influence than did his uncle.

_The Physician's Symbol._

De Paris tells us that the Physician of the present day continues to prefix to his prescriptions the letter R, which is generally supposed to mean _Recipe_, but which is, in truth, a relic of the astrological symbol of Jupiter, formerly used as a species of superst.i.tious invocation.

_Chinese Giants._

The Chinese pretend to have men among them so prodigious as fifteen feet high. Melchior Nunnez, in his letters from India, speaks of porters who guarded the gates of Pekin, who were of that immense height; and in a letter dated in 1555, he avers that the emperor of that country entertained and fed five hundred of such men for archers of his guard.

Hakewill, in his "Apologie," 1627, repeats this story. Purchas, in his "Pilgrimes," 1625, refers to a man in China who "was cloathed with a tyger's skin, the hayre outward, his arms, head and legges bare, with a rude pole in his hand; well-shaped, seeming ten palmes or spans long; his hayre hanging on his shoulders."

_Trying Land t.i.tles in Hindostan._

According to the "Asiatic Researches," a very curious mode of trying the t.i.tles of land is practised in Hindostan: Two holes are dug in the disputed spot, in each of which the lawyer for the plaintiff and the lawyer for the defendant put one of their legs, and remain there until one of them is tired or complains of being stung by the insects, in which case his client is defeated. In this country it is the _client_, and not the lawyer, who _puts his foot into it_.

_An Asylum for Dest.i.tute Cats._

Of all the curious charitable inst.i.tutions in the world, the most curious, probably, is the Cat Asylum at Aleppo, which is attached to one of the mosques there, and was founded by a misanthropic old Turk, who, being possessed of large granaries, was much annoyed by rats and mice, to rid himself of which he employed a legion of cats, who so effectually rendered him service, that in return he left them a sum in the Turkish funds, with strict injunctions that all dest.i.tute and sickly cats should be provided for till such time as they took themselves off again. In 1845, when a famine was raging in all North Syria, when scores of poor people were dropping down in the streets and dying there, from sheer exhaustion and want, men might daily be encountered carrying away sack loads of cats to be well fed on the proceeds of the last will and testament of that vagabond old Turk.

_Treasure Digging._

A patent pa.s.sed the great seal in the fifteenth year of James I. "to allow to Mary Middlemore, one of the maydes of honor to our dearest consort Queen Anne (of Denmark), and her deputies, power and authority to enter into the abbies of St. Albans, St. Edmunsbury, Gla.s.senbury and Ramsay, and into all lands, houses and places, within a mile belonging to said abbies, there to dig and search after treasure supposed to be hidden in such places."