The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 27

_House of Hen's Feathers._

There exists at Pekin a phalanstery which surpa.s.ses in eccentrict.i.ty all that the fertile imagination of Fourier could have conceived. It is called Ki-mao-fan; that is, "House of Hen's Feathers." This marvellous establishment is simply composed of one great hall, the floor of which is covered over its whole extent with one vast, thick layer of feathers.

Mendicants and vagabonds who have no other domicile come to pa.s.s the night in this immense dormitory. Men, women and children, old and young, are admitted without exception. Every one settles himself, and makes his nest as well as he can for the night in this ocean of feathers. When day dawns he must quit the premises, and an officer of the company stands at the door to receive the rent of one sapeck (one-fifth of a farthing) each for the night's lodging. In deference, no doubt, to the principle of equality, half places are not allowed, and a child must pay the same as a grown person.

On the first establishment of this eminently philanthropic inst.i.tution, the managers of it furnished each of the guests with a covering; but it was found necessary to modify this regulation, for the communist company got into the habit of carrying off their coverlets to sell them, or to supply an additional garment during the cold weather. It was necessary, therefore, to devise some method of reconciling the interests of the establishment with the comfort of the guests, and the way in which the problem was solved was this-

An immense coverlet, of such gigantic dimensions as to cover the whole dormitory, was made, and in the day-time suspended from the ceiling like a great canopy. When everybody had gone to bed-that is to say, had lain down upon the feathers-the counterpane was let down by pulleys, the precaution having been previously taken to make a number of holes in it for the sleepers to put their heads through in order to escape the danger of suffocation. As soon as it is daylight the phalansterian coverlet is hoisted up again, after a signal has been made on the tam-tam to awaken those who are asleep, and invite them to draw their heads back into the feathers in order not to be caught by the neck.

_St. George's Cavern._

Near the town of Moldavia, on the Danube, is shown the cavern where St.

George slew the dragon, from which, at certain periods, issue myriads of small flies, which tradition reports to proceed from the carca.s.s of the dragon. It is thought when the Danube rises, as it does in the early part of the summer, the caverns are flooded, and the water which remains in them becomes putrid, and produces the noxious fly. But this supposition appears to be at fault, for the people closed up the caverns, and still they were annoyed with the flies. The latter resemble mosquitoes, and appear in such swarms as to look like a volume of smoke, sometimes covering a s.p.a.ce of six to seven miles. Covered with these insects, horses not unfrequently gallop about until death puts an end to their sufferings. Shepherds anoint their hands with a decoction of wormwood, and keep large fires burning to protect themselves from them.

_Remarkable Echoes._

In the gardens of Les Rochas, which was the residence of Madame de Sevigne, is a remarkable echo which finely ill.u.s.trates the conducting and reverberating powers of a flat surface. The chateau is situated near the old town of Vitre. A broad gravel walk on a dead flat conducts through the garden to the house. In the centre of this, on a particular spot, the listener is placed at the distance of about ten or twelve yards from another person, who, similarly placed addresses him in a low and, in the common acceptation of the term, inaudible whisper, when, "Lo! what myriads rise!" for immediately, from thousands and tens of thousands of invisible tongues, starting from the earth beneath, or as if every pebble was gifted with powers of speech, the sentence is repeated with a slight hissing sound, not unlike the whirling of small shot through the air. On removing from this spot, however trifling the distance, the intensity of the repet.i.tion is sensibly diminished, and within a few feet ceases to be heard. Under the idea that the ground was hollow beneath, the soil has been dug up to a considerable depth, but without discovering any clue to the solution of the mystery.

An echo in Woodstock Park, Oxfords.h.i.+re, repeats seventeen syllables by day and twenty by night. One on the bank of the Lago del Lupo, above the fall of Terni, repeats fifteen. The most remarkable echo known is one on the north side of s.h.i.+pley church, in Suss.e.x, which distinctly repeats twenty-one syllables. In the Abbey church at St. Albans is a curious echo. The tick of a watch may be heard from one end of the church to the other. In Gloucester Cathedral a gallery of an octagonal form conveys a whisper seventy-five feet across the nave.

In the Cathedral of Girgenti, in Sicily, the slightest whisper is borne with perfect distinctness from the great door to the cornice behind the high altar, a distance of two hundred and fifty feet. In the whispering gallery of St. Paul's, London, the faintest sound is faithfully conveyed from one side of the dome to another, but is not heard at any intermediate point.

In the Manfroni Palace at Venice is a square room, about twenty-five feet high, with a concave roof, in which a person standing in the centre and stamping gently with his foot on the floor, hears the sound repeated a great many times; but as his position deviates from the centre, the reflected sounds grow fainter, and at a short distance wholly cease. The same phenomenon occurs in a large room of the library of the Museum at Naples.

