The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 32

_Colors Most Frequently Hit in Battle._

It would appear, from numerous observations, that soldiers are hit during battle according to the color of their dress in the following order: Red is the most fatal color; Austrian gray is the least fatal.

The proportions are-red, twelve; rifle green, seven; brown, six; Austrian bluish-gray, five.

_Immense Value Placed upon Gems by the Ancients._

The immense value placed by the ancients on their gems can be estimated by the scabbard of Mithridates, valued at 400 talents, or 7,572; the pearl given by Julius Caesar to Servillia was worth 4,800; that swallowed by Cleopatra valued at 5,000; and the pearls and emeralds worn by Lollia Paulina, wife of Caligula, valued at 320,000.

_Candle Clock._

Alfred the Great noted the time by the gradual burning down of candles colored in rings. He had six tapers made, each twelve inches long, and each divided into twelve parts or inches. Three of these would burn for one hour, and the six tapers, lighted one after the other, would burn for twenty-four hours.

_Twins in Africa._

Among some of the tribes in Africa if two babies come to a family at the same time they think it a dreadful thing. n.o.body except the family can go into the hut where they were born, nor even use any of the things in it. The twins cannot play with other children, and the mother cannot talk to anyone outside of the family. This is kept up for six years. If the babies live to be six years old, the restrictions are removed, and they are treated like other children.

_Right and Left Hand._

Dr. Zinchinelli, of Padua, in an essay on the "Reasons why People use the Right Hand in preference to the Left," will not allow custom or imitation to be the cause. He affirms that the left arm cannot be in violent and continued motion without causing pain in the left side, because there is the seat of the heart and of the arterial system; and that, therefore, nature herself compels man to make use of the right hand.

_Earliest Traders._

The earliest record we have of nations trading with each other occurs in the Book of Genesis, when Joseph's brethren sold him to a caravan of Ishmaelites who were carrying spices, balm and myrrh into Egypt. The balm was from Gilead and the myrrh from Arabia. Thus commerce is of great antiquity.

_The First Hermits._

The first hermit was Paul, of Thebes, in Egypt, who lived about the year 260; the second was Anthony, also of Egypt, who died in 345, at the age of 105.

_The First Opera._

The first composer who tried his hand at setting an opera to music was Francis...o...b..mirino, an Italian artist. The piece to which he affixed the charms of a melodious accompaniment was "The Conversion of St. Paul,"

which was brought out at Rome in 1460.

_The First Artificial Limb._

The first artificial limb on record is the iron hand of the German knight, Gotz Von Berlichingen, who flourished in the early part of the sixteenth century (1513), and who was named _The Iron-Handed_. The hand weighed three pounds, was so constructed as to grasp a sword or lance, and was invented by a mechanic at Nuremberg. It is preserved at Jaxthausen, near Heilbronn, and a duplicate of it is in the Castle of Erbach, in the Odenwald.

_Kircher's Speaking-Trumpet._

"The Musurgia," printed in 1650, gives an account of a speaking-trumpet invented by Kircher. From a convent situated on the top of a mountain, he a.s.sembled twelve hundred persons to divine service, and read the litany to them through the trumpet, at a distance of from two to five Italian miles. Soon after a tube was made, according to Kircher's directions, by which words, without elevating the voice, could be understood from Ebersdorf to Neugeben.

_Fish Market at Scarborough._

The fish market is held on the sands by the sides of the boats, which, at low water, are run upon wheels with a sail set, and are conducted by the fishermen, who dispose of their cargoes in the following manner:

One of the female fishmongers inquires the price, and bids a groat; the fishermen ask a sum in the opposite extreme; the one bids up, and the other reduces the demand, till they meet at a reasonable point, when the bidder suddenly exclaims: "Het!" The purchase is afterwards retailed among the regular or occasional purchasers.

_Few Fish Found at Sea._

Paradoxical as the fact may appear, there is no cla.s.s of persons who eat so few fish as the sailors; and the reason is, they seldom obtain them.

With the exception of flying-fish and dolphins, and perhaps a few others, fish are not found on the high seas at a great distance from land. They abound most along coasts, in straights and bays, and are seldom caught in water more than forty or fifty fathoms in depth.-_Wells._

_Musical Stones._

A correspondent of _Nature_ writes that, in roaming over the hills and rocks in the neighborhood of Kendal, near Lancaster, England, which are composed chiefly of limestone, he had often found what are called "musical stones." They are generally thin, flat, weather-beaten stones, of different sizes and peculiar shapes, which, when struck with a piece of iron or another stone, produce a musical tone, instead of the dull, heavy, leaden sound of an ordinary stone. The sound of these stones is, in general, very much alike, but sets of eight stones have been collected which produce, when struck, a distinct octave.

The new French scientific weekly, _La Nature_, copies the communication from its English namesake, and brings forward some additional instances of the same phenomenon. We are also informed of the accidental discovery of musical properties in a stone fountain at the French Inst.i.tute. Its musical sound, when struck, corresponds with extreme precision to the perfect accord major of _fa_ natural. The fountain in question is in the grand court of the inst.i.tute.

_Musical Sand._

A singular phenomenon is the "musical sand" of Jebel Nagus, a sandy hill lying to the west of the mountain usually called Sinai. According to Captain Palmer, an English traveler, the sand of this hill possesses the marvellous property of giving out musical sounds whenever it is set in motion. The sandy slope is two hundred feet in height, the sand being very much the same as that in the desert around. When any considerable quant.i.ty of this sand is set in motion, it is seen to move in undulations, and, simultaneously, a singular sound is heard, which is first feeble, but may be heard at some distance when it has attained its maximum intensity.

The sound is not easily described. It is neither metallic nor vibratory.

It might be compared to the sharpest notes of the aeolian harp, or the sound produced by forcibly drawing a cork over wet gla.s.s. The phenomenon attains its greatest intensity during the day in summer, when the sun is hottest, and while the wind blows from the northwest. Captain Palmer has observed it on all sides of the hill, and the only difference he has found are such as depend on the direction of the wind.

_A River of Ink._

In Algeria there is a river of genuine ink. It is formed by the union of two streams, one coming from a region of ferruginous soil, the other draining a peat swamp. The water of the former is strongly impregnated with iron, that of the latter with gallic acid. When the two waters mingle, the acid of the one unites with the iron of the other, forming a true ink. We are familiar with a stream called Black Brook, in the northern part of New York, the inky color of whose water is evidently due to like conditions.-_Scientific American._

_A Warlike Bantam._

In the "Life of Rodney" it is related that in the famous victory of the 12th of April, 1782, a bantam c.o.c.k perched himself upon the p.o.o.p of Rodney's ship, and at every broadside that was poured into the _Ville-de-Paris_, clapped his wings and crew. Rodney gave special orders that this c.o.c.k should be taken care of as long as he lived.

_Oyster-dredging Chaunt._

During the oyster-dredging the fishermen keep up a wild monotonous song, or rather chaunt, which they a.s.sert charm the oysters into the dredge-

"The herring loves the merry moonlight, The mackeral loves the wind.

But the oyster loves the dredger's song, For he comes of a gentle kind."

_Normandy Treasures._