POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



l 37 



intelligent, poor scholars, in right to left, 

 or centripetal motions. Idiots can hardly 

 strike with the back of the hand, and are 

 not at ease in lateral movements. In a 

 psychological respect, centripetal gestures 

 denote primitive, egoistic, retrograde ideas, 

 as is seen in the attitude of the miser hold- 

 ing his treasure, and of the coward in the 

 presence of danger. Centrifugal gestures 

 express generous, expansive, altruistic, brave 

 ideas and passions. The gesture of ac- 

 clamation or applause, for example, is as 

 elevated, as outward, as centrifugal, as pos- 

 sible. " Pleasure," says M. Charles PJchet, 

 " corresponds with a movement of blooming, 

 of dilatation, of extension. In grief, on the 

 other hand, we shrink, we withdraw upon 

 ourselves in a general movement of flexion." 

 Thus, in the psychological as well as in 

 other points of view, centripetal gestures 

 mark inferiority, centrifugal ones superi- 

 ority. 



Ancient Lotc of Honey. The bodies of 

 Alexander the Great and of the Spartan 

 King Agesipolis were preserved in honey. 

 The ancient Assyrians also used the same 

 substance for embalming. Its preservative 

 effects are, however, only temporary, for, 

 although it prevents the entrance of the 

 germs of decay for a time, it is itself ulti- 

 mately overtaken by decay, and the bodies 

 it covers must follow it. The ancient use of 

 honey for food was much more important 

 than its application to purposes of embalm- 

 ing. The Greek mythology attributes its 

 origin to Jupiter, who in his youth was fed 

 by goats with milk and by bees with honey. 

 He adopted ambrosia, a compound of milk 

 and honey, to be the food of the gods, and, 

 taking care that the earth should be sup- 

 plied, caused it to fall as a dew from the 

 sky, and taught the bees to make cells of 

 wax and store honey in them. Aristotle 

 said that honey fell from the air at the ris- 

 ing of the stars and whenever there was a 

 rainbow ; Pliny, that it comes out of the air 

 at about daybreak ; whence, he adds, u we 

 find the leaves bedewed with honey when 

 the morning twilight appears, and persons 

 in the open air may feel it in their clothes 

 and hair." He also regrets that it can not 

 reach us as pure as it starts, but has to be 

 polluted by the various substances it meets 



in coming through the air. The northern 

 sagas likewise represent honey as a heavenly 

 product, and relate that it drops upon the 

 earth from the holy ash, and is food to the 

 bees. The ancients used honey as exten- 

 sively as they did, probably, because they 

 had not learned to extract sugar from the 

 cane. Nearchus says the Macedonians 

 found the sugar-cane in India, referring 

 probably to the bamboo and its sweet juices, 

 and Diodorus and Theophrastus speak of 

 the sweet juice produced by a cane or reed- 

 like plant; but, if cane-sugar was known 

 at all in antiquity, it was known only as 

 a rarity, and honey was still the pre-emi- 

 nent sweetener. The ancients were well ac- 

 quainted with the variations in the quality 

 of honey, according to the season when it 

 was stored and the plants whence it was de- 

 rived. Honey was also used as a medicine 

 for affections of the throat, inflammations 

 of the lungs, and pleurisy, and as an anti- 

 dote for snake and mushroom poisoning. It 

 was given with mead in apoplexy; mixed 

 with rose-oil it was applied to diseased ears ; 

 and it was used to kill vermin in the head. 

 The ancient Germans had a mead or honey 

 wine, which was made by the fermentation 

 of a mixture of honey, water, and herbs, and 

 contained about seventeen per cent of alco- 

 hol. Some ancient writers ima<nned that 

 bees were developed in the decomposing 

 bodies of animals, and an Arcadian shep. 

 herd is credited with having discovered the 

 art of cultivating them in this way. Melanch- 

 thon believed something of the kind, and 

 saw in it evidence of Providence and a noble 

 symbol of the Christian Church. Honey 

 formed an important article of trade in the 

 middle ages, but gradually declined under 

 the competition of cane-sugar. The destruc- 

 tion of the monasteries at the time of the 

 Reformation caused also a limitation in the 

 use of wax-lights, and a reduction in the de- 

 mand for comb. 



Trees of Lake Chad. Dr. Nachtigal in 

 his " African Journeys " describes some curi- 

 ous trees that grow in the region of Lake 

 Chad. The butter-tree, called in that coun- 

 try toso-kan, bears a green round fruit, 

 ripening into yellow, about as large a3 a 

 small citron. This fruit consists of a nut 

 resembling a horse-chestnut in color and 