_Moving G.o.ds._

The Italian temples were celebrated for their moving G.o.ds. In the fane of the two fortunes at Antium, the G.o.ddess moved her arms and head when that solemnity was required. So at Praeneste, the figures of the youthful Jupiter and Juno, lying in the lap of Fortune, moved, and thereby excited awe. The marble Servius Tullius is said to have shaded his eyes with his hand whenever that remarkably strong-minded woman, his daughter and murderess, pa.s.sed before him. When the Athenians were tardy in deserting their capital, and taking to the s.h.i.+ps for flight, it is said that the sacred wooden dragon of Minerva rolled himself out of the temple and down into the sea, as though to indicate to the people the direction in which safety was to be secured.-_Dr. Doran._

_Roving Tinkers._

In the Irish county of Donegal there is a tradition antagonistic to the race of tinkers. The alleged cause of this is the belief that, when the blacksmith was ordered to make nails for the Cross, he refused, but that the tinker consented. Hence he and his race had cast on them the doom of being perpetual wanderers, without any roof to cover them.

_The Freischutz._

The free-shooters is the name given in the legend to a hunter or marksman who, by entering into a compact with the devil, procured b.a.l.l.s, six of which infallibly hit, however great the distance, while the seventh, or, according to some, one of the seven, belonged to the devil, who directed it at his pleasure. Legends of this nature were rife among the troopers of Germany of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and during the thirty years' war. The story was adapted, in 1843, to the opera composed by Weber in 1821, which has made it known in all civilized countries.

_Moon-struck._

In the 121st Psalm it is written of those who put their trust in G.o.d's protection, "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." The allusion to the moon is explained by the common belief in the East that exposure to the moon's rays while sleeping is injurious.

Travelers in oriental countries have noticed that when the natives slept out of doors they invariably, if the moon was s.h.i.+ning, covered their faces.

_Curious Locality for Saying Prayers._

Francis Atkins was porter at the palace gate at Salisbury from the time of Bishop Burnet to the period of his death, in 1761, at the age of 104 years. It was his office every night to wind up the clock, which he was capable of performing regularly till within a year of his decease, though on the summit of the palace. In ascending the lofty flight of stairs, he usually made a halt at a particular place and said his evening prayers. He lived a regular and temperate life, and took a great deal of exercise; he walked well, and carried his frame upright and well-balanced to the last.

_Egyptian Physicians._

Montaigne says it was an Egyptian law that the physician, for the first three days, should take charge of a patient at the patient's peril, but afterwards at his own. He mentions that, in his time, physicians gave their pills in odd numbers, appointed remarkable days in the year for taking medicine, gathered their simples at certain hours, a.s.sumed austere and even severe looks, and prescribed, among their choice drugs, the left foot of a tortoise, the liver of a mole, and blood drawn from under the wing of a white pigeon.

_Not Divine until Smeared with Red Paint._

The inhabitants of the village of Balonda, in Africa, manufacture their idols by rudely carving a head upon a crooked stick. There is nothing divine about the idol, however, until it is dotted over with a mixture of medicine and red ochre.-_Livingstone._

_Gipsy Reticence._

A gipsy will never give a history of himself nor of his race. "My father is a crow, and my mother a magpie," is frequently the only answer obtained.

_Carrying Coals to Newcastle._

The old North of England phrase, "To carry coals to Newcastle," finds its parallel in the Persian taunt of "carrying pepper to Hindostan," and in the Hebrew, "To carry oil to the City of Olives."

_Mammoth p.a.w.nbroker's Shop._

The _Monte de piete_, in Paris, established by royal command in 1717, often has in its possession forty casks filled with gold watches that have been pledged.

_Half-Penny and Farthing._

In 1060, when William the Conqueror began to reign, the penny was cast with a deep cross, so that it might be broken in half, as a half-penny, or in quarters, for _four_-things or _far_things, as we now call them.

_An Egg Mistaken for a Pearl._

Linnaeus announced to the king and council, in 1761, that he had discovered an art by which mussels might be made to produce pearls. In the year 1763 it was said, in the German newspapers that Linnaeus was enn.o.bled on account of his discovery, and that he bore a pearl in his coat-of-arms. Both statements were false. His patent of n.o.bility makes no mention of the pearl discovery, and what in his arms has been taken for a pearl is an egg, which is meant to represent all nature, after the manner of the ancient Egyptians.

_s.p.a.cious Halls._

The old English halls were sometimes so s.p.a.cious as to admit of a knight riding up to the high table, as the champion of England was accustomed to do at the coronation. Chaucer says-

"In at the hall door all suddenly There came a knight upon a steed, And up he rideth to the high board."

_Medallions only for the Royal._

Medallions, prior to the time of Hadrian, are rare and of great value, one of the most beautiful and most famous being a gold medallion of Augustus Caesar. Of the Roman medallions, some were struck by order of the emperors-some by order of the senate. No portrait of a person not princely occurs on any ancient medal-a remarkable circ.u.mstance, considering the numerous contemporary poets, historians and philosophers.