The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 7

I bite the white wax with my tooth, Before Judd, Marode and Margery, And my third son Henery, For one bow, and one broad arrow, When I come to hunt upon the Yarrow.

[A] Related, or by lineage.

[B] True.

_Accidental Rhymes._

In President Lincoln's last inaugural address occurs the following instance of involuntary rhyme:-

"Fondly do we hope, Fervently do we pray, That this mighty scourge of war May speedily pa.s.s away; Yet, if it be G.o.d's will That it continue until-"

And here the rhyme ceases. Cicero's prose shows, in places, similar instances of involuntary rhyme.

_Caesar's Wife must be above Suspicion._

No doubt this proverb originated from a pa.s.sage in Suetonius, which says that "the name of Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar, having been mixed up with an accusation against P. Clodius, her husband divorced her; not, as he said, because he believed the charge against her, but because he would have those belonging to him as free from suspicion as from crime."

_Oddly Addressed Letters._.

On one occasion a letter arrived by post in London, directed to "Sromfridevi, Angleterre." No such person had ever been heard of; but, on a little consideration, and judging from the sound, it was obvious that the foreign writer of the letter meant Sir Humphrey Davy, and such proved to be the case. Some years since there was returned to the French Dead Letter Office a letter which had gone the round of every seaport in the Levant, and the ambiguity of whose superscription had baffled a legion of postmasters. It was addressed, "J. Dubois, Sultan Crete," and was intended for J. Dubois _Surle_ Tancrede, a quartermaster on board of the s.h.i.+p _Tancrede_. The name and address had been written just as they had sounded to the ear. A letter addressed as follows arrived safely at its destination:-

Wood, John, Ma.s.s.

It was for John _Under_wood, _Andover_, Ma.s.sachusetts.

_Amus.e.m.e.nts of some Learned Men._

Tycho Brahe polished gla.s.s for spectacles, and made mathematical instruments; D'Andilly delighted in forest trees; Balzac, in manufacturing crayons; Pieresc, in his medals and antiques; the Abbe de Marolles, in engravings. Rohault's greatest recreation was in watching different mechanics at their labor; Arnauld and Warburton read trashy novels for recreation; Montaigne fondled his cat; Cardinal Richelieu enjoyed leaping.

_Kant's Eccentricity._

Kant was probably the profoundest of metaphysicians that the world has yet seen. It was his custom, when deeply engaged upon some abstruse topic, to walk backward and forward, upon a moonlight evening, along the avenue (bordered on each side with magnificent trees) approaching his house. He was observed, on one occasion, as he slowly, in deep meditation, moved backward and forward along the avenue, to leap over the _shadows_ of the trees as they cast themselves before him in his meditative walk. The delusion was strong upon him that these same shadows were _ditches_, and that it was inc.u.mbent upon him that he should _clear_ them, and that precisely in the way he did. Such are the occasional abberrations of true genius.

_Death Warrant of the Saviour._

Of the many interesting relics brought to light by the researches of antiquarians, none could be more interesting to Christians than the following, which is faithfully transcribed-

"Sentence by Pontius Pilate, acting Governor of Lower Galilee, stating that Jesus of Nazareth shall suffer death On the cross.

In the year seventeen of the Emperor Tiberius Caesar, and the 27th day of March, the city of the holy Jerusalem-Annas and Caiaphas being priests, sacrificators of the people of G.o.d-Pontius Pilate, Governor of Lower Galilee, sitting in the presidential chair of the praetory, condemns Jesus of Nazareth to die on the cross between two thieves, the great and notorious evidence of the people saying-

1. Jesus is a seducer.

2. He is seditious.

3. He is the enemy of the law.

4. He calls himself falsely the Son of G.o.d.

5. He calls himself falsely the King of Israel.

6. He entered into the temple followed by a mult.i.tude bearing palm branches in their hands.

Orders the first centurian, Quilius Cornelius, to lead him to the place of execution.

Forbids any person whatsoever, either poor or rich, to oppose the death of Jesus Christ.

The witnesses who signed the condemnation of Jesus are-

1. Daniel Robani, a Pharisee.

2. Joannus Robani.

3. Raphael Robani.

4. Capet, a citizen.

Jesus shall go out of the city of Jerusalem by the gate of Struenus."

The foregoing is engraved on a copper plate, on the reverse of which is written, "A similar plate is sent to each tribe." It was found in an antique marble vase, while excavating in the ancient city of Aquilla, in the kingdom of Naples, in 1810, and was discovered by the Commissioners of Arts of the French Army. At the expedition of Naples, it was enclosed in a box of ebony and preserved in the sacristy of the Carthusians. The French translation was made by the Commissioners of Arts. The original is in the Hebrew language.

_Quaint Recipes._

The following recipes are taken from a work ent.i.tled "New Curiosities in Art and Nature, or a collection of the most valuable Secrets in all Arts and Sciences. Composed and Experimented by Sieur Lemery, Apothecary to the French King. London, 1711."

_To Make one Wake or Sleep._-You must cut off, dexterously, the head of a toad alive, and at once, and let it dry, observing that one eye be shut and the other open; that which is found open makes one wake, and that shut causes sleep, by carrying it about one.

_Preservative against the Plague._-Take three or four great toads, seven or eight spiders, and as many scorpions, put them into a pot well stopp'd, and let them lye some time; then add virgin-wax, make a good fire till all become a liquor; then mingle them all with a spatula, and make an ointment, and put it into a silver box well stopp'd, being well a.s.sured that while you carry it about you, you will never be infected with the plague.

These recipes indicate the delusion which prevailed with respect to certain nostrums as late as 1711.

_Chronological Table of Remarkable Events._

The following curious table is taken from Arthur Hopton'a "Concordancie of Years," 1615:-

1077-A blazing star on Palm Sunday, near the sun.

1100-The yard (measure) made by Henry I.

1116-The moone seemed turned into bloud.

1128-Men wore haire like women.

1180-Paris in France, and London in Englande, paued, and thatching in both left, because all Luberick was spoiled thereby with fire.