The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 46

_A Snake's Attachment for Home._

Lord Monboddo relates the following anecdote of a serpent: "I am well informed of a tame serpent in the East Indies, which belonged to the late Dr. Vigot, once kept by him in the suburbs of Madras. This serpent was taken by the French when they invested Madras, and was carried to Pondicherry in a close carriage. But from thence he found his way back to his old quarters, though Madras was above one hundred miles distant from Pondicherry."

_Queer Legend about Fish._

Most of the flat-fish, such as the flounder, plaice, sole, &c., are white or colorless on one side and dark colored on the other.

Naturalists account for this by saying that these fish live at the bottom of the sea, dark side uppermost, to prevent their being easily seen by the ocean monsters that devour them. The Egyptians give another explanation. They tell that Moses was once cooking a flat-fish, and when it had been broiled on one side, the fire or the oil gave out, and Moses angrily threw the fish into the sea, where, though half broiled, it became as lively as ever, and its descendants have retained its parti-colored appearance to the present day, being white on one side and brown or black on the other.

_An Old Pike._

In the year 1497 a pike was captured in the vicinity of Mannheim, Germany, with the following announcement, in Greek, appended to his muzzle:-

"I am the first fish that was put into this pond by the hands of the Emperor Frederic the Second, on this third day of October, 1262."

The age of the pike, therefore, if the notice spoke the truth (and the enormous dimensions of his body left little doubt on that point), was more than two hundred and thirty-five years. Already he had been the survivor of many important changes in the political and social world around him, and would have survived perhaps as many more, had it not been for his capture. His carca.s.s, which weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, and measured nineteen feet, was sent to the museum at Mannheim, where it now hangs, a light, desiccated skeleton, which a child might move.

_Colossal Sh.e.l.ls._

One of these in particular has acquired a certain celebrity on account of its size and the peculiar use to which it has been put. It is the gigantic Tridacna, commonly known as the "font," because it is sometimes employed in churches to contain the sacred water. The great Tridacnae, which are only detached from the rocks by cutting their cable with an axe, sometimes weigh more than five hundred pounds. The natives of the Molucca Islands eat them like we do oysters, to which they are a.n.a.logous, and the flesh of one is a sufficient meal for twenty people.

Their thick valves, which are sometimes five feet long, serve as troughs for the inhabitants, which nature offers ready cut and polished, and which they often use for feeding pigs, or convert into bath-tubs for their children. Buffon speaks of a sh.e.l.l, the diameter of which was equal to that of a carriage-wheel, and which was used for a mill-stone.

_Changing Colors in a Dying Mullet._

The mullet is a fish that was much esteemed by the ancients. The Italians have a proverb which says: "He who catches a mullet is a fool if he eats it and does not sell it"-owing to the high price which the fish commanded. When it is dying, it changes its colors in a very singular manner until it is lifeless. This spectacle was so gratifying to the Romans that they used to show the fish dying in a gla.s.s vessel to their guests before dinner.

_An Immense Zoological Cabinet._

Schleiden maintains that a single visiting card, when it is covered with a white layer of chalk, represents a zoological cabinet containing nearly 100,000 sh.e.l.ls of animals. These sh.e.l.ls are formed of carbonate of lime, and are so extremely small that it has been calculated that it would require 10,000,000 of them to make a pound of chalk.

_Chank-Sh.e.l.l._

This name is given to a sh.e.l.l of several species of _Turbinella_, a genus of mollusks found in the East Indian seas. They are much used as ornaments by Hindoo women, the arms and legs being encircled with them.

Many of them are buried with opulent persons. A chank-sh.e.l.l opening to the right is rare, and highly prized in Calcutta, one hundred pounds being sometimes paid for one.

_Edifices of the Polypi._

The prodigious surface over which the combined and ceaseless toil of these little architects extends, must be taken into consideration in order to understand the important part they play in nature. They have built a barrier of reefs 400 miles long round New Caledonia, and another which extends along the northeast coast of Australia 1000 miles in length. This represents a ma.s.s in comparison with which the walls of Babylon and the Pyramids of Egypt are as children's toys. And these edifices of the Polypi have been reared in the midst of the ocean waves, and in defiance of tempests which so rapidly annihilate the strongest works constructed by man. They build their reefs and islands with remarkable rapidity. One of the straits in the approaches to Australia, which a few years ago only possessed twenty-six madrepore islands, at present displays one hundred and fifty.

_Showers of Blood._

In the old chronicles we often read of drops of blood scattered here and there being regarded as a sinister omen, or even of regular showers of blood which carried terror into the minds of our superst.i.tious ancestors. Now-a-days we know that the phenomenon is connected with the metamorphosis of insects. Gregory of Tours speaks of a shower of blood which fell in the reign of Childebert and spread alarm among the Franks.

