Facts and Fancies.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 28 August 1912, Page 7

Facts and Fancies.

Eastern Poisons.

The commonest oi Eastern poisons is powdered glass, which, though not in itself a poison, sets up irritation in iEe stomach ending in death In Burmah the powdered hairs of the bamboo are employed in similar fashion. A curious superstition prevails in Morocco. If a'man has a grudge against another he procures some human bones and grinds them into fine flour, which he mixes with his enemy's bread or other food. It is universally believed that the man who eats this horrible compound will begin to fade away, and eventually die.

Legend of the Crow.

According to Roman mythology, tlie colour of the crow was originally white, and it owes its black plumage to Aesculapius, for his mother, the nymph, Coronis, had a quarrel with his father, Apollo, who so far lost «*s temper—probably he had the worst of the argument—as to kill the unfortunate nymph upon the spot. Apollo had the grace to mourn his rash act, and he determined that tLe crow should mourn, too, and so he changed its white feathers into black, and the crow was made "to put on sullen black incontinent." Ovid says that this change was a punishment for an act of treachery. Cervantes states that Theophrasfcus complained of the long life which crows enjoyed, and laid the blame upon Atropos for not cutting short the thread of existence more quickly.

Modern " Necessities.''

Few people realise how many everyday things, which we call necessities, our grandfathers had to do without. How should we get on without matches, for instance? It would be terrible to be deprived of them. Yet the match as we know it only came into vogue in 1834, although the celebrated German chemist Krat, produced a kind of phospherous match as long-ago as 1677. Until the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign flint and steel was the prevailing method of striking a light.

Umbrellas, too, did not come into vogue until the early part of last century. -They were invented at the beginning of the eighteenth century, it is true, but Jonas Hanway the Quaker (born 1712), proved how little London was accustomed to them, for when he walked through the streets carrying one above his head, lie was hooted at and pelted with mud.

The oil lamp has had quite a short career. The wick-and-wheel device was only patented in 1800, and the next century found the lamp fast fading into the past.

Biscuits are amongst our youngest '^necessities." Until 1841 the only kind known was Dhe hard tack" served to sailors—not at "all the kind of thing you would like with your afternoon tea. Then, at Reading, the great idea of the sweet biscuit was discovered; and since then the great biscuit town has made its name famous over all the earth.

Two everyday articles, on the other hand, which are far older than is generally supposed, are wallpaper and the piano. Wallpaper was made in France as long ago as 1585, the walls before that time being hung with tapestry. The piano, is nearly 200 years old. In 1716 a clavecin—an instrument, the strings of which were vibrated by hammers worked with keys—was shown to the French Acad emy of Sciences, and within fifty years pianos were being made in England.

Famous Cedars.

Very carefully enclosed arid guarded are the 200 remaining cedars of Lebanon, those famous trees that once clothed all the sides of the Syrian mountains. So tall and beautiful were they in comparison with the trees of Palestine that the Hebrew writers celebrate them with extraordinary praise, and from the earliest times their soft, white wood was the glory of Jewish architecture. They were used in Solomon's Temple and in its successor, and also in the church that Constantino built at Jerusalem* The surviving trees are called by the Arabs "the trees of God," and under their widespreading branches the clergy of the Greek Church occasionally celabrate Mass Several of the trees in the grove are over 1500 years old, and have a height of 100 ft and a circumference of 50ft

The Popes of Rome.

Of the first thirty Popes, twentynine were martyrs, except "St. Dionysius, who. was the twenty-fifth. One lmndred and four Popes have been Komans; 103 were natives of other parts of Italy; fifteen were Frenchmen, nine were Greeks, seven were Germans, five were Asiatics, three were Africans, three were Spaniards, two were Dalmatians; while Palestine, Thraca, Holland, Portugal and England have each furnished one occupant of the Papal chair. Nine Pontiffs have reigned less than one month, thirty less than one year, eleven more than twenty years, six have reigned over twenty-three

years. The longest reign, except that of St. Peter, who was in Antioeh seven years and in Rome twenty-five years two months and seven days, was the reign of Pius 1X.,. who was Pope thirty-one years seven months and twenty-one days. The next longest was his successor, Leo XIII., who_ was Pope twenty-five years and five months. The combined successive reigns of these two Popes are the longest in History, covering a period of fifty-seven years and five months.