But the most celebrated is that which took place at Aix during the summer of 1608. It struck the inhabitants of the country with terror.

The walls of the church-yard and those of the houses for half a league round were spotted with great drops of blood. A careful examination of them convinced a savant of that day, M. de Peirese, that all that was told about the subject was only a fable. He could not at first explain the extraordinary phenomenon, but chance revealed the cause. Having inclosed in a box the chrysalis of one of the b.u.t.terflies which were then showing themselves in great numbers, he was astonished to see a stain of scarlet red at the spot where the metamorphosis had taken place. He had discovered the cause of the wondrous rain which had alarmed the people. A prodigious swarm of b.u.t.terflies had appeared at the time, and his conjectures were confirmed by the fact that no drops of blood had been found on the roofs of the houses, but only on the lower stories, the places which the b.u.t.terflies had chosen for their metamorphoses.

_Shirts Growing on Trees._

"We saw on the slope of the Cerra Dnida," says Humboldt, "shirt trees fifty feet high. The Indians cut off cylindrical pieces two feet in diameter, from which they peel the red and fibrous bark without making any longitudinal incision. This bark affords them a sort of garment which resembles a sack of very coa.r.s.e texture, and without a seam. The upper opening serves for the head, and two lateral holes are cut to admit the arms. The natives wear these shirts of Marina in the rainy season; they have the form of the ponchos and manos of cotton which are so common in New Grenada, at Quito and in Peru. As in this climate the riches and beneficence of nature are regarded as the primary cause of the indolence of the inhabitants, the missionaries do not fail to say, in showing the shirts of Marina, 'In the forests of Oroonoka garments are found ready made upon the trees.'"

_Whistling Trees._

Schweinfurth, in his "Heart of Africa," describes what may be termed an insect organ-builder. In the country of the Shillooks, he says, the acacia groves extend over an area of a hundred miles square and stretch along the right bank of the stream. From the attacks of larvae of insects, which have worked to the inside, their ivory white shoots are often distorted in form and swollen out at their base with globular bladders measuring about an inch in diameter. After the mysterious insect has unaccountably managed to glide out of its circular hole, this thorn-like shoot becomes a sort of musical instrument, upon which the wind, as it plays, produces the regular sound of a flute. On this account the natives of the Soudan have named it the whistling tree.

_Aconite._

This plant was regarded by the ancients as the most violent of poisons.

They said that it was the invention of Hecate, and that it sprung from the foam of Cerberus.

_Oysters Growing on Trees._

Mr. C. H. Williams, of the Geographical Society of England, tells us how oysters inhabit the Mangrove woods in Cuba: "For several years I resided in that island, and have several times come across scenes and objects which many people would consider great curiosities-one in particular.

Oysters grow on trees, in immense quant.i.ties, especially in the southern part of the island. I have seen miles of trees, the lower stems and branches of which were literally covered with them, and many a good meal have I enjoyed with very little trouble in procuring it. I simply placed the branches over the fire, and, when opened, I picked out the oysters with a fork or a pointed stick. These peculiar sh.e.l.l-fish are indigenous in lagoons and swamps on the coast, and as far as the tide will rise and the spray fly so will they cling to the lower parts of the Mangrove trees, sometimes four or five deep, the Mangrove being one of the very few trees that flourish in salt water."

_The Shaking Aspen._

The aspen is popularly said to have been the tree which formed the cross upon which the Saviour was crucified, and since then its boughs have been filled with horror and tremble ceaselessly. Unfortunately for the probability of this story, the shivering of the aspen in the breeze may be traced to other than a supernatural cause. The construction of its foliage is particularly adapted for motion; a broad leaf is placed upon a long footstalk so flexible as scarcely to be able to support the leaf in an upright posture. The upper part of this stalk, on which the play or action seems mainly to depend, is contrary to the nature of footstalks in general, being perfectly flattened, and, as an eminent botanist has acutely observed, is placed at a right-angle with the leaf, being thus particularly fitted to receive the impulse of every wind that blows.

_Tree Planting in Java._

In Java a fruit tree is planted on the birth of each child, and is carefully tended as the record of his or her age.

_Turkish Superst.i.tion about the Geranium._

The Turks believe that the geranium was originally a swallow, and that its existence was changed by a touch from the robe of Mahomet.

_Four-leaved Clover._

For centuries it has been considered lucky to find a four-leaved clover.

Melton, in his "Astrologaster," says: "That if a man, walking in the fields, find any foure-leaved gra.s.se, he shall in a small while after find some good thing."

_Bitterness of Strychnia._